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In January of 2010, the idea of iTaalk was born. The son of iTaalk President, Brooke Olson, received his first iPod touch in August of 2009. Within the first four months his language blossomed and the results of his success were amazing his family, friends and therapists. If this success could be replicated for other children with ASD's, then it was imperative that all children be given the opportunity and access to these interactive devices, and thus the original vision for iTaalk was formed. After exploring the need in the community, it became apparent that the need was not only for the devices, but for the educational piece on how to use them as well. We now pride ourselves on our Training Series for families, "iTaalk 101-104," as well as our Professional series "iTaalk 201-204." We also provide an affordable Top 30 list of Apps that have been successful with children on the Autism spectrum. The incredible success stories and ideas on innovative ways to use the iPods/iPads with our children is what keeps us going. It is our dream to provide this training along with the interactive devices so that all children with an ASD can access this wonderful technology!

Lisa Parisi is an amazing educator with a Master's in Special Education who has been an inclusion teacher for many years. She has done some fantastic things with Voicethread in the MathCast project. Spend some time exploring her blog and you'll get some great ideas for integrating web 2.0 into working with special needs children.

Lisa Parisi's blog post on "The Successful Inclusion Program". Lisa is an outstanding 5th grade teacher who regularly blogs, twitters and hosts ustream.tv sessions to share her tools, tips and strategies. She includes some excellent advice about inclusion programs in this post.

"special needs, disability, power, change, success, video, challenges"

"special education, special needs, students, learning, success, teachers, classrooms"

Excellent resources for technology and increasing achievement and success for ALL students through the unlimited and effective se of accessible technologies.

Another incredible resource I learned about from Karen Janowski. Be sure to look at the "Best Practices." Peggy

It's Special Educational Needs Week on Teachers TV and we are showing your favourite SEN programmes. Differentiation in Action shows how you can differentiate tasks in the classroom to aid inclusion. The primary (Wednesday 4pm) episode looks at how puppets and text can be used to recognise speech in a KS1 class. The secondary (Tuesday 7.30pm) episode follows a history lesson where differentiation is used to great success and the pupils assess their own achievement as well as discussing which teaching styles they prefer and their preference for mixed achievement groupings. Also on this week is Being Different May be Cool, (Friday 7pm) an honest look at the challenges of dealing with children on the autistic spectrum through the lives of three autistic brothers and their mother.

Looks like some great shows on the Special Educational Needs Week programming this week-Teachers TV in the UK. This is an excellent site to bookmark and join their email list to be notified of new programs. Great videos for teachers.

Another great blog post written as a response to Lisa Parisi's blog post related to inclusion programs.

Excellent blog post by Ira Socol in response to the blog post written by Lisa Parisi (Successful Inclusion Program). Great food for thought and some really valuable links to other resources.

A response to Ron Clark's article by Doug Goldbert. " If you don't already, I feel you will learn to regret writing this article. This article has the ability to create an even bigger chasm between Parents and Teachers. Parent Involvement in a Child's Education, as proven by 20 years of research, is one of the most effective methods in a child's academic success. Educating our children needs to be a partnership between Parents and Teachers. Especially, since school age children spend 70% of their time outside of school. Your article makes it painfully aware that your idea of a Parent - Teacher partnership is one where Parents do everything you ask without input or questions. "

A valuable, thoughtful rebuttal/reflection by Doug Goldberg in response to the article written by Ron Clark with advice for parents from teachers.

"The Peer Collaboration program is designed to assist students who have needs within their classroom environment. The program pairs a peer with a student who is struggling with a particular course, has trouble staying focused, has difficulty building relationships with classmates, or any other obstacle a student may face on a daily basis. Placing peers into classrooms with students who are struggling allows collaborating peers to build their empathy and leadership skills. Additionally, having more leaders in the classroom allows the teacher to focus on all students, balancing his or her time with each student. Peers learn to collaborate with their fellow students as well as with the classroom teacher. Classroom students learn to collaborate with their peers and gain a new understanding of the material, learn to build friendships, and overcome obstacles, eventually leading them to success."

Some great resources that can be downloaded in PDF form from these workshops focusing on special education and differentiation! Each presentation includes the presentation and handouts in PDF form (2 documents per workshop). Good article on co-teaching.

Excellent resources, presentations, handouts from teacher workshops on special education and differentiation. Teacher-to-Teacher is US Dept of Education initiative. The Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative has been created by and for America's teachers. It supports teachers' efforts in the classroom through professional development workshops and digital workshops and by sharing relevant information through email updates. Teacher Workshops Teacher Workshops offer classroom teachers a free opportunity to participate in high-quality professional development designed to provide the classroom support, technical assistance, and increased collaboration needed to assure academic success for all students.

This blog and live show is always excellent. On this particular session (July 16, 2008) Lisa Parisi is interviewed about her successful inclusive classroom. Lisa is an awesome web 2.0 educator and her blog is definitely worth following!

LD LIVE! Living with Learning Disabilities Connecting Innovators, Ideas and Individuals in the Field of Education and Learning Disabilities! Melinda Pongrey, MSED, hosts a weekly conversation exploring learning, learning difficulties, and learning disabilities with featured leaders in the field of medicine, science, education, ADHD, and various learning disabilities, including dyslexia.

This is a fantastic podcast where Tracy shares her successful experience creating a radio show with her special ed high school students. It's worth trying with your students!

This is an inspiring podcast interview with Tracy Pariseau, Sanford HS, Maine, teacher who works with emotionally disturbed students on IEPs. She shares her experiences creating a student radio show with her students.