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Lifetime achievement recognition for Head Start founder
This August, Edward Zigler, Head Start founder and editor of The Head Start Debates, will receive the American Psychological Association's highest honor, the APA Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to Psychology. Dr. Zigler and colleagues Walter Gilliam and Stephanie Jones have also received the 2008 Grawemeyer Award for outstanding ideas in education for their book, A Vision for Universal Preschool Education.
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Rate the early childhood assessment measures you use
How well do the tools you use in your program meet 8 critical practice standards? The authors of a forthcoming new edition of the well-regarded LINKing rating system would like your input to help them provide an updated guide to judging a tool's quality.
Complete their survey and get 20% off any Brookes book! |
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Webinar: Plan transitions to prevent challenging behavior!
How can you optimize transition times to reduce challenging behavior? Mary Louise Hemmeter, co-author of Blended Practices for Teaching Young Children in Inclusive Settings, and Michaelene M. Ostrosky offer tips in this free NAEYC webinar on "Moving Right Along: Planning Transitions to Prevent Challenging Behavior." (See an article on the same topic in NAEYC's Young Children magazine.)
You can also find plenty of pointers in the new book Engagement of Every Child in the Preschool Classroom, which tackles the question of how to engage children during transition times so they are not wandering aimlessly or tempted into trouble.
See if "zone defense scheduling" will work in your classroom
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Use the tool that measures the real key to student success
Teachers who give both instructional and emotional support can raise the academic achievement of students at risk, according to a recent Education Week article by Linda Jacobson. In "Teacher–Pupil Link Crucial to Pre-K Success, Study Says," Jacobson reports that "the quality of the relationship between preschool teachers and their pupils might be more important to children's learning than such factors as class size and teacher credentials."
Learn how to measure teacher-child interaction using CLASS, the Classroom Assessment Scoring System referenced in the article.
Get a free download and see how CLASS works
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Hear Chris Kliewer's compelling case for literacy for all students
Hear Professor Chris Kliewer's compelling argument in favor of literate citizenship for all, including children with disabilities, in this interview with Katherine Perkins of Iowa Public Radio's "Talk @ 12" (originally broadcast on June 3, 2008). Dr. Kliewer shares the story of Isaac, whom he introduces in his new book Seeing All Kids as Readers (read about Isaac here).
Listen to how Isaac moved from a segregated program with other children with very little language to an inclusive classroom where, within hours, he was thoroughly engaged in the story of Where the Wild Things Are, even playing a leadership role in literate understanding, to the delight of his new classmates.
Listen to the Iowa Public Radio interview with Chris Kliewer
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See what Peer Buddies look like in action
In this chicagotribune.com article by John Keilman, see a video of peer buddies in action at a bowling alley as part of the Illinois "Best Buddies" program, which matches high school students who have disabilities with other teens. It's obvious that it's not just the student with disabilities who benefits from the friendship and understanding the program promotes.
Vanderbilt professor Carolyn Hughes, co-author of Peer Buddy Programs for Successful Secondary School Inclusion, commented on the lasting value of social cues learned through the experience. "There are plenty of studies," she is quoted as saying, "that show the main reason a person with a disability might lose a job is due to lack of social skills versus not being able to do the job."
See the video clip and the full chicagotribune.com article here
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Learn the critical stages of special needs financial planning
In this interview with Your Money Radio, Cynthia Haddad and John Nadworny, authors of The Special Needs Planning Guide, explain to host Chuck Jaffe that families who have a child with special needs have to plan not only for the traditional milestones of one generation, but they must also plan into a second generation as well.
Haddad emphasizes the importance of pulling all the "financial, legal, emotional, support, and government benefits" pieces together to ensure security for the child's future. She identifies the stages when it is especially important to address these needs (the "planning pressure points"): when the child turns 3, 15, 18, and 22, once the parents turn 65, and again at the time of the parents' death.
Gain more insight in the Your Money interview (mp3: 4.3 MB)
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What's the key to working with an unmotivated child?
Sam Goldstein and Robert Brooks, authors of Raising Resilient Children, weigh in, in this Times Online article. Musing whether it was too late to turn her "whatever" kids into "sure, why not" kids, writer Michele Kirsch asked whether motivated and self-disciplined kids were just born that way.
According to the article, Goldstein and Brooks argue that even if a child is not predisposed toward being self-disciplined, it is possible to encourage him or her through empathy or by seeing things from the child's point of view. They recommend helping children find their "island of competence"—something they're good at—and then encouraging them in it.
See what other pointers they shared in The Times article
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Dr. Thompson offers ready-to-use tips for parents of children with autism
Dr. Travis Thompson's book Making Sense of Autism (see below) explains what autism is in easy-to-understand language. His new book, Dr. Thompson's Straight Talk on Autism, tells parents what to do with that information. As a professional with 40 years' experience working with autism and as the grandparent himself of a child on the spectrum, he understands what it means to see children in a professional setting as well as to live with a child who has autism. Discover what's in the new book in this article from the Summer 2008 issue of Pacesetter ("A news magazine of PACER Center, Inc. by and for parents of children and young adults with disabilities").
Also, in this Metro Spirit article, writer Jason E. Sumerau sums up Dr. Thompson's Straight Talk on Autism as "[d]ispelling false tales, providing clinical expertise for many activities, and delivering inspirational as well as practical advice." You can learn more about Dr. Thompson's views and peruse other readers' comments at his new autism blog on AmazonConnect.
Check out Dr. Thompson's AmazonConnect blog now!
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Students with autism often are fluent readers, but do they comprehend?
Teachers of students with autism often remark that their students read the words on the page, but do not necessarily grasp what the words are saying or detect the underlying meaning.
In this webinar by Paula Kluth, co-author of "A Land We Can Share": Teaching Literacy to Students with Autism, shares specific techniques you can weave into your instruction to ensure your students with autism (and any other student who might be struggling!) really comprehend and can process what they're reading.
Ensure your readers are "getting it" with the tips in this webinar
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What essential skill does imaginative play develop?
According to a recent NPR article, providing opportunities for children to engage in imaginative play helps them develop essential "executive function" skills. These skills help them regulate their own behavior and are key to controlling emotions, resisting impulses, and exerting self control and discipline.
In this Q&A by NPR writer Vikki Valentine, Deborah Leong, chapter author of Critical Issues in Early Childhood Professional Development, and Adele Diamond explain that when children improvise props or make up stories, they are developing critical cognitive skills. Acting out a story or creating games requires them to stop and think, and revise their first impulse when it appears it would not lead to the best result—effectly refining critical executive function skills as they play.
Read the full Q&A on "The Best Kind of Play for Kids"
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Use screening and monitoring tools for instructional planning
One of the pillars of the multi-tiered early intervening system known as Recognition and Response is the use of universal screening for possible learning difficulties in early childhood settings. In this NECTAC webinar, Virginia Buysse, co-author of Consultation in Early Childhood Settings, explains how to take screening and monitoring tools one step further, and use their results to guide instructional planning.
View the NECTAC webinar on "RTI Goes to Pre–K" |
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Home visitors make a difference!
New research suggests that, in the course of their usual activities, home visitors enable mothers to better use health information and services to maintain and promote their health and their children's health.
Home visitors can further their effectiveness by using the Life Skills Progression™ (LSP) planning instrument. LSP helps professionals identify the needs of the families they serve, monitor their improvements, and vividly demonstrate the effectiveness of home visiting programs.
Learn more about the importance of mothers' health literacy
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What is the key factor in a "high quality" teaching environment?
Is it the teacher's credentials? That may be an indicator but not a guarantee. In fact, the most influential factor in student development in the classroom is the interaction between teacher and child. You can now use CLASS—a valid and reliable observational tool—to assess the elements of high-quality classroom teaching.
Find out more and get your free CLASS tip sheet!
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See side-by-side video clips of children with typical and delayed development in the ASD Video Glossary!
Accelerate your ability to recognize red flags of autism spectrum disorder and help children get intervention early when they most need it with this FREE new resource.
Created in collaboration with First Signs, Florida State University's FIRST WORDS Project, and Autism Speaks, the new ASD Video Glossary contains more than one hundred video clips to help you spot the subtle differences between typical and delayed development in young children.
Many of the clips were drawn from the work of co-developer Amy Wetherby, co-author of the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales™ and The SCERTS® Model: A Comprehensive Educational Approach for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
See the ASD Video Glossary now!
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How do you motivate students who have difficulty writing?
Find a wealth of insight from Brookes authors Steve Graham and Karen Harris. Covering many topics from their forthcoming Powerful Writing Strategies for All Students, the Writing Better authors answer parents' and teachers' pressing questions about "LD and Written Expression" in an online talk hosted by LDtalk.org.
Read a transcript of the chat
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What's so great about the new AEPSinteractive™? See for yourself!
Let our hosts walk you through the key features of the web-based management system for AEPS® in a free 30-minute demo. You'll see how much easier it is to use AEPSi™ to score the AEPS Test, generate an online Child Progress Record, and create OSEP reports.
Sign up for a demo now!
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Get your instructor's guide for Young Children with Disabilities in Natural Environments
An Instructor's Guide e-book is now available for free to faculty members who have adopted Young Children with Disabilities in Natural Learning Environments.
(An Instructor's Guide and PowerPoint slides are also available for faculty members who have adopted Life Beyond the Classroom, Fourth Edition.) Request the supplemental materials for either of these textbooks now.
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Find out what's behind math difficulties and disabilities
Read a transcript of the 2007 LD Talk online chat with Daniel Berch and Michéle Mazzocco. Drs. Berch and Mazzocco, editors of Why Is Math So Hard for Some Children?, answered viewer questions in the National Center for Learning Disabilities talk on "Summing Up the Evidence on Math and LD." |
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View a webinar on Understanding the Nature of Autism
See the world through the eyes of a child with autism—and discover what's behind often-misunderstood behavior, in our webinar featuring top autism expert Travis Thompson, author of Making Sense of Autism, and neuroimaging specialist Anastasia Dimitroupolos.
Find out why children with autism do the things they do in this recording of our enlightening webinar. Learn more here.
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