LD Resources

New York Times Editorial: Writing Off Disabled Children

Many of America’s juvenile jails would be empty if the public schools obeyed federal law and provided disabled children with the special instruction that they need. Instead, these children are allowed to fall behind. When they act out, they are often suspended or expelled, which makes them more likely to commit crimes and land in jails where they can count on even less help.

David Pogue reviews Dragon Naturally Speaking version 10: Speak Up, a Computer Is Listening.

Watch his video demonstration: When Your Computer Listens to You.

Telescopic Text

Click away on the text. Expand the sentence. Have fun.

My friend Harvey Hubbel is working on a movie: Dislecksia: The Movie. Oh boy, here we go.

Sarah Smith Nessel has written a great essay for the Kansas City Star: ‘Normal” shouldn’t be the only acceptable realm.

…for many of us with less-severely affected children, the “tragedy” of Autism simply isn’t. In our current culture of pathology, children who 50 years ago would have just been considered a bit odd, or loners, now have a diagnosis, a therapy team, endless rounds of assessments, a mound of county and school district education plan paperwork and, all too often, a pile of prescription medications.

Ginger Software offers an automatic text correction (spell checking) product aimed at dyslexic writers. Currently it only works with the Windows version of Microsoft Word but they will expand its application base in the future. It requires an internet connection.

Ginger Software
405 Waltham St, # 371
Lexington, MA 02421
617-230-6600
781-674-2737 fax
www.gingersoftware.com/

Warning: the Ginger Software web site is extremely slow to load, no doubt because of the product demo at the top. The product really does work quite well and it’s worth the wait for the site to load to experiment with it.

School Psychologist Files
School Psychologist Blog Files

Special education resources, information, and relevant links for anyone looking for information related to school psychology or special education.

Understanding and Managing Learning Differences
July 16, 17, & 18

This 20-hour course provides an overview of learning differences including learning disabilities, inattention, impulsivity, and memory and language processing weaknesses as well as their impact on learning, self-esteem and behavior at home. Participants will review psychological and academic testing in order to one, better understand and read reports and two, practice active participation in the educational planning process. Attendees will discuss strategies to help students with learning and behavior at home and school, including more formal Accommodation Plans (504) and Educational Plans (IEP’s). Strategies for effective collaboration at Team Meetings will be practiced. All curriculum materials are included; cost is $500.

For course information or to register online, contact Bridges Associates toll-free at 800-790-1890. www.bridgesassociates.com

Online WebAnywhere, service lets blind surf the Internet from any computer, anywhere

This is a fantastic service and no doubt will be useful for people who can see but can’t read. I urge you to watch the entire video to see how it works.

LD Resources has a new look and some of you who have been following it for a while may need to take a moment and poke around to get oriented.

Most of the work in this new look went into typography and readability and we hope you find things easier to read, especially comment threads.

The pictures in the header change as you refresh your browser or leave and come back to the site. More pictures will be added as I find or take them. All pictures were taken by me.

Let me know if you find problems or have questions.

Welcome.