Presenter

Title

Learning Objectives

Abstract/Summary

Abrams

Be Social

Participant will be introduced to the concepts of social cognition.  Participant will be able to differentiate social skills vs. social cognitive thinking skills  Participant will be able to identify the  concepts and to understand how to integrate social learning through movement activities. 

Social cognition is believed to be hard wired at birth. For most of us it develops intuitively however for  the child who experiences social thinking learning disabilities this is a challenging process. Renowned Speech  Language Pathologist Michelle Garcia Winner  has developed an approach to educate students with  social thinking difficulties. Her philosophy of social thinking explains the "why" behind social skills.  For students to be successful in navigating the social world they must learn to consider the perspective of others. This approach teaches a child social thinking skills that can be applied across all environments: school, home, and community.  We will  share a dynamic program that  allows children to acquire social thinking skills while participating in a motor program.  Participants  learn fundamental social thinking skills and understand their application while engaging  in creative movement activities with team goals.  This session is intended for educators, therapists, mental health professionals and parents who work with students with Asperger's Syndrome, ADHD, or other undiagnosed social learning issues.

Adler

Making a Classroom Accessible for Students with Aspergers

Attendees will be able to "deconstruct" a typical classroom and identify areas of challenge for students with Asperger Syndrome.  They will learn how to problem solve to identify individual students area of need and some basic strategies to work more effectively with students with AS in those environments.

Students with AS confront a unique set of challenges in the traditional classroom that interfere with their ability to learn the academic content but for them to learn essential skills that will allow them to prosper outside of an educational setting.  Outcomes for adults with AS are poor, not due to cognitive deficits, but because of difficulty with essential skills such as flexibility, problem solving, and emotional regulation.  This presentation aims to show how students with Asperger Syndrome (AS) can be provided with an optimal environment that develops areas of challenge (thereby hopefully improving long term outcomes) while enhancing their ability to be more effective learners of academic content.  This session is intended for people who understand the basic characteristics and origins of AS, and are interested in promoting truly inclusive settings for students with AS

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Ahluvalia

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Assessment of High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders

Participants will identify the necessary components for a high-functioning autism-spectrum disorder assessment.  Participants will define the nature of the core cognitive and social impairments in high-functioning autism-spectrum disorders (ASD).  Participants will identify common issues in differential diagnosis of high-functioning ASD. 

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have come increasingly to the attention of professionals and the lay public over the past 15 years since Asperger's Disorder was introduced to the DSM-IV.  This workshop provides an overview of assessment of high-functioning ASD.  An in-depth discussion of the core social, communication, and flexibility symptoms, and how these symptoms manifest in autism-spectrum versus other disorders, will be presented.  An overview of the necessary components of an assessment for ASD will then be presented, including assessment of developmental history, social cognition, and cognitive functioning.  Differential diagnosis and some common comorbidities will be discussed.  Implications from the assessment for the treatment process will be presented.  Clinical case examples will be used to illustrate the assessment process.

Alvord

Enhancing Resilience in Children, Teens and Families

Outcome goals:
1.  To learn the factors that protect children and teens when they are faced with adversity and challenges.
2.  To learn specific factors associated with helping youth who are cognitively gifted and have learning differences and/or ADHD.
3.  To learn additional specific factors that are protective for culturally diverse youth.

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from and adapt well to hardships, difficulties and challenges.  Challenges can be external, such as traumas, family stressors or internal, such as Attention Deficit Disorder and learning difficulties.  This workshop will describe the protective factors identified in longitudinal studies that promote resilience, with special emphasis on social competence and self-regulation.  Using these protective factors as a framework, the emphasis of the workshop will be on the application of strength-based and proactive strategies to treating children, teens and their families.    Case examples will be used to illustrate these strategies. 

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Baldwin

Designing Curriculum for your Twice-Exceptional Student: Thinking Outside the Box

Participants will learn about the characteristics of the twice-exceptional student.  Participants will learn best practices for educating the twice-exceptional student.  Participants will leave with an understanding how to develop a project-based, thematic, differentiated unit that addresses the twice-exceptional student's strengths while accommodating the areas of concern.

The Twice-Exceptional Student demonstrates both extraordinary gifts as well as learning and social/emotional challenges in the school setting.  Frequently the student has strengths in the visual-spatial area but has difficulty reading or expressing himself in writing.  This workshop will the discuss the learning characteristics of the twice exceptional child and then describe how to develop curriculum and project based units to meet their educational needs for rigor and accommodations.

Bannan

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Using Mobile Technologies in Science with Smart Kids Who Learn Differently

To identify possible affordances for learning science with mobile devices for smart kids who learn differently.

This presentation will highlight a unique relationship and instructional experience between a private school for gifted children with learning difficulties and a local university to support a gifted instruction model using mobile learning technologies in learning geoscience and scientific reasoning.  A grant to the first presenter from the National Science Foundation made possible the development of a technology system called Geomorphological Inquiry or GO Inquire to support observational inquiry in geoscience in the upper elementary and middle school grades.  The opportunity to use current mobile technology via iPhone/iTouch applications in conjunction with the GO Inquire system provides gifted children with learning challenges an opportunity to engage in visual-spatial learning in their school yards.  This presentation will describe the results of testing iPhone/iTouch technologies with the children at the Oasis school identifying and capturing erosional processes via digital imagery in their school yard. Uploading the digital images providing evidence of erosion were then imported into the GO Inquire system that prompts the students to attempt to 'read the landscape' to provide scientific reasoning for their selection of geological attributes that contribute to erosion (e.g. high/low, steep/shallow, intact/loose, etc.).  The results of this evaluation will provide insight into the children and teacher's impressions of the hands-on, field-based experience supported by mobile technologies. The children will also complete visual-based assessments and other measures to determine their ability to think like a scientist. Aligned with the National Gifted Education Standards (2008), instructional experiences for gifted children with diverse learning challenges can employ technology to promote more challenging curricula, enhance self-confidence and improve communication and visual-spatial skills. Gifted children with learning and other challenges are seldom provided with targeted, state-of-the-art, technology-supported, inquiry-based enrichment science activities. This presentation will discuss the potential and evaluation results of an integrated mobile/desktop technology system to enhance gifted instruction, particularly for those with learning challenges.

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Baum

The Growth of a Field: The Story of 2e Education

Berman, K

Developing Capacitites of Imagination

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Berman, D/Berman, A

A Personal Story: Mom and Son with High Functioning Autism

 In a two part presentation, Diane will talk about the issues in parenting a child with high functioning autism, and then will discuss social skills training for this population. Adam will discuss his experiences as a person with autism, emphasizing autism advocacy and how to be an effective self advocate.

Bicknell

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Beyond the Art Classroom :  Using the Visual and Performing Arts to Promote Language Development, Crystallized Content Knowledge, Critical Thinking Skills and Social-Emotional Resiliency

Participants will gain new tools to use, and ways to advocate for, visual and performing arts in the classroom.   Participants will learn specific classroom tested strategies  and sample projects for the students that learn differently.  Selected activities will boost educators' confidence in using the visual and performing arts in diverse classroom settings.

 The Lab School of Washington, a K-12 school that servers students of average and above average intelligence who have specific learning disabilities, is a educational leader in the use of arts integration and project-based content learning.  Students partake in daily visual and performing art classes as well as the content driven academic club classrooms.  Two master teachers present methods and lead a fun, hands-on workshop on how the Lab School of Washington uses the visual and performing arts across the curriculum to promote language development, crystallized content knowledge, critical thinking skills and social-emotional resiliency. Presentation will address best practices for working with bright students with specific language disorders or diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. The innovative, visual arts-based academic club method will be presented with sample projects and activities. For the performing arts perspective, the lower-school drama teacher will demonstrate theater instruction techniques developed for this specific student population.

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Bindeman

Bringing Inner Focus: Everyday Mindfulness

First: To add relaxation strategies to both a parent's and student's "tool box".

Second: To speak about the importance of relaxation and mindfulness in everyday life

 Third: To bring a few moments of quiet and inner peace

GTLD students typically have a double battle: learning how to navigate learning with their differences and dealing with the potential social/emotional consequences of needing accommodations.  These students typically present with a DSM diagnosis, such as ADHD, Anxiety, or Depression that can compound learning difficulties.  Learning non-invasive techniques to quell the symptoms (such as panic before a test, impulsivity, or low self-esteem) can allow a child to have "emotional space" freed up to learn.  Having a set of tools give the student a sense of autonomy and feeling of empowerment that they can cope on their own

Blucher

Strategy Development: A Must for Twice Exceptional Students

Participants will be able to describe the cogent elements of strength-based learning and talent development and how they serve as the basis for strategy development for 2E students.  Participants will be able to identify a process for developing self-regulating and compensatory strategies.  Participants will learn and use 3-5 strategies that will allow students to create and use self-regulating and self-advocating skills that will ensure success throughout K-12 years and at the post-secondary level.

How can a gifted student who is reading and writing several grades below expectancy perform in accelerated coursework and go on to college? They do it daily with highly effective and innovative self-regulating and compensatory strategies! Through a variety of hands-on activities, you will learn a strength-based process and creative strategies to assist the twice-exceptional learner. Participants will assemble a packet of ideas to support these unique students in reaching their boundless potential!

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Boser

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Universal Design for Learning and Twice Exceptional Students

As a result of this presentation, participants will be able to:  Understand the ways in which research on brain-based learning is the foundation for UDL (universal design for learning) --know how and why UDL supports 21st century learning skills in all students but in particular GT/LD or 2e students. Gain basic insight into the research on neurobiology of behavior, cognition and emotion that can supports the importance of UDL-based learning techniques with this population Use UDL practices in their classrooms and implement them in their schools and Learn through examples and demonstration about technology tools that can help twice exceptional students receive both supports as well as 'acceleration' to foster strength-based learning and increase student motivation.

Twice exceptional (2E) students are high-ability students with particular extremes of abilities and disabilities. Their strengths often lie in a stubborn drive to push innovation, however, they may have known or undiagnosed learning challenges in reading, writing and executive functions, including working memory, as well as sensory, social, and emotional needs.  Too often their manner of learning and thinking is misinterpreted particularly where standardization and homogeneity are valued over differentiation.  This workshop will focus on how to provide a Universal Design for Learning (UDL)-based environment that allows 2E students to push ahead, accelerate, and explore while also accommodating specific learning challenges (Baum & Owen, 2004). Participants will be engaged in interactive multi-media activities to better understand the unique needs of this population. We will specifically introduce classroom-based technologies (e.g., delicious, wikispaces, photostory3, moodle) that can aid educational specialists to 'differentiate' their teaching by allowing access to specific assessment data without singling out individuals. These and other technologies also provide students with greater independence, multiple means to access, engage with and demonstrate knowledge (e.g., Alice, Symtrend). Dr. Boser will highlight the importance of a strength-based approach along with the introduction of appropriate tools to facilitate more successful differentiation of instruction in the regular and gifted classroom for 2E students 

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Boudreau

If I'm So Smart, Why Can't I Read?

Participants will be able to recognize the characteristics of students with dyslexia.  Participants will be able to identify areas of recent neuroscience research that informs appropriate instruction for students with dyslexia.  Participants will be able to identify the social and emotional issues that students with dyslexia face.  Participants will be able to identify the kinds of support students with dyslexia need.  Participants will be able to identify the types of instructional and assistive technologies can assist struggling readers.

This presentation focuses on the characteristics of smart kids who struggle to learn to read and the resultant social-emotional issues they face in school. Recent neuroscience findings that can provide guidance for the instruction of reading for students with dyslexia will be outlined.  In addition, instructional and assistive technologies to support struggling readers will be discussed.  This session is appropriate for professionals and parents of students with reading problems.

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Bouffard Bannon

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Integrative and Expressive Social Skills Groups for GTLD Kids

Participants will gain knowledge about Dance/Movement Therapy and other Expressive Therapy techniques utilized in a Social Skills Group context with this population.  Participants will learn how to provide structure, rituals, routines and behavioral reinforcements with the goals of increasing self-esteem, self-confidence, self-expression, self-control, frustration tolerance and positive interpersonal relating skills.  Participants will be able to recognize the connection between working with the mind and body in an integrative therapeutic approach with kids who learn differently.

 Kids who learn differently often struggle with issues of low self-esteem, low confidence, low frustration tolerance, challenges with self-control, self-expression and interpersonal relating skills. In an Integrative and Expressive Social Skills context, these kids are given the opportunity to be successful with their words, their actions and their interactions with others. Participants will learn how to assess students' individualized issues and goals, provide group structure, rituals, consistency, positive reinforcement, and integrative interventions in a therapeutic social skills group atmosphere. This interactive session is intended for audiences who are familiar with GTLD students and have some awareness of the psychotherapeutic process.

Brodsky

Tools To Empower: Preparing Your Child for College

Participants will be able to identify the difference between IDEA, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and ADA.  Participants will be able to identify the impact of FERPA on disclosure and confidentiality.  Participants will be able to identify common college accommodations.  Participants will be able to identify steps toward self-determination and self-advocacy.

For many students with disabilities, college will be the first time they must advocate for themselves about their disability and needs. What are the differences between getting accommodations in high school and college? Do students need to disclose their disabilities and if so, how should they do it?  What coping skills will help them in their search for the 'good fit' college?

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Caldwell

Testing, Testing...Solving the Dilemma of GT/LD Kids Who Don't Test Well

Participants will be able to articulate why their students may do well in class, but do poorly on tests  Participants will be able to describe the importance of the brain-based learning style  Participants will be able to identify the one most effective intervention they can use to help students improve their study and test-taking skills  Participants will be able to understand the impact of different learning styles on family dynamics

Bright students with learning difficulties often don't test well even though they know the material. Research in brain-based learning has determined that they may be unknowingly storing the information in the wrong part of their memory to access on a test.  Assessing and teaching students about their learning style, and the correlated issues of procrastination, organization, distraction, and test-taking, brings them new confidence as learners, decreases frustration, and lays the ground-work for new study strategies suited to their needs. Parents have a greater understanding of the family dynamics and tensions that may arise when they and their children have different learning styles. Participants will assess their brain-based learning style, and participate in an interactive workshop that will illuminate the challenges and gifts of learning styles,  leaving with powerful new strategies they can implement immediately. This session is intended for students and their parents, as well as educators who are in the first stages of learning about GT/LD.

Capello

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Geodesic Structures:  An Alternative Lesson Plan for Curriculum Flexibility and  for Diagnosis, Intervention and Cross-curriculum Integration

Participants will learn a specific non traditional classroom project that can be used in art,science or math classrooms.  Teachers will learn strategies to introduce geometry, sculptural, and artistic concepts without competence in traditional art skills.  Therapists and teachers will learn how to use art activities to observe and diagnose particular motor and spatial deficits that are not revealed by typical art studio activities.  Participants will learn how to adapt this concept to create team building collaborative projects for classes troubled by problem social interactions between the students.

Development of basic drawing skills is key to the curriculum in a studio art class. Sometimes, however the teacher is presented with one or more students who are highly adverse to even attempting to draw.  Adjusting the class projects to more manipulative projects that do not rely heavily on drawing can sometimes create an opportunity for bright students to create something unique and creative with minimal fundamental supporting art skills. Demonstration participants will learn a simple lesson plan, incorporating minimal and inexpensive materials that will produce geometric sculptural forms that can be highly complex. This lesson provides an opportunity to also introduce several topics  and ideas well outside the usual realm of the fine art studio.

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Cooper-Kahn

Late, Lost, and Unprepared:  How Parents Can Help Students with Executive Dysfunction

First, participants will be able to identify at least five executive functions.  Second, they will be able to describe reasonable accommodations and modifications for students with executive function weaknesses from kindergarten through grade 12.  Third, participants will be able to identify the importance of building habits and routines to manage tasks more efficiently and independantally.  Finally, they will be able to explain to others the need to balance accommodations and skill-building interventions.

Parents of smart kids who learn differently know all too well how weaknesses in initiation, planning, working memory, organization, self-monitoring, cognitive flexibility, and other executive skills can compromise learning, social adjustment, and emotional well-being.  Whether or not they have a formal 'diagnosis', bright kids with executive function weaknesses demonstrate significant variability in their performance which can be puzzling and frustrating for them, their parents, and their teachers.  We will present a two-pronged model that emphasizes both appropriate supports and interventions to improve executive functioning.  Using case examples and humor, we will reinforce the need to use flexibility and creativity in order to design individualized interventions and to educate others about executive weaknesses. 

Culotta

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What Lies Beneath the Numbers: Decoding Neuropsychological and Psychoeducational Assesments for Educational Planning

Participants will be able to differentiate neuropsychological, psychological, and psycho-educational assessments.  Participants will demonstrate an understanding of basic issues of validity, reliability, sensitivity and specificity. Participants will recognize specific tests relevant to intelligence, giftedness, learning differences, and emotional concerns.  Participants will learn to evaluate the quality of a report and its recommendations.  Participants will understand the value and role of assessments in determining eligibility for services, accommodations, and modifications. Participants will be capable of recognizing basic data patterns relative to several diagnostic categories. Participants will be able to describe assessment issues related to accommodations on standardized tests such as SAT's or LSAT's as well as college, graduate school, and workplace concerns

This workshop will provide a comprehensive review of neuropsychological, psychological, and psycho-educational assessments used within the realm of educational planning.  Participants will learn to decode and demystify tests, statistics, and conclusions drawn from assessment results.  Assessment issues in the context of creativity, giftedness, learning differences, and emotional concerns will be highlighted.  The presenters will review testing from a clinical, neurodevelopmental, and strategic standpoint as it relates to educational planning in private and public settings.  Specific concerns relevant to eligibility, IEP development, 504 planning, and accommodations on standardized tests such as SAT's, ACT's, LSAT's, and MCAT's will be reviewed.  Participants will be provided with a checklist of report essentials and tools to translate report recommendations to the classroom.  Finally, a number of case reviews will be presented to illustrate learning objectives. 

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Davis, Amanda

They CAN learn Spanish

Participants will learn strategies for successfully teaching LD students a foreign language. Participants will learn incentive programs within the classroom to inspire students to learn. Participants will hear examples of ways to inspire student success through interdisciplinary and cross-curricular connections.

The Siena School enrolls bright, college-bound students with mild to moderate language-based learning differences, such as dyslexia. Siena employs a multisensory approach to teaching across all curricular areas. Its student-based teaching philosophy includes arts integrated throughout the curriculum, extensive field trips and guest speakers. This session will address the teaching of foreign language, specifically Spanish, to high school students. Topics covered will include: *Incentive systems to inspire students to learn (earning "pesos" during class for participation) *Ways to teach primarily in the target language * Reading and Writing Strategies * Multisensory teaching techniques * Cross-curricular connections. Participants will learn about cross-curricular field trips that can help provide incentives for students to learn vocabulary (using resources at the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, but applicable to any local museum). Participants will also hear examples of classroom incentive programs for participation and ways to include film, hands-on activities and discussions to enhance student learning.

Davis, Michelle

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The Special Education Process:  IEP's and 504 Plans

Participants will be able to describe how evaluations and assessments affect the process for securing services or school placement.  Participants will be able to list 9 Stages of the Special Education Process, and the function of each.  Participants will be able to identify the seminal issues that an advocate or parent faces when navigating the special education process.   Participants will be able to distinguish an IEP from a 504 plan. 

This session will explore the federal and state laws that drive the development of Individual Education Programs (IEP's), 504 plans, and programs for students who are highly gifted.  The session will benefit parents, students and educators who are interested in the components of FAPE, free appropriate public education, for bright students who learn differently.  Participants will learn and distinguish 9 stages of the special education process.  Through exploration of these stages, participants will evaluate how supports in the classroom with use of data from evidence based methods leads to effective evaluation, which leads to development of appropriate IEP's, 504 plans, or programs for students who are highly gifted.  In order for a child's program to meet her academic and social emotional needs, effective programs must be in place, and these programs are developed through powerful advocacy, and knowledge of the special education process. 

DCPS Panel & Facilitator:

Karin Tulchinsky-Cohen   

Inspiration from the Best: Meeting the Needs of Smart Kids Who Learn Differently in Urban Settings

Participants will have the opportunity to obtain deep understanding of how best practices for students with learning differences can be implemented in urban settings.

Participants will listen to insights from talented and dedicated educators in the District of Columbia Public Schools who work with bright students who learn differently. Some of the panelists participated in a unique professional development initiative. Weinfeld Education Group offered a two credit graduate course on campus of a DCPS public school. As part of the course, participants completed professional development projects that enhanced their repertoire of instructional strategies in order to meet the needs of bright students who learn differently.  Participants discovered how their new knowledge of best practices for bright students with learning differences improved their overall classroom instruction. Panelists also include staff from McKinley Technical High School where a program for students identified with Asperger’s Syndrome offers opportunities for academic rigor and social and emotional support.

DellaRose

Not Exactly a Social Butterfly

Participants will be able to identify areas of difficulty with social and emotional issues in children. Participants will be able to assess and create a plan to assist bright students to navigate their social world.

Bright students who learn differently are often hindered by difficulties expressing their themselves due to social pragmatic weaknesses as well as difficulties using language to navigate through social situations effectively.  These students who exhibit language/learning differences and /or  misperceieve social situations, often struggle with healthy personal and group relations by experiencing frequent social mishaps and frustrations. They tend to feel helpless to manage their social community.  Although very bright, students who struggle to navigate their social world are often emotionally impacted, and this, in turn can impact  their entire educational experience.  

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Dietzel

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Late, Lost, and Unprepared: A Model for Helping Professionals Educate and Empower Parents of Children and Adolescents with Executive Function Weaknesses

First, participants will be able to define executive functioning in parent-friendly terms.  Second, participants will be able to identify how executive skill weaknesses manifest at home, school, and in social situations. Third, participants will learn the principles underlying successful interventions for bright students with executive function weaknesses.  Fourth, participants will identify the importance of helping parents, teachers, and other important adults set individualized expectations.  Fifth, participants will understand the need for accommodations and modifications to build success in the short term as well as for interventions to build executive skills in the long run.  Sixth, participants will gain an appreciation for the use of behavioral techniques and building habits and routines for helping disorganized and dysexecutive students.  Finally, participants will learn to design interventions based on the student's unique profile of strengths and weaknesses. 

Professionals working with families of children and adolescents are often the first to introduce parents to a working knowledge of executive functioning.  An effective model for educating parents will include information about both the process and the content of intervention for building better executive skills.  It addresses both short-term and long-term goals of intervention and lays out the challenges to effective intervention with a particular emphasis on GTLD and AD/HD learners.  It is also important that professionals understand and teach families to monitor the balance between over-functioning and not providing enough support for children with weak executive skills.  Participants will gain a working knowledge of the research-based principles underlying effective intervention and support as well as a framework for designing individually-based interventions.

Dolin

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Homework Made Simple:  Tips, Tools and Solutions for Hassle-Free Homework

Parents will learn to:  identify their child's homework profile (Disorganized, Distractible, Rusher, Avoider, Procrastinator, Emotional, Perfectionist), set up homework space and effectively organize materials at school and at home, teach students how to prioritize, break down large tasks, and plan assignments, reduce procrastination to eliminate last minute stress, encourage effective study skills for academic success, maintain and promote on task and peaceful behavior during homework time, and find the balance between helping too much and not enough.

 For bright students with learning difficulties, homework can be especially frustrating.  In many homes, a battle is fought nightly between parents and students.  Unfortunately, there is no victor, only remaining feelings of disappointment, anger, and negativity.  Parents are often ill-equipped to utilize best practice strategies to assist their struggling child or adolescent and teachers often don't understand the wars that are waged once the school bell rings.  This workshop provides parents, other care givers, and teachers strategies to work with many different kinds of students.  Research-based and field-tested techniques are provided for the: Disorganized Rusher Procrastinator Avoider Distractible Emotional  Perfectionist In addition, simple but highly effective solutions are shared that work for ALL students, regardless of their homework profile.   This workshop aims to return homes that were once a battleground to a place of harmony, acceptance, and most of all, success. 

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Dollar

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The Inquiry Based Classroom for Twice Exceptional Kids

Participants will observe best practices that work in a GTLD classroom setting. They will take an educational journey and explore the road to their child's success in school through a creative approach to teaching bright kids.  …a journey of a thousand miles beginning with a single step.  Chinese Proverb

The Inquiry Based Classroom for Twice Exceptional Kids is a learning environment where a child's disability is viewed as a bump in the road to becoming a successful life-long learner. This program is designed to challenge bright kids with a creative teaching approach. We will journey to a place where a moderate balanced approach to instruction will be addressed by exploring the importance of organizational skills, appropriate academic programs based on rigorous instruction, the need for a strong 'parents as partners' relationship, and the roles of educational caretakers. This program is designed to challenge bright kids with a creative teaching approach. At the end of our journey participants will reach a destination point where kids, parents, and teachers come together for a common goal- a road map to their child's success in school. They will leave with a meaningful educational framework for GTLD learners and the educational tools needed for a successful Inquiry Classroom.  

Emerick

The Wisdom of Students: What Underachievers Can Teach Us

Participants will develop knowledge of complex indicators of ability, underachievement (characteristics of smart kids who learn differently).  Participants will develop knowledge of procedures for identification, communication to guide instructional planning (best practices for identifying smart kids who learn differently).  Participants will be able to identify instructional approaches to reverse underachievement (best practices related to the education of smart kids who learn differently).

For educators and parents alike, gifted underachievers present delight, confusion, and dismay. To complicate matters, no two underachievers are alike.  Over the past decade, findings from investigations of gifted high school students, adult underachievers, and more recently, urban elementary and middle school students and their teachers reveal some common factors and practices: the importance of students' personal interests, the need for challenging curriculum, the role of the parent, and the difference a teacher can make in an underachiever's life. This session presents these findings and ways in which educators may use the "wisdom of students" to  better align learner characteristics and abilities to challenging instruction.

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Fagen

Helping Your Child Make and Keep Friends

This workshop is designed to help parents assess their child's strengths and need for making and keeping friends; apply workshop concepts and methods to meeting their child's priority needs for developing friendships; and discuss positive ways to appreciate their own helping efforts.

Most children place a tremendous value on having friends, and become worried and unhappy when they experience rejection or isolation. This workshop will present  a model for  building  a child's identity as a social success instead of  being plagued by feelings of social failure.  Parents can help overcome their child's 'social mistakes' by (a) promoting new skills, (b) motivating better use of existing skills, (c) bolstering resilience in facing adversity, and (d) highlighting unknown strengths.  The session will focus on two main areas for improving  a child's ability to  get along better with age peers:  Displaying Friendly Behaviors (Making Friends), and Maintaining Self-Control Over Impulses and Emotions  (Keeping Friends).  Practical methods  for increasing your child's social skills in these areas will be discussed and demonstrated, with an eye towards home application. The importance of  a healthy parental perspective and self-appreciation will be emphasized, and useful print and non-print resources will be recommended.

Fagen

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Social Skills Therapy With Children and Pre-adolescents

This workshop is designed to help participants:

1. Describe a social skills therapy model successfully used at the Jewish Social Service Agency.

2. Summarize key concepts for conducting social skills therapy groups.

3. Apply effective strategies for leading social skills therapy groups for children and preadolescents with social disorders.

Developing and maintaining positive peer relations is extremely important to school-age children and has powerful effects on their self-esteem, school success and life adjustment. Referrals to mental health professionals, in both school and clinical settings, frequently emphasize social conflict, rejection, or withdrawal problems and seek improvement in social skills. This session will introduce a social skills therapy model, describe key concepts, and illustrate comprehensive strategies successfully employed at the Jewish Social Service Agency by the presenter. The session will also address issues relating to research on effectiveness, highlight practical resources for professionals, and offer helpful supplementary handouts

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Fox

Discover and Develop Your Child's Strengths

Participants will discover ways to see children through a strengths based lens rather than  a deficit lens.  Participants will understand how to discover and develop strengths in children in three main areas: Relationship, Learning and Activity Strengths.

Helping children learn and think positively about their personality is one of a parents biggest jobs. Typical assessments provide kids with personality types but not necessarily actions or activities to build on childrens' deepening understanding of themselves.  Active engagement in strength identification can begin when children are able to self-reflect. It is important for parents to understand that developing strengths in children is an ongoing activity that must be sustained over time and involve progressive activities that build on one another to form lifelong habits. This workshop will show you how to do this.

Fox

Developing Children's Strengths Using Social Media

Gallagher

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Nurturing Talent Among Promising Hispanic-American Students

Take a closer look at general characteristics of the Hispanic-American culture

Consider practices proven effective in developing talent among promising learners within this population and identify ways to support these efforts

Bright Hispanic-American students in this country respond to relevant, rigorous academic expectations within a learning environment that values and respects individual differences and promotes rich, personal relationships. This session will examine general characteristics of the Hispanic-American culture, identify areas of strength and need among this population, and suggest strategies and resources to help these students develop into whole, competent and productive individuals, ready to lead satisfying, meaningful lives as representatives of two cultures in a global society. Participants will consider specific practices to implement in the classroom, the school and across the state. 

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Glasser

GT/LD/ADHD: Thrice Exceptional?

Participants will learn the characteristics of children who have all three exceptionalities: GT/LD/ADHD.   Participants will become familiar with assessment practices that can unmask these different issues in complex children.

The twice exceptional child is the subject of many books and articles now and these have been extremely helpful to this sub-population of the gifted. However, a review of the research with these children reveals that there has been a confound in much of the data. Many children with learning disabilities also have ADHD just as many children with ADHD also have a learning disability.  However, not all have both. Clinical cases will be presented and discussed in which a child has all three exceptionalities.  Cases of children who are gifted and dyslexic with ADHD will be discussed.  In addition, a case will be presented of a gifted child who has a nonverbal learning disability as well as ADHD.  Implications on social and emotional development will be discussed.

Glasser

Neuropsychological, Psychological and Psycho-educational evaluations:What are they?

Participants will understand what is involved in psychological, neuropsychological and psycho-educational assessments.  Specific tests will be discussed and described. When to test on and off medication will be discussed.

Children are often referred for a psychological, neuropsychological, or psycho-educational evaluation.   This presentation will focus on what these evaluations consist of, the different tests that are used, and who conducts them.  Best practices and research in assessment will be briefly reviewed, as well.  The different types of tests will be discussed, as well. The goal of this workshop will be to take some of the mystery out of the process and to answer parents questions about these evaluations.

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Goode

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Stress and College Planning

The audience will gain insight into the college admissions process and learn how to keep it in proper perspective.  Parents and students will become more knowledgeable about colleges that are a "good match" and learn best practices that will help them manage their stress.

What's one of the hottest topics in the media today?  What's causing anxiety among families?  One of the greatest pressures facing a family is the uncertainty about their children's post secondary education.  Will my child get accepted into a college?  What sacrifices must my child make in order to get accepted?  Why is there so much stress with the college application process?  Is the system fair to all student populations; such as, first generation, those with special learning or physical needs, and those with average high school performance.

Green

Technology Treasures

Participants will learn about affordable resources and strategies that educators and families can use to enhance communication, cognition, literacy and learning for all students.  Participants will be able to identify Inexpensive online resources, assistive technologies and interactive multi-sensory programs will be shown that can be used to improve and compensate for weak areas as well as offer accelerated learning in areas where students thrive.  Participants will be able to list three ways that technology can be used to enhance learning.  Participants will be able to name at least 3 software programs that can be used to improve literacy and communication.

We are in the midst of a paradigm shift involving our approach to helping different learners improve their communication and cognition and assisting children with special gifts to maximize their talents.  An increasing number of students are having technology goals included in their IEP's and school systems and teachers are struggling with integrating technology into the curriculum to enhance literacy goals for all students. The worlds of AT (assistive technology) and IT (instructional technology) are merging. Everyone can benefit from cutting edge technologies when they are used appropriately and matched well to the needs of the learner. Text readers, word prediction technology, drill and practice multi-sensory software, recording pens, hand held devices and programs fostering collaboration and networking may be helpful.  Join Joan Green, a speech-language pathologist with many years of experience using technology, to learn more about affordable cutting edge technology goldmines that you can use at home or in the classroom to help different learners. Many parents, special educators and therapists are convinced that the use of technology to enhance treatment is the way to go, but do not have the time, energy or resources to begin.

Henry

Demystification:  The Journey Toward Self-Advocacy

Participants will understand the social and emotional characteristics of the smart child who learns differently.  Participants will understand the purpose and process of demystification for smart students who learn differently.  Participants will understand the developmental nature and on-going process of self-understanding in regard to individual strengths and weaknesses.  Participants will be able to describe program characteristics that encourage self-awareness and understanding for the smart child with learning differences.  Participants will understand the relationship of self-awareness and acceptance to the development and articulation of self- advocacy throughout all stages of life.  Participants will understand the implications of demystification in regard to the identification and use of appropriate strategies, accommodations, and interventions.

Smart children with learning differences develop awareness at an early age...that school tasks that seem to come easily to their classmates present ongoing and everyday challenges for them.  Often these children develop a variety of coping skills/behaviors to mask their perceived weaknesses. These behaviors, born from the need for self- protection and survival in the classroom, frequently become barriers to maximizing the true potential of the GTLD student.  A research based developmentally appropriate program enables students to identify and understand their learning profiles of strengths and needs.  Demystification defines the process through which children develop the awareness and understanding of their own learning profiles.  This understanding sets the foundation for the vocabulary of self-advocacy.  The ability to utilize learning strategies empowers children in academic and social/emotional spheres.  Academic accommodations and interventions will be more readily advocated for and utilized by students who understand the basis for their use.

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Herman

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A Panel on Dyslexia : Perspectives and Helpful Hints

Panelists will share personal stories of what school is like as a young child and as an adult. Participants will learn what methods of coping have worked for dyslexic children, and methods a dyslexic student used to become successful in graduate school. Eric turned into a successful performing artist and business entrepreneur and will share how he coped and what made the difference for him. Kelly will share about her son's journey through a performance anxiety disorder and dyslexia in third grade. As her son's classroom teacher, Kelly has many insights from a classroom teacher's point of view as well as a mom's. Several administrators and a reading consultant will share other strategies that have worked in their Twice Exceptional Programs. Participants will be invited to speak about and share what helps development of their dyslexic children or students.

The panel will include personal perspectives on dyslexia from a dyslexic adult (Eric Wolf) who is a professional storyteller and also a successful, creative business person,  a parent (Kelly Dill) who teaches a dyslexic son in a school setting, and from administrators who will share other ways to help dyslexic young people.   After the panel speaks, there will be a discussion with audience members to gather more perspectives and hints.  The panel facilitator will be educator/storyteller, Dr. Gail N. Herman, AEGUS Board Member.

Holman

Working with the Child's Inner Life in the Biopsychosocial Model

Participants will be able to define the different manifestations of the inner life, and how they may be different for children with developmental differences. Participants will be able to identify the importance of understanding the inner life of these children. Participants will be able to identify methods of assessing the inner life, how these data enhance other data such as history and testing, and how the inner life can be essential in diagnosis, treatment and educational planning. 

  We talk easily and eagerly about the test scores, cognition, behavior, neurophysiology, educational strategies, and medications of children who have developmental differences. However, we tend to neglect the inner life of these children. Their own perspectives, expressed in their own way, can be more difficult for us to understand, and more difficult for them to communicate, compared to more typically developing children. However, the inner life is highly meaningful, even when it may be repetitive, or not seem at first to make sense. Data about the inner life is an essential part of a bio-psycho-social approach and should inform every assessment and intervention. Ability to understand the inner life can be decisive and crucial for assessment and intervention planning. This workshop will increase understanding of the inner life and how to use it to deepen our relationships with these children, as well as for treatment and education. We will cover the use of play, conversation, art, observation, and testing to open windows into the inner life. 

Iscoe

The Iscoe Grid: A Visual Snapshot of Student Skills and Learning Preferences to Facilitate Lesson Planning and Optimize the Ratio of Success to Frustration for Each Student

Participants in this workshop will learn how to develop Iscoe Grids for their students.  Participants will be able to identify ways to consider learning style and abilities, and strategies for balancing frustration and mastery within a school day.

GT/LD teachers face a daunting task when trying to integrate the abilities, needs, learning styles, and personalities of their  students with a  stimulating and challenging curriculum.  The Iscoe Grid provides a one page visual 'snapshot' of a student's learning profile so teachers can plan lessons that optimize learning and minimize frustration.  Rather than paging through a thick file, or pages of detail filled IEP, a teacher can review a student's Grid and identify teaching strategies that will work.  Using the Iscoe Grid, teachers can proactively determine what proportion of classroom work and assignments utilize a student's existing strengths and interests, and what proportion require the student to stretch their existing skill set. 

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Jabaily

Professional Development: Integrating Theatre in Classrooms for Students Who Learn Differently

Teachers will be able to learn how to incorporate theatre into their classrooms in ways that allow GTLD students to show their in depth understanding of a subject.  Teachers will learn theatre games that build classroom community, help children focus, and redirect behavior in a positive, enjoyable way.

Integrating theatre in classrooms for students who learn differently will help teachers gain valuable hands on experience in theatre. Theatre incorporates multiple intelligences and helps GTLD students gain an in depth understanding of subjects from history to math. . Theatre is a wonderful combination of joy and rigor that gives children a sense of accomplishment and self confidence.  Theatre can serve as a non-traditional assessment tool. For example, two students may act out an improvisation based on the Civil War where one is from the North and the other is from the South. Based on the way they interact with the other character and the dialogue they use, the teacher can assess their understanding of the subject matter. Theatre incorporates many learning styles in ways that are not always utilized in the classroom. We will work with teachers to not only learn eight different theatre exercises, but will also work in small groups to begin creating theatre based lesson plans that will be unique to each subject, grade level, and student.  Participants will learn eight different theatre games and leave the workshop with a lesson plan that best utilizes the activities in their individual classrooms. This session is intended or any teacher who is interested in exploring academics and classroom culture using  voice, body, and imagination.

Johnson

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Best Practices related to the Education of Smart Kids who Learn Differently

To identify the best practices in education which will provide a student with social/emotional safety while giving the opportunity for academic achievement.

Empower the Child/Empower the Mind. Students deserve to be in school environments that provide both physical and social/emotional safety as well as diverse instruction of an academically challenging curriculum.   The formula for school success for students with organizational, attentional, or academic challenges will be clearly demonstrated.   The embedding of specific organizational strategies within and across classes and grades, a school-wide advisory system, diversified instruction, focus on technology, and a challenging yet supported academic curriculum are all parts of the formula.  Learn how these successfully come together in a college preparatory program for students with LD and ADHD.

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Kaufman

Planning and Organization for students: The Siena School Way!

Participants will understand how a well-designed student planner can help students keep track of assignments and help parents and tutors understand what is due.  Participants will understand how a well-designed Binder system can help students keep track of their materials.  Participants will learn about how systems such as that of The Siena School can address student needs in organization, executive functioning and memory

Participants will learn about the Student Planner that Siena has designed to address student needs in organization, executive functioning and memory. Its features include:

• One page per day,
• 'Check off' areas for teachers, advisors and parents to be sure students have all the materials they need and know exactly what assignments must be completed
• Space for estimated and actual time of completion (to aid in executive functioning)
• Space to keep track of weekly assignments (for long-range planning).

Participants will also learn about Siena's "travel binder" system, which assists students in organization. Students carry a sectioned binder from class to class, including a folder for nightly homework. At regular intervals students transfer materials from their travel binder to a 'Portfolio Binder' for each course. This system enables students to keep track of their work throughout the year and to compare their writing from the beginning of the year to succeeding writing. Presenters will engage the participants in the session by asking for examples of student needs in organization and planning, will explain Siena's approach and will save time for questions.  

Kaufman

Multi-sensory Math: Chants, Rhythms and Kinesthetic Approaches to Learning

Participants will understand the importance of kinesthetic approaches to learning that assist students with language-based learning differences.  Participants will learn actual examples of techniques to help students remember math rules.  Participants will learn about the research behind the success of multi-sensory math.

This session is designed to give practical suggestions for multi-sensory ways to teach mathematics at all grades levels. Participants will leave with actual examples of visual, concrete and kinesthetic techniques (using gross motor muscles) to aid in math memory. Participants will learn rhythmic chants and kinesthetic approaches for helping students in a variety of math courses.  For example, a simple kinesthetic approach to remembering the steps in long division (divide, multiply, subtract, compare, bring down), is very effective for students who are attempting to remember the steps in long division. In upper level math courses such as Algebra, students need to learn to recognize the "difference of two squares" as a pattern used in factoring. By chanting and using their hands to identify "Perfect Square, Perfect Square, Minus in between," students have simplified language to help them recognize an important mathematical pattern.  The goal of this session is to demonstrate techniques that take the complex language out of math and replace it with simpler steps and procedures that can aid students' working memory and reinforce steps and procedures. Participants will leave with a list of examples of strategies that will be explained in the session.

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Kottmeyer

The Internet: a Twice-Exceptional Resource

The internet can be an amazing resource, or a huge waste of time. Perhaps more valuable than the data, are the people you can meet and interact with there. Learn about the "diamonds" you can find in the rough world of the 'net today, whether you are a twice exceptional individual, parent, educator, or other professional. Learn about the social/emotional support you can find out in the "rough" of the 'net. At the same time, learn how to smooth out your internet experience, staying safe, protecting your privacy and your computer, while you mine the Diamonds in the Rough.  

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Kranowitz

Catching Kids Before They Fall: Strategies to Support Students with Sensory Processing Disorder

Participants will understand Sensory Processing and how vital it is in every aspect of life -- physically, cognitively, socially and emotionally. Participants will recognize Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) and how it causes atypical neurological REACTIONS in all seven sensory systems. Participants will understand how atypical reactions cause atypical RESPONSES to sensations and cause dysfunction in childhood occupations of learning, socializing, communicating, self-regulating, and playing.   Participants will become aware of therapies, esp. OT-SI (Occupational Therapy using a Sensory Integration framework) and "over-the-counter" treatment at home and school, such as a "sensory diet."  Participants will learn several sensory-motor/perceptual-motor activities that ALL children enjoy and need throughout the day to keep alert, organized, and ready to learn.

Many children with SPD are smart kids who learn differently because they struggle all day to meet their sensory needs.  Some withdraw from physical contact and conversation, preferring computers and solitary projects.  Others seek hands-on, body-on learning opportunities, bumping and crashing their way through the day and literally "tackling" their studies.  Others require multiple chances to practice a new skill before finally "getting it."  Inefficient sensory processing in the central nervous system leads to a child's inability to feel in control of his body and emotions.  Functioning throughout the school day can be immensely challenging, frustrating and  fatiguing.  OT-SI is the best therapy for students with SPD, along with a "sensory diet" at home and school.    Many children with SPD are GTLD students.  SPD often has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with learning.      OT-SI often dramatically improves successful learning and interactions at school.  When this happens, students, teachers and families notice the improvements.  Research to prove quantitative improvement is ongoing. 

Kranowitz

The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun

Participants will be able to explain how movement and touch experiences are essential ingredients in every child's daily sensory diet , 'Movement is learning."  Participants will be able to identify "SAFE" activities, specifically designed to engage various sensory systems and thereby improve learning and regulate behavior.  Participants will be able to describe activities to take back to the classroom, home, or clinic to use with all children, with or without SPD.

Activities may be alerting, organizing, and calming , i.e., 'just right' to add to an individual child's Sensory Diet or to use with a group.  Like over-the-counter therapy, the activities are suitable to use with children with learning differences in a clinic, at home, or at school.   These SAFE (Sensory-motor, Appropriate, Fun, and Easy) activities improve children's learning and behavior while promoting their self-esteem.  Touching and moving activities are designed to promote sensory modulation, sensory discrimination, and the sensory-based motor skills of postural control and praxis. All activities are educationally-relevant. They reinforce lessons about tactile perception, balance and movement, visual-spatial relationships, hand strength and dexterity, auditory-language skills, rhythm and timing.  In addition, they emphasize essential skills for learning, including social interaction, heavy work, messy and not-so-messy play, body awareness, crossing the midline, and motor planning.  All play, all while having fun!

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Kuhl

Teaching the Child Who Learns Differently: The Homeschooling Option

Participants will leave with an understanding of why parents home school exceptional children, what aids & support services they employ, and the myths and realities about homeschooling.  Participants will receive a list of books, software, and other resources to help parents who are considering home school or simply want to enrich the after-school environment.

Bright students who learn differently benefit from differentiated instruction, yet parents struggle to find an appropriate placement. Some parents turn to homeschooling to tailor instructional methods, schedule, environment, and content to their children's gifts and needs. Kathy Kuhl's extensive interviews with homeschoolers teaching gifted children diagnosed with LD, ADHD, and or autism spectrum disorders, reveal these parents' best practices, collaboration with professionals, socialization strategies, support systems, and advice for other parents. Participants will leave with an understanding of why parents home school exceptional children, what aids they employ, and the myths and realities about homeschooling, as well as a list of books, software, and other resources to help parents who are considering home school or simply want to enrich the after-school environment.

Lanham/Savage

Treatment of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Across the Lifespan: A Developmental Model of Multimodal Intervention

(non CE version 1 hour Sat)

Participants will be able to define AD/HD and list the underlying concepts of the varied, seemingly unrelated symptoms from a unifying neurobiological framework placed within a developmental context. Participants will be able to identify the relationship of AD/HD to disorders of the executive functions and the impact of disorders in executive functions on academic, vocational, social, and emotional functioning.  Participants will receive a brief overview of evidence-based treatment options. 

This workshop will focus on participants developing an organized understanding of the spectrum of complex disorders currently referred to as Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD).  Our belief is that an accurate understanding of this complex disorder is necessary prior to understanding the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of current "treatments."  A very brief overview of evidence based treatment within the context of the developmental model will be presented to participants

Lanham/Savage

Treatment of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Across the Lifespan: A Developmental Model of Multimodal Intervention

2 hour CE version

Participants will be able to define AD/HD and list the underlying concepts of the varied, seemingly unrelated symptoms from a unifying neurobiological framework placed within a developmental context. Participants will be able to identify the role of intellectual ability, gender, AD/HD type, emotional disturbance (ED), and co-morbid disorders have upon the presentation of symptoms and hence the treatment of AD/HD Participants will be able to identify the relationship of AD/HD to disorders of the executive functions and the impact of disorders in executive functions on academic, vocational, social, and emotional functioning.

This workshop will focus on participants developing an organized understanding and approach to the treatment of the spectrum of complex disorders currently referred to as Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD).   A conceptual model of AD/HD, grounded in an understanding of the executive skills system, will be presented that guides the designing of strategies for intervention.  Our belief is that an accurate understanding of this complex disorder is necessary prior to understanding the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of current "treatments."  An overview of evidence based treatment within the context of the developmental model will be presented to participants.

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Lanham/Savage

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Treatment of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Across the Lifespan: A Developmental Model of Multimodal Intervention

6 hour CE version

Participants will be able to define AD/HD and list the underlying concepts of the varied, seemingly unrelated symptoms from a unifying neurobiological framework placed within a developmental context. Participants will be able to identify the role of intellectual ability, gender, AD/HD type, emotional disturbance (ED), and co-morbid disorders have upon the presentation of symptoms and hence the treatment of AD/HD Participants will be able to identify the relationship of AD/HD to disorders of the executive functions and the impact of disorders in executive functions on academic, vocational, social, and emotional functioning.

Many presentations on the subject of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) focus on the diagnostic issues and controversies with AD/HD, but only briefly touch on the topics of intervention and AD/HD in adulthood.  This workshop will focus on participants developing an organized understanding and approach to the treatment of AD/HD, grounded in how this neurobiological syndrome presents at various stages in an individual's development.  A conceptual model of AD/HD will be presented that guides the designing of strategies for intervention. The conceptual model takes into consideration the impact of the variety of systems (e.g., couple, family, social, educational, work), environmental factors, and patterns of cognitive, social, and emotional strengths and weaknesses in the lives of children, adolescents, and adults.  Issues involved in evaluation and identification of AD/HD will be briefly reviewed, given that accurate diagnosis is an essential first step in treatment. Consideration of testing and its use in both the evaluation phase and treatment planning will be reviewed.  Recognition of the wide variety of co-morbid disorders and those resulting from unrecognized and untreated AD/HD, including substance abuse and impulse control disorders, will also be discussed.  Successful intervention with individuals with AD/HD and their families utilizes a variety of theoretical perspectives, including interpersonal, psychodynamic, family systems, cognitive-behavioral, and neuropsychological rehabilitation.  The varied roles the therapist needs to assume during the course of treatment - that of educator, coach, cheerleader, advocate, neurorehabilitation counselor - in addition to the more traditional role of psychotherapist are discussed in detail. Clinical cases from the presenters' combined 40+ years of experience in evaluating and treating individuals, couples, and families with neurobiological, psychological, and emotional challenges will be used to illustrate points throughout the presentation.   Active discussion of the application of the conceptual model to clinical practice will be encouraged. Define AD/HD and list the underlying concepts of the varied, seemingly unrelated symptoms from unifying neurobiological framework placed within a developmental context. Develop an understanding of the role intellectual ability, gender, AD/HD type, ED, and co-morbid disorders have upon the presentation of symptoms and hence the treatment of AD/HD. Understand and explain the relationship of AD/HD to disorders of the executive functions and the impact of disorders in executive functions on academic, vocational, social, and emotional functioning. Develop an understanding of the variety of roles a therapist must assume to effectively intervene with individual and families struggling with AD/HD. Create a working model to use in planning interventions for individuals and families struggling with AD/HD across the life span. Participants will be made aware of the frequently subtle and varied ways AD/HD can present in the individual, the couple, the family, school, work, and community contexts and to view it as a potentially chronic and disabling condition that without treatment can lead to a variety of additional psychological disorders, poor self-concept/low self-esteem, lower educational and occupational attainment, impaired personal and family development, and overall lower quality-of-life

Lanham

Understanding the Social and Emotional Challenges of AD/HD and Other Disorders of Executive Functioning

Lavoie

It's So Much Work to be Your Friend

The participants will understand the link between learning disabilites and social competence. The participants will be familiar with terminology and concepts relted to paralinguistics. The participants will be familiar with the dynamics of childhood reputation. The participants will learn five strategies designed to foster and promote social acceptance in the classroom and community.

Lavoie

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Motivating Breakthrough 6 secrets to turning out..

That the participants will understand the three basic truths about classroom motivation. That the participants will re-examine the basic classroom approaches (e.g., competition, punishment, reward systems, etc.) and recognize the relative ineffectiveness of these strategies. That the participant will recognize the six factors that motivate human beings (gregariousness, autonomy, etc.) That the participant will translate these factors into practical, pragmatic classroom strategies.

Every learning theory from Maslow to Gardner has "motivation" as its initial and fundamental step.  However, few teachers have a repertoire of effective motivational strategies and techniques.  In the classroom we tend to use a "one size fits all" approach by attempting to motivate all students with one single reward system, star chart or grading policy.  This seminar presents an innovative and field-tested model that enables teachers to better understand and foster student motivation at all grade levels. The workshop begins with an exploration of some of the common misconceptions related to student motivation and some of the common strategies that are, simply, ineffective (competition, reward systems, punishment). Specific approaches and strategies will then be presented that will enable teachers and parents to motivate students…and maintain that motivation throughout the school year. This workshop, based on the book by the same name, encourages teachers to examine and identify each child's 'motivational' style and to design motivational strategies that will inspire the child to reach his or her potential.

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Levrini

ADHD Coaching: How it Works and Why it is Helpful

Participants will be able to identify different methods of ADHD coaching and strategies used to help gifted kids with ADHD succeed.  Participants will gain a better understanding of ADHD and ADHD coaching as an option for helping their child succeed.  Educators and professionals will learn highlights of research in ADHD and ADHD coaching and the specific outcomes of a 2008 dissertation study conducted by the presenter, Abigail Levrini, Ph.D.

 ADHD is a chronic syndrome that can weaken an individual's ability to succeed in many aspects of daily life, including home, work, interpersonal relationships and school.   The three main characteristics of ADHD; inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity, can be especially detrimental to one's academic success.   ADHD coaching may provide an effective strategy to ameliorate these effects. Coaching involves helping clients deal with aspects of their disability that interfere with academic performance and coping with difficulties such as procrastination, lack of concentration, ineffective self-regulation, poor planning, anxiety, social incompetence, or time management.  Participants in this sessions will leave with a greater understanding of the ADHD coaching process and it's evidence of effectiveness. This session is intended for audiences who have a general understanding of ADHD and are interested in learning more about the utility of coaching as a treatment option. 

Levisohn

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When Smart Kids Struggle: How Strengths and Weaknesses are more than the Sum of Their Parts

Participants will understand how cognitive, learning, and social-emotional factors interact for children with dual-exceptionalities. Participants will understand how psychoeducational or neuropsychological testing can help elucidate the ways in which strengths and weaknesses are interacting for an individual child. Participants will understand ways this information can inform educational approaches and interventions.

Children who are gifted intellectually, but struggle with school, are often referred for evaluation not because their giftedness or particular learning issues need to be identified, but because of the interaction between their strengths and weaknesses. The role of the evaluator, in this case, is not simply to identify whether the child meets criteria for giftedness or learning disability, nor to measure quantitatively how bright or how impaired a child may be in a given area. Rather, it is to help explain, for this particular child, the ways in which these two exceptionalities interact, affecting not only academic but social-emotional development. This presentation will illustrate these dynamics through case-studies.  It will describe ways in which psychoeducational or neuropsychological testing help to elucidate the interactions between gifts and weaknesses, and provide examples of ways this information can help inform educational approaches and interventions.

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Lorentzen

Networking Panel

Mapou

Adults Have Learning Disabilities, Too!           

Summarize the main research findings on adults with learning disabilities. Describe the main components for an assessment of learning disabilities in adults.

Although most learning disabilities research and clinical work is focused on children and adolescents, learning disabilities do not go away when children grow up.   This workshop will introduce participants to what is known from research about learning disabilities in adults.  Implications for assessment of adults will be discussed.  Several case vignettes of successful adults with learning disabilities, some diagnosed in childhood and some only as adults, will be presented.

Marohn

 Visual and Tactile strategies for developing reasoning and writing skills

  Participants will learn about and take part in two concrete learning strategies.

For gifted students who have language-based learning disabilities, accessing information through text can often be tedious, unfulfilling, and counter-productive. Yet text can be bypassed through visual and tactile methods.  This demonstration will introduce the Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) method of looking at images to build the skill of providing evidence for reasoning, adapted from a method pioneered by Abigail Housen and Philip Yenawine.  The other half of the demonstration will feature nature boxes that students handle and explore to access information better by experiencing it tactilely.  With these sensory discoveries students have a strong springboard from which to translate their ideas to writing.

Mele-McCarthy

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Let's Talk: Exploring the Connections between Oral

This presentation, geared toward parents and teachers, will explore the connection between language development and reading, what this looks like for the twice exceptional learner, and how it affects the development of reading. Specifically, participants will learn: some basic oral language terminology; some basic concepts about oral language for communication and reading development purposes; how oral language milestones at varying grade levels correspond to reading instruction; some quick and easy oral language boosters for reading instruction and home enrichment.  Participants will gain an understanding of how oral language development progresses through the years of schooling, and how the interaction of oral language and reading can shape academic success. This session will be interactive; participants are encouraged to ask questions and will have an opportunity to practice what they have learned, using some of the concepts presented. This session would be an interactive session in which participants are encouraged to participate with questions and engage in activities. 

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Maynard

A Teacher's Guide to Implementing a Blended Educational Environment for GT/LD Adolescents

Participants will hear about and discuss a few pedagogical shifts that may be made, as well as several practical, easy-to-implement ideas which will help them move their students toward a more self-directed, self-responsible learning career.

Most educators are all too aware of the chatter around twenty-first century education, and the more speculative conversation on what education will look like at the end of the next decade. Unfortunately, a lot of the talk is very abstract, and while a few programs have undertaken to implement some of these ideas, the average teacher remains largely unaffected by this nascent revolution.  Dave Mullen and Norman Maynard, both teachers and administrators in small school programs, have been working with GT/LD adolescents for a combined 33 years, and will offer their take on how to create a so-called blended environment between school and home, relationship and computer, teacher and mentor right now, today.

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Mooney

21st Century Learning

Mooney

Neurodiversity: Learning Between the Lines

Welcome to a new world, where the good kid doesn't sit still. A world where some of the smartest kids in the class don't read well or don't read at all. A world where the popular kids don't make eye contact, don't shake hands, and definitely don't back slap. In this world, these kids enjoy academic success and personal fulfillment at places like the MIT Media Lab and MET High School in Providence, Rhode Island, one of the top charter schools in the country. Then, they go on to run companies in Silicon Valley, New York and Tokyo. Unlike ever before, this century proves their cognitive differences are more than 'quirks' , they are the groundwork for innovative ideas and skills to solve problems most of us wouldn't anticipate. Think Google. Jet Blue. Apple. By embracing the beautiful, bizarre realities of neuro-diversity , the idea that we are all special snowflakes , as essential components of a healthy vibrant culture, we can propel students not only to better participate in, but seize the changing world where the digital brain rivals the text-oriented and a design oriented economy replaces a manufacturing base. Renowned writer, neuro-diversity activist and author Jonathan Mooney vividly, humorously and passionately brings to life this wonderful world of neuro-diversity: the research behind it, the people who live in it, and the lessons it has for all of us who care about the future of education. Explaining the latest theories, Jonathan helps teachers and parents redefine what it is for students in the 21st century to think and to learn and to be successful.  He provides concrete examples of how to prepare students and implement frameworks that best support their academic and professional pursuits. In this lecture, Jonathan takes the audience to life in high schools organized around the principles of video gaming and visual culture. He transports the audience to snow-bound strip malls in Sweden where a software design company has decided to only hire people with Asperger's syndrome—not as charity, but because this company believes programmers with Asperger's make superior employees. As with Jonathan's other lectures, the audience will leave this talk fundamentally changed and empowered. 'Re-drawing the lines' blends research and human interest stories with concrete tips that parents, students, teachers, and administrators can follow to transform learning environments and create a world that truly celebrates cognitive diversity.

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Mooney

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We're Not Broken: Empowering Labeled Students

Research shows that self-esteem is essential to the success of labeled students and individuals with disabilities. Our culture, schools, and the medical model, however, conceptualized people with disabilities as inherently broken and medically defective, fundamentally disempowering students with disabilities. Our schools and medical community spend so much time talking about what is wrong with people with disability, that we lose sight of what is right. To break this pattern and limited paradigm for disability, parents need support in reframing disability, not as a medical issue, but as a social construct.  Parents need an asset-based empowerment model. In this presentation, Jonathan gives parents that model. Based in part on his own personal journey with disability, and his professional work as founder and executive director of Project Eye-To-Eye, this presentation outlines a concrete four step asset-based empowerment model that all parents can implement to radically change their child's educational experience. This presentation focuses on concrete steps parents can take to build resiliency, meta-cognition, leadership skills, and self-advocacy in labeled students. It also explores how an asset-based approach can be implemented in IEP settings, school to work transitions, and in building partnerships with schools and other institutions. 'We're Not Broken' is a powerful presentation that supports parents in celebrating the strengths, gifts and talents of their exceptional child.

Morrison

Somewhere Between Walking on Eggshells and Riding a Perpetual Roller Coaster: Understanding and Managing the Emotional Intensity of Smart Children and Teens who Learn Differently

Participants will learn that the emotional intensity of some gifted children and teens with learning differences, ADHD, and/or anxiety is neurobiologically-based and specifically related to executive dysfunction. Participants will understand why a problem-solving approach that enhances skill development is often more effective than a traditional behavioral approach that emphasizes reward and punishment. Participants will be acquainted with some specific strategies, adapted from empirically-supported cognitive-behavioral therapy, which can guide their interventions.

Parents and educators of smart kids and teens with learning differences, ADHD, and/or anxiety can find themselves caught off guard, worn out, or demoralized by the emotional and behavioral challenges they are faced with.  In the absence of a larger perspective, including a neurobiological basis for such difficulties, these adults may be prone to defensiveness, anger, and self-doubt, which may contribute to over-functioning, power struggles, punitive approaches, or other ineffective but understandable attempts to gain control.  Understanding the emotional intensity and related behaviors of the twice exceptional fosters empathy, paving the way for more effective interventions.  When the adult's focus shifts to one of supporting and guiding, the child or teen is able to draw on available strengths and strategies to increase coping. This provides a sense of ownership, crucial for empowerment and development of a healthy sense of self, on which to build the self-regulation skills needed to move into adulthood.    

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Nelson

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Adding Luster: Helping High Ability Students Who Learn Differently Succeed in Advanced Classes in High School

Participants will develop a better understanding of the special needs of twice exceptional students  Participants will develop an awareness of strategies and accommodations that allow students to succeed in challenging classes from students' perspective as well as from educators.

'Twice exceptional' (2e) students in Arlington are succeeding in challenging classes with assistance from a collaborative team consisting of a resource teacher, school counselor, teachers, and school psychologist.  Even students with mediocre grades have experienced considerable success when challenged. These students have passed twelve of sixteen AP tests taken and, more importantly, have put forth a great deal of effort.  Graduates report these advanced classes have helped them a great deal with their college work.  Research-based best practices, accommodations, and resources (including books, articles, websites recommended by parents and educators) will be presented that enable educators to provide the best possible program of studies for these students who thrive from the intellectual challenge but need help and encouragement with the challenging curriculum.  Career, social, and personal issues will be addressed that have fostered the success of 2e students in our school accelerated classes.

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Nickerson-Reti

High School: Inside and Outside the Box

In this workshop, you will learn about a variety of technologies which can help to level the playing field and allow students to participate and fully express their giftedness. You will also learn about flexible curriculum alternatives to the approaches used in most public schools, and will learn about innovative outreach programs designed to work with gifted, and 'twice-exceptional' students.

Finding the right educational environment is challenging for most highly gifted teens.  Some doors open and options increase after middle school, but often not enough.  Technology makes it possible to craft a successful experience for all gifted teens, even those who are twice-exceptional, and when combined with a creative, flexible approach can work just as well for teachers and parents.  This workshop will look at some of the 'outside the box' solutions that can help students have a wonderful and satisfying educational experience 'inside the box' of public education. Participants will leave with specific concrete program information and contact information for follow through.

Olenchak

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Creating a Life: Orchestrating a Symphony of Self, A Work Always in Progress

Participants will leave the session with:
1. an understanding of the need for cognitive-affective balance in education, particularly among bright students with different learning needs;
2. an awareness of conclusions of research about the social and emotional needs of smart youth who learn differently;
3. a general knowledge of research-based interventions that have shown to be effective for the bright student population who learn differently;
4. an insight about research that continues to take place regarding the target population of capable students who learn differently.  

The session is a research-based experience led by the only research center in the world specializing in students from urban settings. As such, the entire session is rooted in research to which participants will be exposed. Some of the extant works on which the session is based include those of Doubek & Cooper (2007), Olenchak (2008, 2009, 2010), and Tavani (2003). In addition, participants will learn about current research taking place at the Purpose School in Vancouver, BC, a school serving bright high school students who are at serious risk of life failure due to inappropriate accommodations during their earlier school years. Why is it that school curricula and instruction so often seems pendulum-like? They swing from one extreme to the other, and balance in the middle seems elusive. Such is the case with attention to cognitive versus affective development, especially for capable learners who have different learning needs. Despite the fact that numerous empirical studies corroborate the need for balanced, equivalent educational attention to both thinking and feeling, few schools address students' development holistically. When it comes to talent development, the risk for pervasive underachievement exponentiates, and when the diversity of today's classrooms is added to the equation, the potential for serious under-development of learners escalates even further. This session explores the problem of narrow education- either too much cognitive/too little affective or vice-versa, its impact on giftedness and talent development among students who learn differently, and proposes some field-tested techniques for gaining balance so that the abilities of bright students who learn differently are maximized in schools. 

Olko

The Achilles Project: Strength-Based Instruction with Academic and Psychosocial support. A Postsecondary Program for the Twice-Exceptional Student

The objectives include: 1) What are the best practices for identifying smart kids who learn differently? 2) What are the best practices related to the education of smart kids who learn differently? 3) What are resources and support services that have proven successful in meeting the needs of smart kids who learn differently?

This presentation describes the Achilles Project, an innovative, postsecondary program for 2e students at Nassau Community College in New York. It uses strength-based instruction with academic and psychosocial support services. It is a model program who success has been measured both in significant student progress and in recognition at the local through national levels.  This presentation describes our 2e identification process and student profile, educational philosophy and programming, support services, and outcomes.  Interventions include: differentiated instruction, faculty training and teaming, career counseling, and individual and group supports such as academic/personal advisement, supplemental instruction, stress management, and social skills/peer mentoring. Outcomes include improvement in 20 academic, attitudinal, and behavioral factors, including academic performance, classroom behaviors, attitude toward college, and self-esteem.

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Patel

S.A.V.E. Your Gifted Child from Stress and Anxiety

Participants will understand indicators of stress and anxiety as they relate to 2E kids.  Participants will be introduced to a series of techniques that they can use in assisting these children manage their stress and anxiety.  Participants will have the opportunity to see a demonstration of the EmWave, a software program developed by the Institute of HeartMath to assist in teaching stress management techniques. Given enough time, some participants may be able to try the program.

Gifted children with learning challenges are frequently anxious and stressed. These students can be easily frustrated when they are not able to translate their comprehension of the subject matter to a concrete format requested by their teachers. Socially, some of these children struggle to fit in to their peer group. S.A.V.E. will introduce various techniques to work with a child's stress and anxiety as it relates to academic as well as social situations. A research based software program developed by the Institute of HeartMath will be demonstrated as an additional tool for assisting children with managing their stress and anxiety. This session is intended for parents, educators and anyone working with children who suffer from anxiety or stress.

Patterson

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Practicing Mindfulness , A Workshop for Parents and Caregivers of Special Needs Children

Participants in this workshop will learn to differentiate between 'normal' stress responses and symptoms of depression and anxiety disorder. Participants will learn about alternative methods to cope with stress, like meditation, guided imagery and positive affirmations. We will practice some of these methods , the participants will go through a guided imagery session and will write their own positive affirmations. Participants will learn to increase their effectiveness with parenting and giving care to their high need child/student by staying mindful and applying their insights in their work with their child/student.

Parenting and taking care of children is challenging enough , add to that the complexity of special needs, like learning disabilities, emotional and sensory dysregulations or medical concerns. How do we find a balance between giving attention and care to the children that depend on our vigilant care, negotiating and collaborating continuously with other caregivers and professionals and dealing with 'regular' activities and responsibilities like work, household chores and social activities? All parents and caregivers experience moments of stress and anxiety due to circumstances or even just everyday occurrences, but what can we do when the pressures feel daunting and the tasks overwhelming? This workshop explores a variety of self-help measures that parents and caregivers can apply in everyday life and what to do when these measures are not enough and professional help is needed.

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Patterson

Twice Exceptional and Anxious! A Presentation for Caretakers and Professionals on Anxiety in GTLD Adolescents

In this workshop participants will learn about the co-morbidity of learning disabilities and an anxiety disorder, symptoms of anxiety disorder and how to recognize and differentiate symptoms of an anxiety disorder vs. 'feeling nervous and worried'. Often an anxiety disorder is masked by acting out behavior, social or emotional withdrawal, or medical/physical complaints. Participants will learn how to detect masked symptoms of an anxiety disorder.In this workshop participants will learn how to approach their teen and address concerns about their emotional well-being. We will learn strategies to keep communication open and 'trouble-shoot'. Participants will learn strategies on how to deal with the students' behaviors as well as how to monitor their own feelings of anxiety and worries. We will explore self-help strategies to maintain our own mental well-being.

The social and emotional consequences of having exceptional abilities and learning disabilities can be pervasive and quite debilitating. The likelihood of students experiencing symptoms of anxiety is increasing as they navigate through adolescence. As the pressures of academic expectations and social interactions intensify, our GTLD students are at an increased risk for emotional and behavioral disorders. School and social life can present big hurdles for our GTLD students, and as parents, caregivers and teachers, we are constantly on the watch-out for adverse reactions our students might have due to frustrations in school or with friends and family at home. As students grow into adolescents the pressure in middle and high school can be daunting: increasing academic work load, harder subjects, peer pressure, exposure to risky behavior, etc. Adolescence is a turbulent time, filled with high emotions, drama, unpredictable outbursts to seemingly benign events, sullen withdrawal from the family, etc. 

Pereles

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Response to Intervention and Twice-Exceptional Learners:  A Promising Fit

Participants will understand the core principles of a Response to Intervention model and its use for gifted students, particularly twice-exceptional students. Participants will participate in the problem-solving process utilizing a case study of a twice-exceptional student.

Many books and articles have been written about a Response to Intervention (RtI) model of service delivery for students who are struggling learners. Little has been written about this model's usefulness as a means of addressing the needs of advanced learners or twice-exceptional learners whose needs may be both remedial and advanced. This workshop will address why the RtI model with a problem solving/consultation process is a promising fit for the twice-exceptional student.  The presenters will describe the theoretical and practical implications for these special students and then take the participants through each element of the problem-solving/consultation process by discussing  a case study of a gifted student who has both learning and behavioral challenges.

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Phelps

A Mother for all Seasons: What Schools Should know

Participants will hear from an educator's perspective on overcoming adversity and educating children who have been diagnosed with ADHD.  Participants will take away tools so that they may better help children manage their ADHD, as well as help them succeed. 

An educator in home economics, motivational spokeswoman, visionary middle-school principal, mother of three, and grandmother of two, Debbie Phelps is also the eternal cheerleader who was raised in a small town in Western Maryland. Debbie's story is inspiring and touching-a single mom and an educator who raised three exceptional children, including World Champion Michael Phelps. Debbie's inspiring personal story-A MOTHER FOR ALL SEASONS-is rich with struggle, humor, hope, advice, and passion. Debbie will share with us advise on what every school and parent should know. Debbie will also speak about how teachers "touch the lives and the hearts" of our students, the citizens of tomorrow. Teachers need to meet the needs of every child in the classroom. Debbie feels we need to provide useful strategies and accommodations for not only the classroom teacher to implement but also for the entire school family, in order to foster educational success for students with diverse learning needs. She is an avid believer that achievement is limitless for each and every child, no matter the odds. Infused with the indomitable spirit of "America's mom," as she has been called, she rallies us to cheer for all of our children at every stage of their growth and in every endeavor." 

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Phelps

A Mother for all Seasons: What Parents Should know

Participants will hear from a parent's perspective on overcoming adversity and working with children who have been diagnosed with ADHD.  Participants will take away tools so that they may better help their children manage their ADHD, as well as help them succeed.

Price

Strategies for Teens with Asperger's Syndrome or Nonverbal Learning Disorder

Participants will be able to identify characteristics of Asperger's Syndrome and Nonverbal Learning Disorder in teens, as described by teens.   Participants will understand both the strengths associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders and the challenges, and will learn practical, easy to use strategies to meet these challenges.

 Book talk based on "Taking Control of Asperger's Syndrome: The Official Strategy Guide for Teens with Asperger's or Nonverbal Learning Disorder" by Janet Price and Jennifer Engel Fisher, M.Ed. Participants will learn:

• What are AS and NLD?
• How does having AS or NLD affect me?
• What is self-advocacy, and how can I practice it?
• What is assistive technology, and how can it help?
• How can I be successful with homework?
• How can I be successful in the classroom?
• What is the importance of good hygiene?
• How can I make and keep friends?
• How can I connect with other kids with AS and NLD?
• How can I continue to use these strategies to help me with future challenges?

Book will be available for purchase.

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Elder Robison

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Aspergers

John will tell about the gifts and the challenges of having Asperger's. He will describe his early life as he grew up in the family made famous in his brother, Augusten Burrough's, book and movie, Running with Scissors. John will discuss his time in the music industry, working on the sound for Pink Floyd and making Kiss' famous exploding guitars. John will discuss how his discovery of his own Asperger's Syndrome changed his life, and how he taught himself to use his strong logic to compensate for his weaknesses in reading the non-verbal communication of others. John's talk will include specific advice for students with Asperger's Syndrome and the adults who are trying to help them.

Rowe

Developmental Neuropsychological Profiles and Differential Diagnosis in Gifted Students with Specific Learning Disabilities

Participants will be able to identify characteristics that twice exceptional children share with mainstream gifted students, as well as characteristics that distinguish the two groups. Participants will be able to identify the three major moderating factors that affect the ability of twice exceptional students to perform at a level commensurate with their talent. Participants will be able to identify information processing challenges that moderate the performance of twice exceptional students. Participants will be able to identify factors which affect the performance of twice exceptional students on standardized tests, including the intelligence tests used to identify giftedness. Participants will be able to identify the components of a best practices approach to the identification of giftedness in students with specific learning disabilities. Participants will be able to identify patterns in the developmental course of gifted students with learning disabilities and the challenges these patterns place in the assessment of gifted students with specific learning disabilities.

Gifted students with learning challenges pose a particular problem for diagnosticians due to the multiple layers of factors that have an impact on their academic performance, including neuropsychological processing issues and social/emotional challenges. They experience a broad range of challenges in both cognitive and non-cognitive domains that affect their ability to maintain consistent performance over time. This workshop will present a model to explain the impact of neuropsychological and social/emotional factors on the performance of twice exceptional students. Some of these same cognitive processes also have an impact on student performance on standardized tests used to identify gifted students and lead to the under-representation of learning disabled students in gifted programs. Adapting mainstream models of giftedness, Dr. Rowe will provide insights into the best strategies for identification based on her role in the development of the GTLD program at the Kingsbury Day School, a private school for students with language based learning disabilities in Washington D.C. Dr. Rowe will discuss specific case examples from neuropsychological assessments of gifted students with learning disabilities. Longitudinal case studies will be used to illustrate important diagnostic considerations and challenges of differential diagnosis. Implications for intervention will be discussed. Participants will have the opportunity to participate in a case conference about particularly challenging profiles that could lend themselves to more than one diagnostic interpretation. A brief overview of standardized testing and neuropsychological functioning will be provided but some familiarity with these issues will be assumed.

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Rozsics

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Small Ensemble Theory-based Music for Learning Disabled High School Students: Can Music Class Change the Learning Disabled Brain and Enhance Learning?   

As the music teacher at the Lab School of Washington for the past 22 years I have a great deal of experience working with learning disabled students.  Inspired by Sally Smith, many aspects of our philosophy and approach are different, if not unique, and I am anxious to share and discuss these ideas in the hope that other educators will be similarly inspired about the exciting possibilities small ensemble music classes offer for learning disabled students.  Participants should emerge from this presentation with a greater understanding of the difficulties encountered by learning disabled student musicians and be better able to implement successful strategies for facilitating their development.

Small ensemble music classes can offer learning disabled high school students a unique, exciting and rewarding learning experience.  A curriculum that is theory based and student driven allows participants to analyze and explore musical ideas while maintaining a high level of interest and enthusiasm.  As student musicians develop and grow together they develop a sense of camaraderie, teamwork and belonging that can be particularly important to LD students. As these students set and achieve their shared goals their success can translate into improvement in other academic areas.  Emerging studies continue to demonstrate and detail the alterations of the human brain induced by intense musical study.  Since adolescence is a period of vast neurological development, musical involvement during this period may be particularly beneficial, especially for LD students.

Samango-Sprouse

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 Hormones, Motor Planning and Frontal Lobe Development--- Profound Effects on Learning

To understand the natural history of hormones and the effect on learning. To recognize the characteristics of Motor Planning Deficits.  To understand the relationship between hormones and frontal lobe development.  To understand the common disorders that have Learning Disabilities, hormone dysfunction and motor planning deficits.

This presentation will discuss the intriguing relationship between learning, hormone and praxis. It will discuss the common neurogenetic disorders with hormonal disruption and the interrealtionship to learning. Praxis will be discussed and how it relates to learning in common disorders such as Autism, X and Y chromosomal variations and Developmental Dyspraxia. It will focus on the nuances of learning that are often overlooked that are associated with hormones and planning. The Frontal lobe development will be discussed.

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Sahm

Empowering Students in the IEP & 504 Processes: Facilitating Dialogue and Best Outcome for Students and Teachers

Based on recent research, Candace will discuss the specific challenges students with ADHD and their families face when navigating the IEP/504 process. She will explore the concrete support these students need from teachers and family to be confidant self-advocates, understand their accommodations, and take control of their own academic success.  Attendees will leave this workshop with the Student Empowerment Form, a 1-page tool for students and teachers, created by Candace to ensure students receive full-benefit from their accommodations.

Savage

What You Need to Know to Polish Your Diamond or Effective Parenting Based on an Understanding of the Brain

Participants will understand basic psychological principals underlying human behavior. Participants will be presented with an understanding of how individual brain development should effect how one parents a child. Parents will leave with a set of principals and tools useful to understanding and then implementing effective parenting over the life of their child.

This workshop/presentation is intended to present a set of basic principals, based in the research of psychology/neuropsychology, that parents can draw upon in order to more effectively parent and support their children.   Long standing believes about what makes a parent will be be re-examined in light of our growing understanding of the brain and its influence on human behavior.  The goal of this approach is help parents develop a set of interventions that allow them to maintain and strengthen their relationship with their child while preparing them to become a responsible adult member of society.   This workshop will cover issues from early childhood through early adulthood that is applicable to  all kids but can be particularly helpful to parents struggling to support smart children who learn and behave differently.

Schuler

Perfectionism: Blessing or Burden for Twice Exceptional Kids?

Participants will be able to define perfectionism Participants will be able to identify the different types of perfectionism.  Participants will be able to identify the consequences of healthy and unhealthy perfectionism.  Participants will be able to identify strategies to nurture healthy perfectionism and reverse unhealthy perfectionism.

Perfectionism is considered a characteristic of giftedness.  Research on gifted adolescents and perfectionism indicates there are healthy/adaptive and unhealthy/ maladaptive forms of perfectionism. When it is unhealthy for twice exceptional kids, perfectionism can be costly in terms of their self-image, self-esteem, and achievement. Anxiety, stress, and depression can result. Strategies will be presented that address twice exceptional kids' perfectionism so that it can become less of a burden and more of a blessing.

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Schuler

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Giftedness and Asperger's Disorder: Sorting out the Differences

Participants will be able to identify the differences between giftedness and Asperger's Disorder in a pre-referral format.  Participants will be able to identify how to identify giftedness and/or Asperger's Disorder before a formal evaluation is recommended.

All too often a gifted child who is misunderstood or who has social difficulties may be mislabeled or misdiagnosed as having Asperger's Disorder.  An innovative checklist for educators and parents hasCE been developed to help them determine if a gifted child with unusual characteristics needs pre-referral interventions before a more thorough psychological evaluation for Asperger's Disorder is necessary.  Issues such as memory and attention, speech and language, social and emotional, behavioral, and motor skills are examined as a first step in helping atypical gifted children receive appropriate services.

Shapiro

Raising Your Challenging Child

Parents will learn how to descirbe their child's neurodevelopmental profile and how problem behaviors and problem situations naturally result from their child's profile.  They will learn how to  individualized positive behavrioal strategies for dealing with challenging behaviors.

Some children are more challenging than others. When home life is difficult, parents might blame the child. More often, they blame themselves. But a challenging child is nobody's fault. This session is designed to help parents understand where challenging behavior comes from and what to do about it.  

We will review Ross Greene's 'Phases to Explosion', Brenda Smith Myles' 'Rage Cycle' and Russell Barkley's 'Power Struggles'. Instead of repeating requests and getting sucked into power struggles, parents have better alternatives for reacting to non-compliance. Moreover, proactive strategies complement and usually lessen the need for reactive strategies. Proactive strategies are designed to set-up the child for success and lower the chance that he or she will say no or misbehave in the first place.

Shapiro

Teaching Your Challenging Child Collaborative Problem Solving

Instead of power struggles, parents will learn how to respond empathically and effectively engage their child in collaborative problem solving.

This session will be an in-depth disucssion of Ross Greene's "Plan B". See his book, The Explosive Child. An empathetic response avoids power struggles, helps your child feel understood, teaches your child the language of emotion and opens the door to truly collaborative problem solving. Parents can  teach their children "STEPS" to problem solving: Say what's the problem, Think about possible solutions, Examine each possible solution, Pick the best one, See how it works. With coaching, children can  internalize these STEPS and learn to solve problems independently.

Shapiro

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Medicines for Children's Brains; Uses and Abuses

Parents will learn about possible uses of psychiatric medications for children. First, how to decide whether to treat and what to treat. Second, how to choose a medicine. Third, how to do a carefully controlled trial. Fourth, how to deal with possible side effects. Last, how to make decisions about long-term treatment.

There is plenty of cause for concern about modern use of psychiatric medications. We have seen increased use of drugs for behavioral and emotional problems, treatment at younger ages and broader use for more conditions; all this despite gaps in our knowledge of effectiveness, pediatric dosing and possible long-term effects on the developing brain. Also, medication management can lead to overly simplistic thinking and take the place of comprehensive psychosocial, behavioral and educational interventions.

Even so, brain-based disorders are real. Medications can relieve impairment, soften distress, and make children more available for learning.  Our scientific evidence base is growing. Sometimes medication management is an essential part of a comprehensive treatment plan with early intervention leading to better long-term outcomes. Moving beyond speculation, carefully and safely, we can perform controlled trials for individual children and see if the benefits out-weigh the risks

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Sickel 

Fitness for Health 

Participants will:

1. Understand the importance of movement and the connection to the brain and learning.

2. Identify "Out of the Box" approaches to motivate your child, student or patient to enjoy movement.

3. Identify successful programs that incorporate movement and learning (i.e. Braingym, Action Based Learning and Wittfitt) with positive results & FFH Programs (B Social, Tutoring through Movement, Motor Clinics, Reading Program in Development).

4. Understand structured and unstructured activities (i.e. recess, p.e. and recreational activities) and how they impact a child’s self esteem and motivation.

Our workshop will be an informal interactive environment for parents, educators and clinicians to rotate through a sample of our movement program. We will bring technology (i.e. Trazer, Batak and more) and other equipment unique to our facility as well as equipment that is in every school gym or basement at home. We will demonstrate how to THINK... "Out of the Box" and therefore MOVE..."Out of the Box" and be creative to promote movement by creating scavenger hunts in your home, learning obstacle courses in the classrooms and even converting a "clinical setting" into a more engaging, nurturing and comfortable environment for children to share their feelings. The emphasis will be on developing skills in gross motor development and the connection with learning. "Smart kids who learn differently" may benefit from movement activities being integrated with their learning in an "Out of the Box approach." Some of our

strategies can help reinforce learning numbers, spelling, social cognitive thinking skills, Judaics, and in development a "reading readiness" program. All of these modalities combined with motor activities create fun, engaging and motivating environments to learn. FFH was initiated as a program for gross motor delays but has evolved into a platform for learning for children who are smart and require a different learning style than the traditional classroom. Our interactive workshop MOVE... "Out of the Box" will be progressive and will stimulate parents and professionals to become more creative and motivated to achieve family, academic and clinical goals for ALL children.

Silver

Learning Disabilities are Life Disabilities.  What Parents Need to Know About Their Child

   Dr. Silver will discuss the impact Learning Disabilities have on the individual's personal, social, and family life. Treatment must go beyond finding the right educational programs.

Silver

Learning Disabilities are Life Disabilities.  What the Mental Health Professional Needs to Know

   Dr. Silver will discuss the impact Learning Disabilities have on the child's personal, social, and family life.  He will then explain the critical role parents play in addressing these non-academic problems

Silverman

School Success for Kids with ADHD

Participants will be able to clarify the diagnosis of ADHD. Participants will be able to dispel myths in the literature and the internet on ADHD and its treatment. Participants will be able to introduce a practical 12 point plan for intervention. Participants will be able to identify current knowledge on the role of medication. Participants will be able to identify practical ideas about coaching persons with ADHD Participants will be able to identify research on Complimentary and Alternative Treatments. Participants will be able to present a range of accommodations and instructional strategies. Participants will be able to identify tools that can be used 'off the shelf'. Participants will be able to identify the role of technology in treating ADHD. Participants will identify strategies for planning for college and beyond.

 Ever since the monumental MTA study conducted by NIMH starting in 1999 there has been a stream of research, speculation, theory, and even controversy regarding the role of medical, social, educational, and behavioral interventions in the management of symptoms of ADHD in children. One concept has clearly emerged.  A multi-modal, team-based approach of all stakeholders is vital. This presentation provides an integrated, comprehensive and practical plan to support academic improvement as well as quality of life for children teens, and adults with ADHD.

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Silverman

School Success for Kids with Aspergers

Participants will learn about the history of the identification and diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome. They will be aware of the progress of research in assessment and diagnosis. They will be familiar with the controversies leading to clarification of AS in the upcoming DSM-V; and they will learn the core, pivotal symptoms that have implications for improved educational/instructional outcomes.

Students with Asperger's Syndrome (AS) are now present in virtually every school and in almost every classroom. These students possess the potential to be very successful but in order to achieve that success, must overcome obstacles to their learning. Participants will review the characteristics of AS and develop an understanding of how AS manifests in the classroom.  Participants will leave with the knowledge of how to address the "Big 10" issues that impact students with AS in the classroom.

Skeath

Teaching Students How to Remember

Participants will be able to identify the function of short, long, and working memory.  Participants will be able to identify strategies to enhance memory.  Participants will be able to identify how these strategies are based on how the brain learns.

Memory matters because students are required to do more intentional memorization than in almost any career, yet few are trained explicitly how to remember.  Participants in this workshop will take a memory inventory and try out various strategies for enhancing memory.  The functions, common problems, and brain-based strategies to improve short-term, long-term, and active working memory will be discussed. An acronym for memory instruction will be discussed, and ready-to-use instructional materials will be given out.  Twenty mnemonics will be presented, including practice with keyword and pegword methods. 

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Sornik

The Forest or the Trees: Visual Spatial vs Auditory Sequential Learner

Understanding the learning style and characteristics of visual spatial learners in contrast with sequential learners, implications for v/s learners with regard to success in a typical school environment, and accommodations that can help.

Reaching and teaching both auditory and visual learners in the same classroom is easier than you might think. This presentation will describe the different learning styles, characteristics, skill development, strengths and deficits of these two types of learners, and, in particular, why visual learners are typically "late bloomers." This workshop will discuss how to engage and bring out the best in all kinds of learners, making learning fun and productive for everyone. Classroom  strategies, examples and insights will be shared as well as student profiles and potential career choices for visual learners.

Spector

Children and Video Games: Helping Parents Set Healthy Limits on the Virtual World

Participants will have a better understanding of the benefits and risks of video game use.   Participants will learn tools and resources for setting healthy limits on video game use. 

This presentation would be intended for parents who are concerned about  their child's use of video games (such as games played on the X-Box 360, the Wii, the Nintendo DS, as well as games played on computers both on or off the internet).  45 minute to 1 hour presentation discussing the following: - What are the normal patterns of use? - Good things that video games can teach your child. - The potential negative effects of video games on children.  - What are the risks and warning signs of potential problems? - What parents can and should do to help children form a healthy attitude and relationship with media.

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Stefano

Three Times Exceptional: The Smart and Anxious Students Who Learn Differently

Participants will be able to identify unique characteristics of bright and anxious students with learning differences.  Participants will be able to identify assessment strategies to provide differential diagnosis.  Participants will be able to identify academic accommodations and teaching strategies for three times exceptional students. Participants will be able to identify treatment strategies for thrice times exceptional children.

Bright students with learning differences often have co-morbid anxiety or other issues which interfere with their ability to utilize their high cognitive capacities in the academic and social arenas.  It is therefore important to know how to identify these students and to provide appropriate academic and therapeutic interventions and accommodations for them to reach their potential. Participants will gain understanding of how the smart and anxious student presents, recognize markers and characteristic symptoms, identify strategies to make a differential diagnosis, and develop academic and treatment strategies to address these issues.

Stefano

Teaching and Parenting Bright Students Who Learn Differently

Participants will be able to identify academic accommodations and teaching strategies for twice exceptional students.  Participants will be able to identify homework and parenting strategies for twice exceptional students.  Participants will be able to define alternate means for obtaining accommodations in school.  Participants will be able to identify strategies for establishing and maintaining effective communication between home and school.

Twice exceptional students present unique challenges to parents and teachers.  It is essential that their cognitive capacities be stimulated with sufficient rigor at the same time as their learning differences are addressed. Participants will gain an appreciation of the challenges facing these students and develop teaching and parenting strategies to help students overcome their challenges.  Effective communication with schools and obtaining formal/informal accommodations will also be discussed.

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Stixrud

After attending this workshop, attendees will be able to

1. Define the different stages of memory and discuss the kinds of memory that most impact student learning.
2. Describe two brain systems that play important roles in learning and memory.
3. Describe instructional techniques that are helpful to students with poor automatic memory, working memory deficits, weak memory for spoken language, and difficulty intentionally committing content information to memory.
4. Discuss cognitive strategies and training programs for improving working memory and long-term retention of material.

Stixrud

Stressed out of Their Minds

Participants will be able to discuss both the beneficial and harmful effects of the stress response and discuss at least three tools for preventing and alleviating stress. 

High stress levels harm the brain and body - and appear to be particularly hard on the developing brain.  This presentation begins with an introduction to the human stress response (also called the fight, flight, or freeze response), which is programmed to protect us - and our students - from danger.  The brain systems that are most affected by stress (the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex) will be introduced, followed by a brief discussion of the ways in which very early stress (including prenatal stress) affects the developing brain.  Attention will then turn to research that has revealed the negative effects of stress on all aspects of learning, including attention, memory, and executive functions.  The focus moves next to the profound effect that stress has on the mental health of children (and their parents and teachers), and to the long-term impact of prolonged stress on the integrity of the brain.  The presentation concludes with a discussion of the programs and tools that are currently being implemented in schools for (a) creating learning environments that are not unduly stressful for students and teachers and (b) helping students become experts at managing their own stress response.

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Stixrud

The Neuropsychology of Learning Disabilities

Participants will be able to summarize at least two ways in which the brains of students with learning disabilities work differently from the brains of students who learn more easily. They will also be able to discuss two important treatment implications of our knowledge about the brain bases of LD.

This presentation will offer a brief summary of the most current thinking about how the brain "does" learning disabilities. The neurological underpinnings of reading disorders and disorders of written language will be considered, and there will be a short overview of the most recent findings about mathematics disorders. A strong emphasis will be placed on the practical implications of understanding brain functions for people who raise and/or teach students with learning disabilities. Participants do not need to have detailed knowledge of the brain.

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Terry-Leonard

Social Skills Groups for Kids with Aspergers

First, participants will learn the clinical features, social and developmental challenges of Asperger's students. Second, participants will learn the principles of peer mediation and their modifications for use with Asperger's students. Third, participants will identify social skills techniques and behavioral strategies for use with Asperger's students

Vongchan

Classroom Kinesthetics , A Multi-Media, Project-Based Approach for Teaching Science in High School

Participants in this hands-on demonstration will hear about a pedagogical construct that looks at students' learning styles in a positive way: positive differentiation is no differentiation! Participants will learn about alternative instructional techniques in the high school science lab and explore ways to motivate students to engage in the learning process Participants will take part in a hands-on project demonstration of Taste Mapping and Flavor Tripping

Traditionally teachers are trained to accommodate dissimilar student abilities by applying differential instruction. This approach, though superficially effective, has very little positive long term implications. It accommodates, yet segregates students into different ability groups, which in essence enables disability. Rather than perpetuating differences among youth, we need to focus on commonalities , like kinesthetics! Touching, feeling and seeing are universal and everybody can relate to that. Physical engagement is the key and how and why students become engaged is critical to know.  Teachers must tap into the desires and interests of students with lesson plans that are eye-opening and thought-provoking to the students. Instruction should be catered to students' interests and meet them on their level of experience. Teachers need to find ways to trick their students into learning!

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West

In the Mind's Eye: Engines of Discovery

To develop a greater appreciation and understanding of the way the talents associated with dyslexia are often linked to major scientific discoveries or innovation in technology or entrepreneurial business. To examine the life and work of several important scientists and the way their thinking styles have contributed to unexpected new insights. To promote a better understanding of the great difference between memorization of scientific facts and the creative approaches that foster genuine discovery.

This presentation will focus on the recently published second edition of In the Mind's Eye (with new Foreword by Oliver Sacks, MD) along with on-going research for a new book, with the working title Engines of Discovery -- Dyslexic Visual Thinkers and Managing the New Creativity in Technology, Design and Science. West's third book (now in process) will extend his two earlier books and will deal with visual thinking, high creativity and dyslexia in several scientists and scientific families as well as other occupational groups--focusing, in part, on one such family that includes, over five generations, many dyslexics and winners of four Nobel Prizes. The third book will feature profiles of dyslexic scientists such as the late William J. Dreyer, a Caltech professor who used his highly visual imagination to see things in molecular biology and immunology well before others. In so doing, he helped to start the biotech revolution, developing one new theory 12 years ahead of nearly everyone in the field, creating new sets of data by inventing his own new instruments and analytic devices (including the first automated protein sequencer, 1977) and starting seven new biotech companies. Another profile in the new book will focus on John R. (Jack) Horner who flunked out of the University of Montana seven times but is now known as one of the three most important paleontologists in the world--known as an original and innovative interpreter of the fossil evidence, advising Stephen Spielberg on the three Jurassic Park films. Horner says he tries to teach his students 'to think like a dyslexic' because that is where the good stuff comes from--making original discoveries by learning to read the book of nature--without being distracted by the theories of others or, as he says, 'reading too many books. The rest is 'just memorization,' he says. One of Horner's dyslexic students recently made discoveries thought 'impossible'-- red blood cells and flexible blood vessels inside a 65 million-year-old fossil bone. Horner notes that it is easy for dyslexics 'to think outside the box' because 'they have never been in the box.' 

Whitney

Sensational Learning: Activating the Senses to Maximize Learning Potential

Participants will be able to identify and apply neurological mechanisms of learning to day to day classroom content.  Participants will be able to create a teaching toolkit rich in multi-sensory learning methods in order to optimize learner potential.  Participants will be able to identify signs of inadequate neurological processing (hypo- and hyper-arousal) that negatively impact learning outcomes.

Learning needs to be motivating, fun and enriched with sensation if we are to awaken the potential in our students.  Bright students challenge ideas, methods of instruction and need to be appropriately engaged in learning or they look for ways to entertain themselves; often not in ways that further the goals of the classroom.  Everyone learns uniquely and differentiating all instruction for all learners can quickly devolve to a burden rather than an opportunity.  Understanding the nervous system and applying cutting edge science to daily instruction is the holy grail of education but practicability is a real obstacle. What's a teacher to do?  This session is intended to provide many examples of alternative ways to integrate learning by saturating lessons with sensation and systematically designing instruction such that learning is potentiated at a neuronal level.  Participants will leave with a tool kit for differentiated instruction they can take into the classroom on Monday morning. 

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Whitney

Put Your Oxygen Mask on First: The Pivotal Role of Belonging within a Community when Caring for a Unique Child

Participants will be able to identify challenges facing parents who are raising hard-to-parent children.  Participants will be able to identify the role of attachment, social isolation and social censure on parental stress outcomes and long term child success.  Participants will be able to analyze the current level of day to day support and initiate positive, realistic changes for optimal health and resilience. Participants will be able to identify the protective and risk factors of family systems.

Families parenting children with special needs report feelings of isolation and lack of community belonging at a higher rate than general population, have higher stress and are at greater risk for stress related debilitating stress related conditions, social isolation and the inability to create normalizing habits, routines and rituals. Parents report a 'social censure' when attempting to parent children with disorders of social relatedness and non-engaging behaviors.   While the incidence of childhood mental health disorders has increased, the level of support for all Americans has declined, posing health risks more damaging than smoking and obesity combined.  Being a member of a community is a strong protective factor against poor adaption and poor occupational performance in adulthood. Yet, empowering families to establish communities that care is too often neglected in intervention planning.   This session will present compelling research and outline the essential need for belonging, caring for the caregiver and leave participants with agency to activate a community of care.

Zucker

Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Anxiety in Children with Learning Differences

First, to understand the model of cognitive-behavioral treatment for anxiety. Second, to identify the three parts of anxiety according to the cognitive-behavioral approach, and how to address each. Third, to identify three strategies to use with children with co-occurring learning differences and anxiety.

Bright students with learning differences often experience anxiety and frustration associated with work completion and disorganization. Anxiety tends to result in increased difficulty in the areas of academic and social performance; however, when managed successfully, children can learn how to cope with their emotional reactions and feel an increased sense of confidence when approaching their work.  Participants will learn how to help facilitate anxiety reduction and relaxation in GTLD learners. This session is intended for mental health professionals, parents, and educators who wish to learn strategies for how to help children with learning differences manage their anxiety and ultimately, promote healthy self-esteem.

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