Welcome to “On the Horizon”
Issue 50: 12 Things Parents and Professionals Must Understand About Educating Students with Autism and Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders
On the Horizon is an award winning weekly ezine for parents of children with developmental disabilities who want simple, effective strategies to reduce stress, support their child’s development, and improve quality of life for the whole family.
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Simple Solutions
 A Note from Nicole: Our New Book is Finished!
Idea of the Week: Roll Loose Change
Feature Article: 12 Things Parents and Professionals Must Understand About Educating
Students with Autism and Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders
The Horizons Team Recommends: Learning as we Grow
Upcoming Events: Sibshop; CORE Approach Parent Teleseminar
Hi Everyone!
I am so excited to let all of you be the first to know that our new book, Learning as we Grow: Enriching Education for Students with Autism and Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders, is finished and being printed as we speak! To those of you who have been asking us to write this book for years—thank you for providing us with the push we needed to get
this written. I recently came across a fabulous quote from author Toni Morrison that perfectly describes the journey we have had in writing this book: “If there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” The information in this book has been needed for so long, but there just wasn’t a resource that
pulled it all together. It was time to put these concepts and strategies into meaningful and practical written form, and I can only hope that my colleagues and I have done it justice.
Since I started giving some hints about the book a few weeks back, many of you have been contacting our office to ask how you can order your copy. Starting today you can pre-order the book here on our website. By pre-ordering you can ensure that your copy will be shipped to you as soon as the first run of books arrives from the printer. My feature article this week provides a brief look at some of the topics covered in the book, and you can see what parents and professionals who had the chance to preview the book are saying about it here. It’s the book I always wanted to read but couldn’t find, and I hope you enjoy reading and using it as much as we enjoyed writing it!
Have a fantastic week!
Looking to the horizon,
Roll Loose Change
Collect all the spare change in your house and bring it all together in one place. Separate the different coins into piles. Get paper wrappers
for the different coins (banks will give them to you), and start putting the coins inside. Make sure you are keeping track of how many
coins you are putting in each roll! When you have the correct amount inside the wrapper fold the ends over and move on to the next one. You
can then take all your rolled change to the bank and turn it in for paper money, or deposit it into your bank account. This is a great way to help your kids practice math concepts, and each family member can have a different job depending on their abilities. Maybe you’ll have enough to get a special treat for the family!
12 Things Parents and Professionals Must Understand About Educating Students with Autism and Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders
By: Nicole Beurkens, M.Ed.
Working with parents and educators for over a decade has taught me some important lessons about what it means to provide a meaningful education to students with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. It is easy to get bogged down in the moment-to-moment challenges and lose perspective on what we are trying to accomplish. Too often we employ strategies that address an immediate problem, without figuring out how to build the foundations that are required for addressing the challenge over the long-term. In searching for the elusive “quick fix” we fail to implement some basic but powerful concepts that support learning for all students.
Here are 12 important concepts every parent and professional should consider when designing appropriate educational opportunities for students with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders:
- Attitude: Your attitude is the most important tool you bring to your work with students. You do not need to have experience teaching students with neurodevelopmental disorders in order to be successful with them, but you do need to build trust through acceptance, patience, mutual respect, and a willingness to learn.
- Remediation and Compensation: Solutions that solve a problem in the short term may not create foundational change in the long term. A balance of short-term and long-term strategies is needed for students to be truly successful.
- Relationships are Essential for Growth and Development: We learn and grow through our relationships with others. Behavioral and emotional self-regulation begins with being able to regulate with others.
Learning as we Grow
You’ve Been Asking For It – The Resource for Applying Principles of Remediation in School Settings is Finally Here!
This long-awaited book is written for parents and professionals who want to be more effective in their work with students who have neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism.
You will learn how to:
- Identify the core features of neurodevelopmental disorders that create communication, learning, and relationship challenges for your students
- Shift from a mindset of working around deficits (compensation) to correcting the root issues that create obstacles for your students (remediation)
- Modify your communication to promote your students’ communication and thinking abilities
- Identify the unique strengths and obstacles of each student in order to determine appropriate placement and programming
- Achieve meaningful outcomes for students that allow them to reach their greatest potential
For more information, click here
Please join us!
- Sibshop – Horizons Sibling Network
Open to everyone!
Saturday, March 14, 2009, 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM EST
- CORE Approach Parent Teleseminar: Sensory Processing Strategies with Sarah VerMerris, OT (Horizons Families Only)
Thursday, March 19, 2009, 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM EST
- HANDLE® Intermediate Training
April 6-11, 2009 and May 4-9, 2009
- Sibshop – Horizons Sibling Network
Open to everyone!
Saturday, May 16, 2009, 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM EST
- Sibshop – Horizons Sibling Network
Open to everyone!
Saturday, July 18, 2009, 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM EST
See our Event Calendar for more details…
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