Learn Your Special Education Laws, Special Education Rights, and Share IEP Goal Ideas

Messy handwriting in second grade girls, when no other symptoms are present, is a reason to look for ADHD, inattentive type.  It can predict problems with written English in third grade and with organization and social skills, says Martha Denckla, M.D., developmental neurologist at Kennedy Kreeger Institute (Baltimore). Read the rest of this entry →

Have you heard about the “Ike Special”?  You most likely heard about Ike Ditzenberger on your local morning news, as a human interest story, or caught his video on You Tube.  If you haven’t, Ike Ditzenberger is a football player with Down Syndrome.  Read the rest of this entry →

It’s back to school time and homework is here. For many students and parents, homework time can often be a chore, or fraught with tension and stress. What is the secret to avoiding homework battles and missing assignments?  Read the rest of this entry →

I thought I could never accept my baby’s autism.  After 29 years there are times when I still wonder who my son might have been, and who might I have been as well.  Sometimes it seems like only yesterday when I held Tariq for the first time.  My heart pounded with excitement as I held his soft body next to my heart and our eyes met. Instantly he made me a father with visions of playing baseball and building model airplanes together and having a warm, close relationship. Read the rest of this entry →

There are multiple large-scale functional connections that impact direct and associative learning: implicating the Auditory, Visual, and Limbic Systems. Read the rest of this entry →

In many of my professional experiences, the writer of this piece has dealt with parents who have been confused about the methods with which they should go about maintaining their home language where they would be in a good position to facilitate bilingualism. Read the rest of this entry →

The House of Representatives approved Rosa’s Law a couple of days ago.  This law, once signed by President Obama, will replace the term Mental Retardation in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) with Intellectual Disability. Read the rest of this entry →

I’ve been lucky so far in that none of my son’s disabilities required him to take medication.  Many, many hours of therapy but no medication.  That changed a few months ago when he started on growth hormones. Read the rest of this entry →

Michael is a freckle-faced fourth grader always on the move. He loves to read, write and do well in class, so his mom was surprised when Michael’s teacher reported that he was not handing in his daily homework. She certainly checked every night to make sure it was done.  Read the rest of this entry →

Phonemes are the smallest parts of sound in a spoken word.  For example, the word, at, has two sounds or phonemes, / ă / / t /.  Read the rest of this entry →