LD Resources

Apple iPad Thumbs-Up: Brain Fitness Value, and Limitations

The user activity monitoring piece is not exactly an important limitation IMHO. I mean, the iPad isn’t an “integrated learning system” and if it were it would never appeal to it’s target audience: people who want to independently and easily get work done.

[via Sanford Shapiro]

Temple Grandin at TED.

[via Dilip Muralidaran]

Ways into Shakespeare’s Othello

English teacher Sabrina Broadbent leads a masterclass on Shakespeare, using her expertise to engage a group of Year 10 students.

Let me state up front, I’m a poor reader, was a poor student, hated Shakespeare, and at this point in my life I’m as cynical as ever about education.

But, I have to say, Sabrina Broadbent knows how to engage students and make Shakespeare come alive and if you watch this video my guess is you’ll agree. It takes some time but it’s well worth it.

This is one more example of the old adage: a good teacher can make any subject come alive. Sabrina Broadbent is a great teacher.

Granted, her students are more than educable, they are excellent students with excellent memories but my guess is a teacher like Sabrina could and would find ways to make Shakespeare accessible and exciting to people like me with language disabilities.

Teachers like Sabrina give me hope.

Playing musical instruments may improve reading

Learning to play a musical instrument could help to improve children’s reading and their ability to listen in noisy classrooms, according to new research.

“Our eyes and ears take in millions of bits of information every second and it is not possible for the brain to process all of that, so the sensory systems in our brains are primed to tune into regularities or patterns in the signals it receives.

“People who are musically trained are better at picking up these patterns because they learn to recognise notes and pitches within melodies and harmonies.

“The better you are at picking up these patterns in music, the better reader you are. This makes sense as letters and words on a page are really just patterns.”

‘Family Guy,’ Palin and the Limits of Laughter

This is an excellent piece by New York Times writer Dave Itzkoff.

Andrea Fay Friedman has her act together as does Gail Williamson, executive director of the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles:

“Within ‘Family Guy,’ the character was fully included, well-rounded, dynamic, not dealing with stereotypical Down syndrome issues,” Ms. Williamson said. She added: “Am I a fan of that kind of humor? Eh. It’s beside the point.”

“If we’re asking for full inclusion in the schools and full inclusion in the world,” she said, “ we should appreciate full inclusion with other genres. Even if those genres are not what we appreciate.”

The unfortunate part of this situation is that most people are not clued in to the more nuanced issues here which Gail Williamson speak to. The way Palin speaks of her son Trig and has complained that Family Guy crossed a line isn’t really “PC” (politically correct), it’s knee jerk professional victim/sympathy vote stuff. Friedman speak to this:

“My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.”

In the same sense that many thought the country was “post racial” with Obama’s election, it seems that some might think the country is “post disability” as more people with disabilities are fully included. Like the race issue, this issue is complex and has high profile people like Palin who are skilled at playing the victim card for her son and for herself.

‘Family Guy,’ Palin and the Limits of Laughter

Andrea Fay Friedman has her act together as does Gail Williamson, executive director of the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles:

“Within ‘Family Guy,’ the character was fully included, well-rounded, dynamic, not dealing with stereotypical Down syndrome issues,” Ms. Williamson said. She added: “Am I a fan of that kind of humor? Eh. It’s beside the point.”

“If we’re asking for full inclusion in the schools and full inclusion in the world,” she said, “ we should appreciate full inclusion with other genres. Even if those genres are not what we appreciate.”

The unfortunate part of this situation is that most people are not clued in to the more nuanced issues here which Gail Williamson speak to. The way Palin speaks of her son Trig and has complained that Family Guy crossed a line isn’t really “PC” (politically correct), it’s knee jerk professional victim/sympathy vote stuff. Friedman speak to this:

“My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.”

In the same sense that many thought the country was “post racial” with Obama’s election, it seems that some might think the country is “post disability” as more people with disabilities are fully included. Like the race issue, this issue is complex and has high profile people like Palin who are skilled at playing the victim card for her son and for herself.

Finding Help for Learning Disabilities

Lesley Alderman at The New York Times has done an excellent job of taking readers through the process of identifying learning disabilities and getting help. This piece should be required reading for everyone in the LD world.

Rock Groups

Steven Strogatz has a great column in The New York times on arranging rocks (or any objects) in patterns to better visualize arithmetic.

I’ve been coming back to this particular column the past week and enjoying scanning and rescanning it. I’m still a mathaphobe but I do like patterns so thinking of arithmetic this way helps.

Nuance buys up MacSpeech

This is interesting news, speech to text is useful for many people including people with various kinds of disabilities.

Chemical Exposure Linked to Attention Deficit Disorder in Children

Children exposed in the womb to chemicals in cosmetics and fragrances are more likely to develop behavioral problems commonly found in children with attention deficit disorders, according to a study of New York City school-age children published Thursday.

[via Alex Forbes]