Session I
1:30–2:45pm
An Overview of Technology for Learning Differences: Equipping Students with a Personalized “Technology Toolbelt”
Shelley Haven, ATP, RET, Assistive Technology Consultant, TechPotential.net
Students with learning differences often have an impressive array of internal “tools” — skills and abilities — in one area (e.g., math), but only a minimal set in others (e.g., reading comprehension or spelling). Fortunately, they can complement their internal toolset with a “technology toolbelt”: a personalized set of devices and software matched to their unique learning profile and tasks.
Join assistive technology consultant Shelley Haven as she demonstrates how to stock that toolbelt with individualized technology to:
- Reduce reading time and improve comprehension (text-to-speech software, audiobooks)
- Take the dread out of writing (graphic organizers, speech recognition, contextual spellcheckers)
- Listen more and write less while taking notes (smartpens)
- Study more effectively (digital annotation)
- Type legible math equations (math notation software)
- Get organized (digital notebooks, mobile device apps)
Includes live demos and a comprehensive Resource Guide.
Shelley Haven has worked the past 26 years helping individuals with physical, sensory, and learning challenges to unlock their potential with technology. She specializes in matching students with tech tools appropriate to their learning profile, tasks, and instructional environments, and is RESNA-certified as an Assistive Technology Professional (ATP) and a Rehabilitation Engineering Technologist (RET).
Shelley currently works as an independent assistive technology consultant serving individuals, families, educators, and schools with a focus on learning differences. Prior to that, she directed AT resources and services for Stanford University’s Office of Accessible Education (OAE), and helped establish the Schwab Learning Center at Stanford, a division of the OAE that provides enhanced services and resources for students with learning differences and ADHD.
Enriching the Learning Environments with Language and Literacy
Alexis Filippini, Ph.D., Building on the Best Founder
As humans, spoken language is our primary mode of communication and we encounter language throughout the day, not just during English/Language Arts. In this workshop, participants will develop techniques for enriching the learning environment with language and literacy during the many “teachable moments” that occur outside of dedicated literacy instruction.
Alexis Filippini believes in building on the best to boost student achievement, teacher performance, and family sanity. This strengths-based approach to literacy and behavior grows out of her work as a reading intervention teacher and a behavioral clinician. She earned her Ph.D. in special education with an emphasis in cognitive science from U.C. Santa Barbara. After working as an assistant professor at San Francisco State University and executive director at Mission Learning Center, she is now bringing her fun and practical workshops directly to teachers and families through Building on the Best.
Executive Function Skills in Children: What You Need to Know and Why It Matters
Mark Bertin, M.D., Developmental Pediatrics, Author of The Family ADHD Solution: A Scientific Approach to Maximizing Your Child’s Attention & Minimizing Parent Stress
One of the newest findings in child development is the importance of executive function, a set of cognitive abilities that act as our “brain manager.” Executive function is responsible for self-monitoring, planning, organization and even emotional regulation. It is critical for social development, family relationships and academics. The choices we make as adults can often cultivate – or potentially hinder – the development of executive function as it evolves from infancy to young adulthood. This workshop will include a discussion of how research on executive function can guide teachers and parents in making wise decisions with children of any age.
Mark Bertin is a board certified developmental behavioral pediatrician having trained in Oakland Children’s Hospital and for fellowship training in neurodevelopmental behavioral pediatrics at the Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (Rose Kennedy Center) at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is a full time developmental pediatrician, working with children with academic, behavioral and developmental concerns. Dr. Bertin is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at New York Medical College, is on the faculty of the Windward Teacher Training Institute, and from 2003 to 2010 was Director of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics at the Westchester Institute for Human Development, working in their foster care program. He is a consultant for Reach Out and Read, a national organization that promotes child development and literacy, and is on the editorial advisory board for the non-profit organization Common Sense Media. Dr. Bertin’s book The Family ADHD Solution: A Scientific Approach to Maximizing Your Child’s Attention While Minimizing Parents’ Stress was released by Palgrave Macmillan in February 2011. His blog of the same title can be found on the Huffington Post and at Child Development Central through Psychology Today’s website.
“Mom, can you wake me up to finish my English paper?” Time Management, Planning and Organization for Middle and High School Students
Beth Samuelson, M.A., Founder and Director of Student Organizational Services
Does your student struggle to complete work on time? Fail to turn in work at all because it’s lost or not completed? Stay up too late, stressed out about undone work? Find out how to help your organizationally challenged teenager who doesn’t want your help. You’ll learn tips and strategies to provide the support students need while helping them become more autonomous and responsible.
Beth earned her teaching credentials and MA in Education from the University of California, Berkeley, where she focused on cognitive development and adolescent learning issues. While teaching English, History and Drama in various settings, she began to research and develop strategies to help struggling students. Beth became a learning specialist and, in collaboration with teachers and parents, tailored programs and instruction for students with executive functioning challenges. Beth launched SOS4Students– a unique academic coaching program- to meet the needs of a wide range of students with learning differences and to provide customized instruction in study strategies that are essential for school success.
As a recognized authority in academic coaching, Beth routinely participates in conferences, locally and regionally; she and her team of coaches also conduct student and parent workshops as well as teacher training courses.
Beth has been an educational columnist for Parenting Bay Area Teens and has appeared a number of times on television as an expert in her field. Most recently, Beth co-hosted the radio show “Your Teen Matters” with Rona Renner on KISS FM. These programs and information on services can be found on the SOS website – www.sos4students.com. SOS has offices in Walnut Creek, Oakland (Montclair Village) and on the Orinda Academy campus.
The Dynamics of Learning in Mind, Brain and Education
Dr. Kurt Fischer, Director of Mind, Brain & Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education
People learn. Learning is fundamental to us as human beings – it makes us fully human. Our exceptionally large brain is the primary organ for learning. In childhood and throughout life we spend many years learning the broad knowledge required by our cultures, families, and schools. Discover how variable and dynamic the learning process is and what this means for learning, skill development, and education.
Kurt Fischer leads an international movement to connect biology and cognitive science to education, and is founding editor of the journal Mind, Brain, and Education (Blackwell), which received the award for Best New Journal by the Association of American Publishers. As Director of the Mind, Brain, and Education Program and Charles Bigelow Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, he does research on cognition, emotion, and learning and their relation to biological development and educational assessment. In his research he has discovered a general scale that provides tools for assessing learning and development in any domain. Among his other discoveries are that people move through different learning pathways while at the same time they show common (universal) processes of learning and development.
Fischer has been visiting professor or visiting scholar at many universities, including University of Geneva (Switzerland), University of Pennsylvania, University of Groningen (Netherlands), Nanjing Normal University (China), the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (Stanford), honorary professor at East China Normal University, and other universities around the world. He is author of “Dynamic Development of Action, Thought, and Emotion” in the Handbook of Child Psychology, Human Behavior and the Developing Brain, Mind, Brain, and Education in Reading Disorders, and a dozen other books, as well as over 250 scientific articles. He leads an international movement to connect biology and cognitive science to education.
The Good Neuropsychological Evaluation: What It Is, How to Get One, How Best to Use It
Devora S. Depper, Ph.D., Private Practice
A good assessment often is the first step in understanding your child/adolescent’s neurodevelopment and educational needs. It should serve as the cornerstone for plans at home, school, interventions, and advocacy. This workshop will outline the elements of a good evaluation, how to insure you get the best one for your child, and how to use the information you receive successfully. The first assessment as well as follow-up assessments will be covered.
For over 30 years Dr. Depper has maintained a private practice in San Francisco focusing on providing assessment and treatment for children and adolescents, and their families.
The Turkey and the Crow: Trade-Offs in Learning Style that affect Classroom Learning
Brock L. Eide, M.D., M.A. and Fernette F. Eide, M.D. , Eide Neurolearning Clinic
This talk, which is appropriate for educators, allied professionals, parents, and high school students will discuss several common “trade-offs” in learning characteristics that greatly influence how an individual student thinks and learns. Special emphasis will be placed on describing two distinct cognitive profiles, formed by clusters of these traits, that predispose respectively to expertise or to innovation, and on how these cognitive patterns impact learning and development in students. Attention will also be paid to the specific learning challenges that can be associated with each of these patterns, and how the development of children with these patterns can best be understood and supported.
Brock L. Eide, M.D., M.A., is a Phi Beta Kappa and AOA Medal Honors Society graduate from the University of Washington, and University of Washington School of Medicine. He received his Masters Degree from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, was a Fellow with the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. He has lectured internationally and published extensively in the fields of gifted education, learning disabilities, and twice exceptionalities such as giftedness and dyslexia, and served as consultant to the President’s Council on Bioethics. Along with his wife, he wrote The Mislabeled Child (Hyperion 2007).
Dr. Fernette Eide is a neurologist and co-author of The Dyslexic Advantage and The Mislabeled Child. She is a graduate of Harvard Radcliffe College and the UCSF School of Medicine, and has been on the faculties of UCSF, University of Chicago, and University of Washington. Dr. Eide lectures widely in the fields of learning differences and disabilities, giftedness and twice-exceptionality, and has served as consultant to the President’s Council on Bioethics and SENG, Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted. Dr. Eide is in private practice with her husband, Dr. Brock Eide, in the Greater Seattle area. Together they also founded one of the world’s largest online communities for families with dyslexia, DyslexicAdvantage.com.
Session II 3:45–5:00pm
A Conversation with Mother and Son Lyda and Todd Rose
Lyda Rose and Dr. L. Todd Rose, President, Project Variability, Lecturer, Harvard University
Did you read Square Peg: My Story of What It Means for Raising Innovators, Visionaries and Out of the Box Thinkers? Did you have unanswered questions? Here is an opportunity to discuss Todd’s story from both the perspective of mother and son.
Todd Rose is a faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he teaches Educational Neuroscience, and is a leading thinker in the field of Mind, Brain, and Education. Todd is also the co-founder and president of Project Variability, an organization dedicated to providing leadership around the radical new science of the individual and its implications for education, making it possible, for the first time, to support all individuals in reaching their full potential.
A Guided Tour of Apps for Middle, High School and College Students
Jan Tuber, M.A.,Assistive Technology Specialist, LD, Parents Helping Parents’ iTECH Center
Now that you or your student has an iPad or similar mobile device, are you overwhelmed with the number of apps available for it? Let AT Specialist, Jan Tuber, be your guide! Jan has sifted through hundreds of apps and will guide you through some of her favorites for reading, writing, note-taking, math and more. See text-to-speech, word prediction, study skills and math apps in action. Apps will be demonstrated on an iPad, with alternatives suggested for Android devices where applicable.
Jan Tuber is an Assistive Technology Specialist (Learning Disabilities) at Parents Helping Parents, a Parent Training and Information Center. She is the mother of two young adults, one of whom has dyslexia and is a junior at New York University. Jan has a B.S. degree in Human Development and an M.A. in Rehabilitation Counseling. Formerly a counselor for disabled students at Ohlone College, she has extensive experience working with special populations and has been at PHP since 2005.
Beyond Medication: Evidence Based Non-Medical Care for ADHD
Mark Bertin, M.D., Developmental Pediatrics, Author of The Family ADHD Solution: A Scientific Approach to Maximizing Your Child’s Attention & Minimizing Parent Stress
While the benefits of medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been shown through numerous well designed studies, medication alone rarely addresses the full range of issues caused by this complex neurobiological condition. This talk will review research regarding behavioral interventions, parenting and educational approaches, along with a discussion of evidence for or against various popular complementary practices.
Mark Bertin is a board certified developmental behavioral pediatrician having trained in Oakland Children’s Hospital and for fellowship training in neurodevelopmental behavioral pediatrics at the Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (Rose Kennedy Center) at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is a full time developmental pediatrician, working with children with academic, behavioral and developmental concerns.
Dr. Bertin is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at New York Medical College, is on the faculty of the Windward Teacher Training Institute, and from 2003 to 2010 was Director of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics at the Westchester Institute for Human Development, working in their foster care program. He is a consultant for Reach Out and Read, a national organization that promotes child development and literacy, and is on the editorial advisory board for the non-profit organization Common Sense Media. Dr. Bertin’s book The Family ADHD Solution: A Scientific Approach to Maximizing Your Child’s Attention While Minimizing Parents’ Stress was released by Palgrave Macmillan in February 2011. His blog of the same title can be found on the Huffington Post and at Child Development Central through Psychology Today’s website.
Dyslexia in the 21st Century: New Directions for a Promising New World
Brock L. Eide, M.D., M.A. and Fernette F. Eide, M.D., Eide Neurolearning Clinic
Dyslexic difficulties with reading, spelling, writing, and other basic academic skills have typically been viewed solely from a learning disabilities perspective. But a wealth of new research shows that dyslexic individuals process not only printed but all types of information differently from non-dyslexics, and that the true significance of these differences isn’t the challenges they produce in basic academic and other fine-detail skills, but the strengths they create in many types of “big picture” or gestalt reasoning skills–strengths that in turn lead to enhanced abilities in tasks that require creativity, problem-solving, and new approaches. This talk, which is appropriate for both professional and non-professional audiences, and for interested students from middle school up, will review this information, and will discuss ways to understand, foster, and take advantage of unique dyslexic strengths.
Brock L. Eide, M.D., M.A., is a Phi Beta Kappa and AOA Medal Honors Society graduate from the University of Washington, and University of Washington School of Medicine. He received his Masters Degree from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, was a Fellow with the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. He has lectured internationally and published extensively in the fields of gifted education, learning disabilities, and twice exceptionalities such as giftedness and dyslexia, and served as consultant to the President’s Council on Bioethics. Along with his wife, he wrote The Mislabeled Child (Hyperion 2007).
Dr. Fernette Eide is a neurologist and co-author of The Dyslexic Advantage and The Mislabeled Child. She is a graduate of Harvard Radcliffe College and the UCSF School of Medicine, and has been on the faculties of UCSF, University of Chicago, and University of Washington. Dr. Eide lectures widely in the fields of learning differences and disabilities, giftedness and twice-exceptionality, and has served as consultant to the President’s Council on Bioethics and SENG, Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted. Dr. Eide is in private practice with her husband, Dr. Brock Eide, in the Greater Seattle area. Together they also founded one of the world’s largest online communities for families with dyslexia, DyslexicAdvant.
Reaching the Reluctant Learner: Using Classroom Management and Positive Behavior Supports to Increase Engagement
Alexis Filippini, Ph.D., Building on the Best Founder
In this workshop, we will explore “challenging behaviors” of reluctant learners. Using a strengths-based perspective that considers the meaning of behavior, participants will identify proactive strategies for not just addressing, but preventing challenging behavior. Teachers and parents can use this perspective and set of tools to support their student/child in developing more appropriate, adaptive behaviors.
Alexis Filippini believes in building on the best to boost student achievement, teacher performance, and family sanity. This strengths-based approach to literacy and behavior grows out of her work as a reading intervention teacher and a behavioral clinician. She earned her Ph.D. in special education with an emphasis in cognitive science from U.C. Santa Barbara. After working as an assistant professor at San Francisco State University and executive director at Mission Learning Center, she is now bringing her fun and practical workshops directly to teachers and families through Building on the Best.
Success Starts at Home: Homework Strategies for Cultivating Independence and Self-Advocacy
Patricia Monticello Kievlan, Ed.M., Learning Specialist, Convent of the Sacred Heart High School, San Francisco
School is about more than learning reading, writing, and arithmetic: it’s also about learning strategies for doing homework, studying for tests, and seeking help. Every student does this a little differently, especially students with learning differences, and it’s critical for every student to thoughtfully discover what methods work best and how to communicate their needs to others. Honing these skills can help every student find greater success in school and develop as a self-advocate along the way. This talk will feature proven strategies and ideas for students, parents, and teachers that can help with navigating homework, studying, and self-advocacy in middle school and high school.
Patricia Monticello Kievlan is the Learning Specialist at Convent of the Sacred Heart High School in San Francisco. She holds degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she studied cognitive neuroscience and education in the Mind, Brain, and Education program. She has worked in the past as a curriculum designer and a history teacher, and she is an enthusiastic student of educational technology and instructional design.
What’s after high school? An overview of college, career, and gap-year options for students of all abilities
Elizabeth A. Stone, Ph.D., Educational Consultant, “The Education Planner”
This workshop will provide an overview of the variety of options for students of all abilities – focusing on finding the right “fit” for students. Four-year, two-year, Gap year options, and short-term vocational programs are options for high school graduates. We’ll discuss the timeline for preparing for life after high school.
Dr. Stone is the owner of The Education Planner, an educational consulting firm providing support for students of all abilities navigate the college admissions process, and provides guidance for pre-college students. She holds a Ph.D. in Special Education from UC Berkeley and a Certificate in College Admissions Counseling from UCLA. She has spent her entire career in the college environment as a faculty member at UCSF Department of Psychiatry, and in the Dept. of Child and Adolescent Development at San Jose State and San Francisco State. She is the co-author of the widely used book, “Part of the Group,’ on improving students’ social cognitive skills.
In addition to consulting, Dr. Stone is a freelance journalist writing on education, arts and culture. She has recently been published in Bay Citizen, The New York Daily Forward, J Weekly, and writes both a local and national column on college admissions for Examiner.com. Her advocacy work on behalf of students was the subject of a recent feature article in the Los Angeles Times.
Dr. Stone is a Professional Member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA, a member of the Education Writers Association, and is an instructor in the UC Berkeley Extension certificate program in College Admissions and Career Planning.
