Remedial & Special education blog

We have scheduled our popular Learning ADDventures Workshop for 11 – 15 year olds on 16th September 2010 in Somerset West.

This is a wonderful and inspirational workshop for youngsters preparing for high school or those who are in the early high school years.

Parents attend the final 30 minutes to find out what their offspring have learnt and how to implement it.

Details:
Venue: Somerset House Prep School, Morkel Street, Somerset West

Date: 16th September 2010 (Thursday)

Time: tba (3 hours)

Cost: R300 per learner. R225.00 per additional sibling.

Fee includes comprehensive notes + cd with lots of useful stuff.

Workshop Topics:
o Change is NOT optional – Top ‘Tude
o Study Environment / Note Taking Techniques
o Problem Solving – Good vs Right Decisions
o Managing Expectations
o Diaries / Alarms / Google Calendars
o Visualization
o Buddy Study
o Mentoring
o Fertile Failure

Contact: Pat Pughe-Parry or call her on 082 559 3364 to book your child/children a place.

RemSpecED picked up the following comment posted on Fin24 earlier this week and we wanted to invite some feedback from Occupational and Speech Therapists as to whether they agree with the sentiments expressed by the commenter:

I’m an occupational therapist at a special needs school. It’s interesting to note that everyone says “pay the teachers a better salary”… and then most of the country does not even realise how poorly the therapists are being paid. A newly qualified teacher in a departmental post earns nearly the same than my OT colleague who has been employed by the Dept of Education for the past 17 years – sad, isn’t it? We’re supposed to receive increases or bonuses when we obtain post-graduate qualifications. Alas, one of my Speech Therapist colleagues is currently busy with her PhD, and she has not received any remuneration for completing her Master’s degree. It leaves one rather disillusioned. YET, as therapists we’re not allowed to strike (and I wouldn’t strike in anycase, since I consider it unethical and breaking my Hippocratic oath, and also it would mean losing money from my salary) since we are considered essential medical services. I wish people would understand that increasing the housing allowance from R500 to R1000 could push them into a different tax bracket, meaning they would get less money out than they anticipated. It happened to me when I applied for a housing allowance, out of the R500 I get R168 / month after tax. Why? Because I got pushed into a higher tax bracket by simply adding on R500 to my income. So why not do a smaller, incremental increase on the housing allowance which won’t necessarily push you into a higher tax bracket? As for the salary increase – no employer is under any obligation to provide salary increases on a yearly basis. We should realise that to have a job in SA is a privilege. I earn WAY less than a fresh-out-of-college teacher that’s also employed by the Dept of Education. But you know what? At least I have a job! I realise that I can earn MUCH more in the private sector, but I prefer to provide a service to those who cannot afford private therapy. Do not get me wrong, I salute teachers and lecturers (they are the reason I am the fervent student I am today), but don’t you find it rather sickening that they will waver the education of our future generation over a 1.6% difference in the increase dispute? And that goes for anyone striking right now, busy compromising others’ health. Thus, anyone in the public sector. Rather sad, I’d say.

As most of you know I have started presenting clinic’s using the horse skeletons that OP has prepared for us, well to complement this we have managed to get 9 shared lesson spaces with Colleen Kelly the international Bio-Mechanics Specialist, on Sunday morning 25 July, these will be allocated on a first paid first booked basis, and observers will be charged R100, closing date 16th of Jully. It is to be hosted at Immaculate Stables in Golfview, Walkerville, refreshments will be on sale.

After lunch we will host an introduction to and using our specimens to show what bad rider position does to the horses spine and what careless choice of going does to their legs. The cost of this will be R150 per person, we have split the costing of the two parts in case participants don’t want to take part in both sections.

Please phone me on 082 975-5369 or email me on helen@windyhollow.org.za to book.

Thanx

Helen Du Plessis

The Association for Autism have elected to postpone our Autism: Towards the Future Conference.

In deference to three other Autism conferences taking place in the last quarter of 2010, and in order to best benefit the Autism community, the Conference has been rescheduled for 3 – 4 March 2011.

Again, we welcome you interest and contributions in furthering our understanding of Autism Spectrum Disorders – please note that the revised deadline for the submission of abstracts is 25 OCTOBER 2010.

The Association for Autism thanks all those who submitted abstracts and expressed their interest in attending and/or participating at the Conference.

The abstracts that we have received, will remain on the reviewing list.

We hope to collaborate with ALL major stake-holders in the South African Autism community, to the mutual advantage of all.

Thank you for your understanding – we look forward to welcoming you at our conference next year!

Kind regards

Anna Atkins
Director
The Association for Autism
012 9934628

Hi RemSpecED community members

We have an enquiry from one of our readers with regards to a school in Bryanston called “Bridging The Gap”.

The reader is looking for contact information on the school and possibly some feedback from parents, if you have any suggestions or comments please could you post below.

Regards,
The RemSpecED team

Faery Glen has two upcoming events in Gauteng. One is a Parent & Sibling support workshop in July aimed at those supporting children with special needs. The other is the school fundraiser.

Sibling workshop

First is a Parent and Sibling support workshop on 17 July 2010 run by their educational psychologist, OT and Speech Therapist. It aims at providing insight and support to parents and professionals regarding the family
dynamics of raising a child with special needs.

Fundraiser

Second is a fundraiser – dinner and magician extraordinaire at Contare Supper Club, Monte Casino.

Please check out the following two .PDF documents for more information on the events:

Workshop

Fundraiser

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If you would like your parenting event listed on RemSpecED or aggregated to the Bundublog.com community please e-mail sales@rival.co.za or contact us on 082-561-1585

RemSpecED has a new therapy practice listed on our site:

StudyBoost Centre offers courses in study skills for children from Grades 4 to 9 with a focus on mind-mapping, memory skills and improving reading speed and comprehension. Children attend four 90 minute sessions at the study centre in Highlands North, Johannesburg. A maximum of 8 children are taken per course. Revision courses are also held on a regular basis to ensure that skills are maintained. Courses are run by Margie Karnasopoulos, a specialist educator with a keen interest in helping children learn how to learn.

Private remedial therapy is also offered.

Margie Karnasopoulos holds a B.A. in Psychology and a B.Ed. (Specialised Ed.) from Wits University. She has many years teaching experience, from nursery school to Senior Primary level. She has done academic assessments at Bellavista School in Johannesburg, taught at Pro-Ed Centre in Cape Town and provided remedial therapy to children at St Mary’s School.

Tel: 083 414 0508
Fax: 086 527 2030
Web: www.studyboost.co.za
Email: info@studyboost.co.za

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Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It is with great sadness that I write to tell you of the passing of Dr. Stanley Greenspan yesterday. As many of you know, Dr. Greenspan has been battling medical issues for some time. With courage and determination, he extended his life more than once against great odds.

Dr. Greenspan was a great supporter of the Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation’s work with children and adults who have sensory processing issues. Dr. Greenspan knew early on that intervention for sensory issues in children was a crucial step toward ameliorating engagement and social issues. For decades, his work and the work of occupational therapists and others involved with sensory issues dovetailed. He also partnered with Georgia DeGangi, PhD, OTR, for many years, and together they forged many new ideas.

In recent years, Dr. Greenspan has put countless hours into the organization he founded, the Interdisciplinary Council on Learning and Developmental Disorders (ICDL). Several years ago, it was our honor to work closely with him on revision of the IDCL Diagnostic Manual. It is partly due to this tremendous collaboration that Sensory Processing Disorder is still being considered for inclusion in the DSM-5.

The field of child development has lost a great leader, but the world has benefitted immeasurably from his life’s work. As Margaret Mead said:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

It is also true that every small group needs a visionary, a dreamer, and a leader to move it forward. For ICDL, that visionary was Dr. Greenspan.

We will all miss your energy and wisdom, Stanley, but we will celebrate your lessons. And we promise we will continue to teach our students what you have taught us about children and regulation . . . and in turn they will teach their students for generations to come. In that way, your knowledge and methods will help children with developmental, sensory, and regulatory disorders forever.

Lucy Jane Miller PhD, OTR
Executive Director
Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation and
STAR (Sensory Therapies and Research) Center

As a bit of a follow-on to our previous blog post about the impact of a tool like the iPad in the classroom.

One of our readers commented that there might some impact on eyesight with children exposed to an electronic screen for many hours in the day as opposed to reading a text book or writing on to paper.

With the current “wired” generation at home – and apparently spending an increased amount of time  in front of both a PC or mobile / cellphone device - is there any concrete evidence that this negatively impacts on eyesight over an extended period of time?

 Please feel free to post your links, suggestions or comments in the section below.