Thursday, September 30, 2004

Learning Disabilities Online: Math Skills

LD In-Depth: Math Skills

Earobics home software: for when your child doesn't spend enough time online



They don't sound like "fun" games -- I'd need a tutor to apply them!

Update: I take back the above comments. I've purchased and installed the software. I tested under Mac (Mac Classic running inside Mac OS X 10.3.5) and Windows (98 in this case). The software is impressive overall, but it has some rough spots. For example, the software does not automatically set the screen resolution to 640x480. Almost all game software sold in the past 3-4 years has done this, so it's an odd omission.

I installed and tested on both Mac and PC. Worked well on both. Note that it requires Mac Classic, Apple doesn't sell that any more (Mac Classic does come hidden away on the install disks for the new G5 iMac).

That said, the kids really loved the Level One product. I was amazed. It appealed to them more than all of our Clifford Reading and other whizzier educational software. I think they found the exercises intellectually interesting. Things got a bit tense around the computer.

The home version is simply a limited version of the commercial product. It can track two separate users and a "guest".

Curiously I got a number of the sounds wrong myself. I would not be shocked to learn that I had some cognitive deficits in phoneme recognition -- I was miserable at understanding sounds in spoken French.

It's early going, but I think these may be well worth the limited cost.


Cognitive Concepts Earobics - Products & Services

Cognitive Concepts - Products & Services

I've been impressed with their materials.

Go Phonics Multi-Sensory Phonics Program

Go Phonics Multi-Sensory Phonics Program
Go Phonics is an Orton Gillingham based phonics instructional program. It's teacher developed to provide a strong phonics foundation, and includes K-2 reading, handwriting, spelling, grammar,
punctuation, comprehension, fluency, and more. Go Phonics instruction includes a high percentage of the skills needed to meet the K-2 language arts curriculum requirements.

CHADD: hyperactivity and ADD/ADHD

CHADD, Minnesota chapter

ADHD, CDD, and Related Conditions

ADHD, CDD, and Related Conditions

A page I put together.

Parents and Teachers of Explosive Kids

Parents and Teachers of Explosive Kids

This is a parent and child companion to the academic CPS site.

Center For Collaborative Problem Solving

Center For Collaborative Problem Solving A center focusing on the (very) difficult child.

Arc Hennepin-Carver

Arc Hennepin-Carver :: General Info :: Affiliations

One of many ARC sites. It's a bit hard to sort them out locally. ARC was once an acronym, now it's word:
In 1990, seven metro ARC chapters, led by a strong group of self-advocates and families, agreed to do away with the name "Association for Retarded Citizens" and its acronym and change their names to Arc. The name change arose out of concern with the label "retarded," and the reference to disability before the reference to personhood. The acronym no longer represented any words, but kept the identity associated with this historic, national movement. The national organization adopted this concept and changed its name to "The Arc" one year later.
At one time ARC was the association of retarded children, then retarded citizens.

Psychometric Evaluation Process - Calvin academy

Psychometric Evaluation Process - 12 hours of tests? Hmm. Be interesting to see if they publish in the peer reviewed literature.

Updated 3/2/2010: Calvin Academy is gone and the domain has been redirected - so I've removed the link.

Calvin Academy

Calvin Academy Special Education School in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota

Fabulously expensive, about $40K/year -- one instructor per student. For wealthy children, or, intriguingly, children placed out of district. Only 50 children. Affiliated clinic. Grand claims:
Every student who enters our program learns to read and to master basic skills. Parents who have watched in dismay as their child falls farther and farther behind every year are truly amazed when they see the accelerated successful academic achievement of their students.
Updated 3/2/2010: Calvin Academy is gone and the domain has been redirected - so I've removed the link.

Groves Academy: Special education - private - St. Louis Park

Groves Academy : Teaching to overcome. Learning to succeed.

About $15K range a year. Focus is on "higher functioning" children who are performing "below potential". No significant behavioral disorders. Interesting social skills training programs, including summer programs. Tutorial programs available.

Saint Louis Park, Minnesota.

Autism/PDD Resources Network

Autism/PDD Resources Network: Main Page

One of many, many web sites for autism. My personal sense is that many of the techniques used with autistic children can be valuable in non-autistic children as well.

Directory of 678 special education reference sites


Special Education - 678 of the best sites selected by humans


Cbel.com is an odd site. The main page looks like an odd front end on Google. Still, this page looks useful.

Bridge View School

Bridge View School

Special education public school, Saint Paul public schools.

Autism services directory launched

Autism Society of America

This is supposed to be a directory for autism services, but it's not working at the moment. Perhaps having startup pains. Here's the announcement:
ASA Launches New Comprehensive Online Directory Of Programs and Services for the Autism Community

The Autism Society of America today launched a one-of-a-kind, nationwide online directory to help the 1.5 million American families affected by autism find the vital services they need in their own communities. The directory -- AutismSource -- offers, for the first time in one convenient place, the gamut of resources families require to help their children, such as physicians, psychologists, speech, occupational and behavioral therapists, schools, camps, training programs, government agencies, and much more.

"Every day, 50 families in America find out that their child has some form of autism, and they urgently need to know where they can go for help. AutismSource provides these families with a state-of-the-art directory that is easy to use and full of valuable resources that will help them get the services their child needs," ASA Board Chair Lee Grossman said.

"As the prevalence of autism continues to grow, so too does the demand for professionals and services specializing in autism. ASA, which has been the #1 resource for the autism community for almost 40 years, developed AutismSource to answer this urgent need," ASA President and CEO Rob Beck said.

AutismSource features more than 3,000 resources with listings in all 50 states and the capability to continuously expand. ASA continues to add programs and users can recommend resources to be added by following the prompts on the site.

ASA resources are of great value for many special needs children -- with our without autism.