Calendar Systems and Routines – What are they and how do we use them?
Open captioned. During this session, we will cover:
1. Introduction to Calendars: Quick overview of calendars systems, their advantages, and where to find more information.
2. Establishing Routines: Explore the importance of routines in creating meaningful instruction, predictability, and reducing stress for students.
3. Supporting Teams and Teachers: Offer strategies for establishing and integrating calendars and routines into the classroom setting. While also discussing how to encourage “buy-in” and provide ongoing support and resources for the teacher and team.
Tech Tea Time: Using Standard Video Magnifiers to Build Custom Solutions
Open Captioned. Whether your student wants “everything, everywhere, all at once” or is “too cool for school,” this session will help you think outside the box to meet your students’ needs. You know those techie kids who want their assistive technology (AT) to perform everything, everywhere, all at once? There are all-in-one solutions that will allow one device to meet multiple needs in various locations with numerous options for varying task demands. On the other hand, we have all seen students who are too cool for school. These kids panic and refuse to learn and use new assistive technology devices, We will discuss non-conventional and unique ideas to allow students to use the same devices as their classmates use while having access to the adaptations they greatly need. We will present options for students on both ends of the spectrum and illustrate how engineers worldwide are pushing the limits of software and hardware to transform assistive technology. Finally, we will share about the technology explosion coming as AT meets AI. Educators are in a wonderful position to influence designers and engineers as they incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into AT. Educators can provide input to leverage the power of AI while maintaining the security necessary in the educational environment.
Tech Tea Time: Assessment to Present Levels to IEPs
Open Captioned. In our final August session we wrap up our 3 session discussion with bridging the assessment process into present levels and IEP goals and objectives for AT.
Highlighting Potential: A Beginners Guide to Evaluating Students with Blindness, Low Vision and Deafblindness
Open captioned. Diagnosticians and LSSPs will gain essential insights and strategies for assessing the unique needs of these students. This session will equip you with the knowledge and tools necessary to conduct thorough and compassionate evaluations, ensuring each student's abilities and potential are fully recognized.
Functional Tactile-Bodily Evaluation for Students who are Deafblind
Open captioned. This session will explain what a Functional Tactile-Bodily Evaluation is, who should conduct it, and what tools they can use to guide their evaluation.
Tech Tea Time: Initial Assessments
Open Captioned. Donna discusses initial assessments.
Essential Tools of the Trade, 2nd Edition
Open captioned. ETT 2nd Edition includes everything you need to conduct rigorous, comprehensive FVE, NVSA, LMA, and ECC evaluations for school-aged students who are blind, or have low vision with or without complex access needs (CAN).
OT Sensory Efficiency Skills
Our senses (vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell) bring information from the outside world to our brains and allow us to understand what is happening around us. This is the basis for all learning. The sensory system develops in stages throughout our lifetimes. However, if this system is interrupted or impaired due to lack of sensory information to the brain or lack of sensory integration within the brain these stages may not occur in a typical fashion. In this session participants will:
Learn the ways in which our senses develop across time and experience
Understand how sensory development and processing shape our interactions with the world around us
Closed captioned
Managing Self-Care as You Care for the Children and Their Families You Support
“I cannot do ALL THE GOOD the world needs, but the world needs all the good I can do.” -Jana Stanfield
How do you manage the caring and compassion that is included in your profession? Have you found yourself over-invested, exhausted, and ‘not enough’ for the families and children you serve? Self-care can be seen as a necessity for self-preservation. In this presentation, we will be focusing on how provider fatigue can impact one’s health, similar to caregiver fatigue. Becoming more self-aware of what we can control, what boundaries we need to maintain, and how to STOP and breath will help us become more effective in our job. Open captioned.
Tech Tea Time: Trauma and the Brain
Open Captioned. A discussion of Trauma and the Brain.