Professional Development Library

Insightful Transition – Recognizing What’s Important to and for the Student

This session includes examples and resources for giving your student a voice in transition, helping them plan a life that is meaningful, purposeful and enjoyable. Open captioned and ASL.

Incorporating Bonding and Attachment into an Active Learning Approach

The earliest interactions between infants and caregivers start at birth and are based on direct, body-to-body interactions; they are not object-centered. Recent research shows that these interactions build trust and a sense of connection and are essential for a child’s subsequent development across all areas. Dr. Lilli Nielsen’s Active Learning approach has been ground-breaking in guiding work with children at early stages of development. Her research was centered around how young children interact with objects and their environmentsHer strategies do not focus on body-to-body interactions. During this hour we will be discussing how these earliest interactional strategies can be integrated into an Active Learning approach. Open captioned.

Active Learning Principles: Encouraging Skill Development through Active Participation

Learn simple ideas to engage children with visual impairments and other multiple special needs. Join Patty Obrzut, M.S., O.T.R as she reviews active learning principles for the school and home environment. Video demonstrations will be presented with opportunities for participants to ask questions and expand their knowledge and use of active learning theory. Open captioned.

Lilliworks Active Learning Foundation: An Introduction

Join us for a session discussing Lilliworks, what they do, and how they got started. Open captioned.

Early Childhood O&M – Lessons and Activities for Preschoolers

This session will focus on O&M instructional strategies and activities for working with young children (ages 3-5) attending an early childhood program on a school campus or within the community. These early learning environments provide extensive opportunities for teaching O&M concepts and skills. We'll explore how O&M specialists can introduce new techniques and support skill development for little ones learning to navigate outside of their familiar home environment. Bring your ideas and experiences to share! Open captioned.

Sound Travels

Open captioned. This session will provide a collection of tools and strategies that Orientation and Mobility Specialists can use in the evaluation and development of their student’s auditory skills. Examine ways to build strong working relationships with the student's audiologist, teacher of the Deaf/hard of hearing, and the speech and language pathologist (SLP), as we work to better understand the environmental hearing needs of our students and clients with a dual sensory loss.

Traveling to Transition and Beyond: O&M for Ages (15-64)

Open captioned. Andrew Bernet is a blind COMS at the Criss Cole Rehabilitation Center providing training to working age adults. Come listen to him share how O&M changes when working with students when they are ready to start looking at college or a career. He will include information about the training at Criss Cole and share his own travel experiences as a blind professional.

Family on the Move

Open captioned and ASL. A mom who is a Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist will share her experiences with creative opportunities for O&M learning in the home for her DeafBlind son, including home and school connections, and "common ground" activity ideas for whole families to share in.

IFSP Meetings are not ARDs/IEPs for Babies

Open captioned. In this Coffee Hour, we will talk about required documentation, the laws and rules around IFSP meetings, who is required to attend, and what a typical meeting looks like.

Don’t Build Your House on the Sand: IEPs, PLAAFPs and Goals

Open captioned. When building a house, it’s important to build on a strong foundaiton so it doesn’t fall down later. Creating an IEP starts the same way--with strong statements of present levels that lead to pertinent and collaborative standards-based goals. As boring as this topic may sound, we'll have some fun this session while we review the necessary components for a strong and compliant foundation for students' IEPs.

Participants will:
• Know and understand the components of a PLAAFP statement
• Know and understand the components of goals for IEPs
• Describe the connection between PLAAFP statements, state standards, and goals, and how working collaboratively will benefit the process.