Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

This Is What 5,000 Books Looks Like

Excerpt from: The Harry Potter Alliance (click for full article)

 

Our Harry Potter Alliance chapter in Edmonton seems to have a solid grasp on the accio books spell because check this out: they have already collected over 5,000 books as part of our Accio Books! campaign! Major props to Edmonton Potterwatch!

There's still time for you to share your love of literature by contributing to Accio Books!

Accio Books! is the Harry Potter Alliance's annual book drive. Since 2009, Harry Potter fans around the world have donated more than 86,000 books to underprivileged or underserved readers. This year, we're working with our partners in the International Quidditch Association and NaNoWriMo to help raise books in support of Read Indeed.

Read Indeed is a non-profit literacy organization and the vision of Maria Keller, a book-loving 7th grader who wants to collect and distribute 1 million books to needy kids by the time she's 18. Maria is a huge Harry Potter fan and she has already donated over 800,000 books. We are very excited to assist her in reaching her goal of 1 million books.

ACCIO BOOKS! runs until May 31st.

Learning Disabilities and the Upcoming 5th Edition of the DSM

Excerpt from: National Center for Learning Disability (click for full article)

 

During the past 12-18 months, experts from a wide range of medical, mental health, and education-related disciplines have been called upon to serve as members of task force groups in guiding the revision of the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM). And during the past few months, more than 13,000 online comments and 12,000 emails and letters were sent by organizations (including NCLD) and from the general public. The good news is that the learning disability community has played an active and outspoken role in providing feedback.

No one would disagree about the importance of identifying learning disabilities (LD) and other types of disorders or conditions (such as AD/HD) that result in barriers to learning. And no one would ever want to deny an individual with some special learning or behavioral need access to the specific types of instruction and support they need to be successful in school, at home, in the community, or in the workplace. The challenge for those who make the determination as to whether someone does or does not qualify as having a particular type of disability or disorder is made easier by guidelines provided through education law, civil rights law, and clinical practice (DSM). The problem is that these classifications don’t always “talk to each other” in meaningful ways. That’s why the current revision to the DSM is so important.

Recommended Reading for Parents of Children and Teens with LD

Excerpt from: National Center for Learning Disabilities (click for full article)

One of the best ways to help you become a better advocate for your child with learning disabilities is to read books by people who know the territory. Browse the following list to find that special book you’ve been looking for

Raising Resilient Children by Robert Brooks and Sam Goldstein

A Special Education: One Family’s Journey through the Maze of Learning Disabilities by Dana Buchman and Charlotte Farber
 
The Dyslexic Advantage by Brock L. Eide and Fernette F. Eide

A Special Mother: Getting through the early days of a child’s diagnosis of learning disabilities and related disorders by Anne Ford and John-Richard Thompson

Parenting a Struggling Reader by Susan Hall and Louisa Moats

Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood by Edward M. Hallowell and John J. Ratey

Making the System Work for Your Child with ADHD by Peter S. Jensen

It’s So Much Work to Be Your Friend: Helping the Child with Learning Disabilities Find Social Success by Richard Lavoie

True Stories about Real People Succeeding with LD by Jill Lauren

A Mind at a Time by Mel Levine

Ready for Take-Off: Preparing Your Teen with ADHD or LD for College by Theresa E. Laurie Maitland and Patricia O. Quinn

Learning Disabilities and ADHD: A Family Guide to Living and Learning Together by Betty Osman

My Dyslexia by Philip Schultz

Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level by Sally Shaywitz

Guide to Learning Disabilities for Primary Care: How to screen, identify, manage and advocate for children with learning disabilities by Larry Silver and Dana Silver

School Success for Kids with ADHD by Stephan Silverman, Jacqueline Iseman, and Sue Jeweler

From Emotions to Advocacy: The Special Education Survival Guide by Peter Wright and Pamela Darr Wright

Recommended Reading for Teens with LD

Excerpt from: National Center for Learning Disabilities (click for full article)

 

Books by, about, and for young and older teens with learning disabilities offer readers valuable stories and guidance. Check out the following books, a mixture of fiction and nonfiction, when you want to give your teen something special to read.

My Thirteenth Winter: A Memoir by Samantha Abeel

Caged in Chaos: A Dyspraxic Guide to Breaking Free by Victoria Biggs

ADHD in HD: Brains Gone Wild by Jonathan Chesner

Positively ADD: Real Success Stories to Inspire Your Dreams by Catherine A Corman, and Edward M. Hallowell

Applying to College for Students with ADD or LD: A Guide to Keep You (And Your Parents) Sane, Satisfied, and Organized Through the Admissions Process by Blythe Grossberg

Where’s My Stuff? The Ultimate Teen Organizing Guide by Samantha Moss and Lesley Schwartz

Survival Guide for College Students with ADHD or LD by Kathleen Nadeau

It’s So Much Work to Be Your Friend: Helping the Child with Learning Disabilities Find Social Success by Richard Lavoie

Learning Disabilities: The Ultimate Teen Guide by Penny Hutchins Paquette and Cheryl Gerson Tuttle

Bluefish by Pat Schmatz

Dyslexia Wonders by Jennifer Smith

College Success for Students with Learning Disabilities by Cynthia Simpson and Vicky Spencer

ADHD and Me: What I Learned from Lighting Fires at the Dinner Table by Blake E. S Taylor

Backwards Forward: My Journey through Dyslexia by Catherine Hirschman

Author's childhood with dyslexia, stories on deaf community lead to book about children who have little in common with their parents

Excerpt from: Media dis&dat (click for full article)

 

Andrew Solomon’s enormous new book, “Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity,” is about children who are born or who grow up in ways their parents never expected. It’s a subject Mr. Solomon knows from experience. He was dyslexic as a child and struggled to learn to read. As he described in “The Noonday Demon,” which won a National Book Award in 2001, he once suffered from crippling, suicidal depressions. And Mr. Solomon is gay, which made his parents so uncomfortable that as a teenager he visited sexual surrogates in the hopes of “curing” himself. 

Mr. Solomon, 49, is also different — different from most writers, anyway — in that he is independently wealthy and lives in baronial splendor in a West Village town house that once belonged to Emma Lazarus, who, though she wrote about those poor, huddled masses, was not herself among them. The book party for “Far From the Tree” was held not in some editor’s cramped Upper West Side apartment but at the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where Mr. Solomon has recently been named a trustee.

His other great discovery, he added, was joy. He had been prepared to encounter sadness in the families he visited; what surprised him was how much love there was. “This book’s conundrum,” he writes, “is that most of the families described here ended up grateful for experiences they would have done anything to avoid.” 

Reviewing “Far From the Tree” in The Times, Dwight Garner said, “This is a book that shoots arrow after arrow into your heart.” But it’s also a frightening and disturbing book. Its chapters are a vivid catalog of all the things that can go wrong in giving birth to and then bring up a child, and also raise difficult ethical questions: whether it’s proper to give cochlear implants to deaf children or to subject dwarfs to painful limb-lengthening surgery, for example.

'Harry Potter' tops NPR list of 100 favorite teen novels

From Los Angeles Times: (click for full article)

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series tops NPR's list of 100 favorite teen novels: That's the entire set of seven books, from "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" to "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." NPR announced the list Tuesday, voted on by listeners and readers.

Readers at Risk

Excerpt from About.com: (click for entire article)

Find out how to help with reading strategies and reading comprehension. Many educational jurisdictions do not have the luxury of a reading intervention program such as Reading Recovery, Animated Literacy, First Steps etc. The strategies found here will help to support low level readers in the regular classroom.

Note:

These strategies are to be used in the regular classroom to support readers at risk and special needs children. This is not a Language Arts program. This is a supplemental reading program to assist struggling readers. The goal is to have your reluctant or struggling readers become confident and independent readers.

Help Braille Literacy

Excerpt from Planet of the Blind: (click for entire article)

The National Federation of the Blind, the nation’s leading advocate for Braille literacy, and Groupon Grassroots, the philanthropic arm of Groupon, are teaming up to bring Braille into the lives of more blind children who need it.

The National Federation of the Blind campaign will be available on the Baltimore Groupon page beginning on June 4, and running throughJune 10. Groupon subscribers can pledge support for the National Federation of the Blind Braille Literacy initiative in increments of $10, with each $15 purchased providing one Braille Reading Pals packet to a blind child.

Braille Reading Pals is an early literacy program that fosters positive attitudes about Braille for children and their families and promotes a love of reading by encouraging parents to read daily with their blind or low-vision child. Participants receive a print/Braille book to read with their child and to encourage an independent exploration of Braille. Participants also receive a plush “Reading Pal” to accompany reading time and help young blind children develop fun and positive associations with reading Braille. Each $15 purchase will pay for a full set of Braille Reading Pals materials for a blind child and help set a blind child on the path to Braille literacy and future success.

Girls Write Now Has Extended the Mentee and Mentor Application Deadlines to June 15, 2012

Excerpt from Girls Write Now: (click for entire article)

Do you know a TEEN GIRL who's PASSION is WRITING? Encourage her to be a MENTEE at GIRLS WRITE NOW today!

GIRLS WRITE NOW is also seeking PASSIONATE WRITERS, TEACHERS & LEADERS who want to SHARE THEIR CRAFT with an ASPIRING TEEN WRITER.

SPREAD THE WORD with this short video to get a taste of who we are and what we do. 

Maurice Sendak is Interviewed on the Colbert Report

Excerpt from SCBWI: (click for entire article)

    Stephen Colbert:  "Every celebrity is out there cashing in on chidlren's books and I. Want. In.  What's it take for a celebrity to make a successful book?  What do I got to do?"

    Maurice Sendak:  "You're started already by being an idiot."