The Importance of Teaching and Promoting Literacy

Posted by admin in Special Education on January 9, 2012

By Karen L. Monsen

On the surface, Scott Douglas Redmond’s accomplishments look like a tornado of diverse projects-from high-tech inventions and patents with science fiction overtones to social and cultural engagements that empower people and touch the heart. Rarely does one person show the creative diversity shown in Mr. Redmond. He is not just an ordinary guy; he is blessed with a brain that is usually in overdrive, capturing and rearranging bits of data to invent, reinvent, design new applications, and create innovative products.

Redmond has numeric dyslexia (dyscalculia) and is considered 2e Gifted. (Others in the “2e club” include Richard Branson; Charles Schwab; John Chambers, the founder of Cisco and Robin Williams) He experienced learning challenges while growing up alternately labeled gifted then handicapped and identified as either a smart kid or a dumb kid. The International Dyslexia Association (Fact Sheet #5 — 02/98) states: “To call this a learning disability tends to infer that the person cannot learn. However, with the proper instruction, dyslexics do learn. The key is in using the term ‘learning difference’ and not ‘disability.’”

Once Scott discovered how to learn in spite of his learning difference, his creative talent exploded. Still, his thoughts sometimes emerge in rapid succession like lightning bolts flashing across the sky. His seemingly unrelated projects nevertheless share a common theme-they are innovative and they do “make a difference.” They address social needs with product solutions that are at least a paradigm shift more advanced than the current solution. For example, Scott led a startup technology company to create a software “app” that enables communication without cellular infrastructure, he established a website to support an anti-bullying campaign, and he motivated parents and educators to use social media to improve literacy.

Software App

Redmond is the Founder and President of Peep Wireless Technology which is responsible for producing a software application (App) for the iPhone that enables peer-to-peer mesh networking-a communication without cellular infrastructure. The App enables the user to send Morse code, voice and image signals to communicate with other users who have installed the same App.

The onlineIPods news network,Ipodnn.com, reported in June 2011 that Peep Wireless technology was embedded in a new pro-democracy App, Democri-C, for iOS devices. The New York Times (June 12, 2011 article by James Glanz and John Markoff) carried an expansive story titled, U.S. Underwrites Internet Detour Around Censors, on how the US government was supporting “mesh network technology, which can transform devices like cellphones or personal computers to create an invisible wireless web without a centralized hub.”

The software app is known to have played a role in the democracy uprisings in the Middle East and it could give critical communication following natural disasters and emergencies that destroy infrastructure. The Peep Wireless team that designed the Democri-C app under Scott Redmond’s direction deserves credit for making a difference by providing alternative ways to promote free speech and reach people following natural disasters.

Website to Fight Bullying in Schools

Aiding his support for Anderson Cooper’s 360 Series (on CNN network October 2011) to fight school bullying, Scott Redmond developed a number of websites to give places where bullied students can talk, report bullying aggression, get support, and find helpful resources. His website, entitled “Expose the Bully” enables students to share their experiences, expose bullies, and seek help. Bullies maintain their control through intimidation and isolation. If the bullied student can speak up and expose the bully, the bully will lose the crippling control. Anderson Cooper’s series on anti-bullying drew attention to the emotional damage that bullying causes-damage that resulted in several teen suicides.

Although Redmond’s philanthropic websites are not extraordinary, they join an expanding list of sites that offer hope and an outstretched hand to students who desperately need it. Making a difference, however small, still has merits.

Social Media to Improve Literacy

In another social outreach, Scott Redmond participated on a forum of educators and parents at the annual meeting of The International Dyslexia Association (IDA). In a PR Newswire November 22, 2011, IDA reported “…political leaders and world-renowned experts in the fields of education, advocacy, and business held a groundbreaking forum to discuss the literacy crisis in the United States.” As part of that forum, Scott led a motivating discussion on the use of social media in grassroots campaigns.

Scott explained how social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and Foursquare can magnify one or a few voices and how software tools, like TweetDeck, a desktop application, can allow users to organize, send, and receive messages in high volumes. Additionally, social media provides platforms for people scattered across large geographies to reach like-minded individuals to share knowledge, experiences, and resources.

Scott’s presentation was part of a series of speakers helping IDA improve literacy by promoting passage of a Literacy Education for All Results for the Nation (LEARN) Act and for working to pass state literacy laws to provide support, instruction, intervention and professional development for teachers to increase their ability to teach students with learning disabilities. Scott challenged the attendees to take “tangible steps to use social media to create parent/child partnerships to bring the legislation reform message to every state in America.”

Scott Redmond is a dyslexic who used his “learning difference” (aka disability) to overcome technological impediments to cellular communication that occur during disasters and political blackouts; cut school bullying by creating a website that offers emotional support and confidence building resources; and mobilize a grassroots effort to use social media to improve national and state literacy laws so every student will be able to learn. Blessed with a unique view of the world, Scott strives to make a difference by using the talents that made him different.

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8 Steps to Help You Stay Balanced for Teaching the Child With Autism

Posted by admin in Special Education on January 9, 2012

By Caroline F. Butson

An autistic child can be extremely challenging to live with or teach at times. Your own self-care is vital as you can easily become drained and thrown off balance by the demands of parenting or teaching these kids. This is being wisely selfish. Do something you love to do every day which will recharge you. If you love to swim, go swimming, if you love to play music, then play music, if you love to garden, then spend time in your garden, if you love to ride horses then go riding. Do whatever you need to do to care for yourself. You are the most important person to influence your child so they need you to be grounded and balanced.

Here are 8 STEPS to HELP YOU recover your energy and help you stay balanced.

1. Make a strong determination to overcome this challenge and to not be defeated by this diagnosis of autism.

2. Adjust your attitude from how unfortunate I am to have an autistic child to how blessed I am to be given a child whose mission it is to bring Light and Love to this world! See the gifts autism has to offer. The only thing we can control is our attitude and the most positive attitude is one of hope.

3. Strengthen your Faith. Implement a spiritual practice if you do not already have one. Whatever spiritual path that will nourish your spirit during difficult days. Prayer, mindful meditation and chanting are some ways which can help strengthen your faith.

4. Listen to and follow your Intuition which will guide you.

5. Appreciate your partner. You are not alone you are together as one team facing this challenge. Be determined that the challenge of autism is not going to tear apart your marriage. Take time out to spend time as a couple.

6. Find and build a support network especially if you are a single parent. Remind yourself that you are not alone. Talk to other parents either in a support group or in an online forum. Find support that uplifts you.

7. Do your inner work. It is important to clear your emotional baggage and negative beliefs that do not serve you anymore as children will tend to mirror your inner state. Find a healing modality that is effective and gentle, and a practitioner that you feel comfortable and safe with.

8. To care for yourself I recommend these simple methods:

  • Yoga
  • Meditation
  • Deep Breathing exercises
  • Receive Reiki to raise your life force and relieve stress
  • Take Access Body Talk course as a simple First Aid technique

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Multiple Intelligences – Educational Success

Posted by admin in Special Education on January 9, 2012

By Mary Bogin

Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences has been grasped by the education community as a wonderful and meaningful way to acknowledge, “We are not all the same, we do not all have the same kind of minds, and education works most effectively for most individuals if… human differences are taken seriously.” (Gardner, 1995)

Today’s education is riddled with funding issues, dropped music and art classes for economic purposes, and problems with lower test scores. Why aren’t new teachers using Howard Gardner’s “Multiple Intelligences” as a tool to reach as many students as possible?

The Multiple Intelligences are: Auditory, Kinesthetic, Visual/Spatial, Intraspective, Interspective, Logical/Mathematical and Linguistic. Gardner suggested three more intelligences-Naturalist- Natural Environment, Spiritual/Existential- Religion /Philosophical, Moral- Ethics, Humanity, Value of Life.

These last three “intelligences” are more difficult to assess, but have been recognized in people who have improved the quality of life for others.

Human differences, our uniqueness, offer valuable contributions to society. There is creativity in everyone. Studies have found that after the rigors of raising a family, or after retirement, latent talents have been discovered, and these talents were present throughout life, but not encouraged.

It is up to parents and teachers to provide intelligent environments. Many were educated with teachers and parents who did not encourage cultural diversity, and did not say they could draw a purple tree, or sing an off- beat song. They did not ignite their imaginations, and give them quiet time to process the world’s wonder and its’ opportunities. No, multiple intelligences was not stressed in the teacher education classes, or spoken in the Pediatrician’s office. School systems, so caught up in fiduciary problems, don’t even think about getting to the root of education, which is really teaching, tailored toward the child. The IEP’s (Individual Educational Plan) rarely include assessing the “talents” of the child and then incorporating that learning style into his curriculum.

To teach using the Multiple Intelligences, students should be sitting at tables of six. If there are desks, they may be arranged in a group of six. The chairs or desks, should have space underneath for book storage. Each table or group is a team. The room is like a corporation “brainstorming” room. The teacher chooses the captain (facilitator), recorder, materials leader, for each group and the jobs will rotate around the group.

The responsibilities of the captain will be to keep the table’s students on task, and will be in charge of reporting the results of the final project. Another student will record who is doing what task for the project. This helps the teacher grade an individual student on the project. Each table will become a “team,” and create a team name. The teacher guides the class through the steps of the lesson, and the material’s student at each table will be the only one getting up for the supplies needed for the lesson. Each student’s talents will be used within the group.

Establishing stations- A student who is strong musically, and weak numerically, should be taught numerical and logical skills through music, and not by numbers alone. Math stations should provide headphones with songs including math formulas, etc. There should be an art station, writing, listening, organizing station (housing materials), and any other to encourage learning.

Finally, education using the multiple intelligences will be addressing apprenticeships, so a student will get a chance to explore a trade or profession that works within his or her intelligences. This is not to track a person into a trade, but the right apprenticeship will feel natural, and most likely bring the student into a field that will bring many years of joy since it was tailored toward his or her skills and abilities.

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