Government announces funding for support of parents with additional needs children August 29, 2008
Posted by Hilery Williams in : Additional Support, inclusion , add a commenthttp://www.holyrood.com/content/view/2878/10051/
The Minister for Children and Early Years Adam Ingram has announced the Scottish Government funding for advocacy services for parents of children with additional support needs (ASN). The two main voluntary services that support and represent parents in Scotland challenging their child’s ASN educational provision are to receive £110,000 to assist them with this work over this financial year, following one of the groups, the Independent Special Education Advice (ISEA) Scotland, main grant funder, the Big Lottery Fund, not renewing its grant this year. Ingram said: “The Scottish Government wants all our children to receive an education that maximises learning and encourages development. This is particularly relevant when a child has additional support needs to be considered.
ICT and Communication August 24, 2008
Posted by Morna McDonald in : Uncategorized , 4commentsLast term I was privileged to visit a special school in Glasgow, Croftcroighn. The work which was being done on literacy and communication was innovative and inspiring and I left with my head absolutely buzzing and so much to think about. A couple of weeks later Croftcroighn’s HMIe report was published - wow!
Since then I’ve worked with Elizabeth Cowan our ICT curriculum Officer and a speech therapist to develop and implement some of the innovative practice I observed.
We’ve created a Communication Book (using BoardMaker V6) for one wee lass who has no spoken language but has lots to say, we’ve invested in some new software to trial, bought some funky stationery and Talking Photo albums (A5 and A3 size), a new digital camera and I still have a wish list! Creating the Communication Book has certainly stretched (and greatly enhanced) my Boardmaker skills! Now I keep thinking of more and more applications for the software.
The software is Communicate:In Print 2 by Widget. Every word which is typed has a symbol which appears above the word - even ‘the’ and ‘a’ have symbols. This supports the child who finds it difficult to recognise abstract symbols (writing) and the added visual symbols can open up a whole new world. The symbols an be switched off or only used for specific words and images can be uploaded. You may choose to upload images of ORT characters for example or photos so if you type a name you get an actual picture of that place or person. At Croftcroighn some of the children were now reading and these youngsters had severe and complex difficulties - it was wonderful! Additional specific symbols can be purchased - Shakespeare for example. So far I’ve written a social story and had a go at a couple of other things so I’m looking forward to experimenting a bit more.
We’ve been using Talking Photo albums for quite a while in schools but the A3 ‘Big Book’ size was new to me. It’s now in a P5 classroom and the class will use it to record their ES topic - the Seashore - artwork, photos, text - whatever the children choose to record. This will give a voice to a pupil who has no spoken language enabling her to share in the work of her class and to express her views.
I’d be interested to know how teachers in East Lothian are using technology to give kids a voice.
Unblock thinking to learn more August 22, 2008
Posted by Hilery Williams in : Additional Support, inclusion , 1 comment so farhttp://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6001223
Traditional remedial classes could soon be replaced by an ‘instrumental enrichment’ programme. Elizabeth Buie reports. A thinking skills programme in the Borders has improved the attainment of youngsters with learning problems and won praise from teachers and senior management. An evaluation of the Scottish Borders Council’s “instrumental enrichment” programme by a team from Strathclyde University’s Quality in Education Centre suggests it could be more successful in the long term than traditional remedial classes. However, to be truly effective, the programme, based on the work of the Israeli educationist Reuven Feuerstein, had to be prolonged and comprehensive. The backing of senior school management and resources from the local authority were also seen as essential. There were indications that pupils who had taken part in the Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment (FIE) programme became more active classroom participants, more inclined to listen to others, more likely to defend their opinions based on logical evidence, better able to articulate how they solved problems, more likely to read spontaneously and follow written instructions, and better able to handle several sources of information simultaneously. One reason for this progress could be that the teachers involved were found to have significantly changed their attitudes towards learning and learners.
Rich conversations about learning recorded by infants August 19, 2008
Posted by Hilery Williams in : Access, Additional Support, Literacy, inclusion , add a commentMy-E http://www.futurelab.org.uk/projects/my_…
My-E (My Education) is a prototype online visual environment that can support very young students to explore and express their own personal learning experiences, interests and aims.
The software application allows young children (aged 5 and 6) to construct stories about their learning experiences and preferences through multi-layered representations (such as shapes, icons and sounds), which teachers, adults and parents/carers help them to develop. The aim of this is to encourage children, parents/carers and teachers/adults to be more involved in rich conversations about learning that can help foster greater links between homes and schools and support a more personalised educational approach.
Wouldn’t it be good if it were suitable for older learners with literacy / communication difficulties?
Scottish-US study to help deaf and hard of hearing children with maths August 14, 2008
Posted by Hilery Williams in : Curriculum, Hearing Impairment , add a commentScientists in Scotland and the US will undertake a study to investigate why children who are deaf or hard of hearing experience problems with maths.www.LTScotland.org.uk/news/2008/educational/august/news_tcm4497816.asp
Researchers in Scotland and the US will now spend four years investigating the problem after being awarded £800,000 in funding from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development in America.
The study will examine a number of areas including memory and attention skills, parental and child attitudes to maths and basic number skills.
Person Centred Planning June 26, 2008
Posted by Hilery Williams in : inclusion , 2comments
Several of us in East Lothian were privileged to attend training on Person Centred Planning provided by Inclusive Solutions http://www.inclusive-solutions.com/) in May.
My Mind Map illustrates the process of making a MAP (Making Action Plans) - a structure that is used at Review Meetings where the child is at the centre. It is ‘a way of organising around one person to define and create a better future’. The idea is that the people who speak the most should be the people who know the person best and that professionals listen to a person’s dreams and acknowledge her/his nightmares so as to decide on actions.
Many of us have already had some practice - with each other and in real review meetings - and are planning to carry on with this exciting method of planning next session.
P.S. If you want to see the Mind Map more clearly, just click on it and it will magically enlarge. Oh the wonders of technology.
Literacy and English experiences and outcomes June 24, 2008
Posted by Hilery Williams in : Curriculum, Literacy , 3commentsHere is a personal Mind Map of the thinking behind the draft experiences and outcomes in the Literacy and English document from CfE.
Do let me know if it makes sense.
Accessible sites for visually impaired learners June 24, 2008
Posted by Hilery Williams in : Access, Visual Impairment , add a commentThis link retrieves sites with good usability for visually impaired.
http://labs.google.com/accessible/
Thanks to David Gilmour for the link.
Time to see things from a different point of view June 24, 2008
Posted by Hilery Williams in : Access, Additional Support , add a commentThe Herald Society features the experiences of Natasha Stevens, a 14-year-old pupil who suffers from complex vision problems - in fact she has several, including colour blindness and night blindness as well as cone rod dystrophy and retinitis pigmentosa - two progressive eye conditions.
‘If school work given to Natasha is not perfectly formatted - in the right font and size, and on a white background, then she can’t use it. Pictures also need to be separate from text. For the most part, her schoolteachers try enlarging handouts onto A3 paper - but, according to her mother, that can make the letters fuzzy and hard to read. “They think they’re doing good, but they are just making it harder for Natasha…’
Unfortunately this experience is common for blind and partially-sighted children, according to the Royal National Institute of Blind People in Scotland (RNIB) which launched a campaign on the issue of educational materials at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre yesterday.
The Right to Learn campaign is calling for a National Education Transcription Service which would transcribe curriculum material to a consistent professional standard, at the same time as it is being produced for other pupils.
RNIB Scotland launches ‘Right to Read’ campaign http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/publicwebsite/public_scotnews08_ia485fe654-8.hcsp
Launch event highlighting shortage of educational material in accessible formats.
RNIB Scotland says blind and partially sighted schoolchildren can still struggle to access textbooks in a format they can understand.
They have launched a new campaign to highlight the dearth of educational material available in braille, large print, CD or audio. A giant poster was unveiled in Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre yesterday by young people who themselves have sight loss.
RNIB Scotland is proposing that a National Education Transcription Service be established that could transcribe curriculum material to a consistent professional standard, and be a single point for liaison with educational publishers.
The campaign is being supported by a youth forum, ‘Haggeye’, set up by and for 12 to 25 year-olds with sight loss in Scotland.
Supporting diversity and equality through improved access June 20, 2008
Posted by Hilery Williams in : Access, ICT, Resources, inclusion , add a commenthttp://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2008/06/techdis.aspx
JISC reports on groundbreaking work that will provide support for delivery of resources to disabled students and staff.
The JISC TechDis Service has joined forces with the Publishers Association to provide resources which have the potential to transform the delivery of learning materials to disabled students and staff.
These two resources, developed in collaboration with the RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) and several major publishers, will support the delivery of materials in alternative formats to meet the needs of people with a range of disabilities, a crucial requirement for equality of access for all students and staff in education and research. One of the resources – Publisher Lookup UK - will enable education providers and publishers to source electronic formats of textbooks for students with disabilities more quickly and efficiently than existing processes allow.
Good news for people needing to circumvent the barrier of print. And good news too, ultimately, for learners in countries whose libraries and schools are shockingly short of resources because of poverty and/or conflict. How terrific it must be to be a teacher in an African classroom to come across text books online. It will revolutionise children’s learning world wide. (And yes of course there are issues about connectivity and access to computers but that is being addressesd too, not least by the World Bank.)
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