Dr. Carol's Blog

Teachers have a new system in Pittsburgh Public Schools and maybe a chance at even more money thanks to the Gates Foundation – a 40 million dollar grant. What do you think?

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Effective teachers plan gets rolling in Pittsburgh school http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.post-gazette.com%252 Fpg%252F10068%252F1041269-298.stm&h=7635880c462b34274644e4ca584fcfa3&ref=mf> district

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That is the question facing administrators in the Pittsburgh Public Schools and the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers as they go about implementing a performance pay plan that is part of the $40 million grant that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded the school district last year.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10068/1041269-298.stm

Dr. Carol Utay and Pam Cook of ABC Advocacy are presenting this week at the National Conference of The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates this week in St. Louis. They are presenting Progress Monitoring: What Parents and Advocates Should Know. Progress monitoring ensures that a student’s underachievement is not due to lack of appropriate instruction. Using free research-based online Curriculum Based Measurement (CBM) probes in reading and/or math, parents or private tutors can administer assessments to verify student progress or lack of progress. This data can provide the basis for compensatory education when students fail to make progress.

The event will be repeated April 2nd at the COA meeting held in Wexford at 9:30AM at Total Learning Centers.

My brother in-law is the vice-president of a company that does more that provide lip service for people with special needs. Not only does Alliance Data hold a huge annual fundraiser to help people with special needs they also go further. They encourage their employees to volunteer and they regularly do. And, they hire people with special needs to work at Alliance Data. This is really a model of how a business can and should work to support their community. GO ALLIANCE DATA!

http://www.journalicious.us/?p=2350 The Pointer Sisters Perform in Dallas

Mar – 05 | By: http://www.journalicious.us/?author=1 The Journalista | http://www.journalicious.us/?p=2350#comments no comments.

Filed under : http://www.journalicious.us/?cat=5 D-Lite!

Alliance Data will host the 9th annual fundraiser, “A Special Evening with The Pointer Sisters” to benefit Special Care & Career Services (SCCS), a Dallas-based non-profit that strives to build independence for individuals with developmental disabilities. Headlining this year’s concert at the brand-new Winspear Opera House, Grammy-award winning music group The Pointer Sisters will perform pop classics from their repertoire that includes Jump (For My Love), I’m So Excited, and Neutron Dance, among others.

Alliance Data’s partnership with SCCS is truly multifaceted in that Alliance Data currently employs three SCCS clients, company associates regularly volunteer with SCCS, and Alliance Data also provides financial support to the non-profit.

“SCCS is an organization where we can be a real partner,” said Alan Utay, executive vice president and general counsel at Alliance Data. “All our associates would agree the single most rewarding piece of this relationship is employing Special Care clients in our offices and realizing we truly are giving back to the community.”

I love the ideas and the research that support moms and dads to know that they can make a significant difference in the executive functioning for their child but I am quite concerned if it created MORE parent guilt.

Sometimes the studies tell us exactly what make sense. Of course moms influence how their children develop all skills (and dads too.) One of my concerns with this is that it emphasizes the guilt that parents feel when there are glitches in the executive functioning areas of their children. The good news is that research shows cognitive and executive functioning weaknesses can be remediated. See other postings for more information.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-02/sfri-mih012910.php

Contact: Sarah Hutcheon shutcheon@srcd.org 202-289-7905 Society for Research in http://www.srcd.org/ Child Development

Moms influence how children develop advanced cognitive functions

Executive functioning is a set of advanced cognitive functions-such as the ability to control impulses, remember things, and show mental flexibility-that help us plan and monitor what we do to reach goals. Although executive functioning develops speedily between ages 1 and 6, children vary widely in their skills in this area. Now a new longitudinal study tells us that moms play a role in how their children develop these abilities.

The study was conducted at the University of Montreal and the University of Minnesota. It appears in the January/February 2010 issue of the journal Child Development.

The researchers looked at 80 pairs of middle-income Canadian moms and their year-old babies. It turns out that the ways moms act when they’re playing and solving puzzles with their babies can explain some of the differences in children’s development of executive functioning.

Children of moms who answered their children’s requests for help quickly and accurately; talked about their children’s preferences, thoughts, and memories during play; and encouraged successful strategies to help solve difficult problems performed better at a year and a half and 2 years on tasks that call for executive skills than children of moms who didn’t use these techniques in interacting with their youngsters.

“The study sheds light on the role parents play in helping children develop skills that are important for later school success and social competence,” according to Annie Bernier, professor of psychology at the University of Montreal and the study’s lead author.

IQ Tests Which Score is BEST?

Should we use the overall one-number-to-say-it-all full scale score on IQ tests?

ARE ALL YOUR CHILD’S SUBTEST SCORES CLOSE? If yes, then a full scale score is fine. If not, it may not be appropriate.

We somehow need to help evaluators understand the far-reaching effects of using just the one full scale score to give a summary quick picture of a child’s IQ. If the four “area scores” that make up the full scale ( verbal, nonverbal, working memory and processing speed) are all about the same, not TOO far apart, then using a combined score, the full scale IQ, makes sense. However, with students with learning disabilities, not only do we often see deficits in the verbal area but we often see lower scores in working memory and/or processing speed. This is not due to lower intelligence but problems SHOWING their intelligence using those measures (like asking a visually impaired person to prove his knowledge of the rules of baseball by describing what’s happening while watching a game). The main take away from the discussions about IQ testing is do not use full scale scores when there is significant inter or intra test scatter within the IQ test. Using the full scale score as an indication of a person’s true overall intelligence is like describing a shirt that’s part light blue, part dark blue, part light green, and part dark green, as “overall turquoise.” Yes, it’s that absurd.

Information is power. It is very important that parents have information about their child’s strengths and weaknesses so that decisions can be based on objective data more than just what seems to cause the most stress. Total Learning Centers believes that accurate relevant data offers the strongest foundation on which to build the best curriculum for students.

Our testing includes more than just intelligence testing and testing in reading, writing, and math areas because the newest research is clear- it takes more to be successful in school and in life than just these alone. Important? Yes. Sufficient? No. The student who studies and “gets it” at home then forgets for the test the next day, or finds that homework takes much longer than their friends, the child who requires extra explaining and help during homework, will need more than just help to improve reading for example. These children may have underlying weaknesses in memory, attention, organizing, processing, or processing speed.

Many are finding these Executive Functioning areas are even more critical than mastering the basics of reading, writing, spelling and math. The fact is, they are ALL needed. Total Learning Centers evaluates all these areas even during our FREE life time update testing. Look for this information about your child (memory, attention, etc.) any place you have your child tested, even if not at Total Learning Centers.

In Harrington County, Pennsylvania, a wealthy suburb installed a “feature” that allows them to turn on the webcam. The school district has said this was implemented so that if a laptop was stolen they could turn on to determine who had the laptop. However, all of this came to light when an assistant principal used a shot from the laptop webcam – taken while at home – that was used during a discipline situation.

We know schools are using the internet, emails, and webcams at school to help discipline students, keep up with students, and understand where the current school culture is at any given time. Schools are also working hard to figure out how we protect students from on-line dangers but do the “protections” step over the line?

One of the allegations is that the web cams were used for child pornography as the laptops were open in students’ bedrooms. We can awesome that was not the intent of the school district. Remember only administrators had access to the webcams. But with this technology have they gone too far? Especially without informing parents.

It will be interesting to see what happens. I think this will be a hot topic in the news. It seems as though it has already become sensationalized. This will be interesting to watch. Let us know your thoughts.

School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at school and http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.boingboing.net%252F2 010%252F02%252F17%252Fschool-used-student.html&h=9ec0bfba63fbef83ff32452a3d5 67168&ref=nf> home Boing Boing

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Many people have a fear of saying the wrong thing but for some this is an everyday worry. Students and adults with ADHD often describe words as falling out of the mouth. This article in Attitude offers some great suggestions about how to deal with the no stops issues.

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

7 strategies for reining in impulsive speech and unwelcome spontaneity.

by http://www.additudemag.com/authorID/13.html Sandy Maynard

Stop, think, then speakADDitude Magazine

If your emails are getting you in trouble, save them in the “draft” folder for 24 hours before sending them.

http://images.add-assets.com/images/HPlifeStoryEnd.gif

If you have adult attention deficit disorder (ADD ADHD), or live with someone who does, you know that being spontaneous is part of the package. Most of the time, this is a good thing. It’s what helps us to think on our feet and to brainstorm outside-the-box solutions to thorny problems.

When it comes to speech, however, spontaneity has a downside. I was reminded of that during a recent coaching session. As a client walked into my office, she noticed my newly highlighted hair. “Awesome hairdo,” she said. “It really hides the gray.” After an awkward silence, we both burst out laughing. I told her, “You were supposed to say, ‘Awesome hairdo. You look beautiful.’”

Not every case of impulsive speech is funny. Ever ask a woman when her baby’s due – only to discover she’s not pregnant? Ever badmouth a dish at a potluck dinner – only to discover you’re speaking to the person who made it? Once I ruined a surprise toga party (don’t ask) by accidentally mentioning it to the guest of honor! You already know not to talk politics or religion at social gatherings. Here are some other ways to watch what you say:

Make sure you know the topic before joining a conversation. When you begin with, “I know what you mean” and then go on to say the opposite of what was just said, it makes for an awkward moment. Don’t speak, or speak slowly, until you know exactly what you intend to say.

Don’t be too quick to share intimate information. As my grandmother used to say, “If you wouldn’t want to see what you just said on the front page of the newspaper, don’t say it at all.”

If you’re angry, wait until you’ve cooled down before having a discussion. To keep from shouting when you’re excited, take a breath and aim for a whisper instead.

If you offend someone, apologize at once. Remember, a good apology does not come with an excuse. Right way: “That was rude. Please forgive me.” Wrong way: “Sorry I said that. I’m running on four hours of sleep. It’s a wonder I can even think straight.”

Bring paper and pencil to important meetings. Jot down your comments and share them with co-workers at your leisure. If your e-mails are getting you in trouble, save them in the “draft” folder for 24 hours before sending them.

When asked your opinion, say, “Give me a moment to think about that.” The extra second or two buys you time to come up with an appropriate response.

Avoid gossip. A friend posted a sign outside her cubicle that reads, “Updates on the grandchildren, good news, and funny jokes are welcome! Gossip, complaints, and jokes in bad taste are not.”

Last but not least, if you are throwing a surprise party… good luck!

_____

http://www.additudemag.com/asset/477.jpgThis article comes from the August/September 2006 issue of ADDitude.

Below are some comments from another colleague regarding Dr. Carol’s presentation on Evaluations for the Coalition of Advocates and Attorneys in Western Pennsylvania:

Thanks for your comments Joe. You are so right — the evaluation is just the beginning of the helping process, or should be! We need to help students in not only the academic skill areas that are deficit but also in those areas that make acquisition of skills a challenge which of course include the processing, processing speed, memory, attention and the rest of the Executive Functioning areas. Hope to see you at the next COA meeting.

Subject: Re: FW: questions from COA presentation on 2-5-10

Thank you for forwarding Carol’s response.

We frequently hear about the three “R’s” and related problems, but seldom about the components that make up the three R’s-most significantly, how to identify any deficit that may exist, their impact on day-to-day- educational process, and most significantly, their role in the children’s (and adults who don’t get the necessary remedial help) life. It is difficult, but we need to keep in mind the usual suspects that show up in all these problem-areas, processing speed and working memory.

I saw a good example yesterday. During a concert of high school musicians, a Penn State professor, who had been doing a brilliant job conducting the students he had trained in just two days, had to stumble around to think of the word, “iceberg”. He recovered quickly, making a joke — the somewhat nervous audience was eager to laugh. Carol has often talked about the accommodations made by those with deficits and the energy it takes to do that and how it affects their performance. If I recall correctly, Carol characterizes the activity as “exhausting”. Neuro-scientists call it “building explicit connections when implicit ones are missing” ( I imagine Carol would have used that term if she were talking to Neuro-scientists rather than us mere mortals!).

My point is, the problems Carol touched on have real-life implications-they don’t go away- ADA, IDEA etc require that the schools address them-they give the option of IEP or 504, we as advocates need to figure out ways to help the parents to get the schools to do it.

Hopefully, Carol and/or Joe would do a session on what to do about those problems identified by these thorough evaluations!

Keep up the good work, Shari… and Carol and Joe and Bob and Ted and Alice!!!!( This should identify us by our age!)

Joe James

The snow has hit the Pittsburgh Area hard this week. Many schools have closed. In fact, for the first time in 11 years Total Learning Centers was closed for two days this week. We are now open, but not all teachers or students have been able to come in. We are looking forward to seeing everyone next week and getting back on track.

In the meantime, Total Learning Centers’ friend, Audrey Rasmusson, sent in some great ideas to keep your car working well. Thanks Audrey!

Keep your headlights clear with car wax! Just wipe ordinary car wax on your headlights. It contains special water repellents that will prevent that messy mixture from accumulating on your lights – lasts 6 weeks

Squeak-proof your wipers with rubbing alcohol! Wipe the wipers with a cloth saturated with rubbing alcohol or ammonia. This one trick can make badly streaking & squeaking wipers change to near perfect silence & clarity.

Ice-proof your windows with vinegar! Frost on its way? Just fill a spray bottle with three parts vinegar to one part water & spritz it on all your windows at night. In the morning, they’ll be clear of icy mess. Vinegar contains acetic acid, which raises the melting point of water—preventing water from freezing!

Prevent car doors from freezing shut with cooking spray! Spritz cooking oil on the rubber seals around car doors & rub it in with a paper towel. The cooking spray prevents water from melting into the rubber.

Fog-proof your windshield with shaving cream! Spray some shaving cream on the inside of your windshield & wipe it off with paper towels. Shaving cream has many of the same ingredients found in commercial defoggers.

De-ice your lock in seconds with hand sanitizer! Just put some hand sanitizer gel on the key & the lock & the problem is solved!

Hope these hints help, even just one time.

Source:  Jim Haggerty, Federal Police officer, former Registry Motor Vehicle Inspector and retired Boston Police officer