Agenda for Low Incidence Institute
Tuesday, August 7
Educational Implications of Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI): Overview, Assessment, and Intervention (OT, CSN, F, VI, DB, TBI)
Session 1: Causes and characteristics of CVI
Great Start and Low Incidence Session
8:15–11:30 a.m.
Act 48; Social Work; ACVREP; Infant/Toddler: 3 hours; ASHA: 0.3 CEU; Psych: 3.25 CE hours
(Sessions 2 and 3 will be continued on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning.)
There will be three half-day sessions with separate content. Participants must attend Session 1 before attending the other sessions. Credit will be given individually for Session 1 (3
hours), or for all three half-day sessions (9 hours). Participants must choose one of those two options — no individual credit will be given for Sessions 2 or 3.
Session 1:
Cortical visual impairment (CVI) is the leading cause of visual impairment in the United States and in the world. This session includes risk factors and causes of CVI, and will provide a
basic awareness of CVI and resources that can help children with CVI. Families and other members of early intervention, educational, and BrainSTEPS teams are encouraged to attend.
Outcomes
- Define CVI
- Recognize that the development of vision is both neurological and physical
- List risk factors and causes of CVI
- Describe the ten characteristics of CVI
- Identify resources for information and support related to CVI
Dr. Christine Roman, a teacher of the blind and visually impaired and for more than 30 years, has been a research pioneer in the study of cortical visual impairment (CVI). She is the author of the book Cortical Visual Impairment — An Approach to Assessment and Intervention and a recipient of the prestigious C. Warren Bledsoe award. She is the CVI Project Leader for the American Printing House for the Blind, the director of a clinic for visual assessment for CVI at Pediatric View at West Penn Hospital, and special assistant to the Superintendent at the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children.
The Role of the Adapted Physical Educator (APE, F, OT, PT)
8:15–11:30 a.m.
Act 48; Social Work; ACVREP: 3 hours; ASHA: 0.3 CEU; Psych: 3.25 CE hours
This session will examine the need to address challenges that students with disabilities may experience in physical education. The session leaders will provide background on the underlying reasons why students might have motor delays affecting access to the physical education curriculum and how to address the needs identified by the IEP team. In addition, the collaborative relationship between education staff, adapted physical education, and occupational and physical therapy will be emphasized to help students maximize function, mobility, and self-confidence. The training will also include practical strategies for the classroom, playground, and physical education environments to adapt activities, incorporate therapeutic strategies, develop strength and coordination, and generalize skills, and will examine successful strategies to provide instructional supports.
Outcomes- Identify the requirements of APE for students with disabilities
- Identify strategies to address gross motor challenges
- Distinguish the different roles of the adapted physical educator, special education teacher, occupational and physical therapist
Pamela Girvin Hackett, is co-owner and founder of Pediatric Therapeutic Services, Inc. Her work with pediatric therapeutic services (PTS) has enabled her to leverage her early experience building and managing a therapy division for a national staffing company and her professional training as a physical therapist.
Hackett had been a senior therapist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for six years when she met co-founder Diana Fongheiser through a business relationship. The two realized the potential to bring real change to the way that children with disabilities are supported in their school environment and founded PTS in 1998. By combining clinical excellence with innovative special education programming and information technology solutions, PTS has helped transform the delivery of related services in the region. In creating PTS, Hackett’s goal was to combine her passions for helping children and entrepreneurship by building a highly successful company that would be a blessing to the community.
Hackett is a published author in pediatrics as well as a contributing writer for local and national publications for children with disabilities. She has been a guest speaker at several state special education conferences, providing training on “Controlling the Cost of Related Services.” She also serves on the Bureau of Education’s Advisory Council on Adapted Physical Education for Students with Disabilities.
As part of PTS’ commitment to the greater community, the company has adopted the Beautiful Gate Special School in Mysore, India. Hackett has twice traveled to Mysore to provide training and support to the teachers and students’ families.
Joann Judge, M.ED/CAPE, has taught as the adapted physical educator for the Lancaster School District, and is currently working on her doctoral degree at the University of Virginia.
Supporting Students with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) During Post–High School Transition (F, TBI, SLP, OT, PT)
8:15 a.m.–4:45 p.m.
Act 48; Social Work; ACVREP, 6 hours; ASHA: 0.6 CEU; Psych: 6.5 CE hours
Students with TBI present unique challenges for professionals and families who support them during post–high school transition. This presentation will detail the unique challenges faced by students, offer best practice approaches outlined in the research, and outline a conversational approach to working with students. Participants will receive tools designed specifically to assist in guiding students through this challenging time. Time for practice using these tools and questions and answers will be included.
Outcomes- Explain the importance of assisting students through the use of a nonconfrontational, conversational approach to transition
- Explore the challenges unique to students with TBI who are transitioning after high school
- Examine tools designed to support students transitioning after high school
Patricia Sublette, PhD, is an assistant special education director at Douglas ESD in Oregon. Recently employed as a research professor at the Teaching Research Institute, she served as the Traumatic Brain Injury Education Coordinator for the state of Oregon for four years. Currently, Sublette leads the TBI team in Douglas County Oregon Traumatic Brain Injury Team, and teaches an online class on supporting students with TBI.
Sue Hayes is a speech pathologist who has participated in the Oregon Statewide Brain Injury Team for 17 years. She is currently an administrator for the High Desert Education Service District in Bend, Oregon, and is the TBI liaison for her region, which includes 26 school districts. Recently she has focused her energy in developing tools to support conversations that assist individuals with brain injury in playing a meaningful role in planning their future.
Identifying Communicative Competence and Developing Communicative Competence through Academic Content (CSN, AT, F, OT, SLP)
8:15 a.m.–4:45 p.m.
Act 48; Social Work; ACVREP: 6 hours; ASHA: 0.6 CEU; Psych: 6.5 CE hours
This session will provide participants with an opportunity to increase their knowledge and skills in regard to communication and communication competence. Providing students with complex support needs a means to communicate, and recognizing communicative intent, provides students a way to access academic content and demonstrates what students have learned. Join us as we identify evidence-based strategies to increase communication competence.
Outcomes- Differentiate communication competence and language development in learners with significant cognitive disabilities
- Identify student communication intents and forms
- Identify evidence-based strategies for building communicative competence
Jacqueline (Jacqui) Farmer Kearns, EdD, at the University of Kentucky, directs the professional development component of the NCSC GSEG Project under the direction of the University of Minnesota. She also co-directs a communication intervention project in Kentucky. Previously, Dr. Kearns served as Principal Investigator for the National Alternate Assessment Center, a collaborative effort with UNCC, NCEO, NCIEA, and CAST that brought together measurement, special educators, and content specialists learning/teaching about alternate assessments. She has completed other OSEP-funded directed research projects “Including Students Who Are Deafblind in Large-Scale Assessment,” “Universal Design for Assessment: Applications of Technology,” and “Validity Evaluation of Kentucky Alternate Assessment.” She also is completing a multistate GSEG consortium on validity evaluation of alternate assessments. She co-authored two texts on alternate assessment.
Jane O’Regan Kleinert, PhD, is an associate professor in the Division of Communication Sciences and Disorders in the College of Health Sciences at the University of Kentucky. She is a licensed speech/language pathologist with more than 35 years of experience, specializing in services to children with severe/multiple disabilities, use of AAC in the schools, motor speech, and oral feeding disorders.
Kleinert’s research, teaching, and grant work focus on support of self-determination and communication via AAC for students with significant disabilities. She is currently the co-primary investigator for the TAALC (Teaching Age-Appropriate Leaning via Communication), a statewide low incidence initiative grant to improve communication services to students with the most significant disabilities in the schools. She is a co-primary investigator for the National Center for Educational Outcomes GSEG sub-grant to HDI/University of Kentucky to Dr. Jacqui Kearns, the primary investigator. She consulted with the National Alternate Assessment Center assisting in developing the Learning Characteristic Inventory for students in the AA for which data on more than 44,000 students has been collected and is currently under analysis. She has published and presents nationally in the above areas.
Meaningful Connections through Conversation and Respectful Touch (DB, F)
8:15 a.m.–4:45 p.m.
Act 48; Social Work; ACVREP; Infant/Toddler: 6 hours; ASHA: 0.6 CEU; Psych: 6.5 CE hours
This will be an interactive session that will engage participants in thinking about how to connect meaningfully with children who have multiple learning challenges, including challenges in the areas of vision, hearing, physical movement, sensory integration, and cognition. Participants will be encouraged to draw on their own experiences and will hear presentation of theory and specific techniques. They will also see videos of effective interactions, and will engage in guided discussion and exercises designed to help them envision new ways of connecting with their students, family members, and friends who have access and learning challenges.
Outcomes- Explore how to make meaningful connections with children with complex support needs to increase learning
- Discuss specific techniques to help support effective interactions when connecting with families and professionals that work with children who have complex support needs
- Examine vision, hearing, physical movement, sensory integration, and cognition of children with complex support needs
Barbara Miles is an author and editor, along with Marianne Riggio, of Remarkable Conversations: A guide to developing meaningful communication with children and young adults who are deafblind (Perkins School for the Blind, 1999). She also wrote “Talking the Language of the Hands to the Hands: The importance of hands and touch for persons who are deafblind” (DBLink, 1999). She has recently collaborated with colleagues in the Tactile Communication Network of Deafblind International to produce a DVD entitled ”The Landscape of Touch "which premiered at the International Conference on Deafblindness in September 2011. She was a classroom teacher at Perkins School for the Blind, and is currently an independent consultant with a particular interest in communication. She lives in Vermont.
Lunch
11:30 a.m.–12:15 p.m.
Keynote Presentation
Positive Exposure: The Spirit of Difference
12:15–1:15 p.m.
Act 48; Social Work; ACVREP and/or Infant/Toddler: 1 hour; ASHA: 0.1 CEU; Psych: 1 CE hours
Rick Guidotti’s photographs investigate the social and psychological experiences of people living with genetic, physical, and mental health conditions of all ages and ethnocultural heritages. This session will help you discover how to best meet the needs of children and families with, or at risk for, genetic disorders. Ways to see each individual living with a genetic difference first and foremost as a human being with his/her own special needs, rather than as a specific diagnosis/disease entity, will be explored.
Outcomes- Describe the social and psychological experiences of people of all ages and ethnocultural heritages living with genetic, physical, and mental health conditions
- Discuss ways to best meet the needs of children and families with, or at risk for, genetic disorder
Rick Guidotti, an award-winning former fashion photographer, has spent the past fourteen years working internationally
with advocacy organizations/NGOs, medical schools, universities, and other educational institutions to effect a sea-change in societal attitudes towards individuals living with genetic
difference. His work has been published in newspapers, magazines, and journals as diverse as Elle, GQ, People, American Journal of Medical Genetics, The Lancet, Spirituality and
Health, The Washington Post, Atlantic Monthly, and Life Magazine.
Guidotti is the founder and director of Positive Exposure, an innovative arts, education, and advocacy organization working with individuals living with genetic difference. Positive Exposure utilizes the visual arts to significantly impact the fields of genetics, mental health, and human rights. Positive Exposure photographic exhibition premiered at the June 2001 People’s Genome Celebration, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in DC, and continues to exhibit in galleries, museums, and public arenas internationally
Educational Implications of Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI): Overview, Assessment, and Intervention (OT, CSN, F, VI, DB, TBI)
Continued from Tuesday morning
Tuesday, 1:30–4:45 p.m.
Tuesday morning is a prerequisite.
Wednesday, 8:45 a.m.–noon
Participants must attend Session 1 before attending the other sessions. Credit will be given individually for Session 1 (3 hours), or for all three half-day sessions (9 hours). No individual credit will be given for Sessions 2 or 3.
Session 2: Assessment for the Educational Implications of CVI
While the diagnosis of CVI is a medical diagnosis, we must integrate what we know about the neurological and physical development of vision with the way that the child communicates,
interacts, and learns. This session will focus on the assessment process for the educational implications of CVI. Families and other members of early intervention, educational, and
BrainSTEPs teams are encouraged to attend.
- Describe assessment considerations, including ongoing progress monitoring
- Discuss the importance of team collaboration for the assessment of visual characteristics associated with CVI
- Identify basic characteristics of the CVI phases
Christine Roman (see bio in Tuesday morning session)
Providing Quality APE for Students with Complex Support Needs in a Public School PE Class (APE, F, OT, PT)
1:30–4:45 p.m.
Act 48; Social Work; ACVREP: 3 hours; ASHA: .3 CEU; Psych: 3.25 CE hours
This presentation will provide an overview of quality physical education and offer insight on Adapted Physical Education (APE) as it pertains to the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). The presentation will identify the responsibilities of the adapted physical educator and present innovative ideas and instructional strategies to support students with disabilities in the physical education class. The session will also include examples of available resources.
Outcomes- Identify common misconceptions and best practices regarding physical education programs and instructional services for students with disabilities
- Locate and utilize professional resources to plan, implement, and evaluate appropriate physical education services for students with disabilities
Joann Judge, M.ED/CAPE, has taught as the adapted physical educator for the Lancaster School District, and is currently working on her doctoral degree at the University of Virginia.
