Take the survey and make a diference!

I have worked with many different children in the West Tennessee area and have talked to many parents about different topics in special education. All of these discussions have led me to create a survey for parents of children with special needs. I want to know what parents are thinking about the school system and the services their child is receiving. This survey will hopefull provide information that will be useful in determining what services are needed in the West Tennessee area. So if you are a parent of a child or children with special needs please take the survey below so your voice can be heard.
Until we meet again,
Mallory

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J9NZHGY


"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." ~Dr. Seuss

Be A Parent Advocate

I was recntly watching the Dr. Phil show and he had a special education lawyer on his show and her name was Areva Martin. Now typically I do not pay attention to a lot of celebrities who are trying to make a dollar off of parents with special needs children. They are often trying to make money off of their books or talk about a new treatment for children with special needs and I just don't buy into it unless the science and research is there to back it up. However, I continued to watch the show and listen to what she had to say. She has recently written a book called, "The Everyday Advocate". She discussed the importance of parents being advocates for their children with special needs in order to be their voice. I purchased the book at Books-A-Million and just finished it. This book is a must read for all parents of children with special needs. In her book, Areva outlines clear advocacy strategies and provides useful information and resources for families. A lot of books that discuss special education law are complicated and hard to follow but Areva does a great job clearly defining terms and gives multiple examples of cases she has worked on. She has seven Advocacy Principles and they include:
1. Take Responsibility...Be a leader
2. Learn...Be an expert
3. Think Critically...Be discerning
4. Speak with Authority...Be proactive
5. Document...Be prepared
6. Collaborate...Be a team builder
7. Educate...Be a voice for your child

I encourage all parents reading this to purchase this book really take note of what she is saying. You don't have to be a lawyer to take a stand for your child...your love, determination, and only wanting what is best for them is enough to make you the best advocate ever!


"Leaders rarely fail because of lack of knowledge or technical incompetence; they fail from lack of character."

Until we meet again,
Mallory

Social Skills=Success

Recently I had the opportunity of working at the TRIAD Social Skills Camp at Vanderbilt University. TRIAD Summer Camp provides an integrated social skills program that is designed specifically for children and youth with autism spectrum disorders between the ages of 7 and 21 who have language and reading skills. Social skills is something that we often take for granted because we learn them as we develop and it just comes naturally for us. Many people with high functioning Autism are very bright but lack the social skills to be successful in life. I find it very sad that these people who are so bright cannot hold a job due to their lack of social skills. I worked with the elementary students and the curriculum developed for this camp was based around the book: Superflex: A Superhero Social Thinking Curriculum. Superflex is the comic hero in the story and he has to fight off the team of unthinkables that are constantly trying to get into his brain. These unthinkables include:
Rock Brain: He makes people get stuck on their ideas
Wasfunnyonce: He gets people to use humor at the wrong time
Space Invader: He gets people to invade other people's space
Body Snatcher: He gets people to move away from the group
Topic Twistermeister: He get people to change topics to only what they want to talk about.
There are a total of 14 unthinkables and the book comes with comic books, worksheets, and activities that can help these students learn important social skills in a way that they can understand. A lot of people in society think these people with Autism/Aspergers are "different" because they lack the social skills that most of us take for granted. However, they have to be taught these skills because they don't acquire them like most of us do. I was really touched by an interview that was shown during our pre-camp training of a teenager girl with Aspergers and she was explaining her thoughts about social skills. She said she did not know where everyone else gets these social skills and its like everyone can just pull them out of thin air except for her. She said people at her school never talked to her because they thought she was weird and she knew that bad people did not have friends so she must be a bad person. We need to realize that these people want friends they just don't know how to make friends because they lack the important social skills that can make them so successful.
Until we meet again,
Mallory

P.S. The Superflex Curriculum can be purchased at www.socialthinking.com

It's official...I am a blogger!

I have never really understood blogging and always thought it was kind of weird that people would want to tell everyone their personal business on the web for all to see. However, I thought that maybe I can do blogging a little differently. This blog is focused on special education along with my thoughts, experiences, and information to help parents, teachers, and the community better understand the children that are "different". The title for my blog actually came from the HBO movie: Temple Grandin. If you have not seen this movie it will be released on DVD in August and I suggest you see it. Temple's mother always knew her daughter was different but did not want her treated less. That really strikes my heart because too often our society treats these children and adults as different and less. My mission for this blog is to provide information so that those who are not familiar with special education or people with special needs may change their attitudes so that everyone is treated as the great human beings they are. I look forward to sharing everything with you and I hope you can get great teaching ideas, helpful information, and give me input on things that are on your mind dealing with special education.
Until we meet again,
Mallory

"Please don't talk about me because I am different, talk to me because were not the same."