Monday, April 30, 2012

Mobile App Monday - Word Magic


Looking for an app for young children just beginning to learn to read? Word Magic is designed for kids ages 3 to 6 to help them learn their letters and how to create words. It's an award-winning app that has a very simple design and is also attractive and offers "rewards" for getting the correct answers.

Want to learn more? Visit: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/word-magic/id293630633?mt=8

Friday, April 27, 2012

Your Treasure Hunt: Disabilities and Finding Your Gold

Your Treasure Hunt: Disabilities and Finding Your Gold

Book Description:
Here’s a warm and honest portrayal of the treasure hunt of getting through life for young children with disabilities to enjoy with an adult. All children face obstacles on their lives’ treasure hunts. However, there are difficulties for children with disabilities that other children don’t experience (such as working extra hard on normal tasks, being teased, and gaining the courage to ask for help). Constructive ways of dealing with the frustrating parts of having a disability are featured in this book, as well as techniques for building a positive self image. This book emphasizes that all children can find both small and big treasures on their lives’ treasure hunts. A resources section gives suggested books and websites for parents and caregivers.

Interested? Email us at cedir@indiana.edu to check it out, or use worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Project-Based Learning



Project-Based Learning: Differentiating Instruction for the 21st Century is a collection of instructional strategies and assessment methods that will help teachers implement and differentiate project-based learning. Written for all grade levels, the book delivers clear explanations and examples as well as practical advice and numerous resources to help teach the 21st century student.

Want to check it out? Email us at cedir@indiana.edu, or use worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The Brain-Targeted Teaching Model for 21st Century Schools



The Brain-Targeted Teaching Model for 21st Century Schools offers valuable policies and practices that fit the advances in the cognitive sciences. It provides a forward-thinking model to help teachers integrate the arts with content areas and assess the extent to which brain-friendly concepts are being used in their lesson plans.

Interested? Email us at cedir@indiana.edu to check out this title, or use worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Mobile App Monday - Web Reader -- Text to Speech



Looking for a text-to-speech app that will read web pages to you? Try Web Reader -- Text to Speech. With both male and female voices to choose from, you can also choose how fast the voices speak and adjust the volume. Web Reader also lets you choose when the content is read--as soon as pages are loaded, manual start, or copy and paste so that only sections are read.

To learn more about this app, visit: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/web-reader-text-to-speech/id320808874?mt=8

Friday, April 20, 2012

Preparing Effective Special Education Teachers



Want a book with the tools teachers need to be excellent special educators? Try Preparing Effective Special Education Teachers. This book is based on current research and policy. It will help teachers build the skills that are critical to instructing and assessing students with a wide variety of learning and other disabilities. Collaborations with parents and other professionals as well as understanding how to get the most out of field placements is also discussed.

Want to know more? Check it out by emailing us at cedir@indiana.edu or use worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Speaking of Apraxia



Looking for a book for parents on the often misunderstood disorder Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)? Speaking of Apraxia: A Parents' Guide to Childhood Apraxia of Speech might be just the ticket for you. This book is written by a knowing parent who has "been there" and offers her own insight into understanding, treating, and living with a child who has this disorder. From the basics of the definition through the education aspects, this guide draws not only on the latest research but also on insights from professionals and her own and other parents' experiences.

Interested? Email us at cedir@indiana.edu to check out this title. Or use worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

RTI Applications



Looking for a helpful book on applying RTI in your classroom? RTI Applications, Volume 1: Academic and Behavioral Interventions can help. It explains how to select interventions with the greatest likelihood of success, such as matching interventions to students' proficiency levels and drawing on the latest research  on the stages of learning. All three tiers of RTI are addressed using case examples.

Want to check it out? Email us at cedir@indiana.edu or use worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Coaching Students with Executive Skills Deficits



Looking for help with students who have deficits in executive skills, including time and task management, planning, organization, impulse control, etc.? Coaching Students with Executive Skills Deficits might help. It's a manual that presents an evidence-based coaching model for helping students who are having trouble with their academics. Guidelines for incorporating coaching into a response-to-intervention framework, identifying students who can benefit, conducting each session, and monitoring progress is included.

Interested? Email us at cedir@indiana.edu to check out this title. Or use worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Mobile App Monday - Alphabet Photo Machine



Looking for an app to help your child gain confidence in learning the alphabet? Want to help develop their fine motor skills? Try Alphabet Photo Machine. While kids play, they can explore more than 333 photos and learn over 60 early sight words. This app doesn't force learning in alphabetical order but allows children to choose the photos they want to see when they want to see them. Soothing background music allows kids to practice early literacy skills without being distracting.

Want to learn more about this app? Visit: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/alphabet-photo-machine/id375031865?mt=8#

Friday, April 13, 2012

Bloomington hosts 2nd annual Creative Aging Festival



"In celebration of Older Americans Month, the City of Bloomington Commission on Aging invites the community to celebrate creativity and our aging population through its second annual Creative Aging Festival in May 2012."

To learn more about this festival and view a program guide, visit Bloomington's Commission on Aging site at: http://bloomington.in.gov/coa

Thursday, April 12, 2012

ABCD in Action: When People Care Enough to Act



Looking for a book to help build community inclusion? ABCD in action: When people care enough to act might be the ticket. Using principles and practices of ABCD (Asset Based Community Development), the book supports a practical approach to creating community collaborations. It provides examples of ABCD organizing in action, learning exercises, worksheets, and reflections from experienced practitioners of ABCD organizing.

Main topics include:
• ABCD Principles & Practice
• Discovering What People Care About
• Mobilizing A Community’s Assets
• People & Programs: We Need Both
• And more!

Interested? Email us at cedir@indiana.edu to check out this title or use worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Foreign Languages for Everyone



Looking for a practical and inspiring book to help teach foreign languages to students with learning disabilities? Foreign Languages for Everyone can help. This book is based on more than a decade of classroom experience teaching foreign languages to students with learning disabilities. It is loaded with practical tips and insights for successfully teaching foreign languages to children, young people, high school and college students, and older adults who have difficulty learning a second language.

Check out this book by emailing us at cedir@indiana.edu or using worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

What We Have Done



From the Book Description:
"Nothing about us without us" has been a core principle of American disability rights activists for more than half a century. It represents a response by people with disabilities to being treated with scorn and abuse or as objects of pity, and to having the most fundamental decisions relating to their lives where they would live; if and how they would be educated; if they would be allowed to marry or have families; indeed, if they would be permitted to live at all made by those who were, in the parlance of the movement, temporarily able-bodied.

In What We Have Done: An Oral History of the Disability Rights Movement, Fred Pelka takes that slogan at face value. He presents the voices of disability rights activists who, in the period from 1950 to 1990, transformed how society views people with disabilities, and recounts how the various streams of the movement came together to push through the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the most sweeping civil rights legislation since passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Beginning with the stories of those who grew up with disabilities in the 1940s and 50s, the book traces how disability came to be seen as a political issue, and how people with disabilities often isolated, institutionalized, and marginalized forged a movement analogous to the civil rights, women s rights, and gay rights movements, and fought for full and equal participation in American society.

Want to check it out? Email us at cedir@indiana.edu or use worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Mobile App Monday - Auto Verbal Pro Talking Soundboard



Looking for an AAC app? Try Auto Verbal Pro Talking Soundboard. Customize this app with your own photos, use the app's text-to-speech function, or scroll through to find the phrase you want to say. This app was voted the #1 iPad (#2 iPhone) Medical app in the iTunes USA Appstore in June, 2010.

Want to learn more about it? Visit: http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/autoverbal-talking-soundboard/id368727888?mt=8

Friday, April 6, 2012

Try Charleston!

Thinking about a vacation? Need one that's accessible? Think Charleston. According to Frommer's, not only is Charleston, South Carolina rich in Civil War history, it also has made a conscious effort to become wheelchair/stroller/slow walker-friendly.

Read more about this lovely vacation destination at: http://www.frommers.com/articles/7655.html

Esau's Blessing: How the Bible Embraces those with Special Needs



Looking for something spiritual? Esau's Blessing: How the Bible Embraces Those with Special Needs is a fresh look at Biblical characters with a focus on disability and how it appears in the Bible. Symptoms of ADHD, depression, physical disabilities and more are highlighted in this book as are the lessons of acceptance and compassion that we should learn from the Biblical stories where they're found.

Interested? Email us at cedir@indiana.edu to check out this title or use worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Conversations on Citizenship & Person-Centred Work



Conversations on Citizenship & Person-Centred Work is a collection of interviews of top professionals in the field of community inclusion and person-centered planning. These interviews were conducted between April and July of 2010. The eight contributors, one of whom (Connie Ferrell) is a former staff member here at the Indiana Institute, were asked questions around the idea of what makes a person a citizen. Each offers their own insight into this area of "community" inclusion.

Want to check it out? Email us at cedir@indiana.edu.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

April is Accessibility Awareness Month

The City of Bloomington has put together a calendar of Disability Awareness (last month) and Accessibility Awareness activities. We talked about the calendar for Disability Awareness activities last month but thought we'd bring it up again for the Accessibility Awareness activities that are happening around the City this month. Starting next week, many different areas will be covered in terms of accessibility: from Internet to employment to travel.

Take a look at: http://bloomington.in.gov/media/media/application/pdf/11441.pdf

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

What's New?



It's the first full month of Spring! This month brings us beautiful weather, gorgeous flowers, seasonal allergies, and a new What's New page! Check out the new items that came in the library last month at: http://www.iidc.indiana.edu/index.php?pageId=2317

Monday, April 2, 2012

Mobile App Monday - My Underwear



Looking for a fun app for a child who needs help with hand-eye coordination, memory, motor skills and/or pattern recognition? Children can finger paint their own underwear designs, feed the ravenously hungry monsters with underwear falling from the sky (yes, there are underwear-gobbling monsters!), play multiple scenes and levels with fun animations and more!

To learn more about this app, visit: http://itunes.apple.com/app/my-underwear/id412488390?ign-mpt=uo%3D6&mt=8