Schools

Annual Expo Offers Parents, Educators Tools to Help Special Education Students

Special Education Supervisor Andrea Lo received the 2013 Make a Difference Award.

The Westfield Parent-Teacher Council Special Education Committee held its annual Expo Wednesday evening at Edison Intermediate School. Parents and educators had an opportunity to attend two hour-long presentations from experts who offered insight into assisting students with special needs in a variety of ways. 

The night began with a presentation honoring Westfield School District Special Education Supervisor Andrea Lo, who received the 2013 Make a Difference Award. 

"Andrea has played a pivotal role in the education of Westfield students with learning disabilities for 25 years," the PTC Committee acknowledged in the event's program. "The PTC-Special Education Committee is honored to recognize the hard work, dedication, and compassion of Andrea Lo who has served the Westfield School District so well and continues to do so in her quiet, thoughtful and effective manner. We appreciate your good work, Andrea. Thank you for your lasting contributions."

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Lo, in accepting the award, said there's no other district she'd rather be a part of.

Following the presentation, attendees had the chance to attend two 60-minute sessions led by experts in nine different fields. (Click here to see the list of presenters.)

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Special Ed Committee co-chairs Helene Bergman and Lisa Kops-Wendel said they were extremely appreciative of the speakers sharing their expertise pro bono. 

Randall Palmer, special education and computer specialist at The Children's Institute, presented 'We Have an App for That: The iPad/iPhone-Using Technology to Break Down Barriers' in which he recommended useful and meaningful apps to support individuals with special needs. Palmer said the beauty of the iPad is that there is "no barrier to entry."

"Even a toddler can use it," he said. 

One of the first apps he suggested was Clicker Docs, a writing support tool, which transforms the iPad into an assistive word processor by suggesting proper spelling and grammar. Palmer said it also integrates with Dropbox and soon will work with Google Drive. He said Clicker is well-known in the field of special education and he looks forward to seeing what other apps they will bring to market. Clicker Docs sells for approximately $20, he said.

Another helpful app Palmer recommended is Voice Dream, a text-to-speech app, which allows users to extract texts in a number of way including from PDF, ePub, Word, and Text files in Dropbox or on your device. Palmer said this has proven invaluable to students with dyslexia. 

Palmer also suggested parents and educators visit appshopper.com and create a wish list of apps they'd like to purchase. When those apps go on sale, which will most likely happen during April as it is Autism Awareness Month, users are notified via email.

Other apps Palmer demonstrated include ChoiceworksChorePadHDSharingTimer and for middle-schoolers, Sosh, developed by a pair of cognitive psychologists, which offers adolescents tools to "Relate, Relax, Regulate, Reason, Recognize."

Anyone who missed Palmer's presentation but is interested in hearing him speak can stop by Words Book Store in Maplewood at 7 p.m. on April 4. Palmer also recommended visiting TCI's website www.tcischool.org/techtips for additional tech tips.

If you are interested in learning more about the Special Education Committee, visit www.westfieldnjk12.org/specialedparents or contact specialedparents@westfieldnjk12.org.


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