BY KATHERINE FIRESTONE School was hard for me. I felt like an imposter. I was in honors classes but I felt like I had to work so much harder than everyone else to get the same grades. I had to read to myself out loud so that I would understand what I was reading and not skip ahead. It took forever. Then I had to go back and highlight everything I had just read to […]
Families should carefully weigh the pros and cons of charter schools and vouchers, and speak with their Parent Training and Information Center about their state laws, regulations, and policies regarding special education and charters or vouchers, before making a decision. BY MARIA DOCHERTY AND LAUREN AGORATUS, M.A. With the increased focus in the United States on charter schools and the use of vouchers to support student attendance at private schools, more and more parents of […]
People with intellectual disabilities face health care providers who don’t have the knowledge or willingness to treat them. Despite severe need and higher health risks, people with ID are often denied health services. BY KRISTIN HUGHES SROUR, MBA If you want to help straighten her bones, dig a hole in the ground, have your daughter stand in it and then pack it with soil. Do this every day for six hours. This was the advice […]
by Judith Harding, Ed.D. Collaboration with parents of children with Down syndrome is legally mandated and pedagogically sound. This process allows parents and professionals to share in mutual decision making regarding the student’s educational program. Positive collaboration works because it makes available multiple perspectives, expands competence, and enhances the process for all involved. The benefits of positive partnerships between parents and professionals may result in improving academic achievement and functional life skills for students. Yet […]
by Amy Silverman Sophie is trying out for freshman cheer. Sitting under the fluorescent lights of a big public high school gym for two hours yesterday afternoon, my thoughts veered wildly — from total disgust with our society for condoning (no, make that celebrating) the idea that it’s cool for girls to put on skimpy outfits and jump around with pom poms, encouraging boys to smash their heads into the ground and each other in order to […]
