Kinsight uses Kinect sensor to find lost keys and wallets

Do you or someone you know have recurring problems with losing objects?  I don’t know about your family, but In my house, it’s usually my husband who is looking for his car keys, his wallet, or his cell phone.

If that sounds all too familiar to you, be of good cheer – help may be on the way.

BBC in the U.K. reports that two computer science researchers have developed a depth-camera based system that keeps track of household objects as they are moved around a building. You can read more about the system on BBC. For my money, they can’t bring this to market soon enough!

 

Join Me at an All-Day Workshop for Educators & Parents on December 5th

I’ll be conducting an all-day workshop for educators on Monday, December 5, 2011 at the Grappone Conference Center in Concord, New Hampshire. The event is sponsored by the University of New Hampshire Institute on Disability and is geared to regular and special education teachers, school psychologists and social workers, behavior specialists, occupational therapists, administrators, and parents.

Description:

Neurological disorders that emerge in childhood often have significant impact on students’ academic, behavioral, and social-emotional functioning. Participants will learn about the cardinal features of Tourette’s Syndrome, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Executive Dysfunction, Mood Disorders such as Depression and Bipolar Disorder, and the memory deficits, sensory issues and “storms” that sometimes accompany them. Strategies and assistive technology to accommodate symptom interference in activities such as handwriting, homework, math calculation, and written expression and big projects will be described. Pitfalls in behavioral interventions, and simple social skills and problem-solving interventions will also be identified.

For more information on the workshop and registration information, download the brochure or register online at www.iod.unh.edu.

Hope to see you there!

 

Studies Home In on ‘Quieter’ ADD Students

Sarah D. Sparks has a nice report in Education Week on recent research on students with the Inattentive subtype of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and an innovative program at one school to improve functioning. Here’s a snippet from her report:

Glenwood School for Boys and Girls, a private residential school outside Chicago for kindergarten through 8th grade students who are homeless or experiencing family and income instability. Ninety-five percent of the 120 students live in poverty, and 70 have been identified as having some type of processing or attention problem. Glenwood has implemented cognitive training for all its students.

For 30 minutes, four or five times a week, each elementary grade class uses the school’s computer lab to play through a set of 20 cognitive games called BrainWare Safari, offered by the Learning Enhancement Corp., a Chicago education software firm. Before beginning the program, teachers explain to students how the brain learns and tell them “you can strengthen the brain like you would a muscle,” said Anne Budicin, the director of the learning and resource center at the Glenwood School.

Read more on Education Week.

Executive Dysfunction: He could never find a pencil or pen

When my son was younger – and back in the days when we didn’t have a diagnosis called “Executive Dysfunction” – I used to refer to him as the “absent-minded professor” or more often, as just “terminally disorganized.”  One of his major challenges as a student was that he never seemed to have a pencil or pen in school.

Each night I would dutifully check to ensure that he had pencils and pens in his book bag.  I’d even send in extra boxes of pens and pencils for him to leave in school.  But each day, he’d wind up asking his teachers or classmates for a pen because he could never find his.

Somewhere there was a black hole in the universe where all his pens were going.

Read more

Another Great Resource for Parents

If you have been struggling to get meaningful goals, objectives, and interventions into your child’s school plan to address problems with memory, processing speed, or executive dysfunction, I’m delighted to point you to a new resource by Marilyn Dornbush, Ph.D. and Sheryl K. Pruitt, M.Ed., ET/P:

“Tigers, Too:  Supplement - Checklists for Classroom Objectives and Interventions” (Parkaire Press, 2010) is the companion to the authors’ authoritative reference guide, “Tigers, Too: Executive Functions/Speed of Processing/Memory” (Parkaire Press, 2009).

Use the supplement to assist you at 504 and IEP meetings in conjunction with other resources on this site such as Challenging Kids, Challenged Teachers (Woodbine House, 2010) and Find a Way or Make a Way (Parkaire Press, 2009).

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