Indiana Institute FYI

Week of March 19, 2007

FYI at a Glance

· Employment Specialist Training (EST) Series
· Early Childhood Summer Institute
· Pratt Honored
· Journal Article Published
· Library Corner

Coming Up

Employment Specialist Training (EST) Series: The Indiana Supported Employment Training Team (ISETT) will present its second, in a series of intensive training sessions, designed to provide basic skills to service providers who have worked as employment specialists for less than one year, on May 8-10 and June 5-7, 2007 at the Indiana Institute in Bloomington.

Attendees learn best practices in job and career development, employment support planning, ecological analysis, follow-along, and emerging industry trends. EST is a six-day training split into two sessions held one month apart. An exit test is required for participants seeking certification. Individuals who attend all days of both sessions and successfully complete the exit test receive a competency-based certificate from Indiana University. CEUs and CRUs are available.

To date, the EST training team has trained and certified over 2,000 employment specialists in the state of Indiana. Past participants have included job coaches, teachers, job developers, parents, mental health professionals, vocational coordinators, state agency and Work One staff.

Additional training dates and locations include:

August 7-9 and September 4-6, 2007
Easterseals Crossroads
Indianapolis, IN

November 13-15 and December 11-13, 2007
Indiana Institute on Disability and Community
Bloomington, IN

Registration fee is regularly $300.00 per person. Act now and receive a $200.00 discount! Questions, want to register? Contact Kay Moore via e-mail at moorel@indiana.edu or call (812) 855-6508.

Early Childhood Summer Institute: The Institute's Early Childhood Center will host a week-long opportunity to look systematically at choosing and conducting kindergarten readiness assessments. This learning opportunity, scheduled for June 18-22, 2007, is designed for administrators and professionals who are involved in decision-making about kindergarten assessment.

How to Assess School Readiness in Children and Families: Preparing for Kindergarten will provide attendees with the ability to:

· Acquire the knowledge and skills to identify the characteristics that are xindicators/predictors of school readiness;

· Learn the criteria for choosing the most appropriate assessment tools to inform xessential decisions about children;

· Obtain knowledge about developing policies and practices for conducting xkindergarten readiness assessment; and

· Acquire skills in order to use the assessment results of individual children to inform xdecisions related to program scope, sequence, and support.

Registration fee is $200.00 per person. Three hours of graduate or undergraduate credit will be available for an additional fee. CEU will also be available for an additional fee. This week-long Summer Institute will be held at the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, Bloomington. For more information, or to download a registration form, visit http://www.iidc.indiana.edu/ecc/documents/SI-1-2007-AssessmentRegistration_000.pdf.

Kudos

xPratt Honored: Cathy Pratt, Center Director, Indiana Resource Center for xAutism, was honored last week at a dinner hosted by the New York xFamilies for Autistic Children (NYFAC) for her advocacy work in the field of xautism. Pratt received recognition from representatives from NYFAC, the xBorough of Queens, the New York State Assembly, and the United States xHouse of Representatives.

xJournal Article Published: Scott Bellini, Assistant Director and Jennifer xAkullian, Graduate Assistant, of the Institute's Indiana Resource Center for xAutism recently published a research study entitled A Meta-Analysis of xVideo Modeling and Video Self-Modeling Interventions for Children and xAdolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders in Exceptional Children, Vol x73, Number 3, spring, 2007.

This meta-analysis examined the effectiveness of video modeling and video self-modeling (VSM) interventions for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Twenty-three single-subject design studies were included in the meta-analysis. Intervention, maintenance, and generalization effects were measured by computing the percentage of non-overlapping data points (PND). Results suggest that video modeling and VSM are effective intervention strategies for addressing social-communication skills, functional skills, and behavioral functioning in children and adolescents with ASD.

Results also indicate that these procedures promote skill acquisition and that skills acquired via video modeling and VSM are maintained over time and transferred across persons and settings. The results suggest that video modeling and VSM intervention strategies meet criteria for designation as an evidence-based practice. For additional information on this study, contact Scott Bellini at (812) 855-6508 or e-mail sbellini@indiana.edu.

Library Corner

New Items: The following new materials may be borrowed by Indiana residents from the Center for Disability Information and Referral (CeDIR) at the Institute. To check out materials, contact the library at 1-800-437-7924, send e-mail to cedir@indiana.edu, or visit us at 2853 East Tenth Street in Bloomington.

Colker, R. (2005). The disability pendulum: The first decade of the Americans with Disabilities Act. New York: New York University Press.

Johnson, M. (Ed.). (2006). Disability awareness-do it right!: Your all-in-one how-to guide: Tips, techniques & handouts for a successful awareness day from the Ragged edge online community. Louisville, K Y: Advocado Press.

Morris, R. J. (2006). Disability research and policy: Current perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

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