Indiana Institute FYI

Week of July 16, 2007

FYI at a Glance

· Benefit Event for Citizen Advocacy of South-Central Indiana
· Federal Grant to Improve Special Education Instruction Awarded
· Journal Article Published
· Library Corner

Coming Up

Benefit Event for Citizen Advocacy of South-Central Indiana: Looking for something to savor on a summer Sunday evening? Come enjoy champagne, appetizers, roaming opera singers, and Silpada designs jewelry and support the Citizen Advocacy of South-Central Indiana (CASCI).

CASCI, a local non-profit that facilitates and supports matching advocates with citizens with disabilities, will host this benefit on Sunday, July 22, from 6:30-9:00 p.m. at tutto bene wine café in downtown Bloomington. Tickets are $15.00 per person and are on sale now. Prepurchase tickets now and have your name entered in a drawing for a tutto bene gift basket or a Lara Hasler Gift Basket and massage, and Silpada jewelry. For more information, contact Dixie Patterson at (812) 855-6508 or e-mail dpatters@indiana.edu. Corporate sponsors include tutto bene wine café, Silpada Designs, Information in Place, Inc., Options for Better Living, Stone Belt Arc, and Dr. Denise Howard and Associates.

In the News

xFederal Grant to Improve Special xEducation Instruction Awarded: xIndiana University’s School of Education was awarded a Special Education Pre-Service Training Improvement Grant, through the U.S. Department of Education, to fund research designed to improve special education instruction with a specific focus on personnel preparation to help special educators met the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Gretchen Butera, Associate Professor of Special Education, will lead the project in collaboration with other faculty from special education, math and language education, and the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community.

The work of the grant will examine and improve special education and masters graduate certification programs. Issues related to highly qualified teachers, as mandated by federal law, will be addressed. Project participants will also consider redesigning how teachers are prepared to address the needs of an increasingly diverse student populations, including students with emotional and behavioral disorders.

For more information, visit http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/5967.html or contact Chuck Carney, Director of Communication and Media Relations, Indiana University School of Education at (812) 856-8027 or e-mail ccarney@indiana.edu.

Kudos

xJournal Article Published: Scott Bellini, Assistant Director of the xInstitute’s Indiana Resource Center for Autism and Andrea Hopf, xDoctoral Student within the School Psychology program at Indiana xUniversity, coauthored a recent journal article that introduces the Autism xSocial Skills Profile (ASSP), an assessment tool that provides a xcomprehensive measure of social functioning in children and xadolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

There is a critical need to develop reliable and valid social skills assessment tools for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The ASSP is designed to assist with intervention planning and to provide a measure of intervention outcomes. The Development of the Autism Social Skills Profile: A Preliminary Analysis of Psychometric Properties, published in the journal, Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, provides a preliminary analysis of the psychometric properties of the ASSP. Results indicate that the ASSP has excellent psychometric properties with respect to internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity. For more information regarding this study, contact Bellini at the Indiana Institute (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, visit us at 2853 East Tenth Street in Bloomington.

Chinn, S., & Ashcroft, J. (2006). Mathematics for dyslexia: Revised to include
dyscalculia. Chinchester, England; Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.

Cohen, E., & Kaufmann, R. (2005). Early childhood mental health consultation.
Rockville, MD: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.

Lerner, C., & Dombro, A. (2005). What’s best for my baby and me?: A 3-step guide for parents. Washington, DC: Zero to Three.

Richards, D., & Martin, J. (2006). 2006 IDEA Final Part B Regulations: What you need to know. Horsham, PA: LRP Publications.

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