Indiana Institute FYI

Week of February 4, 2008

FYI Spotlight

Social Security Benefits Planning Regional Workshops for 2008
Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)xWorkshop
Research Study - The Hanen Program
Library Corner

Upcoming

Social Security Benefits Planning Regional Workshops for 2008: The Indiana Institute's Center on Community Living and Careers, in conjunction with Vocational Rehabilitation Services, is sponsoring a series of regional two-day workshops on social security and benefits planning.

Learning objectives include:

Basics of supplemental security income and social security disability insurance;
Work incentives for SSI;
Work incentives for SSDI trial work periods; and
Other federal and state programs such as Medicare and Medicare Part D.

Case managers, VR counselors, family members, persons with disabilities, BDDS personnel, representative payees, independent living personnel, transition coordinators, mental health personnel, advocates, employment specialists, and residential staff should plan to attend.

Training dates and locations include:

March 4-5, 2008
Holiday Inn Airport
Evansville, IN

May 20-21, 2008
REAL Services
South Bend, IN

July 29-30, 2008
Columbus City Hall
Columbus, IN

October 28-29, 2008
Bosma Industries
Indianapolis, IN

Registration fee is $85.00 per person. There is no cost to VRS personnel. Seating is limited to 25 attendees per site. Continuing Education Units (CEUs) will be available at the training. To register, contact Sherry Redman at (812) 855-6508, e-mail sredman@indiana.edu, or visit http://www.iidc.indiana.edu/cclc/ for more information.

Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) Workshop: The Institute’s Indiana Resource Center for Autism will host a one-day training Thursday, April 17, 2008 at the Noblesville Intermediate School, focusing on strategies for incorporating Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) across an entire day within functional contexts with expectations for the student to use language beyond single picture requests. Advanced PECS lessons that teach a variety of linguistic concepts and syntactical structures are described. Selection of appropriate targets, creation of functional lessons, and strategies for incorporating PECS within all activities are discussed.

Participants will learn:

The critical expressive communication skills to teach children using PECS;
How to design advanced PECS lessons;
How to analyze a classroom day and program communicative opportunities into all activities; and
How to incorporate specific training strategies for teaching linguistic concepts with PECS within functional routines across the day.

Registration fee is $150.00 per person. Professionals in general and special education, administrators, early intervention providers, and family members should plan to attend. Certificates of attendance will be provided free. Continuing Education Units/general education (CEUs) and Certification Renewal Units (CRUs) will be available on-site for an administrative fee of $15.00. Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) CEUs will be offered at .6. For content questions, contact Cathy Pratt at (812) 855-6508 or e-mail prattc@indiana.edu. For registration questions, contact either Kelly Doyle (keadoyle@indiana.edu) or Donna Beasley (dbeasley@indiana.edu) at (812) 855-6508.

Research Study

Research Study - The Hanen Program:  Andrea McDuffie, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Assistant Professor of Special Education at Indiana University-Bloomington, will conduct a research study based upon More Than Words - The Hanen Program for parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). An orientation meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, February 7, 2008 from 6:30-8:00 pm in room 3284 at the School of Education. At this meeting, parents will have the opportunity to view an introductory video, ask questions, and learn more about More Than Words and this research study. Ample parking is available behind the School of Education building.

More Than Words is a family-centered, naturalistic language program designed to provide parents of children with autism, under the age of five, with a set of practical tools they can use to support their child’s language development. The More Than Words program is implemented by a speech pathologist who holds the certificate of clinical competence from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and who has completed additional training from the Hanen Center in Toronto, Canada. More Than Words is not designed to replace other interventions for children with ASD but provides a potential resource for parents who want to learn strategies to facilitate communication and language skills during everyday routines and activities.

More Than Words is organized around four major goals: improved two-way interaction, more mature and conventional ways of communicating, better communication for social purposes, and improved language understanding. The More Than Words program lasts approximately 14 weeks and includes a pre-program consultation, eight parent group meetings and three videotaped individual parent-child coaching sessions. The More Than Words research study will also include a post-program assessment.
 
Additional information about More Than Words can be obtained by contacting Andrea McDuffie at mcduffie@indiana.edu or by visiting the Hanen Center website at http://www.hanen.org.

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.

Brandissimo, Inc. (2005). Spectrum connections: Vol. 1: Connecting emotions [DVD recording].United States: Brandissimo.

Brandissimo, Inc. (2005). Spectrum connections: Vol. 2: Connecting body movement [DVD recording]. United States: Brandissimo.

Greenwald, K. (2008). Kellie’s book: The art of the possible. Windsor, CA: Rayve Productions.

Stormont, M. (2008). Implementing positive behavior support systems in early childhood and elementary settings. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Updated 02/06/08