Resources

The Janus School News

The Janus School News highlights what is going on in and around our school, helpful tips from faculty and staff, and what we find interesting in the larger field of education for students with learning differences. We help to educate others about learning differences and dispel some commonly believed myths.

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Websites & Organizations

All Kinds of Minds
All Kinds of Minds is a nonprofit institute for the understanding of differences in learning. The institute’s mission is to help students who struggle with learning measurably improve their success in school and life by providing programs that integrate educational, scientific, and clinical expertise.

All Kinds of Minds Parent Toolkit
The All Kinds of Minds Parent Toolkit is designed to give parents, caregivers, and educators a better understanding of learning differences, as well as providing strategies and resources.

All Kinds of Minds Learning Framework
This website explains the learning framework behind All Kinds of Minds. The Janus School uses the All Kinds of Minds neurodevelopmental framework to help frame learning profiles and annual goals.

Bookshare
Bookshare is a large accessible online library for people with print disabilities.

Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)
Founded in 1984 as the Center for Applied Special Technology, CAST has earned international recognition for its development of innovative, technology-based educational resources and strategies based on the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

Children and Adults with ADHD (CHADD)
CHADD is a national organization that provides a support network for parents, continuing education about attention deficits, and resources to help children with attention deficits in educational settings.

Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)
The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) is the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving educational outcomes for individuals with exceptionalities, students with differences, and/or the gifted. CEC advocates for appropriate governmental policies, sets professional standards, provides continual professional development, advocates for newly and historically underserved individuals with exceptionalities, and helps professionals obtain conditions and resources necessary for effective professional practice.

Council for Learning Disabilities (CLD)
CLD provides services to professionals who work with individuals with learning differences.

Dr. Jane Bluestein
Dr. Bluestein created Instructional Support Services, Inc. and I.S.S. Publications in April of 1983 to provide resources and instructional programs to educators, counselors, parents and the general public. Dr. Bluestein’s mission is to provide practical, helpful and meaningful information –as well as inspiration, encouragement and hope– in areas related to relationship building, effective instruction and guidance, and personal development.

DyslexiaHelp from University of Michigan
DyslexiaHelp at the University of Michigan is a website designed to educate and inform dyslexics, parents, and professionals about dyslexia and other language disorders.

Learning Disabilities Association of America
LDA is the largest nonprofit volunteer organization advocating for individuals with learning differences and has over 200 state and local affiliates in 42 states and Puerto Rico. LDA’s international membership of more than 40,000 includes members from 27 countries around the world.

Learning Disabilities Resources
Learning Disabilities Worldwide, Inc. (LDW) is a non-profit, volunteer organization including individuals with learning differences, their families, and professionals. LDW has more than 15,000 subscribers worldwide. The LD Resources web site has been providing information for people with learning differences and people who work with people with learning differences since 1995.

LearningAlly
LearningAlly offers textbook and literature audiobooks to students with print and learning disabilities.

The MindShift Guide to Understanding Dyslexia

This 41-page PDF includes extensive information on dyslexia, tips on how to recognize dyslexia in children, teaching techniques for educators, assistive technology, how parents can prepare for an IEP meeting, and experiences of adults with dyslexia.

National Center for Learning Disabilities
The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) works to ensure that the nation’s 15 million children, adolescents and adults with learning differences have every opportunity to succeed in school, work and life. NCLD provides essential information to parents, professionals and individuals with learning differences, promotes research and programs to foster effective learning, and advocates for policies to protect and strengthen educational rights and opportunities.

National Resource Center on ADHD (NRC)
To help parents and students adapt to changing school environments, the National Resource Center on ADHD (NRC), a funded CDC partner, has worked to create resources and support for parents.

Teaching LD
Teaching LD is a service of the Division for Learning Disabilities (DLD) of the Council for Exceptional Children.

The Education Law Center: PA
ELC is a nonprofit legal advocacy and educational organization, dedicated to ensuring that all of Pennsylvania’s children have access to a quality public education.

The Hallowell Center
The Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health specializes in the understanding and managing of attention deficits, worry/anxiety, and child and adult learning difficulties. The site offers informative articles and materials by Dr. Ned Hallowell.

The International Dyslexia Association
The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping individuals with dyslexia, their families and the communities that support them. IDA is the oldest learning differences organization in the nation – founded in 1949 in memory of Dr. Samuel T. Orton, a distinguished neurologist. Throughout their rich history, their goal has been to provide the most comprehensive forum for parents, educators, and researchers to share their experiences, methods, and knowledge.

Understood.org
Understood.org’s mission is to “help the millions of parents whose children, ages 3–20, are struggling with learning and attention issues. We want to empower them to understand their children’s issues and relate to their experiences. With this knowledge, parents can make effective choices that propel their children from simply coping to truly thriving. This journey can pose challenges, though. That’s where Understood comes in. Understood aims to give parents a direct path to the support they need most to make them feel more confident and capable, less frustrated and alone.”

Suggested Reading

“Social Fortune or Social Fate: A Social Thinking Manga-Style Map for Social Quest Seekers,” by Pamela Crooke and Michelle Garcia Winner, published by Think Social Publishing.  This book uses anime illustrations to show Michelle Garcia Winner’s Social Behavior Mapping (SBM), that teaches how our own behaviors, expected and unexpected, impact how others feel about us, and ultimately how they treat us, which then affects how we feel about ourselves.

“Socially Curious and Curiously Social: A Social Thinking Guidebook for Bright Teens and Young Adults” by Pamela Crooke and Michelle Garcia Winner, published by Think Social Publishing. This detailed anime guidebook helps teens and young adults navigate their social worlds and manage social anxiety.

“Smart but Scattered Teens: The “Executive Skills” Program for Helping Teens Reach Their Potential,” by Richard Guare, Peg Dawson, and Colin Guare, published by The Guilford Press.  This guide provides a program for promoting teens’ independence by building their executive skills, with step-by-step strategies that help teens live up to their potential while making relationships stronger.

“Smart but Scattered: The Revolutionary “Executive Skills” Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential,” by Peg Dawson and Richard Guare, published by The Guilford Press. Learn steps to identify your child’s strengths and opportunities for growth, find activities and techniques to improve specific executive skills, and problem-solve daily routines.

“The Smart but Scattered Guide to Success: How to Use Your Brain’s Executive Skills to Keep Up, Stay Calm, and Get Organized at Work and at Home,” by Peg Dawson and Richard Guare, published by The Guilford Press. In this guide, the authors help you figure out your own executive skills profile and share steps to boost your organizational skills, time management, emotional control, and nine other essential “executive skills.”

“Managing ADHD in School: The Best Evidence-Based Methods for Teachers,” by Russell Barkley, published by PESI Publishing and Media. This book includes more than 100 evidence-based recommendations to help teachers and clinicians increase the success of children and teens with ADHD.  It goes beyond the “what” to explain “why” the problems are likely occurring.

“Taking Charge of ADHD, Third Edition: The Complete, Authoritative Guide for Parents,” by Russell A. Barkley, published by The Guilford Press.  This parent resource gives information about ADHD and its treatment, including an eight-step behavior management plan, as well as lots of practical tips.

“The MindShift Guide to Understanding Dyslexia,” by Holly Korbey.  This 41-page PDF includes extensive information on dyslexia, tips on how to recognize dyslexia in children, teaching techniques for educators, assistive technology, how parents can prepare for an IEP meeting, and experiences of adults with dyslexia.

Learning Difference Simulations

Through Your Child’s Eyes
Understood.org gives parents the chance to experience learning and attention issues through their child’s eyes with various simulations.

Dyslexia Simulation #1
This simulation is courtesy of Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School.

Dyslexia Simulation #2
This simulation is courtesy of Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School.

Dyslexia Font Simulation
Daniel Britton, a British graphic designer, created a font meant to show readers the frustration that a dyslexic faces as he or she tries to read.

PBS Misunderstood Minds
This companion site to PBS’s documentary on learning differences shares simulations showing you what it is like to have problems with decoding and recognizing phonemes, and with memory, recall, and understanding.