Staff Training & PTA Presentations

Workshops and Presentations:

Reaching out to a larger audience ...

Through all these years, it has been a blessing and one of life's true inspirations to work one to one with parents walking the special needs path. Also, I am forever grateful for the opportunity to support parents and staff as both sides navigate the challenges of discovering what awaits beyond conflict and confusion; special needs intervention is intense and crosses the line between ego, self-interest, and understanding. How often do we meet people who are doing what they were meant to do in this life? All I know, it is a precious experience and I appreciate the work I was meant to do!

In doing so, my intent is to reach many more parents and staff who are struggling with the IEP and 504 intervention process for I know you are out there. I meet you every day ...

District Workshops, PTA Groups, Support Groups ...

So with this in mind, I continue to offer workshops (4-6 hours) and presentations (1-3 hours) in support of special needs children. Specifically, within the themes of advocacy, mutual understanding, and creating bridges of collaboration between school and home, there is so much work needing to be done. I look forward to hearing from you so we can move forward and bring about real change one child, one school, or one district at a time!

Recent presentations include:

- ADD Resources Support Group (Tacoma) (2011)
- ARC of Snohomish County (2011)

- DSHS Resource for Family Support (Kent and Seattle) 2011
- Fathers Support Network of WA Conference (2011)

- PTA State Convention (2011)

- WAETAG Gifted Education Conference (2010)

In addition to the hundreds of other workshops and presentations offered since 1998!

Current Programs Now Available:

"The Insiders Guide to Special Education"

This is the Special Education - 101 Primer for parents or staff highlights include:

- 504 Plan versus IEP

- Mutual Understanding

- Evidence Based Decision Making

- Appreciative Advocacy: Strength-Based IEP

- Transparency

"Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Special Education But Didn't Know Who or What to Ask!"

Simply; the Special Education arena is chockful of mazes, twists, turns, and a language unique to its own world. A often frustrating and confusing for many parents. The primary purpose of this session is to give straight answers to your questions, translate as needed, and offer tried and true strategies in support of learning through advocacy and instructional planning.

Love, Understanding, and Other Best Practices: "Every Child is a Blessing::

Someone much wiser than me shared the following statement: "We are all spiritual beings having a human experience". As such, we are all part of a greater mosiac called life where we are all contribute in extraordinary ways. Based upon years of research, study after study has determined that the best conditions for learning build upon previous success. And within the IEP / 504 process, our greatest strides will always develop from each child's gifts, interests, and learning assets. Appreciative Advocacy offers a fresh perspective on meeting the instructional needs of our children through a strength-based frame of reference. As the old paradigm supports IEP / 504 intervention through the lens of the broken child needing to be fixed, Love, Understanding, and Other Best Practices, a refreshing, uplifting perspective, guides the process to enlightened levels of understanding through strength-based intervention and the belief that "every child is a gift". I would love to share this with you and your organization and help shift the process toward intervention that truly supports the child.

For more information, please contact us by phone at (206) 914-0975.

"The Davis Hypothesis on Autism:

A Sense-ational Life ..."

This is one of my favorite presentations for it strikes a chord within the Autism community: "Autism is not a disease nor an illness requiring a cure" ... it is a sense-ational life: one riddled many complex idiosyncratic behaviors and extraordinary gifts. This presentation highlights what I have learned on the advocacy trail; kids on the spectrum are truly remarkable and bring to life something much greater than what we conventionally see. Uplifting, inspiring, and more important, a dialog of understanding between group participants makes this a very special activity.

"Private School Kids Accessing Public School Special Education Support: Your Rights Through Child Find!"

Often parents choose to take matters in their own hands and place their kids in private schools. This is a matter of choice. Nevertheless, many do not know that special education services may be available through the Child Find process. This presentation highlights the laws, procedural safeguards, and the specific process accessing resources through your neighborhood school district. This also applies to students who attend a private school in a neighboring district. Fascinating information for your parent group or private school parent organization.

Classroom Presentations: "Every Child is a Gift"

One of the most rewarding experiences within the advocacy path comes through helping others see special needs kids from an uplifting "Gift" perspective. And I do so by making bridges between the specific disabilities and everyday life for everyone is faced with the same challenges except some of these challenges are more intensified. For example, when addressing the theme of Autism to a group of school age kids, I often relate the experiences associated with "transitions" or hyper-focus to activities each of them enjoy as well. Simply, when others can relate and walk in another's shoes, understanding develops. And this is the primary focus and major point of these important presentations. In the work I do, one of the strengths I bring to the table is the ability to help others de-mystify the disabilities of others to quirks and behaviors common to the human experience which we all can relate to.

Better yet? Hit the

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Special Education Advocacy:

"Helping parents navigate the Special Needs path; never go down this road alone. Call Us!"