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KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Eric Tridas, M.D., FAAP, Medical Director of the Tridas Center for Child Development, Clinical Associate Professor in Pediatrics at the University of South Florida, Morsani College of Medicine, member of the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD), Associate member for the Advisory Committee on Exceptional Children and Youth for the Office of Overseas Schools, United States Department of State. 

Dr. Tridas is Past President of the International Dyslexia Association
and the 2017 recipient of IDA’s Margaret Rawson Lifetime Achievement Award.  Dr. Tridas is a Developmental Pediatrician who specializes in the diagnosis and management of neurodevelopmental conditions and lectures nationally and internationally.  He edited and co-authored From ABC to ADHD: What Every Parent Should Know About Dyslexia and Attention Problems.

KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
The Perfect Storm – Inattention, Dyslexia and Anxiety 
Dr. Tridas will review the interaction between dyslexia, ADHD and anxiety.  The presentation will include a review of the diagnostic criteria and clinical description of these disorders.  Furthermore, Dr. Tridas will address the impact that inattention and anxiety may have on different neurodevelopmental functions that can affect decoding, fluency and comprehension.

SCHEDULE OF THE DAY

8:00 am  Registration/Exhibitor Area Open/Continental Breakfast

8:55 am  Welcome & Keynote Speaker, Dr. Eric Tridas

10:50 am  Break/Exhibitor Area Open

11:10 am  Breakout Session 1 (1A), (1B), (1C)

12:35 pm  Lunch (provided)/Exhibitor Area Open

1:50 pm  Breakout Session 2 (2A), (2B), (2C)

3:15 pm  Break/Exhibitor Area Open

3:35 pm  Breakout Session 3 (3A), (3B), (3C)

5:00 pm  Conference Ends

MORNING BREAKOUT SESSIONS

(1A) The Imperfect Solutions: Managing ADHD, Anxiety, and Dyslexia
 Eric Tridas, M.D. FAAP 

Dr. Tridas will review the most common approaches to managing dyslexia, ADHD and anxiety disorders.  The presentation will include strategies to address problems with inattention, anxiety and reading including remediation, accommodations, cognitive therapy and medications.

(1B) Anxious Kids, Concerned Parents
Ken Goodman, L.C.S.W. - Anxiety and OCD Treatment

The anxiety that comes with being in school is not only challenging for students with learning difficulties but also for their parents.  With the best of intentions, parents can unknowingly exacerbate an already stressful experience.  Drawing from the principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, empirically validated as the most effective treatment for anxiety disorders, Ken will explain what underlies all forms of anxiety, provide suggestions for parents to help their anxious child, and teach a technique for relaxing the mind and body.  By reducing their own anxiety and having a calmer outlook, parents will be better able to help their worried child become less anxious as they face the challenges of school and beyond. 

(1C) Digital Writing Tools
MaryLynne Gyster, M.A. - Literacy Specialist; Director of Student Services and Literacy at Alice and Nahum Lainer School of Sinai Temple
Doug Hinko, M.A. - Director of Innovation and Curriculum Integration at Alice and Nahum Lainer School of Sinai Temple

This presentation will showcase the transformative instruction possible through a 21st Century Digital Writing Workshop. We will share a model that can be applied in therapy sessions, classrooms, and whole schools. Protocols, materials, and examples will demonstrate how a digital writing workshop supports all students, and particularly those who experience literacy learning challenges. Through a research-based approach, we have documented progress with our students in composing for authentic audiences and communicating ideas important to them.    

EARLY AFTERNOON BREAKOUT SESSIONS

(2A) Structured Literacy the IDA Way
Carol Clark, M.A. - Instructor of Teaching, Slingerland Institute for Literacy, Dyslexia Practitioner, International Dyslexia Association

Structured Literacy was selected by the IDA to encompass all approaches to reading instruction that conform to the IDA’s Knowledge and Practice Standards. It is an umbrella term for all programs that teach reading in the same way. It is evidence-based instruction that is valuable to not only students with dyslexia but to students in general education. This presentation will review the components of structured literacy, the WHAT and HOW for success for all students. The Slingerland Approach will be used as the example to illustrate both with interactive practice to demonstrate the HOW with the link to the WHAT. This timely presentation offers valuable information for all attendees.

(2B) Non-Traditional Approaches to ADHD
Diane M. Danis, M.D., M.P.H. - Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician, Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatrics in both Pediatrics and Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics

This presentation exposes parents and practitioners to the variety of non-pharmacologic treatments for ADHD, discussing which of these approaches have evidence to support efficacy and which do not.

(2C) Paraphrasing: A SIM® Strategy
Kathy Spielman - Special Education Teacher; Teaching and Learning Center Director, Westmark School; SIM Learning Strategies Professional Developer

The Paraphrasing Learning Strategy is a reading acquisition component of the Strategic Instruction Model (SIM®), a comprehensive evidence based adolescent literacy program developed at the Kansas University Center for Research on Learning. The Paraphrasing Strategy is designed to help students focus on the most important information in a passage and to improve recall of main ideas and specific facts. Students use the mnemonic device “R.A.P.” to learn and practice a process of reading passages, identifying the main idea and details, and rephrasing the content in their own words. In research studies, students showed average gains of 35 percentage points in reading comprehension of grade-level materials after mastering the strategy.

 

MID-AFTERNOON BREAKOUT SESSIONS

(3A) Experience Dyslexia® Simulation
Lainie Donnell, M.A., ET/P - Educational Therapist; IDALA, Past President

Experience Dyslexia® is a hands-on workshop that lets participants experience some of the challenges and frustrations that people with dyslexia face each day. Learning stations simulate different language-related learning tasks encountered in the classroom or workplace. This thought-provoking experience is appropriate for teachers, parents, and anyone interested in better understanding the lives of individuals with dyslexia. 

(3B) Addressing Executive Function
Kimberly Davis, M.Ed. - Senior Associate of Research and Teacher Training, Research Institute for Learning and Development

This workshop will explore the important role that executive function plays in successful learning. The presenter will discuss how to assess a student’s unique areas of executive function strengths and weaknesses and will explore systematic approaches to applying executive function strategies to common academic tasks. This workshop will emphasize practical approaches that build self-understanding and self-reflection in students so that they understand how they think and learn. The workshop will include lesson plans, strategy worksheets, handouts, and other materials from the SMARTS Executive Function curriculum.  

(3C) Reading Without Pictures: How Visual Spatial Deficits Change The Narrative

Oren Boxer, Ph.D. - Clinical Neuropsychologist, Director of Insight Collective, UCLA Clinical Faculty Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior David Geffen School of Medicine
 

Krista Greenfield, Psy.D. - Clinical Neuropsychologist; Insight Collective Training Director

 

Mental imaging is a constant and largely unconscious process which supports all aspects of reasoning, memory, and learning. Although a well-developed vocabulary can facilitate comprehension, the visual images those words portray allows for a greater understanding that goes beyond the printed word.  Children with visual-spatial deficits struggle to generate mental images and experiences, which subsequently changes the way they comprehend written text.  It also limits their ability to make appropriate inferences, or ‘read between the lines’.  This talk will emphasize the importance of imaging in relation to comprehension of oral and written language, as well as discuss how children with visual spatial deficits interpret language differently.  Considerable time will also be spent discussing ways to identify these deficits in children, as well as empirically-based interventions to improve visual spatial processing in children that also help with reading comprehension.

 

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