Learning
Disabilities Symposium
PROGRAM
Third Annual Learning Disability Symposium
The Power of Connection
The University of Pennsylvania
KEYNOTE PRESENTATIONS
Morning
Keynote Address
The Invisible World of Learning Disabilities: Making the Invisible
Visible Through Human and Institutional Connections
Students with learning disabilities live in an invisible world of
invalidation, intimidation, and discrimination unseen by well-intentioned
family, friends, students, and educators. Because the academic environment
often reflects the biases of the society about learning disabilities,
educational attitudes and the programs, policies, practices, and
structures of universities often stigmatize and indirectly prevent
these students from succeeding academically. The first steps toward
providing equal access and opportunities to those with learning
disabilities must be to make the invisible visible. Human and institutional
connections provide the key to empowerment and success.
Presenter: Derald Sue, Ph.D., Teachers College, Columbia University
Featured Keynote Address
Working with College Students who have LD/ADHD: Understanding the
Differences; Identifying and Promoting the Strengths
Dr. Hallowell will address the challenges and celebrations of ADHD.
He will dispel the myth that superior aptitudes preclude problems
with attention and focus. He will discuss the benefits of innovative
thinking and the promise that these creative minds could bring to
the world. His tips for educators include: instilling a can-do feeling
for all students, using emotion to promote learning, and giving
students a sense of mastery during their learning experience. Learn
about ways for promoting successful learning. Learn how to prevent
students with ADHD and other disabilities from feeling disengaged
and disconnected.
Presenter: Edward Hallowell, M.D., Hallowell Center for Cognitive
and Emotional Health and Harvard Medical School
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
Morning Sessions: 10:45 – 12:00
Session 1A
Coping with ADHD in College: A Cognitive Therapy Approach
Drawing upon his numerous professional articles and book chapters,
as well as his clinical practice, Dr. Russ Ramsey will describe
a cognitive therapy approach to addressing the challenges of coping
with ADHD in postsecondary settings. The goals of this session will
be to:
• Conceptualize and understand the difficulties experienced
during the transition to college for students with ADHD.
• Identify problematic thinking and behavior patterns that
interfere with effective coping.
• Present techniques for changing these thinking and behavior
patterns, including some of the frustrations experienced by helping
professionals.
Presenter: Russ Ramsey, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology
in Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and
senior staff psychologist at the Center for Cognitive Therapy
Session 1B
Participation, Performance & Persistence: Universal Design for
Learning and Students with Learning Disabilities
This session will present the benefits of digital media and a Universal
Design for Learning (UDL) approach in postsecondary instructional
settings. Drawing from the CAST book, Teaching Every Student in
the Digital Age (ASCD, 2002), online at www.cast.org/tes this session
will review the research-based foundation of UDL and how utilizing
a UDL approach to course planning, course delivery, and student
support can increase the impact of instruction. The session will
explore practical examples of strategies (syllabus development,
instructor notes, assessment, etc.) and universally-designed learning
supports (digital curriculum resources). Through an investigation
of technologies that support UDL in day-to-day postsecondary practice,
attendees will gain a broader understanding of the ways in which
digital media and tools can enhance the possibility for success
for students with diverse learning needs.
Presenter: Skip Stahl, Director of Technical Assistance, Center
for Applied Special Technology (CAST)
Session 1C
Forging a Link: Connecting Students and Graduates with Disabilities
to Quality Employment Opportunities
The greatest challenges facing the employer community today include
recruiting skilled individuals to fill currently available positions
and assuring that new talent is in the pipeline to meet future workforce
needs. Proactive employers are reaching out to the largely untapped
pool of qualified students and graduates with disabilities. This
session will address critical informational needs of students with
disabilities and the professionals who work to support them, including:
career decision-making, preparation, accessing available internships
and targeted recruitment opportunities, and understanding applicant
rights and responsibilities with a focus on disclosure and reasonable
accommodations.
Presenter: Lana Smart, National Business and Disability Council
Session 1D
The Human Face of ADHD
In a workshop setting, Dr. Edward Hallowell will discuss the diagnosis
and treatment of ADHD. He will draw upon his subjective experience
with illustrative case studies. Participants will learn to:
• Understand the history of the concept of ADHD and the importance
of making a medical, not moral diagnosis.
• Identify the biology and genetics of ADHD.
• Explore recent research into ADHD.
• Differentiate between other conditions that can look like
ADHD.
• Manage ADHD in a comprehensive 5 step fashion.
Presenter: Edward Hallowell, M.D., Harvard Medical School and The
Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health
Session 1E
Learning to Learn Differently
Born with many orthopedic and other disabilities, Dr. Stineman continuously
adopts assistive technology to fit her changing life demands and
environments. During this workshop, she will:
• Share specific examples of assistive technology configurations
that enabled her own life and work as an artist, physician, research
scientist, and scholar.
• Discuss alternative responses to challenges related to accommodations
for various types of disabilities and work environments.
• Describe and discuss an article she co-authored that recently
appeared in JAMA on the promotion of people with disabilities in
academic medicine.
• Encourage the sharing of specific ideas and strategies among
participants for accommodating learning and other types of disabilities
over the academic years and beyond.
Presenter: Margaret G. Stineman, M.D., Associate Professor and Vice
Chair for Research in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation,
University of Pennsylvania
Afternoon Sessions: 2:30 – 3:45
Session 2A
The Evolution in the Diagnosis, Treatment, and Understanding of
ADHD over the Course of 25 Years in College Health
With a career span of 25 years in college health at, first, the
University of Maryland in College Park and now at Georgetown University,
Dr. Paul Steinberg has witnessed the changes in how ADHD is evaluated
and treated. Our current understanding allows us to see ADHD as
less of a problem with global attention than with intentions –
the classic story of good intention, especially academic intentions,
consistently going awry. Accordingly, in this session we will look
at new ways of thinking about ADHD, at simple ways of diagnosing
and treating it, and at collaborations between learning services
and psychiatric services on college campuses for managing ADHD.
Presenter: Paul Steinberg, M.D., Associate Director, Georgetown
University Counseling and Psychiatric Service
Session 2B
Participation, Performance & Persistence: Universal Design for
Learning and Students with Learning Disabilities
This session will present the benefits of digital media and a Universal
Design for Learning (UDL) approach in postsecondary instructional
settings. Drawing from the CAST book, Teaching Every Student in
the Digital Age (ASCD, 2002), online at www.cast.org/tes this session
will review the research-based foundation of UDL and how utilizing
a UDL approach to course planning, course delivery, and student
support can increase the impact of instruction. The session will
explore practical examples of strategies (syllabus development,
instructor notes, assessment, etc.) and universally-designed learning
supports (digital curriculum resources). Through an investigation
of technologies that support UDL in day-to-day postsecondary practice,
attendees will gain a broader understanding of the ways in which
digital media and tools can enhance the possibility for success
for students with diverse learning needs.
Presenter: Skip Stahl, Director of Technical Assistance, Center
for Applied Special Technology (CAST)
Session 2C
The Harvard University Graduate School of Education Office of Student
Affairs has a dynamic and inclusive leadership model that integrates
disability and diversity with shared leadership and empowerment
of its students
This inclusive organizational structure connects students with the
institutional culture and intellectual community by collaboratively
creating a matrix of support and engagement of students with disabilities
in the process. Disability Services invites students with disabilities
to participate in research, assistive technology projects, transitions
to employment, collaborative accommodation plans, and inclusive
leadership models as application and practice opportunities that
connect them with the HUGSE community. Their ongoing qualitative
research project, described in this session, probes the relationship
between disability and community in the HUGSE environment, examining
the challenges of the external and internal realities of students.
Their goal is to take the student as he or she is and understand
what needs to change in this environment so that it is easily accessible
and fully supportive of a particular student’s needs.
Presenters:
Nancy E. Nienhuis, Director: Office of Student Affairs
Eileen Connell Berger, Assistant Director: Office of Student Affairs
Elizabeth Holman, Candidate for Master of Education
Catherine (Sam) Johnston, Candidate for Doctor of Education
Session 2D
The Human Face of ADHD
In a workshop setting, Dr. Edward Hallowell will discuss the diagnosis
and treatment of ADHD. He will draw upon his subjective experience
with illustrative case studies. Participants will learn to:
• Understand the history of the concept of ADHD and the importance
of a making medical, not moral diagnosis.
• Identify the biology and genetics of ADHD.
• Explore recent research into ADHD.
• Differentiate between other conditions that can look like
ADHD.
• Manage ADHD in a comprehensive 5 step fashion.
Presenter: Edward Hallowell, M.D., Harvard Medical School and The
Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health
www.drhallowell.com
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