TCDSB à la une en EED

 

 

EDUCATION

Popular learning-disabilities program may get a second life

KATE HAMMER

EDUCATION REPORTER— From Thursday's Globe and Mail

Published Thursday, Mar. 03, 2011 12:27AM EST

Last updated Thursday, Mar. 03, 2011 12:28AM EST

7 comments

• Email
• Print/License
• Decrease text sizeIncrease text size

A program that takes a unique approach to learning disabilities by challenging students to retrain their brains is under review by the Toronto Catholic District School Board.

Trustees will vote whether or not to undo cuts made by a provincial supervisor to the program, known as Arrowsmith, and investigate opportunities to expand it at a board meeting Thursday.

MORE RELATED TO THIS STORY

• Ontario to extend all-day kindergarten to another 900 schools

INFOGRAPHIC

Exercises that challenge and change the brain

Since the late 1990s when the TCDSB became the only public board to offer the program in North America, the learning system has become popular with parents, attracting out-of-district students at a time when school boards are battling declining enrolment.

But when a provincial supervisor took over the board in 2008 after a spending scandal, the program became an easy target because of its $175,000 licensing fee and skepticism it had received from the special education community.

However, supervision ended in January, the trustees have regained control and the program, which was in the process of being phased out, is back on the agenda.

Trustee John Del Grande, the author of the motion to revive Arrowsmith, said only 40 out of a peak 70 students at seven schools remain in the program.

“This used to be one of the highlights, the bright points, of our board because it’s unique in public education,” he said.

Arrowsmith exercises are built on a concept called neuroplasticity, which refers to the brain’s ability to change its structure and function. They represent a departure from traditional approaches, which generally involve compensatory methods such as letting a child with poor handwriting use a laptop or allowing a child with poor reading comprehension to take a test orally.

Through daily activities aimed at exercising weak neural pathways – such as tracing shapes while wearing an eye patch or recalling symbols – teachers believe students’ brains can be trained to overcome 19 specific learning dysfunctions.

“All I hear is fantastic reviews, I don’t know of a single student who didn’t benefit,” said trustee Sal Piccininni.

The program was started in Toronto about 30 years ago by Barbara Arrowsmith Young. Independent schools in Ontario, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and the United States offer it, but it often carries a daunting price tag.

The program’s popularity has been fuelled partly by parents’ frustrations with traditional special education. Most supports for learning dysfunctions limit student success because they “are bypassing students’ limitations instead of remedying them,” said Mr. Del Grande.

Half of the board’s 12 trustees are new and the other half have been under supervision for more than two years, so support for Mr. Del Grande’s motion is hard to gauge. On Wednesday, several said they needed more information on the program and the board’s finances before they could make a decision.

In the past, Arrowsmith has been popular among trustees, and a devout group of parents have become vocal advocates. Cora Westermann became one of them after her son, Brendan, spent his Grade 6 year commuting from their home in Uxbridge to attend Arrowsmith classes at Holy Spirit Catholic School in Scarborough. When the program was axed the Westermanns enrolled Brendan in a $17,000-a-year private school in Pickering that offered it instead.

In those two years, Brendan’s reading ability soared from a Grade 2 level to a Grade 8 level.

“It’s also brought up his self-esteem,” Ms. Westermann said. “He was calling himself stupid and Arrowsmith turned that around, it taught that he just had a different way of learning.”

Autisme

• EDITION:  U.S.
• INTERNATIONAL
• MÉXICO

• Home
• Video
• NewsPulse
• U.S.
• World
• Politics
• Justice
• Entertainment
• Tech
• Health
• Living
• Travel
• Opinion
• iReport
• Money
• Sports

February 3rd, 2011 01:35 PM ET Share Comments (30 comments) Permalink New tool aimed at teens with autism If the years immediately following an autism diagnosis aren't tough enough for a child, the next phase of their life can be even more stressful. Which is why Autism Speaks, one of the biggest autism advocacy groups is unveiling a new tool kit designed to help these children and their families cope with this stage of life. Life as a teenager is filled with many changes. Hormones are raging, the body's changing, teens move to middle and high schools, and there are a whole new set of social expectations and planning for life after high school. This is difficult terrain to maneuver – and it can be even more challenging if you are teen with autism – the developmental disorder that makes social interaction and communication more difficult. By the time children with autism reach adolescence, their parents have spent a lot of energy trying to figure out the puzzle that is autism.  It usually involves work to get their children the proper therapy and education needed to help them cope with this neurodevelopmental disorder. Now they are living with a teen who can be moody or more difficult – not because they have autism, but because they are going through puberty.  Plus, parents have to start planning for their child's future, facing the reality that the years when education systems are required to help their kids improve are dwindling. Soon their child will have graduated from school and the resources available to help their child cope with the many facets of autism will be few. Peter Bell is the father of an 18-year-old son with autism and the Executive Vice President for Programs and Services with Autism Speaks. He along with so many other families are in the middle of this phase of transitioning his child from childhood to adulthood. "We feel like pioneers," Bell says. He says there really wasn't anything available  to guide them through this phase of his child's life. So the organization gathered experts and professionals and added parents and asked for their help in developing a tool kit, Bell tells CNN. This Transition Tool Kit is another online guidebook Autism Speaks has put together.  Its first "100 days" tool kit, introduced a few years ago, was specifically created for parents of newly diagnosed children to make the best possible use of the 100 days following their child's diagnosis of autism.  A tool kit for schools and the community followed. "This is the next natural progression" says Bell.  "This Transition Tool Kit is for the 14 to 21 age group."  While there are different types of autism and within those categories each child's disorder may manifest itself in a different way, Bell believes that "the vast majority of the [autism] spectrum will benefit from this took kit.  There are sections that I think will be relevant for almost everyone." This handbook emphasizes the importance of involving the teen in the decision-making process that affects his or future.  Bells says the child must be part of the decision-making process regardless of their ability level.  While some children with autism may not be able to communicate, that doesn't mean they can't be part of the meetings, says Bell.  He says this new tool kit provides tips on how each child with autism can participate in the decisions that will affect his or her future. There are other tips to help families conquer the challenges of moving from childhood, through to teen years and to adulthood.  Bell says, for example, that he doesn't believe his son will be going to college, so he may skip that chapter.  However he says he will look at the chapter about housing because he knows at some point his son will have to live away from home – even if that point is 15 or 20 years from now.  He says parents should start preparing for this as early as possible. The kit also provides a timeline and other organizational tools that can help parents navigate their child's adolescent years. Parents and children can download a PDF version of the tool kit from the website. But Bell says Autism Speaks also offers the option of ordering hard copies of all the tips and providing information customized to specific cities

Jeune autiste virtuose aux timbales!

Penfield teen rises above autism as a gifted timpanist

SEAN DOBBIN • STAFF WRITER • JANUARY 24, 2011

•  Comments (35)
• Recommend (10)
•  Print this page
•  E-mail this article
•  Share
• Type Size A A A

Next Page

• 1
•  | 2
•  | 3
•  | 4

Standing in a tuxedo in a Penfield High School hallway on Friday night, Dennis "D.J." O'Keefe sways back and forth.

His head cocks up and down between sentences, and he fiddles with his lapel as he talks. His speech — quick and clear at times, choppy at others — is often interrupted by a nervous clearing of his throat.

O'Keefe was diagnosed with autism shortly after his second birthday. The Penfield High School senior has faced his share of resulting adversity, and has plenty of challenges ahead of him as he prepares to enter college and life beyond.

But if you whistle a tune, he can name every single note.

And in the 32 years that Jim Doser has taught music in the Penfield Central School District, O'Keefe is the most talented timpani player he's ever had.

"As a timpanist, he's the best ever," said Doser. "He has a future in music as much as anyone else does. We've all been encouraging him to go this route."

O'Keefe, 18, is no savant. He's got some innate talents, for sure — the most impressive being his ability to identify the music note of any sound that's played for him, a trait commonly called perfect pitch.

But when he's in front of his percussion instruments in the school music room, or the pillows he sets up as makeshift drums in his bedroom at home, he's just another teenager trying to hone his musical skills.

"Two hours, Monday through Friday," he said.

The combination of talent and tenacity has led to some substantial opportunities for the teenager. He's won scholarships to summer music camps and practices with some of the best percussionists in Rochester.

But Friday was a big night.

Weeks before, he'd been nominated to be the lone student soloist for the Greater Rochester Music Educators' Wind Band's annual pops concert.

The wind band's director and conductor, Al Fabrizio, went to see him play, and left convinced that this student was head-and-shoulders above the rest. So the band chose a song — Concerto for Timpani and Band — that was perfect for a timpani solo, and placed it seventh in their lineup.

When he gets behind the timpani, he's in a zone all by himself," said Fabrizio.

And that's why O'Keefe found himself, dressed in a tuxedo, pacing on Friday night.

Waiting for the first six songs to finish.

Waiting for his moment on stage.

Diagnosis

O'Keefe was 26 months old when his development slowed. He wasn't talking as much, and his mother thought that a recent ear infection might have cost him his hearing. "We started the whole diagnostic process, and he was diagnosed as autistic," said Susan O'Keefe. "It was a tough time."

But the diagnosis did indirectly lead to the discovery of his interest in music. At age 3, while enrolled in a Board of Cooperative Education Services program, O'Keefe took a shine to a small, toy xylophone.

By first grade, he was playing the real thing, and after entering a music therapy program at school, he soon graduated to the electric piano.

"He kept growing out of these different instruments," said Susan O'Keefe. "We kept having to upgrade them."

In fourth grade, he joined his school's concert band, and started playing the timpani two years later. O'Keefe said he was interested in the instrument right away, but wasn't entirely sure why.

"I think it's the contour of the drum that really intrigued me. I don't know," he said.

When he was a freshman in high school, he started working with Jim Tiller, the principal percussionist in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and in 10th grade, which his mother called his "blossoming year," he auditioned for the Penfield High School wind ensemble and was selected.

That summer, he received an "Outstanding Musician Award" scholarship, which helped him attend theNew York State Summer School of the Arts in Saratoga Springs. In the classroom, he's always worked with a one-on-one aide, but he attended the summer school on his own.

He has won the award again, and he's hoping to continue improving in college; the Eastman School of Music is his top choice.

His disorder, ever present, doesn't put him at a disadvantage when he plays.

"Musically speaking, I would have to say it's a benefit because he is able to focus to a degree that most people cannot focus, which would explain why his technique is so spectacular," said Doser.

Challenges

Fellow percussionists are often in awe of O'Keefe's technical precision, which he has mastered over years of practice. But his mother knows that the challenges her son continues to face daily are as much a part of his story as his musical abilities.

When Jason McElwain scored 20 points in a Greece Athena High School basketball game in February 2006 — which led to television appearances and a meeting with President George W. Bush — Susan O'Keefe was concerned that the media went too far in romanticizing the disorder.

"D.J. has come such a long way, but I don't want to sensationalize autism, because it's not a cool thing at all," she said. "J-Mac was international and that just made it sound like there are no challenges, but there are. It's important to know that."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in 110 children in the United States has a disorder that falls on the autism spectrum, and while O'Keefe has been classified as high-functioning, he had some social issues when he was young that spilled over into group music practices.

"It's very difficult for him to accept less than perfection, not only in himself but in everyone around him," said Doser.

But over the years, he learned ways to cope with mistakes from both himself and others. He became aware that he'd always be playing with musicians of different abilities, and that his frustrations with other band members wouldn't help the ensemble improve as a whole.

"His greatest growth has been in the socialization factors, in being able to accept when everything isn't perfect," said Doser.

Without the improvement, it's unlikely that Doser could have nominated him to play Friday night with a group of 57 professional music instructors on stage in the Penfield High School auditorium.

The performance

Susan O'Keefe could tell that her son was nervous before the show, though perhaps not as nervous as she was.

When O'Keefe was introduced, he strode quickly to his seat near the front of the stage, making small adjustments to the four timpani he would be playing. His mother sat in the front row just a few yards away, as did his older sister, Kalcy, and his father, who shares his name.

Fabrizio raised his arms, and O'Keefe began a low drum roll that progressed into a 20-second solo. The band sprang to action behind him, then O'Keefe began interspersing his crashing timpani between the rest of the band's steady harmonies.

Brandishing multiple sets of mallets, his hands flashed as he moved from long, loud, striking blows, to rolls that led the band into crashing crescendos.

Then Fabrizio motioned his hands to signal the end, as a broad smile crossed O'Keefe's face.

The audience let out its loudest cheer of the night as he leapt from his seat and bowed. He held his arms out toward the band, presenting the musicians for a round of applause before walking off.

He disappeared for a few seconds, returning for a second bow, another wave to the band, and a trip to the front of the stage, where he collected flowers from his mom.

Doser would later say the performance was "exceptional." Susan O'Keefe called it "fabulous."

And the 18-year-old in the tuxedo, free of any nervous twitches by the time he took his final bow, said there's nothing he likes more than performing.

"The joy of playing music... it's an indescribable feeling," he said.

"You know what I mean?"

SDOBBIN@DemocratandChronicle.com