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NACD - The National Association for Child Development Newsletter
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| Volume 1, Issue 7 |
July 2008 |
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2008 RENDEZVOUS RECAP
by Sara Erling
"Thanks again for the wonderful time during the NACD Rendezvous! Your hard work did not go unnoticed!"
- Steve and Lori Lane
"My husband and I also want to extend a BIG THANK YOU to everyone there for the great times and opportunities you presented for the NACD families. What a joy it was to get to meet all of you. You all are so precious! One thing that was really conveyed to me while with you all is your genuine care and devotion to our kiddos. Thank you for your dedication to enrich their lives as well as support us, the parents. It was an awesome experience for us, and we are sooo glad we came."
- Buck and Michelle Crawford
"We had a very good time. We learned a lot, had fun, were "stimulated", and had time to relax. You guys did a great job putting this together."
- Eric Hogan "It was great meeting you at the NACD Rendezvous! We got some good information during these couple of days, and it was great to meet other NACD families."
- Anita Leinweber
"We loved Utah and will be back next year!!!"
- Stephanee Arrington
These are only a few of the comments that parents have made about the NACD Rendezvous, held the last week of June in beautiful Ogden valley.
We had roughly 30 families travel from all over the United States, Canada, even Spain, to participate in this year's rendezvous. Some of our NACD families brought their entire crew and made it their family vacation for the year. Others just brought their child who is on program; and even a few moms simply came by themselves to get refreshed!
The purpose of the Rendezvous is to permit the NACD families and the NACD staff and their families to interact, share, learn, have fun, and support each other. We love seeing the NACD Family grow and watch the children flourish. All of the NACD staff feels honored to be able to share in the lives and development of these great children and their families.
We had a great line-up of activities planned for our NACD families. This year we decided to spend a lot of time at the pool at the Moose Hollow Condominiums. Our families enjoyed meeting each other, talking, sharing ideas, as well as visiting with the staff. During the evenings, we had free group activities planned due to the thoughtfulness of Ogden valley merchants. Our first night was spent at Moose Hollow as a 'meet and greet' night. This was complete with Frisbees, blowing bubbles, and lots of water guns! Our second night was spent riding horses at a nearby ranch, followed by hayrides to a large fire pit. Then we brought out the marshmallows, graham crackers, and Hershey bars!!! (Dr. Neil was not there yet!) I handed a marshmallow to Courtney. She was so excited, she popped the whole thing in her mouth! She loved them!!!! On the way back to our cars, we all got to see an Elk in the pasture. The scenery in the valley is truly remarkable!
Click here to read more |
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NACD KIDS: Ammon
By Debbie Frederickson
 When Ammon was born he had oxygen problems that weren't detected until he was six weeks old. When he was three, the Sparks Clinic in Birmingham evaluated him and they said he was "mentally retarded." When he was about five, we discovered that he had a hearing loss. We were told that he would never learn to read.
However, his kindergarten teacher worked with him and helped him to read. His first grade teacher saw that he was bright and encouraged us to have him tested for a gifted program. He got into the program, but the teachers had difficulty dealing with his special needs.
By the time he was in fourth grade, he would receive report cards with straight As, but at the bottom it would say, "accommodations made." I was frustrated because I was seeing holes and gaps in his knowledge and abilities. The teachers were working with him, but I felt that they never knew which style of teaching was effective. The head of the Special Education Department told me that Ammon didn't need to graduate at 18, he could graduate at 21. This was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I knew that they were planning to make accommodations for him until he graduated.
My sister in law had three children on the NACD program, so I brought Ammon to them. I was so impressed. When I had worked with the school program, it felt as if it was trial and error, but at our initial visit, Bob had Ammon pegged within 2 hours. I left our meeting and knew that NACD knew exactly what they were dealing with.
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IEP's, Schools and Our Children
by Ellen Doman  I am going to start this off by asking you to think of your child first. That precious child of yours who needs and deserves every opportunity to advance and grow is what this is all about first and foremost. It is the job of the parent to ensure that their child gets the best opportunities and assistance in improving their ability to think and learn and to improve their love of learning and to improve their behavior and citizenship and to improve their fund of information. We must agree that this is correct and at the very heart of the matter as we discuss these other issues and entities.
As a parent, I want you to view all of the institutions and formalities and structures of education as irrelevant and be clear-minded in what your goal is. Your goal is what was stated above for your child who is your responsibility. Efficient, productive, exciting, progressive and unique to your child is what we want your child's education to be. We want great outcomes. You want great outcomes such as progress, enthusiasm and overall improvement in knowledge and thinking and functioning skills. I repeat this as it is easy to lose sight of it.
If your child attends school, you are dealing with not just your aspirations and intentions for your child, but the institutions expectations, realities and structures as well as the opinions, prejudices and overall expectations of the teachers, aides, supervisors, therapists and administrators of your school. You are dealing with state standards. The curriculum is a manual laid out before the school personnel as a roadmap for students to be led down. It can be slowed down, of course. Alternative curricula can be brought in to supplement it. It is, however, the map by which the school is run. It is the scope of its course and sets the sequence of events.
Your individual child had nothing to do with the development of that curriculum. State standards and standardized testing have determined that curriculum. It is the job of the school staff to cover it quickly and efficiently. It is the job of the IEP committee to determine if your child can handle that curriculum. If not, they will seek ways to slow it down. They will seek ways to supplement it with additional materials OR they will take your child off the course all together and seek to do functional tasks instead.
Being a part of this process as an educator is much like being an air traffic controller. You don't determine what kind of planes come in and out of the airport. You don't run the airport. You just try to help every plane come in, out and through the airport with no disasters. It is not about the quality of the flight, the individual passengers, or the destinations ultimately at all. You are moving the passenger through and the planes in and out as they move on their predetermined course. You may be pleasant about it and take an interest and pride in some specifics of it but it is a large operation.
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Good Idea
Tara Romanowich mother of Eva in New Jersey has found a great second
use for Eva's slide with foot and hand holes. They put numbers above
all of the holes and use it to play Skee-Ball.
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Become . . . Simply Smarter™
Expand your working memory
 Simply Smarter Sequential Processing Software™ is one of the many tools NACD has created for use with its TDI - Targeted Developmental Intervention™. Simply Smarter™ will help you expand your short term and working memory, learn faster, and remember more.
Simply Smarter™ has a simple, fun, easy-to-use format, with automatic record keeping built in. Simply Smarter™ provides you with the keys to unlock your innate intelligence by improving specific brain functions called "sequential processing" skills. Become. . . Simply Smarter™
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Upcoming Events
 July 23 - Parents Meeting w/Ellen Doman
7:00-8:30 p.m.
St. Johns Lutheran Church
217 North Freeman Drive
Port Washington, WI 53074
Parents Meeting w/Beverly Giroux
7:00-8:30 p.m.
Amberlea Village of Gahanna
Condo Office
Gahanna, OH 43230
(Columbus area)
August 7 - St. Louis Parents Meeting
August 16 - NACD will have a booth and a speaker at the
LDS NHA Conference
Sandy, UT
August 22-23
NACD will have a booth and a speaker at the
NTHEN Conference
Plano, TX
Upcoming Evaluation Dates
NACD will be conducting evaluations in the following cities. To schedule an appointment, please click here for instructions.
August 2008
Atlanta
Dallas
Ft. Lauderdale
Los Angeles
Ogden
Sacramento
Seattle
St. Louis - evaluations now at Embassy Suites St. Louis/St. Charles Hotel & Spa
Two Convention Center Plaza
St. Charles, Missouri 63303
636-946-5544
West Chester
September 2008
Boise
Chicago
Dallas
Ogden
Orlando
Seattle
West Chester
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How to Contact Us
NACD - The National Association for Child Development National Headquarters 549 25th Street Ogden, UT 84401 801.621.8606 info@nacd.orgwww.nacd.org
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