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NACD - The National Association for Child Development Newsletter
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| Volume 1, Issue 18 |
June 2009 |
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2009 NACD Rendezvous
June 25-29
Click the photo to watch the new video
showing highlights from last year!
REGISTER TODAY!
Call 801-621-8606 or
Email denise@nacd.org
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TO SIMPLY HEAR
 Such a simple word with such profound ramifications.
And yet this was one of the most difficult areas of my journey with Sam. Sam was born with Down syndrome, in his first year he suffered a brain injury due to oxygen deprivation which manifested itself with weakness on his right side. He was diagnosed with dysphagia and Apraxia. These areas of diagnosis were pretty easy to get. However, the diagnosis of hearing loss was not so easy.
From early on my gut feel was that Sam could not hear well. When I questioned his ENT he immediately agreed to a hearing test however Sam did not cooperate with most of it but he did react to some sounds so they indicated that his hearing was in the normal range. For a while I let the subject drop but it still nagged at me. Sam learned to read and began to speak although much of his speech was cued from his reading but he rarely answered questions correctly and had a great deal of difficulty picking up on new words unless he read them first. I felt a great deal of his frustration stemmed from him not being able to hear well.
Click here to read the rest of this article.
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YOGA FOR SPECIAL NEEDS KIDS
Dear NACD families,
 Like you I have a special angel in our family named Gitane (7 y.o.) and, like you, since she arrived nothing has been quite the same.
Somehow my acting career and chasing different roles around the world turned into dedication to chase the betterment of my Down Syndrome daughter who could barely open her eyes for the first 3 months.
Once we started on NACD program the progress was so evident and fast. For the first time we begun to get a glimpse of her potential and how sky-high we could reach.
When she was a toddler, Gitane used to help herself by intuitively going into different yoga postures to be able to sit on her own, stretch and enjoy her back being massaged by propping herself (to what we call Cobra pose) with the biggest smile on her face. (by now I became a certified International Yoga Teacher).
I expanded on these postures and started frequently doing yoga with Gitane. She equally loved the attention and the challenges. Gitane is in a regular yoga class now, doing yoga with typical children and without a shadow! From seeing the benefits of yoga on Gitane, I went on to study more and getting certified in all the levels of yoga for children and finally yoga for the children with special needs.
In addition to pregnancy yoga classes and private lessons, I have been teaching 4 yoga classes per week at the Charter (public) School, where our daughter is attending at her 1st grade level. This gave me an opportunity to be exposed to and work with all sorts of children. They are all cognitively, emotionally and behaviorally different, few of which have special needs.
Yoga works on many levels: structurally it strengthens and aligns the body; internally it tones and rejuvenates the organs and it helps all the systems of the body: the lymphatic, digestive, cardiovascular (just to name a few) get rid of toxins and the waste material. It balances and strengthens the nervous system and last but not the least, it nourishes and stimulates the brain cells.
The purpose of my teaching yoga is to help our children feel more comfortable in their bodies while helping them achieve their highest potential by experiencing enduring health, greater mental clarity, emotional stability and a greater sense of well being.
By teaching our children with special needs yoga and exposing them to the communities with typical children we are a step closer to removing the veil of an illusion of difference between us all.
I'll be speaking and demonstrating some of the postures at our June Rendezvous with Gitane, where I am looking forward to meeting some of you. I also do private lessons at my LA home.
With Love and gratitude,
Aleksandra Neil
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CHANGE IN STAFF AND SERVICES
I hope that all of you are enjoying the springtime and are able to get outside for some fresh air. In talking with many of you, the late winter and wet spring has been driving you a little crazy, as it has me! Hopefully you are seeing the light at the end of that tunnel, as we are here in Utah.
As many of you know, we have had some changes in staff. Some have had to leave us for personal issues, and we have added new people, even though one isn't especially "new" to NACD. Glenda Boyajian in California has started providing support for our Los Angeles families, as well has some other chapters. Glenda's son, Brandon, has been on program with NACD since the early '80s, and Glenda was previously the Chapter Director for our LA office. We're glad to have her back on the team!
Due to our personnel changes we have made some adjustments in our structure for family support. See below for the name and contact information for the support person for your particular chapter.
Sara Erling (sara@nacd.org 801-621-8606 or 801-540-2250)
Sacramento
Seattle
Utah
Dallas
Boise
Schools (Spectrum Academy and Champion/STAR program)
Trissa Fonnesbeck (trissa@nacd.org 801-621-8606)
Cincinnati
Atlanta
Glenda Boyajian (glenda@nacd.org 801-721-7338)
LA
Phoenix
Orlando
Ft. Lauderdale
BJ Owen (bj@nacd.org 610-738-8816)
West Chester
Flint
Milwaukee
Minneapolis
Chicago
St. Louis
Prachi Sinha (prachi@nacd.org)
India
If you haven't noticed already, we are trying to make more of an effort to contact you every couple of weeks. We strongly encourage you to stay in contact with us either through phone or email. The more we hear from you, the better we can help you. With the increased support that we have been providing, we have found that our families are doing much better with program implementation! Therefore we are not finding it necessary to do program reviews for our revisit clients. Starting in June, we will no longer be scheduling a time for a program review for our revisit families. HOWEVER, if there is anything that you want us to see, please feel free to send us video clips. We would be more then happy to watch anything you send us and call you to discuss it with you. I have families that shoot me video all the time via youtube or email for my opinion on something. This is great, and we find them to be beneficial. We will continue to schedule program reviews for our initial clients one month following their initial evaluation.
As evaluators we are all finding it helpful for families to bring their program materials to the evaluation in case they are needed. If you have a question on implementation on a specific program activity, bring those materials with you so that we can provide you with a hands-on demonstration. We specifically want you to bring materials on activities that you feel "stuck" on or are concerned about. You may also bring your video camera with an at-home video if there is an activity that you are doing at home you are concerned about. Please keep them brief in order for our time together to be spent efficiently.
We hope that this summer will be a productive one for all of you. Summers can be a great time to hit program hard when school is not in session. Need a priority? Call us and let us help you establish one...or two!
Happy Programming!
Sara Erling
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UPCOMING EVALUATION DATES
June 2009Boise Chicago Dallas Ogden Orlando Seattle West Chester Los Angeles July 2009Phoenix Milwaukee Cincinnati Minneapolis Sacramento India Flint Sacramento Dallas Ogden West Chester August 2009Ogden Sacramento St. Louis Ft. Lauderdale Dallas West Chester
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CONTACT USNACD - 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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NACD will be conducting evaluations in the following cities. 