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NACD - The National Association for Child Development Newsletter
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Volume 2, Issue 2
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November 2009 |
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SIMPLY SMARTER WORKS!
by Prachi Sinha
NACD Evaluator
New Delhi, India
For me, to say that Simply Smarter works is a bit of an understatement. This is my experience with the results of using the program:
Last year I spent six months in the U.S., training with NACD. One day while I was here, my mom called me and asked, "Have you been doing something to improve your processing?" "Yes, " I responded. "How could you tell?" She very excitedly exclaimed, "I knew it! I have been telling my friends about it. You 'get' what I say now. I can't taunt you anymore!"
And she was right-I do "get" it now. During my school years I had difficulties with academics and paying attention, often off in "la-la land" when I should have been listening. Had I been going through school today, they would have labeled me with something specific. After reading, "She can do better if she works hard" for the fifth time on my report card, I gave up and stopped working hard. My results fluctuated with different teachers, leaving my parents and teachers perplexed...
Click here to read the rest of this article
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 KIDS CORNER
by Sarah Dils
This is another story from our foreign correspondent, Sarah Dils. We are very proud of Sarah for her contributions to our newsletter.
CHINA
 I lived in China for about 3 years and before we lived there, we lived in Japan.
We moved to a neighborhood called Beverly Hills which, to tell you the truth, was nothing like the real Beverly Hills. I know about the real Beverly Hills only from pictures. Still, I did like my house and I was really fine with it. It was really nice to live near my friends. Our neighborhood was mostly houses made out of brick and they all looked alike.
There were lots of little gardens in between houses in our neighborhood. Some of them actually had lakes in them. It was nice walking there.
 Another thing that was fun was the interesting things like the food. You could find yummy food, strange food, disgusting food, and good food. It all depended on what you liked. My favorite food was called Hot pot because I could put what I wanted in my pot. We would go to a place called Hong Ya Dong which looked like an old city to eat hot pot with friends. My friends and I would go down the streets and look for a ginger candy stand, which was smashed ginger with sugar that was made into a sticky mass that they stretched like taffy and then dried. If you ever go to China, be sure to eat that! The people there were very nice, but look very much alike because they all have black hair. I very much miss my friends and teachers there, I also miss the strange and funny things that I hope you can see some day.
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"BRAGS"GRANT DeLUCA It is such a pleasure when, as staff, we get to watch kids really take off with their NACD programs. One of our superstars who deserves recognition this month is Grant DeLuca. It was only nine months ago that this five year old came in for his first NACD evaluation. At that time Grant could only speak a small number of single words. He recognized the numbers 1 through 5 and could only attend to activities requiring central vision, such as TV, for 2-3 minutes at a time. His auditory processing allowed for about 2 pieces of information at a time. Today Grant can process 3-4 pieces and is speaking in phrases, sometimes stringing them together. He can read over 250 word cards and successfully adds 15-20 new ones each week. His macular vision (attention to vision in the central field, where all learning occurs) is now good enough to attend to TV or books for 20 minutes or more.You can imagine the tears of joy in his mother's eyes this last August when, after working hard through the summer, he came up to her after breakfast and said "Hi Mama. I love you." Melody states, "It's moments like this and moments like the one in your office when he stopped doing work to hug me and tell me he loved me that keep me going!" After seeing Grant return from his summer break making such great progress, the school now cooperates with Mom to keep him home in the morning for his NACD program and bring him to school later to have fun with the class, considering the adjusted schedule excused absences.We're proud of you, Grant! And keep up the great work you're doing, Mom and Dad!
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OUR ALL NEW NACD BOOKSTORE IS NOW ONLINE!FEATURED PRODUCT:
STORYMAKER 3 StoryMaker 3 is an easy-to-use yet powerful tool for creating and reading sentences and books and also for teaching children sequences of actions. Includes a database of over 3,000 basic words to which the user can add their own words, pictures and sounds. Reinforcements can be created for books using videos, sounds or pictures. With videos, a different section of the video can be selected to play after each page of a book. Books can be printed and exported to use on other computers with StoryMaker. Many options are available to assist the child learning to read the books and sentences created. The child can create their own stories from a dictionary of words or sets of words, or by directly typing from a keyboard or using an overlay keyboard.Order STORYMAKER 3 at our Bookstore here
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UPCOMING EVALUATION DATES
November 2009India (continued from October) St. Louis West Chester Sacramento Ogden Ft. Lauderdale Dallas Atlanta December 2009Los Angeles Ogden Dallas West Chester Chicago Orlando
UPCOMING EVENTS
Parent Meeting/Parent Training for St. Louis
When:
Monday, November 2
Time:
7:00-9:00 p.m.
Where:
At the home of Steve and Beth Franzen
3831 Sirah Court
St. Charles, MO 63304
Please RSVP:
marybethandsteve@sbcglobal.net
Questions or directions:
Contact Beth Franzen by email: marybethandsteve@sbcgobal.net
Parent Meeting for San Francisco Bay Area
When:
Wednesday November 11th, 2009
Time:
6:30 p.m.
Where:
Kavitha Raghunathan's Home
1 Waterside Circle
Redwood City, CA 94065
If you are interested in attending, please contact: Sara@nacd.org for more details or call us at 801-621-8606. It will be necessary to RSVP for this event!
Parent Meeting for Chicago
When:
December 7
Details TBA
Ellen Doman to Speak!
Ellen will present at the Annual Conference for the Down Syndrome Association of Greater St. Louis in March 2010.
When:
March 6, 2010
Where:
Maryville University, University Auditorium
650 Maryville University Drive
St. Louis, MO
ANNUAL NACD RENDEZVOUS 2010
The dates for the 2010 Rendezvous have been set. Mark your calendars!
June 24-28, 2010
Ogden Valley, UT
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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
Copyright 2009 The National Assocation for Child Development. All rights reserved.
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NACD will be conducting evaluations in the following cities. 