Parnello Education - My New Site!

Thanks for stopping by! Please note, this website is no longer getting new content. Please check out my new business page, Parnello Education, to see the latest and greatest content. 

This website was originally created when I was focusing mostly on high functioning autism. As I've grown in my career, my focus has switch to primarily students with dyslexia, dysgraphia and other learning differences. Check it out and share with those you know who could benefit from information about dyslexia!

Cheers!

IDA Conference Day 1

I’m sitting at the 2014 IDA (International Dyslexia Association) conference in San Diego and loving every minute of it! I’m in teacher-nerd heaven here! By the end of Day 1 I’ve already taken almost 8 pages of notes! and I still have 8 more seminars to attend!

The speakers are very intriguing and come from various different viewpoints to share an overlapping focus. I chose the comprehension-focused symposium for Day 1 of the conference.  We are focusing on the brain, vocabulary, and in depth research about how comprehension is formed including the critical factors needed for strong comprehension. We also looked into the way sentence comprehension is far more complex than we tend to realize and the importance of appropriate forms of assessment to determine true comprehension ability.

We’ve learned about how comprehension and reading affect the brain, which I found completely fascinating. Through my work and research for teaching students with dyslexia, I’ve learned about how the dyslexic brain works differently, but I’m now able to add to that knowledge the affects of reading comprehension skills on the brain. I never even thought to research comprehension and the brain! The imaging studies were so intriguing that I took pictures of the screens during the presentation. Last year I taught a Parent Education seminar about students with reading problems and the brain was one focus of my presentation. I’m so excited to be able to add to that portion of my presentation for this year!

The sentence structure has a direct effect on comprehension of a reading passage. Students are often assessed on their ability to understand the overall meaning of a text, but less often instructed and assessed on their ability to comprehend individual complex sentences. She told us the intervention protocols she used to help students who were struggling, but unfortunately this is out of the scope of my current students. It's out of the current age range for our school since it was directed more for high school aged students, but it was interesting nonetheless. 

I'm planning to write a series of posts with the information I've learned. What topics would you like to read about more in depth?

Upcoming Special Ed Seminars

I have a couple seminars coming up that I'm really looking forward to. The first is about experiencing dyslexia by the International Dyslexia Association. They have created a series of simulations for teachers and parents to experience what it is like for a person with dyslexia to complete reading/writing tasks, especially in a school setting. My station is for parents to do a series of tasks with their non-dominant hand. In my case that would require me to do things left handed. Funny fact: I injured my right hand when I was younger and actually CAN do many thing left handed, but I'm certainly not good at it! I'm really excited to do this seminar and especially excited to see the reactions of parents!

The second one is titled "Does my child have a reading problem?" and I'm one of 2 lead speakers!! It's exciting and a little nerve wracking. I'm working on the PowerPoint for it this weekend. I know tons about teaching reading to kids. Some days I am caught off guard when I just stop to think about reading and how to identify a child with a problem. This has a tendency to happen when I have a student shadow in my class as a potential child for our school and I can usually tell within an hour what challenges they have without ever reading their paperwork since it often doesn't arrive right away. It's still strange to think I'm an expert presenter :)

Now I have to ask for YOUR help! If you were concerned your child had a reading problem, what type of questions would you ask?? I'm presenting and really want to know what information I should have ready in the presentation, and what info I should be ready to answer verbally during the Q&A session at the end.