Parent Leadership Training on Children’s Mental Health
Parents of children and youth who have behavioral health challenges play an important role in their child’s services and supports and can use those experiences to help others. This training will cover information for parent leaders in Minnesota including: Parent leadership opportunities, systems advocacy: an overview for parent leaders, and influencing change through the parent story.
Assistive Technology in Adult Settings: Postsecondary, Employment, Community
Professionals who work with youth with disabilities will learn information on the role of assistive technology (AT) in the transition process, including specific AT skills students need to know. Explore examples of AT in a variety of adult settings, such as employment, postsecondary education, and community and independent living.
Becoming an Active Partner in Your Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP)
This workshop will help parents of children birth to age 3 understand Early Intervention services, the IFSP, and how families can be involved in writing child and family outcomes and become an active participants in the IFSP process.
Take Control of Your New Year’s Resolutions – Apps to Track Habits, Get Reminders, and Stay Healthy
Need help sticking to those New Year’s resolutions? This ‘APPy Hour’ will showcase mobile apps to support establishing new habits. Apps will include daily habit trackers, motivational reminders, wellness support, and fitness tracking. These apps are great tools for people with disabilities seeking to build independent living skills. Mobile apps for both Apple and Android devices will be demonstrated.
1 months ago
Ins and Outs of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Benefit Planning for Youth with Vision Loss
Wondering what help is available for transition age youth who are blind, visually impaired, or DeafBlind who want to prepare for a career or find a job? This workshop, presented by Kristina Petronko and Anna Solowiej, attorneys at Minnesota Disability Law Center (MDLC), will provide an overview of SSI and discuss how youth can work while preserving benefits.
Older
School Engagement and Avoidance: What to do when your child is struggling
This training will help parents and others consider positive approaches to working with a child’s school to increase school engagement when attendance becomes a concern. Special attention will be paid to children struggling with mental health needs and challenging behaviors.
1 months ago
Using Smartphones, Watches, and Wearables to Support Executive Function for All Ages
This workshop will explore ways that smart phones, smart watches, and other wearable can support executive function skills for people of all ages. Participants will learn ways to increase time awareness and focus, how to use reminders, explore tools to organize and prioritize, and discuss task initiation and completion. The tools and strategies demonstrated will benefit people with disabilities such as ADHD, executive function disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and blind or low vision.
A Recipe for Success: A Healthy Start with Augmentative Communication at Home
A recipe for success with Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) starts with consistency and opportunity. Join us to learn how to create communication opportunities at home using AAC and how to get off to a healthy start. During this session we will practice modeling on an AAC system and review other tips and tricks to include it in your daily activities and routines. This session will be presented by Elizabeth Barry, Assistive Technology Specialist at PACER Center, and Meghan Kunz, Augmentative Communication Consultant with Prentke Romich Company (PRC).
Apps to Support Youth with Vision Loss in the Transition to Adulthood
This workshop will provide an overview and demonstration of apps that support increased independence for youth who are blind or vision impaired. Apps will address accessing print and digital text, identifying objects, and transportation.
2 months ago
Being an Active Participant in Your Child’s Transition from Early Childhood Special Education to Kindergarten
Kindergarten is a big step in any child’s life. This workshop will help parents of young children with disabilities plan for this transition and learn strategies to help their child be successful.
Special Education and the Important Role You Play for Your Child
Parents play an important role in the special education process. Participants in this workshop will learn how parents can use their rights and abilities to advocate for their child and work effectively with the school. This workshop will also provide valuable information for surrogate parents, foster parents and the professions who work with them on behalf of children.
3 months ago
ABLE to Save — ABLE Accounts, a New Savings Opportunity for Individuals with Disabilities
Join national speaker Miranda Kennedy from the ABLE National Resource Center here at PACER Center to learn how new Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Accounts allow families to save up to $15,000 per year for their child with a disability without affecting their eligibility for Supplemental Security Insurance (SSI) or Medicaid. Kennedy and Colin Stemper from Minnesota's ABLE Plan will discuss how ABLE accounts can make a difference in your child's future. Eligibility requirements, qualified expenses, annual and lifetime savings limits, and the relationship of ABLE Accounts to special needs trusts will be covered. Join us to get the answers you need. Suitable for parents of children of all ages, birth through adulthood.
The ABC’s of AAC: Augmentative Communication Basics for Parents
Join us to explore augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technology and learn about the process from trying available communication technologies to purchasing a piece of technology. Parents will learn about available technology, what questions to ask your provider, resources to support the process, and more. This session will be presented by Elizabeth Barry, Assistive Technology Specialist at PACER Center, and Meghan Kunz, Augmentative Communication Consultant with Prentke Romich Company.
Apps for Time Management – Alarms, Timers, and Reminders
This ‘APPy Hour’ will showcase a variety of tools to support time management. Apps demonstrated will include clocks, alarms, timers, and reminders for both iOS and Android devices. These apps will benefit people with ADHD, executive function disorder, and blind or low vision.
3 months ago
Paths to Employment: How Families Can Help
Parents will learn about career planning options for in-school and out-of-school youth with disabilities, and where they can find help to launch their youth on the path to employment.
Being an Active Participant in your Child’s Transition Before Age Three
Families will learn to understand and take an active role in the transition process from Part C Early Intervention services to Part B preschool services or other services in the community.
Tech Tools for Students: Researching and Organizing for School Projects
This workshop will explore a range of technology to help with school projects for students in middle school, high school, and beyond. We will look at apps, software, and web resources that can help with the completion of school projects. Demonstrations will include tools for online searching, mind mapping, visual organizing, assignment calculators, and creating a bibliography. We will discuss the steps of a project from defining your topic, researching, and organizing information, to creating an outline or plan, citing sources, and managing project completion. Content will be relevant for a range of school projects, such as research papers, posters, presentations, or models.
4 months ago
Switch it Up!
Switches can help individuals with disabilities control a variety of devices such as a computer, tablet or communication device. But with so many different types of switch options available, it’s hard to know which one is right for your child or student. This workshop will cover different types of switches, switch interfaces and positioning options.
5 months ago
Morning Session- Assistive Technology (AT) in the Schools: Consideration, IEPs and More
Research supports the use of Assistive Technology with students with any disability. In a short amount of time AT can make a big difference. We will discuss the process for including AT in the IEP, legally called the process of consideration, and about Minnesota Department of Education’s newly updated AT Manual. There are two times to choose from for this very important topic.
Anxiety at School: Making a Plan that Works for Students with Vision Loss
The most common emotional difficulty experienced by youth in school is anxiety. For students with vision loss who may also face challenges with non-verbal communication, managing a school setting can be even more difficult. At this live stream event for parents and others, the following topics will be addressed: Understanding behavior as communication, learning about behaviors that may reflect anxiety, discovering alternatives to consequences and punishment, exploring effective interventions for support at school.