DVD for Service Providers to Children with Disabilities – Letting Your Child’s Literate Side Out

“Dear Grace, I just sat down and watched this DVD and I couldn’t be more excited about sharing it with parents.  You have, in essence, done a DVD of all the things that Rosemary and I try to get across to parents.  It will be so wonderful for parents to take the DVD home rather than writing notes of all the things we say to them. I am sure we will be re-ordering these in the future.”  Paula Korelitz, Outreach Director, Vision Research ROPARD Foundation

This parent-created DVD is a tool for service providers. It is filled with in-home philosophies, strategies, creativity and resources, coupled with IEP strategies and resources, utilized by tenacious parents intent on ensuring their daughter with dual-sensory impairments would achieve literacy. It includes raw discussion of parents’ emotional journey – from grief and loss at first learning of her blindness and later of severe hearing impairments to a thirst for knowledge, action and advocacy. Follow along and learn what Dad and Mom did at home to learn, and then help teach, Braille and continuous learning to their daughter.
Deemed “unteachable” by a kindergarten teacher, you’ll see how the parents’ informed advocacy and demands that IEP team members have high expectations, coupled with dedicated service providers, resulted in success. By the end of her elementary school career, she was selected as a 5th grade advancement speaker; she finished as a Braille Bee finalist in her first competition at California School for the Blind. You and the families you serve will learn the answers to these questions and more:

• What worked in the home to build a solid, early foundation for literacy?
• What school district-provided resources made a difference to the child?
• How can I help ensure high expectations are present for the children I serve?

Thank you for your interest in spreading this important message to families of kids with visual disabilities and other special needs.