Fall 2003:The Amazing Power of WWW

So, Mouse and Tracy are yakking over coffee and diet coke—and we have a heated discussion over which of our favorite websites is more useful. And, we are not talking about the National Enquirer Website, or the George Clooney Fansite. We are talking about those little treasures of websites that we are always accessing for educational materials, parent resources, and just general help when the time calls for it. Having access to the WORLD WIDE WEB is awesome and essential for the type of work we do.

Take yesterday for example, a mom of two girls with fragile X was in the office and asked if we had access to a “hundreds chart”.

Apparently, one of her friends was successfully teaching her son math and money concepts using this visual aide. We didn’t have one on hand, but… WWW to the rescue! Simply use your favorite search engine (we used Google) and put in “hundreds chart” and voila… not only did we find my choice of several versions of the hundreds chart, but also found at least a dozen easily applied lesson plans for using it for kids who have a hard time with math concepts. WOW!! What a resource!

Our argument lead to the inspiration that we should really be sharing some of the gems we know about with all of you. Some of these websites are already on the NFXF’s “Support Links”—”Related Links” section at www.FragileX.org, along with many others that we haven’t listed.

We would love to hear some of your suggestions as well. Email these suggestions, along with any questions you have for your coffee talk pals to the Foundation. We love hearing from you and enjoy customizing this forum to your questions.

❍ Advocacy and the Law

www.wrightslaw.com/ Parents, advocates, educators, and attorneys come to Wrightslaw for accurate, up-to-date information about special education law and advocacy for children with disabilities.

❍ Learning Disability Resources

www.devdelay.org
www.ldonline.org
www.ldanatl.org
www.ldresources.com
www.ldaca.org

❍ Autism related resources which have great application to FXS

www.teacch.com
www.polyxo.com
www.thegraycenter.org
 

❍ Speech Related Resources

www.asha.org
The American Speech-Language- Hearing Association (ASHA) is the professional, scientific, and credentialing association for more than 103,000 audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists. ASHA's mission is to ensure that all people with speech, language, and hearing disorders have access to quality services to help them communicate more effectively. www.apraxia-kids.org
The Apraxia-Kids web site has become the Internet's most comprehensive site about childhood apraxia (dyspraxia). Primarily focused on speech apraxia. shop.azstarnet.com
The Talk Tools website features information on speech, feeding, and oral motor development. ❍ OT Related Resources www.aota.org The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) is the nationally recognized professional association for over 50,000 occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants. www.sinetwork.org
The SI Network website, is dedicated to bringing current sensory integration resources and information to families, consumers and professionals. www.henryot.com
Henry OT Services offers school based and individual occupational therapy services, providing products and workshops across the USA and internationally. Their mission is to promote understanding and awareness of issues related to sensory processing, sensory integration and the sensory systems. These may influence attention, motor coordination, behavior and even violence in schools. www.alertprogram.com
 

❍ Learning Activities

www.funschool.com
www.enchantedlearning.com
 

❍ Visual Learning pictures, picture schedules and visually based games

www.dotolearn.com
www.shoeboxtasks.com
www.preschoolfun.com
www.picsearch.com
www.gograph.com
 

❍ Vocational Sites

www.ldonline.org
www.judevine.org
www.ourpeoplework.org
www.developmentalfx.org

This is our website, currently under construction. Be sure to check out a special button on the site, “A Second Cup of Coffee” where we will have follow up information to this quarterly column.