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| | News from The Yellin Center: Late Summer 2020
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In this edition:
- Register for Remote Learning Webinar
- Tools for Emotional Support
- Adjusting Your Child’s IEP or 504 Plan for Distance Learning
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Dear Friends and Colleagues –
Throughout the array of emotions I have experienced during this strange and difficult year, perhaps the one I have felt most acutely is gratitude. This might seem strange, considering we are separated from our loved ones and face the illness and loss of so many in our cities, towns, and circle of friends and family. But when we closed our doors abruptly in March we had no idea how we were going to move forward to help the students and families we serve, let alone whether we would ever be able to open our doors again.
Now, as summer winds to a close, The Yellin Center has been open for three months and we have worked with many students, both in-person and via remote technology. Our staff has done a really fantastic job of creating a safe space in our New York City office and in supporting the families with whom we work. For that, and for the continuing health of our team and my family, I am enormously grateful.
Remote Learning Webinar Next Week
As the school year begins, families face unprecedented challenges. Whether students attend school in-person (full or part-time), or are learning completely online, the pressure on families, students, and teachers is enormous. How can we help our children cope – and what can we do to make things better?
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To help answer that question, I am delighted to report that I will be presenting a webinar on Observations and Opportunities: Supporting Your Child in Remote Learning, together with Kim Carter and Betsey Bradley, Executive Director and Community Director, respectively, of the Q.E.D Foundation, Inc. on Friday, September 4 at 12 p.m. EDT.
Kim, Betsey, and I will be offering a unique opportunity for parents to observe, understand, and support children as learners. We will provide strategies you can apply immediately to better understand your child’s learning needs and tools you can use to support their learning.
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As some of you may know, The Yellin Center grew out of the work of All Kinds of Minds, where I served as National Director for Clinical Services until I launched The Yellin Center as an independent organization in 2007. QED Foundation acquired All Kinds of Minds in 2012, and has proudly continued the work of bridging the science of learning with learning design based on the recognition that all students are good learners. QED and The Yellin Center share the philosophy and commitment to these Guiding Principles. QED and The Yellin Center have been close collaborators for the past decade in advancing their shared values and principles, continuing to develop the NeuroDevelopmental Framework for Learning (NDFL) and other resources, and working to increase accessibility to these resources for everyone who works with learners of any age.
Registration for this webinar is limited. To register, please email Betsey Bradley at bbradleyakom@gmail.com.
Tools for Emotional Support
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Still another way that families need support during this difficult time is in dealing with their feelings. Both children and parents are stressed – emotionally, financially, and logistically – and often feel that things are out of control in the world around them. While we can’t change the state of the world, our Dr. Hima Reddy has some suggestions for tools and apps that can help children and parents alike cope with stress, sadness, and anxiety:
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Age 3-Adult: The Calm app provides tools to induce relaxation and sleep, as well as mediations and mindfulness exercises to build wellness and reduce anxiety. Embedded within the app is Calm Kids, which provides a wonderful selection of sleep stories, lullabies, soundscapes and meditations for children.
Age 4-6: Daniel Tiger’s Grr-iffic Feelings helps children recognize, label, and understand their emotions. The app is available for iPad, Kindle tablet, and Android tablet.
Age 6-10: Mindful Powers helps elementary school children center themselves with the aid of a cute, cuddly companion. The app offers mindful playtime and focus time.
Age 10-18+: Mood Meter and Mood Notes are apps that help tweens, teens, and adults track their mood and record thoughts and experiences that contribute to positive or negative feelings. Mood Meter provides micro-activities and inspirational quotes to help move through difficult feelings. Mood Notes encourages the user to identify the thinking patterns that often underlie stress, anxiety, and sadness.
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Special Education Law in the time of COVID
Susan Yellin, Esq. answered a series of parent questions for ADDitude Magazine relating to Adjusting Your Child’s IEP or 504 Plan for Distance Learning. The key takeaway for parents and caregivers is that their child’s IEP and 504 Plan still apply when schools are using a remote learning or hybrid remote-in/person learning model. While schools aren’t expected to do that which is impossible, they are not excused from doing what they can to make sure that students continue to have the supports and accommodations that their IEP or 504 Plan provides.
Closing Thoughts
Susan and I have derived tremendous gratitude, joy, and optimism through the birth of our second and third grandsons in the midst of this horrendous pandemic. We never imagined attending a single grandson’s bris via Zoom — let alone two. Dining together these days means communicating through an iPad placed strategically on the table and ending the meal when our grandson announces, “Let’s take Grandma and Baba upstairs for stories!” These moments came to mind when a colleague shared the following quote from Howard Thurman (1899–1981), author, philosopher, theologian, educator, and civil rights leader:
“All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree, the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new lives, fresh blossoms, green fruit. Such is the growing edge! It is the extra breath from the exhausted lung, the one more thing to try when all else has failed, the upward reach of life when weariness closes in upon all endeavor. This is the basis of hope in moments of despair, the incentive to carry on when times are out of joint and men have lost their reason, the source of confidence when worlds crash and dreams whiten into ash. The birth of a child — life’s most dramatic answer to death — this is the growing edge incarnate. Look well to the growing edge!”
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Paul B. Yellin, MD, FAAP
pbymd@yellincenter.com
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