#AboutLastNight on My Weekly Special Needs Awareness Radio Show

#AboutLastNight

Our discussion on "Assessments in Inclusive and Special Education: What, How and Why?" @ Kiss 99.9 Fm last night was impactful.

I kicked off by reading out two definitions that in my opinion best drive the message home on the issue of assessments. The first definition was "assessment is the process of collecting data for the purpose of:

a. Specifying and verifying problems 

b. Making decisions about students".

I further explained the various ways of collecting data which are: medical record, professional judgements, formal and informal observations, tests, recollection (quantitative and qualitative) and interviews.

The second definition was "assessment is a critical practice that serves the purpose of matching instruction to the level of students' skill, monitoring student progress, modifying instruction, and working hard to enhance students' competence".

We also talked about formative and summative assessments and the importance of carrying out formative assessments effectively in order to achieve positive outcomes from summative assessments. Furthermore, we discussed the negative effects of "the Wait-to-Fail-System" and its effect on formative and summative assessments and misdiagnosing of students. We also expantiated on Response-To-Intervention (RTI), a practice in the United States which has helped to improve the academic performances of "at risk" students.

Additionally, we touched on different segments of a good lesson plan, especially the learning intention, also known as the "objective". We explained the 3 major components of learning intention: Knowledge, Understanding and Skill and their importance in helping students engage in active learning. And we talked about the positive effect of considering the learning style of each student in our classroom.

Mrs. Tayo Mowo-Oni who is an early year teacher at the Nigerian Tulip International School Abuja shared her experiences in relation to the various points noted above and urged teachers to be actively involved in various Professional learning communities and take advantage of different scheduled teacher trainings in order to sharpen their teaching and assessment skills.

Join us next week, same time same station as we discuss psycho-educational, medical and audiological assessments in inclusive and special education.

For sponsorship, please call: 0705 763 0825 or send email to: admin@dewdropscc.org

#Assessments
#InclusiveEducation
#SpecialEducation
#ThankYouJesus

www.cacademy.sch.ng

My Weekly Special Needs Awareness Radio Show on Kiss FM Abuja

Join us on this program tomorrow.
Not in Abuja? Stream LIVE: www.kissfm999.com

#SpecialNeedsAwareness 
#SpecialNeedsTalkOnAirEveryWeek
#Assessments
#UndeniableExploits
#TheNEW
#ThankYouJesus

#AboutLastNight on My Weekly Special Needs Awareness Radio Show

#AboutLastNight

The Special Needs Radio Show last night @ Kiss99.9 Fm was a recap of all that we had been discussing for the past 2 weeks on Hearing and Speech Impairment. Yesterday's radio show was quite different because the phone line was left opened for about 40 minutes to enable our audience call in to ask us questions.

Mr.Charles Ugwuoke (the Audiometrician and Speech Therapist at Dewdrops Community Centre for Special Needs Abuja) started by recapping last week/two weeks program on hearing and speech impairment. He explained the different hearing losses, what hearing impairment is, types of hearing loss, conductive, sensorineural, mixed and neural hearing loss. He also talked about the degrees of hearing loss which ranges from mild, moderate, severe and profound hearing loss and their thresholds. Mr Charles further explained speech impairment which he categorized under dysarthria and types of dysarthria which are Cerebellar, pseudobulbar, bulbar and cortical dysarthria. He also talked about other speech impairment such as aphonia, aphasia.

He also explained some speech therapy services for individuals with speech impairment such as, receptive language and expressive language skills, lip reading therapy skills for children who are pre/post lingually hearing impaired.

Listeners called in to ask questions and he responded accordingly. Of particular interest was a question by a listener, concerning a stroke patient with memory loss and speech impairment. Mr Charles responded by explaining that the cerebral cortex and the two hemispheres (right and left) and their connection to the stroke and also the four lobes of the brain which are frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal lobes, he explained that receptive and expressive language skills will enable the patient to regain the lost speech.

Dr. PJ Fakudze and I also emphasised on the importance of a comprehensive audiological assessments in order to determine the nature of hearing loss which would help determine the appropriate intervention.

Let's do this again next week, same time same station.

For sponsorship, please call: 0705 763 0825 or send email to: admin@dewdropscc.

#SpeechAndHearingImpairment
#SignLanguage
#TotalCommunication
#SpecialNeedsAwareness
#SpecialEducation
#BehaviourManagement
#SeparatingMythsFromFacts
#AutismAwareness
#EarlyIntervention
#Dyslexia
#LearningDisabilities
#IntellectualDisabilities
#SpeechTherapy
#SpecialNeedsAdvocacy
#TrainingAndSupport
#FamilySupport
#OnTwitterEveryWeek
#OnAirEveryWeek
#StayTunedEveryWeek
#ThankYouJesus!

www.cacademy.sch.ng

@ Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria

My Weekly Special Needs Awareness Radio Show on Kiss FM Abuja

Join us on air tomorrow @ Kiss 99.9Fm Abuja by 6:30p.m.
Not in Abuja? Stream live via www.kissfm999.com
To join in the conversation call: 09030000899 or 08091299997
#SpecialNeedsAwareness 
#OnAirEveryWeek
#ThankYouJesus!

#AboutLastNight on My Weekly Special Needs Awareness Radio Show

Our topic on the weekly Special Needs Show last night on Kiss FM 99.9 Abuja was "How do I Communicate with Individuals Who are Hearing and Speech Impaired?"

I began by explaining that individuals who are speech and hearing impaired can and do communicate non-verbally. One of the major ways they communicate is through sign language, others who can read and write English language have taken advantage of technology using the various communication apps such as "text to speech" available on palm tops, laptops etc.

Mr Ugwuoke Charles (an Audiometrician and Speech Therapist @ Dewdrops Community Centre for Special Needs) talked about hearing impairment, type of hearing impairments: conductive, sensorineural and mixed hearing loss. He also talked about the degrees of hearing impairment which are mild, moderate and severe/profound hearing loss. He further gave a detailed example of speech impairments such as dysarthria and the various known types of dysarthria which are: cerebellar, pseudobulbar, bulbar and cortical dysarthria. Mr Charles talked about other speech impairments such as aphonia and aphasia, and he summarized by explaining the process of speech which is from respiration (diagram/lungs), phonation (vocal cord) then articulation (tongue, lips, teeth and speech muscles). He concluded by explaining the types of audiological services at the Dewdrops Community Center for Special Needs.

Dr. Primrose Fakudze (a registered Clinical Child Psychologist at the Dewdrops Community Center for Special Needs) talked about the psychological and behavioural challenges of individuals living with speech and hearing impairments such as feelings of neglect, anger, temper tantrums etc. She further explained the kinds of psychotherapy available to the individuals who might be going through such challenges.

Mr. Timothy Tinat (President of the Association of Sign Language Interpreters of Nigeria) was ably represented by Ms. Kindness Okoro (a sign language interpreter) who explained the role of sign language interpreters in bridging the gap between the speech and hearing impaired and the society at large.

Let's do this again next week, same time same station.

For sponsorship, please call: 0705 763 0825 or send email to: admin@dewdropscc.org

#SpeechAndHearingImpairment

#SignLanguage

#TotalCommunication

#SpecialNeedsAwareness

#SpecialEducation

#BehaviourManagement

#SeparatingMythsFromFacts

#AutismAwareness

#EarlyIntervention

#Dyslexia

#LearningDisabilities

#IntellectualDisabilities

#SpeechTherapy

#SpecialNeedsAdvocacy

#TrainingAndSupport

#FamilySupport

#OnTwitterEveryWeek

#OnAirEveryWeek

#StayTunedEveryWeek

#ThankYouJesus!

www.cacademy.sch.ng

@ Abuja, Nigeria

My weekly Special Needs Awareness Radio Show on 99.9 Kiss FM Abuja

Dear friends, tomorrow we shall have another exciting discussion on our weekly #SpecialNeeds radio programme, for your information and listening pleasure.

We shall be discussing on the topic: "How do I Communicate with Individuals Who are and Hearing and Speech impaired?" TOMORROW, Thursday, 8th February 2018 on Kiss FM's Honourable House of Parapo Show from 6:30 - 7:30 pm.

See flier for details.

Learn more as you join us Live on air at Kiss 99.9 FM, Abuja. To join in the conversation call: 09030000899 or 08091299997.
Follow us for updates on Twitter @dewdropscc @cacademy_ng @lolaaneke

You can also stream LIVE by visiting: www.kissfm999.com

For sponsorship, please call: 0705 763 0825 or send email to: admin@dewdropscc.org

#HearingAndSpeechImpairment
#SpecialNeedsAwareness
#SpecialEducation
#BehaviourManagement
#SeparatingMythsFromFacts
#AutismAwareness
#EarlyIntervention
#Dyslexia
#LearningDisabilities
#IntellectualDisabilities
#SpeechTherapy
#SpecialNeedsAdvocacy
#TrainingAndSupport
#FamilySupport
#OnTwitterEveryWeek
#OnAirEveryWeek
#StayTunedEveryWeek
#ThankYouJesus!

www.cacademy.sch.ng

#AboutLastNight on My Weekly Special Needs Awareness Radio Show

#AboutLastNight

Tonight's radio show was quite enlightening as we discussed "Autism and Hearing Impairment: Are children living with autism hearing impaired?" on Kiss FM 99.9 Abuja.

I began by explaining the relevance of the topic and relating my experiences working with parents who have children living with autism believing that the reason their kids are not speaking is simply because they are hearing impaired.

Dr. Primrose Fakudze (a registered clinical child psychologist) did a fantastic job explaining what Autism Spectrum Disorder is, the signs and it's various sub-categories which are classic autism, Asperger sydrome & Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified (also called "atypical autism").

Mr Ugwuoke Charles (an Audiometrician and Speech Therapist @ Dewdrops Community Centre for Special Needs) took us through a very detailed explanation of the anatomy of the ear and how it functions. He talked extensively on how the outer, middle and inner ear work together to transfer information to the brain and the various mechanisms involved with hearing. He explained the different levels of decibel or frequency of hearing that can be considered as normal hearing and the different degrees of hearing loss. He also touched on the 4 sections of the brain relating to hearing/speaking and dwelled extensively on the part of the brain responsible for receptive and expressive skills.

Mrs. Aisha John-Mark (parent of a child living with autism) talked unashamedly about her son's journey with autism, how she initially felt her son couldn't hear until one day when he heard the Barney song being played in the living room while having a shower in the bath room and ran out while humming along. She also encouraged other parents to strive towards early diagnosis and intervention which was the step she took and she is seeing great improvement in her son.

I concluded the discussion by stating that research has shown that the prevalence of ASD among children who are deaf or have hearing loss is 1 in 59. I further explained that it is possible to have autism and have hearing impairment is not one of the symptoms of autism neither is autism one of the symptoms of hearing impairment.

Let's do this again next week, same time same station.

For sponsorship, please call: 0705 763 0825 or send email to: admin@dewdropscc.org

#AutismAndHearingImpairment
#SpecialNeedsAwareness
#SpecialEducation
#BehaviourManagement
#SeparatingMythsFromFacts
#AutismAwareness
#EarlyIntervention
#Dyslexia
#LearningDisabilities
#IntellectualDisabilities
#SpeechTherapy
#SpecialNeedsAdvocacy
#TrainingAndSupport
#FamilySupport
#OnTwitterEveryWeek
#OnAirEveryWeek
#StayTunedEveryWeek
#ThankYouJesus!

www.cacademy.sch.ng