Resources For Families Affected By Autism

At the first sign that their child has a learning difference, many parents panic and withdraw into a state of denial. That may help you. But it will not help your child. Your child's teachers know what to look for. As a rule, the signs of a child with learning issues are pretty obvious. While teachers may not know how to treat the disorder professionally, they have the training to alert parents and the school administration when they suspect your child has a learning issue.

In this TEDx Talk, Dean Bragonier discusses the true gifts of a dyslexic mind.

Before we dig deeper into the subject of learning differences, here's a definition of the term:

Learning differences, or learning disabilities, affect a person's ability to learn and process information. The signs of learning differences can vary depending on the specific type of disability, but some common symptoms include:

Difficulty with reading, writing, and spelling: People with learning differences may struggle with decoding words, recognizing everyday words, understanding sentence structure, and spelling correctly.

Problems with math: People with learning differences may struggle with basic math concepts such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and they may also have difficulty with more advanced concepts such as geometry and algebra.

Poor memory: People with learning differences may have difficulty remembering information, especially regarding rote memorization of facts or details.

Difficulty with organization and time management: People with

As I was doing my research for this article, I found myself thinking back to when I was 12 years old. My folks were good parents, but they didn't have the means to enrich my elementary and junior high school education. I always did my homework and practiced piano pieces, but I wanted more. That's why the Westmount Public Library became one of my favorite after-school haunts. I could explore anything and everything, and I did. That was then. Now, look at the resources my grandchildren have in a device that fits in their hands.

So, with that in mind, here are some apps, YouTube Channels, and podcasts suitable for enriching the studies of students ages 10-14. (We'll look at resources for younger and older students in another article.)

Apps

You can find most of these apps in your smartphone's store. Most are free. Take time to review and sample these apps yourself. Doing so will lead to some interesting conversations with your child. Exchanging ideas and opinions will help forge a strong relationship with your young person.

1. Khan Academy: This app provides a wide range of free lessons on various subjects, including math, science, history, and more.
2. Duolingo: Duolingo is a language learning app that can help students to learn a new language in a fun and engaging way.
3. Quizlet: This app allows students to create flashcards and study sets for various subjects, including math, science, history, and more.

Susan D'Agostino's article in Inside Higher Ed, Designing Assignments in the ChatGPT Era, got me wondering how teachers will handle their students' use of ChatGPT. ChatGPT is so easy to use and its answers so precise that it's inevitable that ChatGPT's answers will show up in essays and term papers. That's fine as long as students attribute their answers to ChatGPT as they must do with any source. However, our digitally adept young people will find workarounds to make ChatGPT's work appear to be theirs. I hate to be cynical, but that's the way things work.

Here are some suggestions on how to design assignments in the ChatGPT age.

Use pop quizzes frequently.

Pop quizzes are a valuable tool on many levels. With a group of students you know well, a pop quiz allows you to spot-check retention and identify material that needs to be retaught or explained. As you do with all your teaching materials, design your pop quizzes, so they are systematic and comprehensive. While informal oral quizzes can be effective, a written pop quiz provides the documentation you will need if a dispute over ownership of the answers arises.

I asked ChatGPT the best way for a teacher to use pop quizzes. Here's the answer:

Pop quizzes can be a useful tool for teachers to assess students' understanding of material and ensure that they are paying attention in class. Here are some best practices for using pop quizzes effectively:

1. Use pop

Artificial Intelligence, specifically ChatGPT, is knocking on school doors everywhere. So, rather than let some reporter tell us about AI and ChatGPT, I asked ChatGPT to explain itself to you and me. Here are the questions I posed, followed by ChatGPT's answers, all of which I have put in blockquotes. The questions are mine. The answers are ChatGPT's.

What is AI?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think and learn like humans. AI systems are able to perform tasks such as perception, problem-solving, decision-making, and language understanding. There are various subfields of AI, such as machine learning, computer vision, and natural language processing, which are used to create specialized AI systems that can perform specific tasks. AI has many practical applications, such as in self-driving cars, speech recognition, and image recognition.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a large language model developed by OpenAI. It is based on the GPT (Generative Pre-training Transformer) architecture, which is a type of neural network designed for natural language processing tasks. ChatGPT is trained on a massive dataset of text from the internet and is able to generate human-like text in response to prompts. It can be fine-tuned for specific language tasks such as question answering, conversation, and text completion. ChatGPT has a wide range of potential uses, such as in chatbots, language translation, and content generation.

In this video, Adam Twarog explains ChatGPT.