The LDA Podcast

Healthy Children Project (HCP) Director Tracy Gregoire and LDA Michigan President and HCP Coordinator Amy Barto discuss tips for staying safe in the sun this summer. Learn what ingredients to avoid when choosing a sunscreen, and hear myths about sun safety get busted! Learn more about Healthy Children Project at: https://healthychildrenproject.org/

Gregg French, a special education teacher at Bullard Havens Technical High School, and President of LDA Connecticut, discusses common accommodations, the collaboration between general education teachers and special education teachers, how educators should prepare for IEP meetings, RTI, and more.

Kelly Haggerty, President of LDA Montana and dyslexia specialist at Dyslexia Screening and Tutoring Services, discusses signs of LD educators should be looking for, common accommodations for students with LD, ways to boost student's social and emotional wellbeing, and more! 

This week we sit down with LDA CEO, attorney, and parent Cindy Cipoletti to discuss what caregivers should do if they suspect their child has an LD, learning disability evaluations, the difference between an IEP and 504 plan, the IEP process, and more, all from a parent's perspective. 

We talk to Mitchell Beres, President of LDA of Virginia and father to two children with LD, about what parents can expect when their child is identified with a learning disability. Mitchell shares advice on how to explain your child's LD to them, how to help your child with their homework–without doing it for them!–how to connect with your child's school, and more.  We also discuss the importance of using specific LD terms,  and how it's essential to teach your child to self-advocate. 

We sit down with learning and behavior consultant Bev Johns to discuss the prevalence of mental health issues in individuals with learning disabilities, current mental health statistics, and strategies for parents and teachers to monitor and work with students with mental health issues and LD. 

Special education attorney Grace Kim and mother Michelle Norman co-founded Partners in Promise, an organization that works to protect the rights of military children in special education. In this conversation Kim and Norman share their own experiences with the special education system, highlight the unique challenges military children in special education face, and share advice for all parents who are trying to navigate the world of special education.  Learn more about Partners in Promise at: https://thepromiseact.org/

Dr. Nancy Cushen White, a clinical professor at UCSF and a certified instructor of teaching for the Slingerland Multisensory (Multimodal) Structured Language Approach, sits down to talk to us about dysgraphia, the cognitive skills writing uses, how handwriting can improve reading and spelling skills better than typing, recommendations for handwriting instruction, and much more! 

LDA's Healthy Children Project Director Tracy Gregoire sits down with Safer Chemicals Healthy Families Director Liz Hitchcock to discuss the work that both organizations have done to push corporations to remove toxic chemicals from their products. This episode dives into why LDA fights to prevent toxic chemical exposures, what 'forever chemicals' linger in our food packaging, how campaigns of parents have made a difference in removing toxics, and how you can get involved. 

After struggling in school for all her life, at age 19, Patty Gillespie taught herself to read. With five learning disabilities, Gillespie was unable to thrive in the classroom, and had to find learning strategies that worked for her. These solutions would serve her in the future as she went on to become a reading specialist and educator, and her own life experience would give her empathy and a connection with her students. Listen to hear Gillespie's story, learn what tips she gives to those helping struggling readers, and hear her advice to students with learning disabilities.