North Hertfordshire - Mid Bedfordshire

Group Contact:
Megan Stacey, megan_stacey@hotmail.com, 01462 683074

The committee ran two sessions last term. In September 2009 an evening on assessment which was well attended by our local members and in November 2009 a Saturday morning workshop on setting up as a self employed tutor and conducting oneself professionally. The workshop proved to be very popular and attracted Patoss members from outside our area in addition to our local members.

Our speaker has had to postpone the session on autism due to illhealth so there is a change of programme for next Monday March 8th. We have two linked topics - Visual Dyslexia and Dyspraxia/DCD - the latter will focus on information arising from the recent local conference held by the Dyspraxia Foundation, which some members of our group attended.

This is an invitation to come along on March 8th to watch the screening of Visual Dyslexia Demystified (35 minutes) with Professor Ian Jordan which includes mention of the co-occurence of dyspraxia in visual disturbance and to discuss:

1. Impact of visual dyslexia, Dyspraxia / DCD on our practice
2. Actions for us

as individuals
as a group e.g. feedback to the Dypraxia Foundation to help with planning their next conference on 23rd September 2010.

The DVD goes through the 8 different categories of visual disturbance and attempts to illustrate them so the audience can see what the student might be experiencing. Dyspraxia is mentioned as a possible condition co-occurring with some forms of visual disturbance.

Following this we will explore what arose from the Dyspraxia Conference -
How to recognise, support and work with children with Dyspraxia /Developmental Co-ordination Disorder

Sue Hartga writes - 'Those who were there will know what a whirlwind of a day it was, speaker after glorious speaker filling our heads with ideas and questions. I certainly came home with my brain dancing from Madeleine Portwood and Amanda Kirby's scientific approaches melded with humanity and practicality- wasn't that bit on fatty acids shocking?; Dan Marsh's experience as a dyspraxic teenager; Maggie Johnson, Michele Lee and Sue Yoxhall's practitioner perspectives and Gill Dixon's dual take both as an Advisor and Mum- all with loads of ideas, tips and hints on what to do and how to cope and all for £20!

Such was the pace of the day that it was only at break times that we had time to catch up and then there were the stalls to look at and buy from. It struck me then that we had no opportunity to discuss what all this meant for us as practitioners. The 8th offers the opportunity to do just that, so I hope you are able to come along.'

All information re time venue cost unchanged.