Resources
ADHD/ADD
Organizations
www.add.org – The Attention Deficit Disorder Association’s (ADDA) mission is to provide information, resources and networking to adults with AD/HD and to the professionals who work with them. Bringing together scientific perspectives and the human experience, the information and resources provided to individuals and families affected by AD/HD and professionals in the field focuses on diagnoses, treatments, strategies and techniques for helping adults with AD/HD lead better lives.
http://www.help4adhd.org – National Resource Center on ADHD.
http://www.ldanatl.org/ – Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA) has been around since 1963 and is a leading source for information on learning disabilities. Their site provides support for people with learning disabilities, their parents, teachers and other professionals. LDA provides cutting-edge information on learning disabilities, practical solutions, and a comprehensive network of resources.
General resources
*Disclaimer: Any assessments included here are meant as examples only to demonstrate the range of symptoms. They are not meant to be used for an individual to determine a person’s ADHD/ADD status. Only a professional such as a psychiatrist, psychologist, physician, neurologist or clinical social worker can diagnose ADHD/ADD.
http://www.addresources.org/article_checklist.php– General adult ADHD checklist to help further define ADHD symptoms. The site overall helps provide resources to understand ADHD/ADD and provide tools, information and assistance in improving functioning with ADHD/ADD.
http://www.ldonline.org/adhdbasics– Gives a very good basic overview of symptoms, causes and treatments for people with ADHD/ADD. Contains a question and answer section and listing of resources. The site also is an excellent resource for information on learning disabilities. A leading web site on learning disabilities and ADHD, serving more than 250,000 parents, teachers, and other professionals each month. LD OnLine seeks to help children and adults reach their full potential by providing accurate and up-to-date information and advice about learning disabilities and ADHD. The site features hundreds of helpful articles, monthly columns by noted experts, first person essays, children’s writing and artwork, a comprehensive resource guide, very active forums, and a Yellow Pages referral directory of professionals, schools, and products.
OnLine also serves adolescents and adults with learning disabilities. The site offers information and resources on the transition from school to college and from school to the workplace, and on the issues faced by adults with learning disabilities.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/adhd/76049 – Explores the question of whether medications should be taken for ADHD/ADD.
http://www.4-adhd.com/article5.html– Provides information on problems people with ADHD/ADD experience in social interactions. Gives examples/scenarios of experiences with social exchanges. Also gives list of articles, resources, a directory and a blog about ADHD. Good resource for parents.
Software & Hardware
www.playattention.com – Cognitive & attention training using games with neurofeedback to help in focus and memory.
*http://www.challenging-our-minds.com/tour/index.php - cognitive exercises are designed as games and Al, a cartoon character take off on Albert Einstein, acts as the host to the system. He is present on all instruction screens to provide a verbal interpretation of the written instructions. He also speaks and appears within the exercises to offer feedback, encouragement and an occasional hint when it becomes evident that someone is experiencing difficulty with a task. The game-like atmosphere and Al make the cognitive exercises fun to do. Cognitive training online.
Visual Thinking/Learning Styles
General resources
http://www.learning-styles-online.com/style/visual-spatial/ – Information on various learning styles including a learning -style inventory and learning techniques.
http://www.ldpride.net/learning-style-test.html – Take a learning styles test.
http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/ILSdir/styles.htm – An index of learning styles. A free online instrument used to assess preference is on four dimensions (active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, visual/verbal, and sequential/global) of a learning style model formulated by Richard M. Felder and Linda K. Silverman.
http://www.cuyamaca.edu/eops/DSPS/resourcesvis.asp – List of learning strategies by subject matter for visual learners.
http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/learningstyle.php – Provides information, lesson plans, teaching tips and resources for teaching various learning styles.
http://www.studygs.net/visual.htm – Study strategies for the visual learner.
Software
http://www.visualmathlearning.com/ – Visual Math Learning offers free math lessons that students can download based on visualization of the problems.
Graphic Organizers
General resources
www.graphic.org/goindex.html – Includes extensive links about the concept of mind-mapping and organizing information graphically. Offers consulting services in the areas of technology. The Graphic Organizer is the premier web site for information about concept maps and visual tools for graphic organizers.
http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer – Pre-K-8 elementary educational resources for teachers, students, and parents. Provides over 30 printable/downloadable graphic organizers in varying forms including a describing wheel, problem-solution charts, story maps, time order charts, cluster/word webs, step-by-step charts, tree charts and many more. All forms are in PDF.
http://www.graphicorganizers.com – Great resource! Provides overview of various uses of graphic organizers with strategies and a question and answer section. Also gives examples of graphic organizers by subject area (literature, social studies, math, science and writing). Workshop resources page provides PowerPoint presentations on various topics. There are over fifty free downloads of organizers by category. This site also has an online catalogue of many more organizers, however this is for pay.
http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=2983 – Scholastic provides organizers for reading comprehension and identification of specific story elements such as character analysis, plot, setting, and story sequencing. Also contains overall pattern recognitions within narratives and an assessment record for both students and teachers to keep track of progress and strategies used before, during and after reading. Twenty-seven free PDF organizers can be downloaded and printed or used directly on the computer with their interactive elements.
Examples of Specific Lesson Plans
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/class/l17.html – In history - Lewis and Clark expedition. Students are to pick a key character from their journal entries and a video is shown about the expedition. The students map out key events that the characters encounter using mapping.
Software
http://www.mind-mapping.org – Vic’s extensive list of graphic organizing software includes mind mappers, concept mappers, outliners, hierarchical organizers, KM support and knowledge browsers, 2D and 3D. An index of software companies and their products and a list of articles on mind mapping and visual organizers by category is also provided. Clicking on an item in the index will give you screen shots of the graphic organizer in use, a brief synopsis from the company along with Vic’s opinion of the software and a link to the product. Good resource for helping to see the full spectrum of visual organizational tools.
http://www.goknow.com/Products/PiCoMap – Concept mapping for handheld devices. PiCoMap is a comprehensive program for secondary education that allows students to create, share, and explore concept maps on their Palm OS. This program allows its users to create a center node and relate multiple nodes to create elaborate concept maps. PiCoMap also gives the options of beaming to other students or the teacher, printing directly with the infrared port, syncing with a desktop computer, or posting to the web. One can download a 45-day free trial for Palm OS (Windows/Mac) or Windows Mobile Pocket PC.
http://www.spectronicsinoz.com/product.asp?product=19761&display=interface – Claro Concepts (formerly MindFull). This software not only creates visual maps but also "Sound Maps" where each node/idea on the concept map can have a recorded sound associated with it. Claro has been specifically developed to support people with wide age and ability ranges including people with dyslexia. Benefits: allows all text ideas to be spoken back, can record thoughts and ideas as audio files as well as in text format, can enter additional notes for each node or concept by typing or using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, or can export your concept map directly to Microsoft Word or PowerPoint.
