• Time: 7-9:30pm
• Venue: Ministry of Education - Conference Rooms
• Member: Individual Tickets $20
• Non Members: Double Tickets $35

This presentation is designed to give whānau/family an understanding of neurodiversity. This session will also look at the strategies to support their tamariki/children in their educational journey.

Aspects covered include:

1. What is neurodiversity? Key indicators, neuroscience: the neurodiverse brain.
2. Experiencing neurodiversity. ‘Walking in the shoes’ of the neurodiverse
   learner.
3. Strengths and Weaknesses.
4. Impacts: Direct impacts – how does being neurodiverse affect individuals and their ability to be successful in a learning environment?
5. Impacts: Indirect impacts – What are the psychological, emotional, and self-perception issues, where there has been no diagnosis and therefore many years of damaging effects?
6. Supporting your child at home. Emotional support, resources and strategies.
7. Working with the kura/school to achieve the best outcomes.
8. Accessing Special Assessment Conditions.

Strategies and resources will include those that provide accommodations and those that provide remediation. (Accommodations provide access to learning through neurodiverse friendly practices, strategies and resources. Remediation involves implementing corrective strategies.)

These presentations often provide an excellent initial opportunity for networking and support within the Kura/school and the wider community.

Sarah Sharpe is a Ministry of Education accredited, Core Education Facilitator, teacher and dyslexia education specialist. Sarah’s passion for work in the neurodiversity field has spanned 15 years and she has worked in education in the United Kingdom and New Zealand since 1985.

As a New Zealand qualified Speld practitioner, Sarah joined the teaching staff of Kāpiti College on the Kāpiti Coast, where she established neurodiverse friendly teaching practices. The neurodiversity programme now embedded at the college has gained nationwide recognition for its effectiveness in producing high levels of academic success. In addition, these practices have enabled student emotional and social well-being to significantly improve.

Along with delivering neurodiverse workshops, conferences and symposiums throughout the country, Sarah has lead teacher professional development in schools and other institutions. She has worked with management and educators within the Department of Corrections to raise awareness of dyslexia and how best to support the around 60% of learners in our prison system with neurodiverse learning needs.

Together with her students, Sarah continues to raise public and government awareness of dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia and dysgraphia within our learning community. In collaboration with organisations and experts, both in New Zealand and overseas, she strives to keep abreast of current research and best practice.

Sarah Sharpe, Sharpe-Minds – Dyslexia Education Consultant

www.sharpe-minds.com          

 https://www.facebook.com/SharpeMindsNZ/

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