“There’s always better.”
Shorter, cleaner, crisper, better!
This is our completely remastered and rewritten module, Autism. Learn more about this module and all of our other modules here.
David Pitonyak
We recently had the pleasure of filming with yet another great thinker.
David Pitonyak has a way of understanding and communicating the needs of people with challenging behavior that is profoundly straightforward.
The largest part of Pitonyak’s work involves meeting people who are said to exhibit “difficult behaviors.” Most of these people exhibit difficult behaviors because they are misunderstood and/or because they are living lives that don’t make sense. Often they are lonely, or powerless, or without job Often they are devalued by others, or they lack the kinds of educational experience that most of us take for granted. Too often their troubling behaviors are the result of an illness, or even a delayed response to traumatic events. You might say their behaviors are “messages” which can tell us important things about their lives. Learning to listen to the person’s difficult behaviors is the first step in helping the person to find a new (and healthier) story.
David also believes, to paraphrase Jean Clark, that a “person’s needs are best met by people whose needs are met.” Supporting a person with difficult behaviors also involves and honest assessment of and attention to the needs of a person’s supporters.
In recent years, Pitonyak has provided consultation and training for individuals, families, and professionals throughout the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, England, and the Republic of Ireland.
We are really excited to start developing the footage we collected. Stay tuned for more information. In the meantime learn more about david here http://dimagine.com/
Welcome Kathie Snow
We are pleased to welcome Kathie Snow to the Open Future Learning family.
Unique, inspiring, motivational, valuable, provocative, life-changing. These are some of the words used to describe Kathie Snow’s work. Snow challenges conventional wisdom and encourages others to adopt new ways of thinking about disability issues. She believes each person with a disability has strengths, gifts, and talents, and that when we focus on those-instead of the diagnosis-grea outcomes are possible!
Kathie Snow is the mother of Benjamin, a young man with disabilities. Snow has learned from Benjamin and other with disabilities, and now shares these extraordinary lessons. Kathis believes we can generate better outcomes for children and adults with disabilities when we change our attitudes, words, and actions. The inclusion of people with disabiliites can be be accomplished when they move from dependence on special services (client-hood) to the abundant supply of natural supports and generic service in their communities (citizenship).
Snow is enthusiastic, positive, and passionate about ensuring children and adults with disabilities live real lives, fully included at home, school, work and play. The commonsense strategies she promotes can help turn this dream into reality. Be ready for provocative questions, positive solutions, and innovative thinking, mixed with humor and real-life experiences.
Learn more about Kathie http://www.openfuturelearning.org/contributors.html#ksnow