Workshops

Landmark College is a leader in neurodiversity. Our expertise is rooted in our status as employers, educators, professional trainers, and researchers of neurodiversity.

We offer professional development offerings on a wide variety of topics including neurodiversity in the workplace. All professional development offerings are delivered by experts in neurodiversity. All professional development offerings are customized to the client’s specific needs.

Formats of the professional development offerings include:

• Face-to-face workshops (1-hour, 3-hour, 5-hour, and multi-day)
• Online, two-week long workshops
• 1-hour long webinars
• Our annual Navigating the Workplace conference

Recent topics for professional development offerings have included:

• An overview of neurodiversity in the workplace
• Anxiety, neurodiversity, and workplace supervision

In response to recent state and federal legislation mandating renewed focus on dyslexia, LCIRT has expanded its professional development services around dyslexia, including dyslexia screening, interventions, and teacher training.

Learn more about our dyslexia training here.

Why do some otherwise able students struggle with organization, sustaining effort or attention, and getting their work done on time? These struggles could be the result of Executive Function (EF) challenges. EF refers to brain-based abilities that allow us to harness our energy and focus on goals—in short, EF allow us to manage ourselves and get things done. This interactive workshop will provide a practical model of executive function and explore how educators can use an inquiry-based approach to support students in learning to successfully manage the EF challenges inherent in an academic setting. As a result of this workshop, participants will (1) understand EF within the context of brain development, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Autism Spectrum Disorders, and (2) have access to an effective approach, supported by a repertoire of strategies to help improve students’ skills in time management, task completion, and self-regulation.

Universal Design for Instruction (UDI) has recently gained the attention of educators, administrators, and policy-makers as they realize that while one-size-fits-all approaches don’t meet the needs of diverse learners, it is impractical to differentiate according to each individual student’s profile.

This workshop will highlight the principles of UDI, introduce best practices for teaching a diverse range of students within the context of UDI, and explore the inherent benefits and challenges in applying UDI to course planning and delivery, instruction, and assessment.

Participants in this hands-on workshop will begin to develop UDI approaches and tools that they can adapt for instruction in their own courses.

Study skills are sometimes called the “hidden curriculum.” Teachers often assume students know how to organize materials, manage time and tasks efficiently, take and use notes effectively, and prepare for tests. However, many students lack these essential skills and approach these tasks haphazardly.

This workshop introduces classroom-tested strategies that teachers can implement within content courses, and will explore effective uses of innovative academic apps to support organization skills, note-taking, and self-regulation.

This workshop will provide an overview of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and discuss the challenges that students with ASD face on a daily basis. Participants will engage in interactive activities to highlight the characteristics of ASD and to understand how individuals with ASD process emotions and academic environments. By the end of the workshop, participants will develop strategies to support executive functions and social cognition in their students with ASD.

This workshop is designed to provide participants with an in-depth understanding of the neuroscience involved in the learning process. By engaging in hands-on activities to understand the neural processes underlying attention, emotions, language and memory, participants will learn effective, brain-based classroom strategies to motivate student learning. With as many as 100 billion neurons in each brain capable of forming trillions of connections with one another, see how many new neural connections you can form just by participating in this workshop!

In this workshop, participants will gain a core understanding of learning theories and best practices for working effectively with students who learn differently. Discussion of current definitions, trends, and research on learning disabilities (including dyslexia), ADHD, dyscalculia, and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) will lay the foundation for understanding how educators can provide optimal learning opportunities for all students.

This workshop addresses the question of what makes learning a second language extraordinarily difficult for some students. It explores the research literature on issues such as the cognitive basis of language learning. How do language, memory, and attention interact? Why do at-risk students often fail foreign language classes?

The workshop presents the latest thinking about a theoretical framework which explains second language learning difficulties, including simulations of second language learning difficulties designed to give instructors insights and empathy for students’ challenges.

Participants explore recommendations for effective second language instruction based on research, literature review, and decades of classroom practice developed in Landmark College’s highly successful foreign language programs. The workshop includes suggestions for structuring foreign language programs and for specific classroom approaches and materials.

“I am just no good at math,” is a comment one hears far too often, but why is it that so many seem to struggle with math? This workshop will take a close look at the key cognitive and neurological factors that cause students to struggle with mathematical content, including our emerging understanding of Dyscalculia. The workshop will then present evidence-based, hands-on instruction in practices that can help all students learn math.

This workshop provides an overview of how educational technologies can enrich and enhance the education of students who learn differently. The presenter examines ways to support the key areas of reading comprehension, academic writing, and note-taking with technologies that are appropriate to students with learning challenges in a variety of educational settings.

At the request of the host school, the workshop can feature demonstrations of traditional assistive technology such as Kurzweil 3000, Dragon-Naturally Speaking, and Inspiration software; a range of tablet-based apps such as Voice Dream Reader and Notability; or a combination of the two. The emphasis is on scaffolding research-based pedagogical approaches with technology tools that reduce cognitive load and support strategic approaches.

Participants learn how to implement time-tested Landmark College approaches to supporting students who learn differently using updated technology.

Many schools are moving towards campus-wide tablet initiatives that put a tablet in the hands of each student and teacher. Tablets offer a great deal of promise as tools for enhancing student learning, but only when accompanied by effective pedagogical practices.

This is particularly true for students who typically struggle in the traditional classroom. When practices don’t meet the needs of students at the margins, they can find themselves farther behind their peers than they would have otherwise been.

This workshop will focus on effective pedagogical practices for supporting students with diverse learning needs and will provide examples of how apps can be used to enhance and in some instance transform how those practices are implemented in today’s classroom.