 Unleashing Potential:
Helping Youth Cope with Learning and Attentional Disorders
On behalf of the Executive Committee and all members of F.O.C.U.S., we take great pleasure in inviting you to the first F.O.C.U.S. Conference on Learning Differences, Unleashing Potential: Helping Youth Cope with Learning and Attentional Disorders. This two-day conference is designed for teachers, parents and medical professionals.
The aim of our first conference is to bring together people from Hong Kong and Southeast Asia who have an interest in Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) and Attentional Disorders and to unite forces in the treatment and management of these learning differences. We are delighted to have secured some of the most prestigious speakers and researchers in this field who will share their expertise and further promote this important educational support to the communities in Hong Kong and broader Asia.
Conference Themes
- Support networks for families, educators and caregivers
- Teacher training in educational issues related to AD/HD and SLD
- Current medical issues
- Characteristics and evaluation of children and adolescents with ADHD/Special Needs
- Governmental policies and programs
- Psycho-social intervention-treatment for children and adolescents with learning disabilities
- Accommodations for children and adolescents with special educational needs
| Date: |
Feb 29, 2008 - Mar 1, 2008 |
| Place: |
Hong Kong Cyberport/Meridien Hotel |
| Invited Speakers: |
- Dr. Thomas Brown
- Dr. Loretta Giorcelli
- Paul Hutchins, M.D.
- Sally E. Shaywitz, M.D.
- Bennett Shaywitz, M.D. |
Making their first visit to Southeast Asia are Drs. Bennett and Sally Shaywitz, best known for their work on dyslexia at Yale University in the United States. Drs. Shaywitz together established and are Co-Directors of the Yale Centre for the Study of Learning and Attention. Dr. Sally Shaywitz, a neuroscientist and professor of pediatrics, is the author of a number of books, including her summative work Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level.
Dr. Bennett A Shaywitz, M.D. is Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology and Chief of Pediatric Neurology at the Yale University School of Medicine. Dr Shatwitz' honors include selection, along with Dr. Sally Shaywitz, as the recipient of the Sidney Berman Award for the Study and Treatment of Learning Disabilities presented by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Dr. Thomas E. Brown, groundbreaking theorist, researcher and practitioner in the study and treatment of attentional disorders, will also be a keynote speaker. Author of Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults, Dr. Brown is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine and the Associate Director of the Yale Clinic for Attention and Related Disorders. He has been honored for outstanding contributions to research and professional education about AD/HD in children and adults, and has made particular contributions to the understanding of attentional problems in persons with high IQ, women with attentional problems, comorbidities and combined problems, and problems of sleep in individuals with AD/HD.
One of Australia's leading AD/HD experts, Dr. Paul Hutchins, and the country's foremost specialist educational consultant, Professor Loretta Giorcelli, will also present keynote speeches. As a developmental pediatrician, Dr. Paul Hutchins has considerable experience in how problems in development, behavior and social interaction overlap, particularly in communication difficulties with language and learning disorders, AD/HD and the autism spectrum. In his work and teaching in Australia and internationally, he vigorously pursues evidence-based practice, collaborative management between children, parents, school and health professionals and promotes the work of parent support groups. He has extensive involvement in guidelines for ADHD treatment and medication use.
Dr. Giorcelli is a leading Australian education specialist consulting internationally on all issues related to the inclusion of learners with special needs. She was part of a recently completed study of the inclusion of students with disabilities in regular education - the largest ever conducted in Australia. She is the co-author of the Handbook of Inclusive Practices for Schools (2007) and is currently the education representative to the national NH&MRC committee revising guidelines for the management of AD/HD in Australia.
 Press Release (Chi) (182KB)
Press Release (Eng) (26KB)
Registration Form (Eng) (208KB)
Call for papers: Form #1 (.pdf for postal submission, Eng) (82KB)
Call for papers: Form #2 (.pdf for postal submission, Eng) (72KB)
Call for papers: Form #1 (.pdf for email submission, Eng) (975KB)
Call for papers: Form #2 (.pdf for email submission,
Eng) (969KB)
|
