Teaching by Design, by Kim Voss, shows readers how to use the computer to design meaningful educational materials for children and adults with special needs. A synthesis of computer graphics, education, and crafting, this book represents the author’s considerable expertise in customizing educational materials for her daughter with multiple disabilities as well as teaching other parents and teachers to create them too.

Full of instructions for designing and adapting materials and strategies for using them--including a time-saving CD-ROM of templates--Teaching by Design is useful to parents and teachers of students of all ages with a wide range of disabilities. Design and customize lotto boards, interactive spelling cards, game pieces, playing cards, matching games, menus, fill-in-the-blank decals, handwriting transparencies, and more, to teach visual perception, math, language, communication, reading, handwriting, and self-help skills.

ForeWord Magazine’s 2005 Book of the Year Awards Finalist in Education. Announced at BookExpo America in Washington, DC.

This book is loaded with illustrations and supportive anecdotal information and is divided into three parts:

•	Controlling Variables explains how presentation (media, text, images, and layout) affects learning and how to make appropriate design choices based on your child's needs and preferences
•	Graphic Skills provides a mini-tutorial on computer graphics programs including FreeHand, Illustrator, AppleWorks, Paint Shop Pro, CorelDraw, and Microsoft PowerPoint
•	The Recipes include over thirty sets of step-by-step instructions for creating projects, from Interactive Books to Coloring Within the Lines and from Restaurant Menus to Telling-Time Worksheet. The CD-rom of graphic templates gives users a headstart in the design process.

With this book, and access to a computer, printer, and office and craft supplies, you can make learning for a child with special needs immeasurably easier, richer, and fun for both of you as you make and use custom adaptive materials for home and school.

Read the Reviews
ForeWord Magazine
Teaching Exceptional Children Plus (Council for Exceptional Children)
Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy
The Family Center on Technology and Disability

Praise for Teaching by Design

New!
"This book contains many creative ideas for hands-on multisensory learning. Most of these ideas are not new, however, they are not intuitive either, and so many parents will find them useful both for home and to take to their child's program."
Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, Vol. 31, No. 9, November/December 2010

“To therapists who often supply the technological expertise to their special education teams, this book is a priceless resource.”
Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy

"I have been recommending your book to workshop participants for some time now with the sincere endorsement: "If only it had been available when I started constructing visual supports in the early 1990's, I could have made friends with my computer instead of struggling with it so often!" Know that I recommend your book for seasoned makers of visual supports as well as novices and have suggested to school systems everywhere I've been that it's a wonderful book for the school's teacher resource shelf."
Barbara Bloomfield, M.A. CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist
Director of IconTalk
Consultant for Autism Spectrum Disorders
 
"This semester, I adopted Teaching by Design as the textbook for one of my undergraduate clinical practicum courses. We absolutely LOVE this book! The students have truly enjoyed learning how to make the different materials and have even used what they have learned in class to create materials of their own. In addition to learning how to make the materials, the students have enjoyed reading about Ashley and have such an admiration for her mother. Thanks for providing us with such a useful text."
Dee Kirby, M.S., CCC/SLP
Assistant Professor of Communication Disorders
Abilene Christian University, Abilene,Texas
 
“Though these materials were designed for a child with special needs, they can even be used with typically developing students in the general education classroom. The clarity and organization of this book allow for anyone to pick it up and easily create materials."
Teaching Exceptional Children Plus, Vol. 2, Issue 4, March 2006
 
"[A] comprehensive manual for parents and educators that teaches readers how to use their PCs and MACs to create custom-made tools for exceptional learners."
Exceptional Family, Summer 2006
 
"I read the entire book in one sitting. [F]abulous book."
NewsLine (Federation for Children with Special Needs)
 
“An excellent resource for teachers, parents, tutors, and anyone interested in modified instruction materials for students with learning differences."
ForeWord Magazine, January/February 2006
 
"This is the book for you if you are motivated and creative and want to make fabulous individually customized materials."
New Zealand Down Syndrome News, Volume 28, Autumn 2006
 
"This book would be very helpful for: occupational therapists working in school systems, learning-support teachers, students in special education fields, and parents who would be interested in creating learning resources for use at home and school."
ADVANCE for OTs, April 17, 2006
 
"Both parents and professionals will find this book very helpful; students could use this book when planning presentations as the tips and suggestions are useful when creating any form of visual display. Although Teaching by Design was written for students with learning differences, this book would be a valuable asset in any elementary school classroom. The ideas work for all learners."
Canadian Down Syndrome Society Newsletter, Spring 2006
 
"[A] straight-forward 'how-to' guide to quickly and easily craft customized educational tools with the resources of a basic personal computer at one's disposal. The materials presented are designed to make learning as easy and intuitive as possible without excess distractions, and as such are applicable to all children whether learning disabled or not. An accompanying CD-ROM of templates to simplify the process rounds out this invaluable user-friendly resource recommended especially for instructors, but also useful to parents and lay people looking for educational games to play with developing young minds."
Library Bookwatch from Midwest Book Review, March 2006

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