The Education Continuum

The Dyscalculia Assessment - Winner of the Best Special Educational Needs Resource - Non ICT ERA Award

I thought you’d all be pleased to hear that Continuum’s winning streak is still very much in vogue.
 
Last Friday, The Dyscalculia Assessment won the prestigious ERA award for Best Special Educational Needs Resource - Non ICT.

Melanie Wilson, one of the authors of the book – Trish Babtie – and I were in attendance to accept the award and enjoy some dinner, dancing and roulette.  It was a lovely evening and a great opportunity to dust off our glad-rags.

Please join me in giving huge congratulations to Jane, Trish and Mel, and all those involved in producing the book, on this fantastic achievement.

Alison Baker
Commissioning Editor (Academic Education)

nasen Awards 2011

I’m delighted to be able to share the exciting news that three of our Education titles have been shortlisted for the nasen Awards 2011.

Teaching Children to Listen by Liz Spooner and Jacqui Woodcock has been shortlisted in the Primary Resource/Book to Support Teaching and Learning (non-ICT) category and in the Resource to Support Speech, Language and Communication Needs category.

 

 

 

 

Justice and Equality in Education: A Capability Perspective on Disability and Special Educational Needs by Lorella Terzi has been shortlisted in the Special Educational Needs Academic Book category.

 

 

 

 

Special Educational Needs: A New Look 2Ed by Mary Warnock and Brahm Norwich, edited by Lorella Terzi, has been shortlisted in the Special Educational Needs Academic Book category.

 

 

 

 

The winning product in each category will be announced at a ceremony which will be held on Tuesday 24 May 2011 at 7.00 pm in the Platinum Suite at the Reebok Stadium, Bolton, as part of nasen Live 2011.  Watch this space…

Alison Baker
Commissioning Editor (Academic Education)

Dave Vizard's workshops

Dave Vizard, author of Meeting the Needs of Disaffected Students: Engaging students with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties will be presenting two seminars at Special Needs London on Friday 15 October: Keeping the parents of children with complex needs onside (11-12) and Words don’t always count…how body language can be effectively used to manage behaviour in the classroom (2-3).

Dave will also be leading a session on supporting disaffected students at the Teach First conference on 13 November.

Dave is a behaviour solutions consultant and trainer. Click on the link above to preview the book or purchase a copy.

Melanie Wilson
Commissioning Editor (Professional Education)

When “listen to me” is not enough…

Guest post by Continuum authors, Jacqui Woodcock and Liz Spooner

Last weekend, we were lucky enough to be asked to speak about our work on developing listening at the International Chromosome 22Q.113 deletion syndrome conference. We met parents and practitioners from across Europe and America and it was interesting to hear that they face similar challenges when trying to teach children with poor listening skills. The question we were most often asked was “What has changed? Why do children now find it so hard to keep listening?”.

The answer is not straightforward but the rise in screen-based entertainment and its impact on children’s play seems to be a common factor in many countries. New findings from The Nielsen Company (October 2009) show children aged 2-5 now spend more than 32 hours a week on average in front of a TV screen. This is 32 hours a week when they are not playing and listening to other people.

Consequently, increasing numbers of children are starting school without these foundations in place. When this happens saying “Listen to me” is never going to be enough. However, the good news is that our own research has shown just a small amount of targeted teaching can make a big difference to this key skill in school.

Jacqui and Liz are authors of Teaching Children to Listen: A practical approach to developing children’s listening skills, published in January 2010. It recently scored 5/5 in bulletin: The Official Magazine of The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

Melanie Wilson
Commissioning Editor (Professional Education)

Exciting New Book Day!

After a quiet few days in the Education department at Continuum (most of the team are at the Education Show in Birmingham), I’ve had a very exciting day today - not only is it Friday but I’ve also just received a bumper set of books from our production department!

Copies of the first two titles in our exciting Key Debates in Educational Policy have arrived, Teaching Thinking Skills and Educational Equality.  We are hosting the drinks reception at the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain later this month, where copies of these two titles along with Special Educational Needs will be available for sale. 

I’ve also received copies of Rethinking Children’s Rights, which is the second title in our refreshing New Childhoods series.  Look out for Rethinking Children and Research which will be coming soon.

Finally, but by no means least, Justice and Equality in Education has just arrived in paperback.  It’s great to have this text available for individual purchase.

If you think that any of these look like something you'd be interested in using as essential/recommended reading on a course you teach on then get in touch with Jenny (jtighe@continuumbooks.com) for an inspection copy.

Alison Clark

Commissioning Editor