Stages

"Gradually, Stages is becoming part of the fabric of the high school. We are not yet at the point where all the high school students have a Stages assessment. I am hoping to meet that goal by the end of the summer. The majority of the teachers at the high school have tested at least two students. Just the other day one of the teachers commented, 'We are starting to speak the same language about the students. We are beginning to know who is at Stages One or Two or Three.' This was really encouraging to me. My plans are to have the high school solidly up and running and then to grow the use of Stages to the junior high and then the elementary classes. I will use some of next year's funds to purchase additional programs. It is important to have enough CD's available to make access to the program easy for the staff. I love this program and I see its value for our population of students with autism. I think it will play an increasingly important role here." --Rosemary Petrovich, Stages Certified Evaluator Bronx, New York "Stages addresses the curriculum and assessment needs of my students and totally validates them as learners. I no longer go into meetings and tell parents for the umpteenth time that their child, now seven years old, continues to function in the one- to three-month range in overall skills. I can now tell them how their child's language and cognitive skills are part of the Stages learning continuum. That is so powerful and so confirming. Also, having a curriculum that supports the students' learning changes the perception of children with disabilities from helpless, dependent 'non-learners' to empowered learners with yet-to-be-tapped potential." --Janine Struyde, Special Education Teacher Lynn, MA "I attended your workshop in Brooklyn two weeks ago and already I see a difference in how my kids are responding. We are working through Stage One and carefully recording how the kids can access and who might be ready for more content. Best of all there seems to be better behavior from the kids and more interest from the paraprofessional staff." --Marcia Halperin, Computer Teacher Brooklyn, NY "As a speech/language therapist, Stages has helped me in that it provides a nice "language based" framework for me to share with the teachers. It breaks down the language skills required for academic/literacy readiness. Stages differs from other language assessment tools by moving beyond early language skills into fundamental academic skills, which lends more credibility from a teacher's perspective. Rather than being just a language assessment, it shows the natural progression from pre-language to academics. As well, it will allow us to monitor progress. I have found that most, if not all the students are highly motivated by the computer. This motivation increases their attention span, allowing for a more thorough and accurate assessment." --Kathy Sanchez, SLP Jamaica, NY "The Stages program represents an enormous pool of resources to increase the accessibility of computer technology to our students with special needs. It is rare to find programs that contain such comprehensive assessment data directly linked with frameworks for goals and objectives. We are looking forward to hearing from the field about our implementation of Stages." --Jackie Toscaro, Supervisor, Board of Education New York City, NY "Stages: Software for Special Needs is a very, very nice book - well-written, to-the-point and packed with terrific, carefully-organized information. I like it!" --Carol McDonald, journalist and parent of a special needs child Boston, MA "I didn't know he knew that much!" --Special Education Teacher, during an assessment with a learner "A lot of careful thought and design went into this program and it truly shows." --Stages Assessment Software user "It was like looking at my own data collection sheets! The information I want was there." --Stages Assessment Software user "You have made the jobs of teachers much easier with the tracking information." --Stages Assessment Software user

EvaluWare

"With so many ready-made assessment activities in one package, EvaluWare is convenient and saves me time. My students really enjoy the interactive exercises and games." --Linda Puckett, SLP Dana Point, CA "I like EvaluWare because it is a quick way to look at a client's preferences for symbol size, level of representation and number of targets on the screen. Using the software is a lot faster than trying to do it on paper, and I have a whole lot less to haul around with me to appointments. EvaluWare makes the evaluation process more fun for everyone involved." --Rebecca Tetlie, Assistive Technology Coordinator St. Paul, MN

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