Oakville Beaver Weekend 17Sunday, April 11, 1999 at Appleby College • Drawing • Painting • • Pottery • Video • A summer day camp for creative kids 5-15+ yrs. old Wnnkt July 12*30,1999 For more information contact Barbara Eadie at 905- 845-8070 • AH • Creativity • Pride • Jay • • Confidence • Growth • Fun • Oakville Trafatgar High School student Justin Liu OTHS student among top Shad Valley applicants By Wilma Blokhuis BEAVER FOCUS EDITOR When he heard the news he had placed fifth among the top 100 students to be selected to participate in the Shad Valley science and technology summer program, Justin Liu was caught by surprise. The quiet 18-year-old OAC student at Oakville Trafalgar High School was still waiting for confirmation. He found out about the program through three friends who attended Shad Valley last year and "raved about it. They told me it was the most amazing experience, and they encouraged me to apply." One of them was Jason Marr, and OTHS grad uate. Liu ranks fifth out of 900 applicants worldwide for Shad Valley, explains Mary Dever Ford of Shad International based in Waterloo. Of those applicants, 720 meet or exceed the program's requirements, however the program is limited to 450^13065 spread across nine Canadian universities. Those ranking in the top 100 are guaranteed placements in the program, at the universities of their choice, explains Dever Ford. Liu will attend Shad Valley at Waterloo University, where he hopes to study electrical engineering starting this fall. He will spend July at Waterloo, living in residence, and attending seminars and workshops related to science, tech nology and mathematics, while at the same time completing an entrepreneurial project on a technology related theme. Liu is hoping to follow that up with a five-week work term with a Shad Valley partner company. Currently, Liu works part-time at Energy Advantage, doing data entry work on the computer at the company which advises clients in energy management. His application to Shad Valley, Canada's premier summer educational program in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and entrepreneurship, is supported by OTHS French teacher Heidy Peragine. "He's my inspiration," she says of her favourite student. "I talk about him all the time, and I'll be talking about him 20 years from now." In her letter recommending him for Shad Valley, she describes Liu as "brilliant." "I had the pleasure of teaching Justin Liu in Core French class," she wrote. "I have not had many students who have scored 100% in these courses, but (S ee 'Oakville' page 18) WOMEN'S HEART HEALTH STUDY If you're O VER 55 & have gone through M E N O P A U S E & you have either H eart Problem s, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes, you may qualify to participate along with 10,000 W O M EN W O R LD W ID E in a research study of an investigational drug that may help to reduce your risk of a future heart attack. For more information: Lifestyle Metabolism Center (905) 337-0040 or R U TH @ lm c.ca S P E E C H A N D L A N G Opening Sept. '99 3 Full Time Speech Language Pathologists on staff! New location BuM &QEW A unique private speech and language school will be open ing in the Burlington and Oakville areas for September of 1999. TALC ACAD EM Y is for children with specific and intensive speech and language needs. Children with a history of speech and language delay, expressive and receptive vocabulary difficul ties, weaknesses in the areas of grammar skills, auditory pro cessing, sequencing, severe phonological or oral motor difficul ties or hearing difficulties would all benefit from the specialized programming that this school will provide. Speech Language Pathologist Judy Nathanson wilt be coordmating the program ming for this unique school. TALC ACAD EM Y is a full year program for primary-aged chil dren who are entering Junior Kindergarten, Senior Kindergarten or Grade One. Children who are currently experiencing difficulty in Grade One will also be considered. Speech Language Pathologist and Director Judy Nathanson explains that the school will offer children daily individual one-to-one therapy in the area of speech, language, auditory processing and reading. Th e re are many children with intensive speech and language needs who would benefit from daily one-to-one therapy,' explains Nathanson. "Unfortunately, with the cut backs in the hospitals and school systems, daily one-to-one therapy or small group support is not available for most chikfren'TALC ACAD EM Y'S speech and language focused curriculum will integrate the individual speech a x ) language needs of the students into The Kindergarten and Grade One programs. The individual therapy goals of each student will be monitored and enhanced within the language enriched class rooms of TALC ACADEMY, stated Nathanson. Our goal is to devel op and enhance communication skills so that students will be able to successfully return to the regular school system. In addition to the daily one-to-one therapy, students will receive intensive individual support within the classroom setting. TALC ACADEMY'S Kindergarten classroom will have a maximum of 10 students. The Grade One program will also be capped at 10 students. Each classroom will be taught by a fully qualified teacher or Speech Language Pathologist. They will work with an Educational Assistant in order to provide individual programming for each student. Judy Nathanson states that "We anticipate having a total staff of eight professionals working to meet the needs of the students. This is an excellent ratio of staff to students' The TALC ACADEM Y Kindergarten program will use creative play in order to develop speech, oral language and socialization skills. The precursor skills that are necessary for reading such as rhyming, phonemic awareness, letter and sound recognition, and patterning will be an integral part of the kindergarten program. The Kindergarten program will also focus on developing memo ry skills, wrabulary dewlopment, grammar skills and auditory processing. Th e se are vital skills for children to develop,' explains Nathanson. *At TA LC ACADEMY, we present these skills in a way that is fun and allows the students to achieve success at their own level.' The Kindergarten program runs four days a week. Half day and tun day programs are available and parents have flaabflity in their choice of days. "Many parents have also enrolled their children fo their local schools kindergarten program as well' explains Nathanson. Children with speech and language needs very often have a great deal of difficulty acquiring reading and written language skills. The Grade One classroom program at TALC ACADEM Y is focused on developing these skills. 'Children with speech and language needs require a great deal of individual programming and direct instruction in the area of phonics. There any many different types of- phonics programming that we use for children,' explains Judy Nathanson. "We have found that some children master the phonet ic rules when they are presented in the form of songs. Other chil dren need a more visual approach and, for these children, we use a colour coded word family approach.' The Grade One curriculum will also include math and science programming that will meet indi vidual student needs. Judy Nathanson has an extensive background of providing inno vative speech and language programming for children. She has been a Speech Language Pathologist for the past twenty six years and has worked all over Canada in both hospital and school boards. She also has a Master's of Education degree in Language Learning Disabilities. She is a Director of CAMPTALC which provides innov ative and unique summer speech and language programming for children between the ages of three and twelve, last year she opened the CAMP TALC Kindergarten Speech and Language Centre which offered individual speech and language therapy with in an innovative Kindergarten environment Judy Nathanson is a clinical supervisor for the Master's Program in Communication Sciences and Disorders (Speech Pathology) at the University of Western Ontario For the past lour summers she has supervised students from the University of Western Ontario as they completed their child language clinical placements. Judy also had a student working under her supervision in the Kindergarten Speech and Language program and anticipates that she will have Speech Pathology students at TALC ACADEMY. T A L C ACADEM Y is the extension of the type of innovative programming we have provided at the Kindergarten Speech and Language Centre,' explains Judy Nathanson. "We have seen the difference that daily one to one individual therapy and collaborative classroom programming can make with our students' TALC ACAD EM Y is opening because parents are asking for intensive and innovative speech and language services for their children,' explains Judy Nathanson. Tarents of children with speech and language needs know that the resources are not available in the system to help their children reach their potential. TALC ACAD EM Y is for parents seeking intensive individual programming and daily therapy for their children, so that they will be ready to enter the school system with a firm foundation of speech and language skills. Our progam is very specialized and very unique. The children we work with have intensive speech and language needs. We have a big job to do in order to meet their needs and we love doing it' In order to find out more about about TALC AC ADEM Y and how it can help meet the needs of your child, please call Judy at: P L E A S E C A L L 905- 628-8506 mailto:RUTH@lmc.ca