Teaching by Design: Using Your Computer to Create Materials for Students With Learning Differences

(2005 ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Award: Finalist in Education Category)
TEACHING BY DESIGN 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.

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 Free-Hand, 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, you can make learning for a child with special needs immeasurably easier, richer, and fun for both of you.