Winter 2000

The Facts of Life… And More

Leslie Walker-Hirsch will be presenting a one day workshop in Sioux Falls on May 3^rd, 2000 at the Oaks Hotel.

Ms. Walker-Hirsch is an internationally recognized educational consultant who specializes in social and sexual development for individuals with intellectual disabilities. She is a dynamic and stimulating lecturer and is the co-creator of the widely used CIRCLES curriculum series, multi-media teaching materials for improving social competence and judgement. Her most recent publication as a contributing author in the AAMR book, A Guide to Consent, "Chapter 4 Consent to Sexual Activity" has been a groundbreaking one.

She is the founder and chairperson of the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) Special Interest Group on Social and Sexual Concerns, is a Fellow in the AAMR and has been invited to be a member of The President's Committee on Mental Retardation.

Items to be covered during the workshop are:

Six key concepts of sexuality - expand your view of sexuality beyond reproduction and rethink your role in helping individuals with disabilities manage his/her sexuality in self enhancing ways.

Unmet needs of pre-teens in puberty education - students with special education needs and their same chronological age peers without intellectual impairments will be compared and contrasted. How emerging puberty is addressed can help or hinder a persons self concept and progress toward healthy adulthood.

The principles of CIRCLES - learn to use these principles as a way of improving social/sexual competence.

Social issues for adolescents - small brainstorming session by participants to devise possible solutions in all areas of a teens life, especially as the diverging paths between students with and without intellectual disabilities widens.

For more information on this training, please call (800) 658-3080 or visit the South Dakota University Affiliated Program's web site at www.usd.edu/sduap/training/connection.htm.