Websites

Schools and Programs Using an Active Learning Approach

Visio poster
Active Learning poster from Visio

Byhaveskolen, Svendborg, Denmark

Institutt for Aktiv Læring, Norway

Kilparrin Early Learning Center, South Australia

Koninklijke Visio (Royal Dutch Visio), the Netherlands

Lilli Nielsen Schule, Kiel, Germany

Narbethong State Special School, Brisbane, Australia

Penrickton Center for Blind Children, Michigan, USA

Specific to Active Learning

Here are some websites with information about Active Learning or child development that we find useful in understanding more about Active Learning.

Narbethong State Special School

Narbethong School uses Active Learning extensively and has a great deal of information about the approach on their website.

LILLIWORKS

In addition to selling “perceptualizing” aids and other Active Learning materials, LilliWorks has some nice video of parents sharing about Active Learning.

Scottish Sensory Centre

A sub-section of this website is devoted to Dr. Lilli Nielsen and Active Learning, including an Idea Bank, Sources of Active Learning Equipment, and information on CVI.

Vendors of Active Learning Equipment

CAP (Children Achieving Potential)

Vendor of furniture for children with special needs and Active Learning materials in Australia

LH-Verkstan (Sweden)

Products include Essef Board, Little Room, Support Bench, and more.

LILLIWORKS (United States and Canada)

A full range of Active Learning products are available in North America.

Other Related Sites

Accessible Outdoors

Ideas from Dr. Joe Gibson for exploring the outdoors and creating tactile art projects.

Instructional Strategies Microsite

This Texas Deafblind Project microsite provides information on specific instructional strategies used with students who are visually impaired with additional disabilities and those who are deafblind. It focuses on communication, with sections on interaction and bonding, assessment, routines, calendars, and more.

Deafblind Interaction Microsite

Chris Montgomery, Deafblind Education Consultant with Texas Deafblind Outreach, has created this site with support from an array of experts. The website is for parents, family members, paraprofessionals,  professionals, and others who wish to better understand quality social interaction techniques and models for communication with children who are deafblind. The website is designed around a common progression, moving from awareness, to what it means to be an active partner, to how quality interaction builds to quality of life.

DBI Outdoor Network

Check out a short video about the DBI Outdoor Network and see how outdoor activities really lend themselves to active learning.

HealthyChildren.org

This website from the American Academy of Pediatrics is a great resource on child development and developmental delays, particularly the following pages:

Harvard University Center on the Developing Child

Strategies and the science behind the strategies for helping children develop critical social, emotional, and cognitive skills.  This website has great information for parents and professionals alike about the impact of stress in brain development, the importance of play, adult-child interactions and much more.

This Dutch organization provides services to individuals who are blind or visually impaired. Their website includes ideas on touch, concept development, and other areas.

Social Emotional Development:  Off to a Good Start

Learn more about social and emotional development in early childhood on this website from the Urban Child Institute.
 

SAPPI NEUROSCIENCE

This series of video shorts by Dr. David Eagleman looks at discusses touch and its importance in development of cognitive and emotional development.

Touch Base Center for the DeafBlind

Touch Base: Center for the Deafblind is a nonprofit organization created to benefit deafblind people after they graduate from school. Currently, Touch Base is located in Houston, Texas. It is a small organization with a board consisting of parents of deafblind children, experienced staff from the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and other dedicated professionals. The purpose of this organization is to provide deafblind men and women with a day habilitation facility where they can participate in organized, meaningful, and purposeful activities. They employ many strategies that align with the practice of Active Learning. 

Zero to Three

This website is a great place to learn more about typical child development and to see what skills and behaviors sensorimotor and pre-operational level learners display.

Websites on Typical Developmental Milestones

Gross Motor

Kid Sense website chart of gross motor skills from birth thru 6 years of age.

Fine Motor

Kid Sense website chart of fine motor skills from birth thru 8 years of age.

Oral Motor

PDF showing oral motor skills from birth thru 5 from Super Duper Handy Handouts.

Social and Emotional Development

Communication