Dr. Todd Cunningham
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Todd Cunningham is a clinical and school psychologist, Assistant Professor (teaching stream), Chair of the School and Clinical Child Psychology program at the University of Toronto and provides psychological services through is private practice. His research investigates the support of students with learning difficulties from assessment to interventions.
Projects involve looking at new techniques in psychological assessments, evaluation of assistive technology, professional development in literacy and numeracy, and telepsychology. He has shared his experience with parents, students, educators, school boards, and other professionals across North America.
He is a member of the working group for the Guidelines for Diagnosis and Assessment of Children, Adolescents, and Adults with Learning Disabilities and a member of the Learning Disability Association of Ontario board.
WORKSHOPS
Working with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Students in the Education System: Assessment to Intervention
Speaker: Dr. Todd Cunningham
The session will set a foundation for culturally linguistically diverse (CLD) children and adolescents by reviewing research regarding assessments and interventions. A new hypothesis drive assessment model to identify students learning profiles and lead to clinical conceptualization will then be presented.
Attendees will learn about specific methods for administration and interpretation of several informal tasks, checklists, and interview protocols designed to assess oral language, executive functioning, culture and acculturation, and social and emotional development. Attendees will also learn to communicate the results of an assessment to formulate diagnoses.
Once a learning profile has been developed from the assessment, attendees will learn about the link for the outcomes of the assessment to the empirical validate interventions that can be used with CLD children and adolescents. Tools such as ATSelect.org will be showcased to familiarize attendees with their value in generating recommendations.
Key Take-aways
- Acquire a solid conceptual understanding of the research on language and literacy development in at-risk second language (L2) learnings, and of cultural factors affecting communication with CLD children, adolescents, and families
- Understand specific methods for assessing CLD children and adolescents
- Understand how to apply new assessment techniques that can reduce testing time
- Acquire knowledge and skills involved in formulating diagnoses in relation to CLD children and adolescents with language, learning and social emotional difficulties
- Acquire knowledge and skills required to recommend evidence-based intervention for CLD children and adolescents