New Jersey LDA meeting – general thoughts

On Sunday, October 6 I went to the New Jersey LDA (learning disabilities association) meeting.  In this post, I’ll talk about the event in general. In later posts, I’ll talk about the specific sessions I went to.

Overall? It was great!

The annual meeting of the New Jersey LDA was held in  the Busch Campus Center of Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. It ran from 8:45 to 3 and they gave us breakfast and lunch.  I don’t exactly how many people attended, but I think it was around 150 or 200. Most of the people seemed to be either teachers or parents of people with learning disabilities. After some preliminary announcements, there was a keynote address by Peter Riffle, a teacher of kids with LD and a man with LD (he is dyslexic). More about that in a later post. Then there were two “breakout” sessions – one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with a break for lunch and networking.  During lunch, a panel of young adults with LD answered questions.

The New Jersey LDA meeting had two exhibit areas with a variety of vendors. Some of the areas covered were post-secondary education, lawyers, programs for kids with different types of LD, children’s hospitals and so on. Missing were services for adults. (What happens to kids with LD? They become LD adults!). I wouldn’t blame the NJ LDA for this though; it’s hard to find services for adults anywhere.

One nice thing was the opportunity for networking. Breakfast and lunch were served in a large room with plenty of big round tables. People sat wherever they wanted and everyone was friendly. The organizers even managed to get me a ride nearly all the way home.

Overall, I had a good time and learned some things. I’ll be back!