Feb 6
Lowenfeld-Akeson Symposium
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Feb 5
The Lowenfeld-Akeson Symposium is held every winter to educate service providers, families and students about new developments in the fields of pediatric ophthalmology, neurology and early childhood education of children who are blind or have low vision. It is named after two leading lights in the field of early childhood development, Dr. Berthold Lowenfeld and educator Nancy Akeson. For the past 26 years a number of California-based organizations in this field co-host the symposium and LightHouse is extremely proud to be one of this year’s hosts.
LightHouse board Chair Dr. Sharon Sacks, is a longtime and key organizer of this annual event to help inform professionals and families about best practices in the field of early education, from birth to seven years of age, of children who are blind, deafblind, have low vision or cerebral visual impairment.
This year’s Symposium is entitled “Digging Deeper: Exploring prematurity from visual diagnosis to active learning.” Distinguished speakers will be:
William V. Good, MD, Senior Clinical Research Scientist at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute (SKERI), who will speak on The ABCs of Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP)
Douglas Fredrick, MD, Director of the Elk’s Children Eye Clinic at the Casey Eye Institute, Oregon Health Sciences University, who will speak on Cortical Visual Impairment in the Premature Infant: Seeing In/Looking Out
Patty Obrzut, MS, OTR/L, Assistant Director of the Pendrickton Center for Blind Children, who will speak on Active Learning: Promoting independence and learning in children with multiple special needs
There will be Q&A sessions with each of our presenters.
This event is taking place on Saturday, February 5 over Zoom, from 9.00 am to 3:00 pm. If you are a professional in the early development field, a student interested in the area or a family of a child who is blind or has low vision, this stimulating and thought-provoking event is for you.
The cost is $20 for families and students, and $40 for professionals.
Join a supportive cohort of interested people to learn the latest thinking in this field. You can register here: https://tinyurl.com/bucz64zj
If you have any questions concerning this year’s event, please email at LowenfeldAkeson@gmail.com or call, Jacqueline Barden, at 415-694-7366.
Harry Potter Club
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Feb 5
Grab your wands, cauldrons, and your Harry Potter knowledge and join your LightHouse friends for our new student driven Harry Potter Club. This monthly gathering of happy Harry Potter enthusiast will gather during the afternoon of the first Saturday of each month for all sorts of Harry Potter awesomeness.
In 2021 the club met monthly to compare and contrast the original 7 books to the 8 movies. Starting in February 2022 the club will continue our exploration of the Harry Potter world by reading and watching the Fantastic Beasts series. The first two movies of this series will be hosted via zoom, however it is our hope that it will be safe to gather in person for the release of the third move is this series as it comes out in April.
February 5 - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
March 5 - Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
April TBD - Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
Who: Blind and low vision youth from all over. Families should be aware the Harry Potter Books are for youth that are at least in 5th or 6th grade, however a couple of the Harry Potter movies are rated PG-13 and may not be appropriate for all.
What: Harry Potter book and audio description movie club
When: 1:00 pm of the first Saturday of the month (see dates above)
Where: Anywhere you can access a Zoom meeting
RSVP: Zoom meeting information will be shared with those that RSVP by 5:00 pm of the day before the program
Parents & Guardians: we’d love your help getting your children connected to our virtual program, however, once they have joined, we ask that you please give them the space to participate individually.
LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired does not support discriminatory or hateful speech in any form. We stand by the LGBTQ+ community and all fans who found a home in the Harry Potter series and will work to provide a safe space for fans.
If you are interested in signing up for the Harry Potter Club, please contact Jamey Gump by email at JGump@lighthouse-sf.org or by phone at 415-694-7372.
The events for the upcoming week are read aloud on our event hotline every Friday, which can be accessed by calling 415-694-7325. For more information about visiting the Adaptations Store, head to our shop page.
The LightHouse is scent-free. Please abstain from wearing colognes, perfumes, or other scented products. Additionally, coffee must be securely lidded at all times and citrus should not be peeled on the premises. Thanks for supporting our efforts to respect chemical sensitivities!
