Florida Atlantic University

Diane Connelly, Martin County
SeaWind Elementary School
CARD Staff: Cathy Allore

Diane Connelly is originally from New Jersey. She graduated from the University of Tennessee with a Bachelor of Science in Human Ecology with a major in Retail and Consumer Science and a minor in business. After graduating, she worked for 6 years at a manufacturing company in Pennsylvania. When she left the company to stay home with her 2 daughters, she realized that I did not want to work in the business industry anymore; she wanted to teach.

Shortly after her family moved to Florida she enrolled in the EPI program at IRSC. She received her certification in Elementary Education K-6 and ESE K-12. After substituting for a year, she knew that she wanted to work with special needs children.

She has been working at SeaWind Elementary School for 3 years in a self-contained class for Kindergarten and first grade students with autism spectrum disorder. SeaWind Elementary is located in Hobe Sound in Martin County.

Proposed Project:

Social Magic: Using magic to improve social, cognitive and fine motor skills in
students with ASD.

The purpose of this project is to show how utilizing magic can help to improve the cognitive, fine motor, and social skills in students with autism spectrum disorder.