| Jun 02, 2007 |
| 1. Eddies Club Matinee Movie. SATURDAY MORNING MATINEE MOVIE of "MEET THE
ROBINSONS" (G). Check it out at http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/meettherobinsons Saturday, June 2, 2007 at the University Mall Theatres, (Corner of RT. 123 and Braddock Road - Across from George Mason University), 10659 Braddock Road, Fairfax, VA (703) 273-7111, www.universitymalltheatres.com 9:30AM. Free Popcorn and Drink for the Kids. THIS IS A FAMILY EVENT. ALL KIDS MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY AN ADULT. 2. POAC-NoVA presents a workshop on "Using ABLLS as an Assessment and IEP Development Tool An Introductory Workshop for parents and professionals" on June 3rd (Sunday) 1pm to 4pm. Registration starts at 12:30pm. The ABLLS (Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills) is an assessment, curriculum guide, and a skills tracking system for children with language delays created by James W. Partington, Ph.D. and Mark L. Sundberg, Ph.D. The ABLLS contains a task analysis of many skills necessary to communicate successfully and to learn from everyday experiences. It is comprised of two separate documents: The ABLLS Protocol that is used to record scores for each child and the ABLLS Scoring Instructions and IEP Development Guide. The ABLLS protocol includes a set of grids (ABLLS graph) that comprise a skills tracking system for documentation of a child's progress in the acquisition of critical skills. Instructions regarding the use of the ABLLS Protocol (scoring and completing the skills tracking grids for the individual student) are provided in the ABLLS Guide. This workshop will give you the necessary tools and directions to fill out the ABLLS and successfully develop target goals for IEPs for home and/or school programs. Presenters will discuss common questions and misconceptions of the ABLLS. They will also discuss the pros and cons of the different communication styles to aid in your decision to choose between sign, vocal or pictures. Using different ABLLS grids you will have a better understanding of what targets to teach for different learner profiles. Through the workshop, you will gain knowledge on how to teach to functionality and generalization. In addition, we will briefly review the operants and teaching procedures. It is at Centreville Regional Library Cost: $20 (POAC-NoVA members) 14200 St. Germain Drive $30 (Non POAC-NoVA members) Centreville, 14200 St. Germain Drive, Centreville, VA. Registration is on a first-come, first-serve basis. Please contact workshops@poac-nova.org prior to sending your registration and for any questions & concerns. Registration will not be confirmed until the full payment is received. An e-mail confirmation will be sent to you upon your registration. POAC of NoVA accepts checks (payable to POAC-NoVA), money orders, agency purchase orders and Credit Cards (online only). If using a purchase order or credit card, forward your registration form with a letter stating that PO will follow or payment has been made on-line (at www.poac-nova.org name of the registrant on all purchase orders. Phone in registrations will not be accepted. Workshop confirmations will be e-mailed. 3. Autism Society of America- Northern Virginia Chapter on June 3 has a Family Fun Event at the Fairfax County Water Mine Swimmin' Hole, 1400 Lake Fairfax Drive, Reston, Virginia. Starts at 3:00 pm, and goes to 5:00 pm, but families can stay until their 8:00 pm closing time. Cost is $9 per person, but one parent of special needs child is free. EVEN THOUGH THIS EVENT IS SPONSORED BY ASA-NV, IT IS OPEN TO ALL FAMILIES WITH SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN. Contact Christine Hoch at 703-495-8444 or executivedirector@asanv.org for more details. Enjoy a warm Sunday afternoon with your ASA-NV friends. More details are at http://www.autism-society.org/site/Clubs?club_id=1200&sid=3810&pg=event The pavilion in the Swimmin' Hole is reserved for our use. Special bracelets will be provided for our group. The Joey Pizzano Memorial Fund has agreed to provide snacks and drinks. Water safety education stations will be offered by four Arlington and Fairfax County agencies. For more information about the Water Mine, go to the website at http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/watermine Swimmin' Hole for fun and some education on water safety! 4. WESTFIELD PTSA SpecEd Parent Meeting on Tuesday, June 5, 2007 from 7:30 p.m. in Classroom A103 (Enter the school at the Main Entrance 1 and you will see signs to guide you). Carmen Sanchez and Brenda Cross, co-chairmen of the Advisory Committee for Students with Disabilities (ACSD) will be our speakers. The ACSD, a state mandated committee, serves in an advisory capacity and at the end of each year presents its recommendations to the School Board. Two of the recommendations this year include distribution of IEPs and predetermination--two very important issues at Westfield and other schools as well. Everyone is welcome to attend the meeting so please feel free to share the information with others who might be interested. Westfield High School is located in Chantilly at 4700 Stonecroft Boulevard. Looking forward to seeing you there! For more info, contact Karen Freiberg, WHS PTSA SpecEd Rep. at freibergs4@aol.com. 5. POAC-NoVA presents a new FREE workshop on "How to fund your child's interventions" for our 16 June 2007 member meeting from 1pm to 4:45pm at the Dolley Madison Library, 1244 Oak Ridge Avenue, McLean, VA. Directions are at http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/dm keynote speaker is Maureen Hollowell, Director of Advocacy and Services at the Endependence Center in Norfolk. Her work includes advocacy, technical assistance and training efforts that focus on the Americans with Disabilities Act, school services and Medicaid services. Alee Garit from the Fairfax County Department of Family Services, Jared Rosen from The Washington Group ~ Special Care Planning Team, and another consultant from a different financial planning company will also be speaking. This is a workshop for parents, by financial consultants on how to fund and protect your child's interventions through Medicaid waivers, special needs trusts and other financial planning tools. Contact Scott Campbell at 703 681-9426 or 703 241-2640 or at scott.alan.campbell@us.army.mil for more details. 6. POAC-NoVA presents a conference on "Introduction to Verbal Behavior" by Vincent Carbone, Ed.D and BCBA. The workshop focuses on the behavioral approach to teaching communication skills to children with autism and other developmental disabilities, based on B.F. Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior. Held at the Hyatt Dulles, 2300 Dulles Corner Blvd, Herndon, VA on Thursday, July 12th through Saturday, July 14th from 8:30am to 5:00pm. Check-in starts at 7:30am. Cost is $250/person before June 15th ($225 for POAC-NoVA members). Cost is $275/person after June 15th ($250 for POAC-NoVA members). Please visit http://www.poac-nova.org/newsmanager/news_article.cgi?news_id=1244 email to workshops@poac-nova.org or call 703 391-2251 to receive further workshop-specific information and a registration form. 7. Northern Virginia Special Needs Picnic on Saturday, July 14th from 3-7pm at the Fairfax County Government Center, 12000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax, VA on the Ellipse Grounds. Grab those lawn chairs and be prepared for the picnic of the summer! Entertainment and many special guests. Coordinated by The Arc of Northern Virginia. Our Partners: Access Ministries, Autism Society of America-Northern Virginia Chapter, Down Syndrome Association of Northern Virginia, Eddie's Club, Parents of Autistic Children of Northern Virginia (POAC-NoVA), Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center (PEATC), Special Olympics in Northern Virginia. Our Sponsors: The Washington Group ~ Special Care Planning Team, Fairfax County Therapeutic Recreation Services, Central Fairfax Services. RSVP to The Arc office- 703-532-3214 x 101. 8. Seventh-annual CAN Run & Walk to Benefit Cure Autism Now & Autism Speaks on Wednesday, July 4th, 2007 at the Potomac Library at the intersection of River and Falls Roads in Potomac, Maryland. Exit 39 off of 495 at River Road and head towards Potomac. SCHEDULE: Pre-race warm-up (with professional trainer Fred Foster) 7:30 am, 5K road race 8:00 am, and 1 mile walk 8:05 am. POST-RACE FESTIVITIES: After the race, enjoy food and music. Random prizes will be awarded. Help us start the 4th of July with an early celebration! REGISTRATION: Entry fee for 5K run or 1 mile walk, $25 (until June 15), $30 (June 16-July 1 (on line registration will close at midnight July 1), July 3 (at Potomac Promenade) $35, July 4 (at Potomac Library) $40, and Fee for children ages 14 and under $15. More info is at http://canrun.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=210797 9. VOPA Needs YOU!! Because the Virginia Office for Protection and Advocacy has limited resources, it must choose, each year, how best to use those resources. It does this by selecting certain issues to work on. Each year, VOPA asks for public input on its goals and objectives. We will soon be entering a two year planning cycle, so it is critical that we receive thoughtful public input. What issues should VOPA take on? What are the most critical issues facing the disability community today? How can VOPA best use its limited legal resources? Please help us by filling out a simple public input survey. Go to VOPA's webpage: www.vopa.state.va.us someone you know would prefer to use a paper survey, just call 1-800-552-3962 and ask us to send you one. 10. FREE Summer Reading Program. Don Johnston Incorporated and Schwab Learning are collaborating on a free summer reading program for 7-14 year olds. The 5-week session (May 29th-June 30th) reading activity allows participants to read along and listen to a retold version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by downloading a PDF of the text and an audio file for their MP3 player, cell phone, or computer. The books are available in two readability levels. More information about this program is available at http://www.schwablearning.org/banners/summer-read-a-long.asp questions can be directed to Valerie Chernek at 410.871.2670 or vchernek@donjohnson.com 11. You are invited to participate in a research study designed to provide information regarding the major components and settings in a high school curriculum that lead to employment for individuals with autism. The study is being conducted by Dr. Tom Simmons and Judith S. Marco and is sponsored by the University of Louisville, Department of Teaching and Learning. The study is available via the internet or as a hard copy. It should take approximately 10 minutes to complete the survey. The survey can be found at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=284633401755 12. The Condition of Education 2007, the annual statistical portrait of education in the United States, will be released Thursday, May 31st, 2007. The 2007 report summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The report presents 48 indicators on the status and condition of education and a special analysis on high school course taking. The report will be made available Thursday morning at 10:00 am at: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe 13. FAME Glossary of Common Terms Used by Disability Support Services at http://www.oln.org/ILT/ada/Fame/glossary_d.html#d 14. David Kirby Interviews Katie Wright. In this April 19, 2007 interview, "Evidence of Harm" author David Kirby sits down with Katie Wright, daughter to Autism Speaks' founders Bob and Suzanne Wright and mother to Christian Hildebrand, a 4 year old autistic boy. In their talk, Katie discusses her family's experiences with autism from the onset of Christian's symptoms to their search for the therapies and interventions that have helped him to begin the path toward recovery. Also discussed are Katie's opinions on vaccine injury and causation, as well as insights on the organization her parents founded, Autism Speaks. http://www.autismmedia.org/media15.html prior to another in-print interview that Katie did for Spectrum Magazine. http://www.spectrumpublications.com/catalog.php 15. "Too many minorities in special ed" dated 20 May 2007 by Jennifer D. Jordan from The Providence Journal at http://www.projo.com/education/content/sped20_05-20-07_U55N4VD.330ff4c.html "Seven school districts in Rhode Island are labeling too many students of color with learning disabilities they may not have and placing them into special education, a problem that has sparked a federally required review by the state Education Department. In Central Falls, Hispanic students are almost 10 times more likely to be labeled "mentally retarded" than their non-Hispanic peers. Black students in Providence are five times more likely to be classified as "emotionally disturbed" than other students. Native American students in South Kingstown are 16 times more likely to be categorized as "learning disabled" or "other health impaired," a category that includes attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. East Greenwich, Narragansett, Newport and Woonsocket were also cited for disproportionately identifying black, Hispanic or Asian students with learning disabilities, according to state education officials, who have been meeting with district leaders to find out why. Officials acknowledge that it is possible that certain districts may have higher numbers of students with learning disabilities for a variety of reasons, including lead poisoning or children coming to a district for services that might not be available elsewhere. However, the statistical discrepancies found in the seven school districts are significant enough to indicate a larger problem, and are being analyzed by the Department of Education, which says it will help the districts correct the "over-identification" of minority students over the next two years. The state review could spark districts to review the tests and procedures they use to evaluate students, to make sure they are culturally sensitive, something Providence Supt. Donnie Evans said he wants his district to do. Districts might also decide to reevaluate the individual education plans of hundreds of special education students. They could also require more training for teachers. State education officials fear that some minority students have been incorrectly identified with learning disabilities, in particular mental retardation. When the state director of special education, Kenneth Swanson, was asked whether he believes this is happening, he replied, "Yes, I do. And that's not one of the labels you can shake off." REFERRING TOO MANY students to special education in general is a statewide and national problem that needs to be addressed by an overhaul of the education system, Swanson said. Special education has become a fix-all, educators say. In some cases, students having trouble learning to read, students acting out, and students with speech issues are being shuttled into special education instead of getting academic or behavioral help. "We do recognize that there are all kinds of kids who are struggling learners," Swanson said. "For a long time, special education has been the only game in town, so if [teachers] and students' families want their children to get assistance, that has really been the only avenue to go down." There are many reasons why students of color might be incorrectly or hastily labeled with a learning disability, Swanson said. For example, cultural differences between minority students and a largely white teaching force could result in misunderstandings or conflicts, as indicated in a recent analysis by consultants of Providence's special education system. Out of 10,159 classroom teachers in Rhode Island, just 277 identify themselves as minorities; 608 do not identify themselves, and 9,274 say they are white, according to the state Education Department. Pressure from the federal education law No Child Left Behind, which mandates yearly testing of all students, and the 2004 reauthorization of the Individual with Disabilities Education Act, which requires states to report how many minorities are in special education, is pushing states to address the problem. School districts must more effectively assess the needs of their students early on, Swanson said, reserving special education for the students it was designed for - children with concrete, diagnosable learning disabilities. ..." 16. "Giving a child a better min- Program aids memory skills" dated 22 May 2007 by Terri Yablonsky Stat from the Chicago Tribune at http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/health/chi-0705180666may22, 1,7133087.story?coll=chi-health-hed "A home-based computer program is helping children with attention deficits sharpen their working memory, thereby improving problem-solving skills and academic performance. Working memory is the ability to store information in the brain for a short time, typically a few seconds. In daily life, working memory helps people remember instructions, solve problems, control impulses and focus attention. Cogmed Working Memory Training, developed by Swedish brain researcher Dr. Torkel Klingberg, features video game software on an engaging robot interface. The research-validated program has been successful in Europe, and now is being offered in the United States. Computer exercises. With Cogmed, children train for 30 to 45 minutes a day, five days a week over five weeks. A personal coach, usually the parent, sits alongside to provide encouragement. The coach creates a reward system for the child, whether it's watching a video, going to McDonald's or spending time alone with a parent. The computer exercises involve recalling number and letter patterns. For example, on the robot's chest may be a grid of 25 red lights. The lights blink in a certain order. The child has to replicate the order, with the number of lights blinking increasing over time. "It pushes them but doesn't frustrate them," said Alan Graham, a Park Ridge psychologist who is licensed to offer the training. "Cogmed made us do the training, and it's work." More than 1,400 children and adults have completed the training in Europe, with 80 percent achieving significant improvement in attention, impulse control, problem-solving skills and academic performance. The program may not apply to everyone with attention deficit, according to Graham, because not all people with ADD have a deficit in working memory. Schools or psychologists can determine whether children are candidates for Cogmed. Before and after the training, the child's parents and teacher complete a questionnaire about the child's symptoms. "We encourage teacher involvement," Graham said. Becky Shulman, 8, a Northbrook 3rd grader, completed the training in November 2006. Her mother, Debby, worked closely with Becky's teacher, principal and school social worker. "When I told them I was thinking of doing this, they pulled together a pupil service team to discuss how they could make Becky's schoolday as accommodating and supportive as they could." Results have been impressive, according to her mother. ..." 17. "Regional Center diagnosis in dispute" dated 22 May 2007 by YVETTE CABRERA from the Orange County Register at http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/columns/article_1702593.php "Several months ago, I wrote about the Jossen Vocational Academy in Anaheim after cell phone video footage revealed a Jossen employee allegedly beating two clients with developmental disabilities. Many of you responded with concerns about the organization that oversees Jossen, the Regional Center of Orange County, and the way it treats families seeking services for their children with developmental disabilities. In dozens of interviews throughout the last month, I talked to families, special education attorneys, behavioral therapists, autism experts, and psychologists who told me the RCOC regularly delays or denies services and support to children with disabilities, including those with autism. Many parents told me they feared retaliation from the RCOC if they spoke publicly. However, some were willing to step forward. This column is the first in a series highlighting their issues. When David J. Steele's daughter was diagnosed with autism at the age of two, he and his wife had already prepared themselves for what lay ahead. They had done their research and knew that with the appropriate and intensive intervention and therapy, there was hope for their youngest child. "Everything we read said the earlier and the more intervention the better and the more effect it will have. That long term she will mainstream with the rest of her peers in her age group and ultimately catch back up," says Steele, a Newport Beach-based attorney. "Our expectations for her and her life are the same for her as for our son." Steele's daughter, now 4, has what's called autism spectrum disorder, a group of developmental disabilities, both neurological and biological, that cause substantial impairments in the areas of communication and social interaction. By July 2005, his daughter's behavioral therapy program was well under way through what's called the "Early Start" program via the RCOC, a nonprofit private corporation and one of 21 such centers throughout the state. Steele says that through the intense, 34-hour-per-week program of in-home behavioral therapy, his daughter showed tremendous growth. So when he learned in July from the RCOC that they had diagnosed her as mildly mentally retarded, he was taken aback. Steele says he was skeptical of the RCOC's diagnosis because up until that point, nobody on his daughter's team of therapists, nor the neurologist who had diagnosed her with autism and developmental delays, had made any reference to her being mildly mentally retarded. He immediately requested that the RCOC provide him with their basis for this diagnosis. From that moment, Steele began a battle with the RCOC that few parents in Orange County have the means to pursue. He filed for what's called a "fair hearing" with the state's Office of Administrative Hearings, a quasi-judicial tribunal, to determine whether the diagnosis was accurate. Then he discovered that the RCOC's psychologist had made her diagnosis without an intelligence test, which is required to make a mildly mentally retarded diagnosis. After researching, Steele's wife also discovered that the amount of therapy hours usually provided for children with mild mental retardation is less than what's recommended for children with autism, and so the couple suspected that the diagnosis was an effort to reduce future therapy hours for their daughter. I asked RCOC Chief Executive Officer Bill Bowman about the concern, and he said the regional center determines the amount of therapy necessary based on a child's needs and behavioral excesses not their diagnosis, and that a diagnosis is made merely to identify whether a child is eligible for state and federal services. He also said that Steele's daughter's tests showed that she had global deficits in cognitive delays (delays in areas like speech and language). "In every case going back 30 years of our organization, every case of every child having global delays, that citation requires us to identify that child as having mental retardation (severity) unspecified," says Bowman. The "severityunspecified" term means there is a strong presumption of mental retardation and that an individual's intelligence is untestable. Yet RCOC psychologist Mary Parpal did not diagnose "mental retardation severity unspecified," records show. So why did Parpal diagnose mild mental retardation instead? "Rather than make that determination - and often cases present unnecessary challenges to families - we've tried to soften that with the most the minimum value possible, that being mild mental retardation," says Bowman. Steele says he finds it unethical that the RCOC would misrepresent a diagnosis to make a family feel better. But he said he also had broader concerns. "What I care about is whether they are properly, ethically diagnosing children correctly... without regard to whether that's going to cost them less or more money," says Steele. In February 2006, Steele filed for a fair hearing to challenge the diagnosis. It was a fight he was willing to take on, not just for his daughter's hope for a better future, but for any child entering the system." 18. "B.C. autism group visits Halifax, pushes for treatment funding across Canada" dated 26 May 2007 by MELANIE PATTEN from 570 News (Canada) at http://www.570news.com/news/national/article.jsp?content=n052646A "A British Columbia-based group pushing to have costly treatments for autistic children covered under medicare brought its fight on Saturday to the East Coast. Representatives from Families for Early Autism Treatment of B.C. met with dozens of parents and their autistic children in Dartmouth, N.S., as part of a cross-country tour. The non-profit organization has been calling on Ottawa to work with provincial and territorial governments to set a national standard for autism treatment. The group also wants intensive therapy, known as applied behaviour analysis, covered for all Canadian children regardless of where they live or their family's income. "This is a health-care issue; this is science-based, effective treatment," said Jean Lewis, a founding director of the group. "It needs to be funded through health care so that it doesn't matter if you live in British Columbia or Newfoundland, your health care is looked after in the same way as everyone else's." The treatment, which can include one-on-one time with a trained professional, can cost up to $60,000 a year. Without a national standard, coverage for autism treatment differs across the country. In Prince Edward Island, for example, coverage is assessed by income. "That's not the way they deal with a cancer patient, that's not the way they deal with a cardiac problem," said Shawn Murphy, the Liberal MP for Charlottetown. "And that's not the way they should deal with this particular issue." Murphy said Ottawa has agreed to meet with the provincial and territorial governments by the end of the year to create a strategy. Both levels of government will have to pitch in funding for treatment, support and diagnosis, said Murphy, who was recognized by the association for his public support for a national autism framework. New Brunswick Liberal MP Andy Scott, Nova Scotia New Democrat MP Peter Stoffer, and Liberal Senator Jim Munson, were also recognized. Jeff Reeves of Charlottetown, whose five-year-old son Owen has autism, attended the event to push Ottawa to provide more funding for autistic children. Reeves said his son was diagnosed with autism at the age of two. He said Owen finally began treatment after sitting on a waiting list for nearly 18 months. "Owen is very intelligent, but it's his social interaction ... eye contact, how to play with kids correctly," said Reeves, 33, who is married and works in the IT industry. "He's made strides that we can't believe ... but if he would have gotten (treatment) at three, he could have been much further ahead." Owen's treatments costs more than $10,000 a year, and Reeves said the province covers about 60 per cent. The family also pays for supplemental treatment out-of-pocket. "The federal government has to do something about the funding for (the treatment)," said Reeves. "The earlier they intervene, the better off these kids will be. "If they leave them until they're 18, 20 years old, they're going to become drains on the system." 19. "A costly search for help, answers- Parents and schools are often at odds over a promising therapy" dated 27 May 2007 by Danielle Deaver from the Winston-Salem Journal at http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_B asicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173351366810&path=!localnews!education!&s=10376 45509111 645509111> . "Lexi Cota has curly, red hair and soft hazel eyes. They only briefly look at a visitor as she smiles uncertainly and then looks away, drawing back into her mysterious world. A world of autism. It's a world that Kelli and Chris Cota never thought they would be a part of. It's a world in which Kelli Cota had to quit her job to take care of her little girl, and fight to find the services that she needed. It has changed the Cota's plans for their family. They have decided, at least for now, not to have a second child out of fear that he or she would also have the disorder, or would one day have to take care of Lexi, who is now 6. They have cashed in two 401(k) accounts to pay more than $90,000 for treatment for their daughter. Autism poses challenges financially and academically to parents and educators, and frequently pits the two against each other. Autism can present itself subtly - a child who stands too close to people or doesn't get jokes. Or it can stand out - a child who cannot communicate, and strikes out in fits of bad behavior. About one child in every 150 is affected in some way. The cause of the disorder is still a mystery. After years of therapy and education, some children are able to communicate by pointing to pictures, or even by talking, and parents discover how much their silent child has learned and has never been able to share. That breakthrough is the hope of every parent of an autistic child, and most would do anything in the world to make it happen. Parents of some more severely afflicted autistic children in Forsyth County, including the Cotas, say that their children have made remarkable progress at the Applied Behavioral Center of North Carolina, a center based in Winston-Salem that is one of two in the state to offer a promising therapy in a group setting. ABC of NC uses a version of Applied Behavior Analysis - intense, one-on-one therapy to draw children out of their silent world. It encourages them through a system of rewards, praise and affection to talk and play. Parents tell stories of amazing successes - children who become potty-trained after years of diapers, who can tell parents what hurts and what they need. But getting the help is difficult. A year at ABC of NC costs about $62,400, and most parents have to pay the full cost out-of-pocket. Parents say that it is worth it, that if children get intensive help when they are young, they will be able to overcome the disorder and go on to live relatively normal lives. The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system, which by state and federal law must take responsibility for the therapy and education of disabled children when they turn 3, offers a home-based version of the Applied Behavioral Analysis therapy. Parents who have worked with the school system say that the home-based system is deeply flawed and puts an almost impossible burden on parents. And no matter how much progress the children are making, the school system ends the therapy at age 5. "I think the school system believes that there is no rehabilitation for these children," said Greg Gordon of Winston-Salem. His son, Ross, 4, has autism and attends ABC of NC. "They think, 'There is no hope for these kids, so let them go to the junkyard.'" Superintendent Don Martin said he disagrees. "In fact, we want to provide, we're trying to provide, the appropriate environment for every child," he said. ..." 20. "Families seek autism answers- Conference brings parents together" dated 27 May 2007 by Rex W. Huppke from the Chicago Tribune at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-autism27may27,1,6154897 .story?coll=chi-newslocalchicago-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true "Shawn Dennis, the father of two autistic children, came from Ohio to Rosemont this Memorial Day weekend seeking what most parents affected by this enigmatic disorder hunger for: hope. At a conference called "Roadmap to Recovery," organized by the national advocacy group Autism One, hope came in a dizzying array of treatments and products, from portable hyperbaric chambers, omega oils and potent vitamin supplements to acupuncture and infrared saunas aimed at sweating out toxins. There were booths offering sailing therapy, auditory integration training and tips on gluten-free cooking. This is the world of autism, a mix of hard science and conspiracy theories, sensible therapeutic aides interspersed with what may well be modern-day snake oils. It's to be expected with a disorder that has neither an agreed-upon cause nor anything close to a cure. Autism is a development disorder that inhibits a child's ability to socialize and can affect verbal and non-verbal communication skills. A study released in February by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the rate of new diagnoses of autism in the United States is one out of every 150 children born. For Dennis and many of the hundreds of parents who attended, the conference was informational and encouraging, a place to meet other parents and share experiences. "You leave with a sense of hope that a cure may actually be found," Dennis said. "It's not an easy process, but there's nutrition, there are biomedical supplements. There are no guarantees, but there are possibilities." Research funding has been on the rise, but autism remains largely a mystery. "The problem with autism is we don't know what causes it and it looks different in different kids. It's a spectrum disorder," said Chantal Sicile-Kira, communications director for Autism One and author of several books on the disorder. "So you end up with all these vast options. You may have some treatments that have a lot of research behind them and a lot of treatments that have no research behind them. But maybe that treatment really helped one kid, so parents are willing to try anything." As the mother of an 8-year-old son with autism, Laura Cellini has a lot of information on both biomedical research and the more holistic methods of treating her child. She has used a special diet for her son, Jonathan, that includes organic and wheat-free products and has seen tremendous improvement. "What's very frustrating for some people is that many doctors seem to say, 'You're born with it. You've got to learn to live with it,' " said Cellini of Springfield. "You really have to fight and find out what works for your child." At the conference, Cellini met the mother of a newly diagnosed 22-month-old child. The woman was in tears. "I told her, 'I hope if nothing else you leave here knowing that treatment and help is available,'" Cellini said. "Some doctors may look at it as a hopeless disorder, but treatment is possible." 21. "A Way With WordsPathologist Gives The Non-Verbal Access To Education" dated 28 May 2007 by GREGORY SEAY from The Hartford Courant at http://fox61.trb.com/news/hc-farspeech0527.artmay28,0,7400891.story?coll=wti c-home-3 "The title doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. But Vicki Carey has lots of experience explaining this little-known branch of education, to which she has devoted nearly a lifetime. Carey's skill is tutoring pupils, primarily those at Noah Wallace School, to improve their vocal mechanics - "red roses," not "wed woses" - and to communicate better with their peers, parents and instructors. After practicing for 34½ years - 27 of them in Farmington schools - Carey is retiring June 30. The Bloomfield resident says she will relish more time with her husband, their children and grandchildren. But she will miss the relationships with her students and colleagues. "I just couldn't imagine not working with kids," Carey said. "It's who I am. I'm leaving with a sense of satisfaction that I've made a difference for lots of students." One of five speech-language pathologists in the district, Carey's career spans the deepening role of these specialists in the intellectual development of schoolchildren nationwide. Their work extends beyond the classroom to rehabilitating stroke victims and others with neuro-physical disorders. "We're just about anywhere you find human beings with any kind of communication problems," said speech-language pathologist Vernice Jury, president of the Connecticut Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Jury also is retiring in June from the Ellington school system, after 41 years in practice. However, just when they're needed most, these specialists are in short supply. The chief culprit is stiffer state requirements for education and certification, experts say. The Connecticut education department, citing federal data, has identified speech-language pathologists, along with math, science, English and bilingual education teachers, among the 10 designated shortage areas for instructors for the 2006-07 school year. Farmington school officials say they expect to fill their opening by the time Carey retires. The job has a base salary of $40,000 to $81,000. When Carey, 59, began work in the 1970s as what was more familiarly known as a "speech therapist," her primary clients were pupils with lisps and stutters. Federal rules in the '60s and '70s spread special education services to all public schools, making today's children with those needs just the tip of the iceberg, she says. Now her students include kids with weak vocabulary and grammar skills and poor reading comprehension, Carey said. This school year, Carey works with 44 students, kindergarten through Grade 6. A year ago, she had 39 students, clustered mainly in kindergarten to Grade 4 and high school. She tutored 32 students the year before that. But, she said, head count alone cannot adequately reflect the intensity of services that she and her colleagues must provide. "It's not about the number of students that I see," Carey said. "It's about the amount of intervention that they need, which has increased as the nature of their disabilities becomes more involved." When she started decades ago, a child came to her office weekly for one-to-one instruction. Today speech-language pathologists work alongside teachers in classrooms. One reason is mounting research showing that children from households exposed to a variety of language sources - oral and written - communicate better. Another is that modern classrooms, with computers and other teaching aids, "are now providing greater access to education ... for students who are not verbal," said Jane Currie, Farmington's director of special services. But that extra focus carries a downside, Carey said. A bevy of meetings is required with parents before testing can even begin to isolate where a child's speech and communications skills are deficient, she said. "More of my time, 34 years later, is spent doing paperwork than it was [in] my first five years," Carey said. "I'm working with a variety of students who have learning disabilities." ..." 22. "Autism's Rise May Reflect Broader Definition, Better Diagnosis" dated 28 May 2007 by ED EDELSON from CBC News (Canada) at http://www.cbc.ca/cp/HealthScout/070528/6052811AU.html "How widespread is autism? And is the condition, which centers on characteristics such as the inability to form personal relationships, being properly diagnosed? New York City-based YAI-National Institute for People With Disabilities (YAI-NIPD) is a not-for-profit organization that not only assists families who have members with a variety of developmental disabilities, but also holds a series of conferences that highlight the latest research into specific conditions. Earlier in May, YAI-NIPD held an autism conference that addressed the apparent increase in autism cases. One reason may be a broader definition of autism, said Dr. David Kaufman, medical director of Premier Healthcare, a Manhattan organization specializing in disability services. "The estimate was one child in 166, made by the epidemiology unit of the 1/8U.S. governments 3/8 National Institutes of Health," Kaufman said. "Now it is down to one in 150. I think that since the definition has been broadened, a lot of children are getting diagnosed who are at the milder end of the spectrum." The cause of autism remains unclear, Kaufman said. "I believe that there is something in these children that predisposes them to autism and maybe something that triggers it, perhaps a viral illness, like children who get diabetes at an early age." Whatever the cause, "the best treatment so far is diagnosing it early on and intervening early on, sometimes with medications," Kaufman said. "There is a broad array of early intervention services." When a child's mysteriously detached behavior arouses parents suspicions, "the first line of defense is with the pediatrician," he said. "The child can be referred to a developmental pediatrician or pediatric neurologist or specialist who will do an evaluation and then send the child to a speech therapist, a language therapist or another therapist for treatment. The earlier you intervene, the better children do." Financial help is often available from state governments, but "each state has different funding lines," Kaufman noted. Children's basic medical needs should not be overlooked, Kaufman said. "Their medical needs are the same as anyone else, but it is harder to get at them," he said. "Once they get to age 2 or 4, they are able to tell the doctor what is wrong with them, but they are not as cooperative as another child might be." Although there is a long way to go, "One thing that is being done right is an increased awareness of autism," said Dr. Eric Hollander, professor and chairman of psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. "It has become a priority funding issue for the National Institutes of Health. There are findings that directly impact on treatment and also can lead to a better understanding of the underlying causes." One area that clearly has been neglected is autism in adults, Hollander said. "The high school or college population, the need for residential care is also there. Child psychiatrists and pediatricians will not necessarily be treating these individuals when they get older. "And those who work with the older population don't have enough training. We need to know a lot more about intervention with medication, how it alters outcome, the repetitive behavior, the rigid behavior, and also new treatments for disruptive behavior." ..." 23. "Solving the puzzle; Kids with learning disabilities aren't stupid, it's just that their brains are wired differently" dated 28 May 2007 by CHERYL CLOCK from The St. Catherines Standard at http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=54 6385&catname=Spectrum&classif= "Kaleb Morningstar is a smart kid. At age nine, he can multiply and he's holding his own with books. He's confident. Puts up his hand to answer questions in class. And he likes school. That's big. It wasn't too long ago that the Welland boy would tell his mom, Penny, that he didn't want to go to school. He feared making mistakes. He worried that other kids would laugh at him. Kaleb has a learning disability. It's not that he can't learn. That he's not as bright as his classmates. It simply means that he learns in a different way. The tricky part is trying to sort out just that. How does he learn? The process can be long. Exhausting. But in the end, when the pieces of the puzzle fall into place and Kaleb feels the thrill of success, it's incredibly rewarding, says Penny. Kaleb's learning disability involves perception and memory recall. If his teacher wrote a multiplication question horizontally, side by side, on the blackboard, Kaleb would be lost. He could identify the numbers, but wouldn't understand the question. "His brain sees it as a foreign object," says Penny. If the teacher wrote the same math question vertically, one number above the other, he'd get it. It all has to do with format. Presentation. How his brain sees things. How his brain is wired. It has nothing to do with how smart he is. "The intelligence is there," says Dawne Mach, executive director of the Learning Disabilities Association of Niagara Region. "It just has a hard time getting out because the brain is wired differently." What parents often notice is a marked difference between a child's intelligence and performance. They seem smart enough but struggle in school. Eventually, kids with learning disabilities get frustrated. The older ones especially, see other kids learning easily while they struggle horribly. They get frustrated. Feel stupid. Suffer from low self-esteem, anxiety, mood swings and depression. They act out. And give up. Socially, they don't have many friends. They have trouble reading body language. They feel shame. Embarrassment. Many times adults misinterpret their actions, says Dawne. They think the kids are just being bad. Misbehaving intentionally. They're lazy. Unmotivated. All that is not true. "They know they're different," says Kay MacDonald, resource facilitator and former executive director. "They sit in class with their peers. They see their peers get it and they don't. ..." 24. "New ADHD drugs reduce likelihood of abuse" dated 29 May 2007 from Reuters at http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2007/05/29/eline/links/20070529elin036. html "Two new formulations of drugs traditionally used to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), methylphenidate and d-amphetamine, last longer and have less potential for abuse, according to presentations at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting in San Diego. "Daytrana and Vyvanse are new options that address the limitations of medications previously available to treat ADHD," Dr. Robert L. Findling, from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, told Reuters Health. Findling presented his teams' research findings on the drugs, both marketed by Shire US Inc., and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Daytrana delivers methylphenidate through a skin patch with the dosage controlled by the patch size and by the duration of wear. "One advantage of the patch, first and foremost, is its flexibility," Findling said. "Kids have no difficulty using the patch," he added, and it has been formulated so it can't be re-used. "That way, they can't stick it on a buddy" when they're horsing around, he added. Findling's team compared the patch with oral methylphenidate and placebo in 270 patients ages 6 to 12 years old. The study included a 5-week initial treatment phase, followed by a 2-week maintenance phase, and a 30-day follow-up period. Using an ADHD rating scale, scores with both forms of the drug improved ADHD symptoms compared with placebo; and both were equally effective, according to the investigators. Findling and associates also presented the trial results for Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine dimesylate), a drug associated with d-amphetamine. It offers the advantage of extended duration consistently delivered throughout the day, with a reduced potential for abuse, overdose toxicity and drug tampering, the investigators reported. They investigated the long-term efficacy, safety, and tolerability in patients between 6 and 12 years old. The optimum dose was 30 to 70 milligrams per day. At the end of the 12-month trial, treatment resulted in a 60-percent improvement in ADHD scores. Using another rating scale, 95 percent of subjects were considered "much improved" or "very much improved" at 12 months. For both drugs, adverse effects were mostly mild-to-moderate, similar to those of the parent drugs, d-amphetamine and methylphenidate, the presenters noted." 25. "7-year-old Autistic Boy Found In Lake Dies Alaska Child discovered floating after he wandered away" dated 29 May 2007 from The Associated Press at http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/052907/sta_20070529005.shtml "An autistic boy found unconscious and floating in a lake has died, Anchorage police said. The 7-year-old boy on Saturday wandered away from home and was found in Campbell Lake. He was pronounced dead at an Anchorage hospital Sunday, police said. The boy, identified only as Alex, was drawn to water, his parents told police. The family also told police it was not unusual for Alex to wander away, said Anchorage Police Lt. Paul Honeman. The family waited about a half hour Saturday night to call police for help. "They said, 'Yeah, he often disappears for short periods of time, but we often find him,"' Honeman said. The boy did not communicate well but typically would return to his family when they called for him. Campbell Lake is about 10 blocks from the boy's home. Neighbors and family members helped look for the boy and police called in a specially trained search team. A family friend found the boy in the lake, Honeman said. "It's a good-sized lake there," Honeman said. "There's a bit of a rambling hill and you kind of drop down into that area. There are a lot of homes and floatplanes. He could have easily just gone along and dropped below somebody's house and dropped into the water and not realized the danger." Medics performed CPR and "felt he had a fighting chance," Honeman said. "I know they transported him (to the hospital) and they probably wouldn't have transported him if there hadn't been some chance." Honeman said the case was heartbreaking because of Alex's disability. The children already are vulnerable to injury and danger, he said. "Obviously (Alex) was afflicted with an illness that kept him from being able to fully comprehend and ... because of that he was even more vulnerable," Honeman said. "It makes you feel even worse." 26. "The Brain: Malleable, Capable, Vulnerable" dated 29 May 2007 in a book review by ABIGAIL ZUGER, M.D. in The New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/health/29book.html?_r=2&ref=health&oref=sl ogin&oref=slogin "In bookstores, the science aisle generally lies well away from the self-help section, with hard reality on one set of shelves and wishful thinking on the other. But Norman Doidge fascinating synopsis of the current revolution in neuroscience straddles this gap: the age-old distinction between the brain and the mind is crumbling fast as the power of positive thinking finally gains scientific credibility. The credo of this revolution is neuroplasticity - the discovery that the human brain is as malleable as a lump of wet clay not only in infancy, as scientists have long known, but well into hoary old age. In classical neuroscience, the adult brain was considered an immutable machine, as wonderfully precise as a clock in a locked case. Every part had a specific purpose, none could be replaced or repaired, and the machine was destined to tick in unchanging rhythm until its gears corroded with age. Now sophisticated experimental techniques suggest the brain is more like a Disney-esque animated sea creature. Constantly oozing in various directions, it is apparently able to respond to injury with striking functional reorganization, and can at times actually think itself into a new anatomic configuration, in a kind of word-made-flesh outcome far more characteristic of Lourdes than the National Institutes of Health that Dr. Doidge, a Canadian psychiatrist and award-winning science writer, recounts the accomplishments of the "neuroplasticians," as he calls the neuroscientists involved in these new studies, with breathless reverence. Their work is indeed mind-bending, miracle-making, reality-busting stuff, with implications, as Dr. Doidge notes, not only for individual patients with neurologic disease but for all human beings, not to mention human culture, human learning and human history. And all this from the fact that the electronic circuits in a small lump of grayish tissue are perfectly accessible, it turns out, to any passing handyman with the right tools. For patients with brain injury, the revolution brings only good news, as Dr. Doidge describes in numerous examples. A woman with damage to the inner ear's vestibular system, where the sense of balance resides, feels as if she is in constant free fall, tumbling through space like an ocean bather pulled under by the surf. Sitting in a neuroscience lab, she puts a set of electrodes on the surface of her tongue, a wired-up hard hat on her head, and the feel of falling stops. The apparatus connects to a computer to create an external vestibular system, replacing her damaged one by sending the proper signals to her brain via her tongue. But that's not all. After a year of sessions with the device, she no longer needs it: her brain has rewired itself to bypass the damaged vestibular system with a new circuit. ..." 27. "Black children with autism diagnosed later" dated 29 May 2007 from The Hartford Courant at http://www.dailymail.com/story/Life/2007052942/Black-children-with-autism-di agnosed-later/ "When Ronnie Bonner Jr. was 2 1/2, his mother, Corendis Dawson-Bonner, was convinced that he had autism. While her pediatrician said not to worry, Dawson-Bonner was sure that his lack of language development, eye contact and social interests were symptoms of the disease. "We would have a roomful of kids, and he would be off in his own little corner of the world,'' Dawson-Bonner remembers. "He didn't engage.'' In the next few years, doctors and other professionals would pin a wide array of labels on Ronnie, including developmental delay, attention-deficit disorder, hyperactivity and a social and emotional disorder. Even obsessive-compulsive disorder and oppositional defiant disorder were mentioned. Not until he was 6 was Ronnie finally diagnosed with autism. Getting the right diagnosis and appropriate treatment has made all the difference, his mother says. Now 12, Ronnie is lively, affectionate and far more communicative. However, Dawson-Bonner can't help but wonder how much better he might have been if he had received the right treatment from age 2. "He's in the seventh grade, and he's reading at a fourth or a fifth grade level,'' said the Hartford, Conn., woman. Why wasn't he diagnosed sooner? That's a question that might be asked about many black children with autism, who, according to one study of children on Medicaid, are diagnosed on average about 18 months later than white children. While a year-and-a-half may not seem like a long time, it is in the life of a child with this developmental disorder, which affects brain function and impedes social interaction and communication skills. "It is crucial to identify children with autistic-spectrum disorders as early as possible, as studies have demonstrated that the provision of early, intensive, high-quality intervention services is associated with improved outcomes,'' said Dr. Thyde Dumont-Mathieu, a developmental pediatrician at the University of Connecticut with a clinical practice at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford. A toddler diagnosed with autism may qualify for 15 hours of services per week through the state's Birth to Three program, Dumont-Mathieu said. If not identified, that same child may not get referred to the program, may receive less intensive services and may not benefit from the behavioral approaches recommended for children with autism-spectrum disorders. Concern is widespread on both national and local levels about whether black children and other minorities are getting diagnosed early enough or are being misdiagnosed. "It's a hugely important issue,'' said Marguerite Colston of the Autism Society of America in Bethesda, Md. "We have been crying out for attention to minority families with autism for years.'' Wendy Fournier, president of the National Autism Association based in Nixa, Mo., said the issue is "actually driving us crazy. ... I think there are probably a lot of kids with autism in the minority community who are going undiagnosed.'' Fournier said her group is establishing a committee to reach out to minority communities. "At conferences we go to, there are no black people there, no minorities. It's kind of freaky. It's very, very noticeable.'' In Hartford, Merva Jackson, executive director of the nonprofit African Caribbean American Parents of Children With Disabilities, said she believes that many black children with autism-spectrum disorder are misdiagnosed as having defiant, oppositional or behavioral problems. "I think it's just a lack of knowledge'' on the part of black families about what autism is, said Jackson, as well as cultural insensitivities or racism on the part of doctors and other professionals who evaluate children." 28. "Alphabet changes color of communication" dated 30 May 2007 by Daniel Terdiman http://news.com.com/Alphabet+changes+color+of+communication/2100-1025_3-6187 358.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news "Lee Freedman has waited a long time, but he thinks the moment is finally right to spring on the world the color alphabet he invented as a 19-year-old at Mardi Gras in 1972. For 35 years, between stints as a doctor, a real estate agent and a pizza maker at the Woodstock concert in 1994, Freedman has been working on Kromofons alphabet in which the 26 English letters are represented solely by individual colors--waiting for technology to catch up with him. And now, thanks to the Internet, the ubiquity of color monitors, Microsoft Word plug-ins and his being able to launch a Kromofons-based e-mail system, Freedman thinks he is finally ready. Imagine getting an e-mail whose text is not the familiar black letters on a white background, but instead a series of colored rectangles. That's how Kmail, the Kromofons e-mail system, works. Using a translation key, Kmail recipients can piece together what a message says, letter by letter, word by word. That's how it would work at the beginning, and Kmail is largely the Trojan horse that could help people learn to adopt Kromofons and be able to read the new alphabet. Freedman's hope is that after not too much exposure to Kromofons, either in a Kmail message, or in some other form, you would begin to be able to read the alphabet the way you would with normal letters. And once that happens, he predicts, a whole new world of communications can open up, as words can be embedded in images just about anywhere. It may seem confusing, but it's actually very simple, in concept at least. The letter "a" is represented by a bright yellow, "b" is a light blue, "c" a pale pink, "d" is grey, "e" is orange and so on. The system presents some problems because the colors of some letters are similar to the colors of others. So the first few times a person looks at the translation key, it can be confusing, but the more time spent with it, the more it begins to make sense. That confusion would most likely plague adults, of course. Kids are more likely to catch on much faster. "Children really pick this up very quickly," said Tony Janson, the co-author of History of Art, who has spent a significant amount of time learning and thinking about Kromofons. "They start using the colors for different shapes and writing messages to each other, and they have a blast with it." James Bennett, the dean of interactive media at the International Academy of Design and Technology, in Tampa, Fla., agrees. "Children are going to learn a lot quicker, because they're little sponges," Bennett said. "Kids will (say), 'Yeah, this is cool,' and they will learn stuff just because it's cool." For Freedman, Kromofons--for which he has applied for a patent--is much more than a kid's toy. He sees Kromofons as nothing less than something that can change the way people think. Freedman pointed out that for the entire history of the written word, humans have been reading in black and white. Now, he argued, people will begin to read in color, both in static words and animated phrases. "That's going to change the way you think," Freedman said, "because knowledge that's coming in is going to be processed differently." ..." 29. "Robots 'aid autistic children" dated 30 May 2007 from inthenews (UK) at http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/technology/robots-aid-autistic-children-$109 1309.htm. "Scientists believe that robots could become one of the ways to help autistic children's development. Autism is a lifelong developmental disability which impairs sufferers' social interactions, communication and imagination. Researchers at the University of Hertfordshire are investigating whether robots could help autistic children to interact more easily with other people. Dr Ben Robins, the team member responsible for work with robotics and special needs children, argues that robots could act as a sort of "mediator". "It's not the interaction with the robot that is important, the interaction with the robot is just a first step," he told the Today programme. "Because of the children's interest in the robot and [because] they found that other people [are] interested in the robot, they started to interact with these other people. "Our aim is to see how we can promote this and encourage interaction basically with other children, with other adults, with peers, with family members, through the mediation of the robot as just another tool that encourages these interactions." Studies so far have shown that robots with more plain appearances are the most appealing to autistic children and they interact more with them. "[The studies] showed a remarkable difference when the robot was fully featured like humanoid doll for example, as opposed to totally plain with just a mask or just plain features on the face," Dr Robins added. Further research into robots and autism will be carried out at the university as work is at too early a stage to be able to draw conclusions on the full effect of the robots." 30. "Disabled students lag in reading" dated 30 May 2007 by Christina Beam from the Baraboo News Republic at http://www.wiscnews.com/bnr/news/136092. "Reading scores for Baraboo's disabled fourth-graders dropped dramatically from 2005 to 2006, with students with disabilities scoring on average 58 percent lower than those without on the annual standardized tests. Only 32 percent of disabled students in that grade met state standards for proficient or advanced reading, compared to 55 percent of that population last year. "That's huge," said Crystal Ritzenthaler, the district's director of curriculum and instruction. "The state has held steady for a number of years trying to close that gap, but this year our gap is larger." Statewide, there was a 35 percent difference in reading scores between fourth-grade students with disabilities and those without, compared to 34 percent last year. It's a big matter of concern for the district, Ritzenthaler said - but it's also one they had taken steps to address well before the test results came back this week. Baraboo is adding six reading specialists in the fall - five for the elementary schools and one at the high school - and purchased a new reading curriculum. They're also looking at how to better integrate special ed students, which make up about 17 percent of the district's population, into the regular classroom. "We use a variety of approaches for special education in the district, but mostly where students are pulled out of the classroom for individual instruction and support," Ritzenthaler said. "We need to look at how can we make sure that students are in the least-restrictive environment and they're being provided curriculum aligned with state standards." Tim Fosshage, who will start work as Baraboo's new director of special ed and pupil services July 1, said the district's desire to do better is the first step in turning the things around. "I think what impressed me most was Baraboo recognizes a need, and the need is in the area of literacy," he said. "When you graduate college as a special education teacher, you have surprisingly few reading and reading instructional classes, and so the extra training the reading specialists can provide, in addition to your own staff in-servicing, is tremendous because we continually have to learn and grow as educators." Fosshage spearheaded a special ed literacy initiative in the Kimberly Area School District three years ago. "When we started this, our special education students were below state average, as well, but from what I saw, we were well above state average three years later," he said. By investing in literacy, he said, "you will see the gains. You may not see them immediately, but you're doing all the right things." Though the district was concerned about fourth-grade scores because that's a pivotal year to measure reading, disabled students in eighth grade saw a bump in reading scores from 48 percent proficient and advanced last year to 63 percent this year. Of disabled students in 10th grade, only 28 percent passed state standards, down 1 percentage point from last year. "I don't think there were any surprises for me from the test results," Ritzenthaler said. "The areas we focused on were students with disabilities, as well as elementary reading scores. That is very much aligned with what we have planned for next year." On the bright side, Baraboo had five out of seven grades tested scoring above the state average in math, including 86 percent of eighth-graders testing at proficient or advanced. Statewide, math scores were up 5 percentage points for fourth- and seventh-graders to 78 percent listed as proficient or advanced, but they remained the same in 10th grade at 70 percent. Reading scores rose 1 or 2 percentage points in four of the grades and remained the same at the other three levels. Sixth- and seventh-graders did the best, with 85 percent deemed at least proficient. State superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster credited educators who "are striving to raise achievement for all students." "Our school districts need stable funding that allows them to provide early learning opportunities, smaller class sizes, support for quality educations and innovative programming," she said. Teams of Baraboo teachers will review the district's test results, including reports that show what percentage of kids chose each option for a question - a way to highlight possible shortcomings in the district's curriculum, Ritzenthaler said. Still, by the time the results from the November test come back each May, "it's done - it's after the fact - and you don't even have time to address it with this year's curriculum," she said. To avoid that problem, the district is implementing a new immediate assessment program, where teachers in grades two through nine can test students throughout the year in key subject areas and find out where they stand. "That way they can see where the weak areas are and set goals for themselves over the course of the year," she said. "You don't let a whole year go by before you intervene." 31. "Survey shows most teachers see or experience harassment from parents" dated 30 May 2007 by Sara Michael from The Examiner at http://www.examiner.com/a-753965~Survey_shows_most_teachers_see_or_experienc e_harassment_from_parents.html. "Howard County teachers and staff are still witnessing or experiencing harassment, and most of it's coming from parents, a recent teachers' union job-satisfaction survey found. "That is something that has been discussed with the PTA, because a large percentage of teachers indicated they were harassed by parents," school spokeswoman Patti Caplan said. Sixty percent of respondents to the Howard County Education Association's 2006-07 survey said they have experienced or witnessed harassment from parents. Twenty-seven percent said they experienced or witnessed harassment from colleagues, and 21 percent said it came from supervisors, according to the survey. Last year, 60 percent of the respondents said they witnessed or experienced harassment, but the question didn't distinguish between acts by parents, colleagues or supervisors, HCEA president Ann DeLacy said. This year's survey separated the source of the harassment into three questions. Anecdotally, school officials knew much of the harassment was coming from parents, Caplan said. Although the question was reworded, it still needs further refinement, school board President Diane Mikulis said. For example, the question of whether the harassment was witnessed or experienced should be separated, because one incident witnessed by several people could be counted multiple times in the survey, she said. There also isn't a clear enough definition of harassment, Mikulis said. The board defines it as a repeated behavior, so the survey needs to refine what harassment means, she said. "I am not sure this gives us enough information to be able to change things," she said. But DeLacy said whether it's witnessed or experienced, harassment occurs. Rather than parse the questions, school officials should come together to find a solution, she said. Among the fixes is the completion and distribution of e-mail guidelines for appropriate communication between staff and parents, which the PTA Council of Howard County is working on. Along with discussions with parent groups, school officials also passed a civility policy, which relates to the issue of harassment and is aimed at bringing attention to "how we treat one another," Caplan said." 32. "Much Ado About Mirror Neurons - Empathy, Autism, and Bias" dated 30 May 2007 by Anne Corwin from the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies at http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/corwin20070528. "Mirror neurons are theorized to be, according to some of the more heavily popularized literature these days, neurons which activate in the primate brain upon observation of another individual performing an action. The most frequently cited experiments suggesting the presence and functionality of mirror neurons have involved macaque monkeys electrodes which allowed scientists to observe particular activity patterns in neurons in the premotor cortex. The experiments sought to show a correlation between imitation, intention, and action that might shed light on the means by which primates (possibly including humans) may internally simulate the mental states of others. But did it succeed? Some might answer "yes", and many since have attempted to correlate the mirror neuron experiment results with theories in autism research, since autism is commonly (though not necessarily accurately) associated with deficits in imitation, modeling, and empathy. This discussion will attempt to explain the actual findings in monkey and human research associated with mirror neurons, and pose the argument that the mirror neuron studies being performed on human subjects do not necessarily imply for autism what much of contemporary popular science literature claims. That is, while mirror neuron studies may indeed offer valuable information about brain differences and the various ways in which minds process and react to certain stimuli, these studies do not actually prove that the observed differences between autistic and nonautistic behavior and cognition are explained by a "dysfunctional" mirror neuron system. Additionally, many recent publications linking autism and mirror neurons exhibit much in the way of biased language, faulty initial assumptions, and poor experimental design, which could in the long run end up serving as a detriment to both the autistic population (e.g., through the perpetuation of ideas suggesting that autistics lack some essential element of personhood) and the field of neuroscience (since good science must work tirelessly to avoid the kinds of bias that stem from prejudice and ignorance, such as that which resulted in "scientific" racism considered to be pseudoscientific and therefore a blemish on the history of science). ..." 33. "Stressed-out moms at risk of poor mental health" dated 30 May 2007 from Reuters at http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2007/05/30/eline/links/20070530elin004. html. "Mothers of young children who feel they lack emotional support or help in caring for their children have more than three-times the risk of mental health problems compared to their peers who feel adequately supported, a new study shows. More than one third of the 1,747 mothers participating in the study reported at least one parenting stressor that boosted their risk of mental health problems, Dr. Ritesh Mistry of the University of California, Los Angeles and colleagues note in the American Journal of Public Health. "If parenting stressors such as those examined here are to be addressed, changes may be required in community support systems, and improvements in relevant social policies may be needed," they conclude. Mothers of small children are known to face a substantial risk of mental health problems and their mental health has a "strong influence" on their child's health and development, the researchers note. Mistry and associates conducted the study to determine how certain parenting-related stressors might affect mothers' mental health and whether these stressors were related to financial and social factors. The mothers of children 4 to 35 months old completed a five-item questionnaire to assess their general mental health. Women who reported feeling a lack of emotional support (they had no one to rely on for day-to-day emotional help with parenting) represented nearly 14 percent of the total sample and were 3.4 times more likely to report being in poor mental health, the researchers found. Roughly 12 percent of mothers who said they lacked functional support in caring for their children (they had no one to care for their children when they needed a break) had a 2.2-times greater risk of poor mental health. When asked about time spent with their child, 37.2 percent of mothers said they spent too little, 11.2 percent said they spent too much, and 51.6 percent said the amount of time they spent with their child was just right. While mothers who said they spent too little time with their children had a slightly increased risk of poor mental health, those who said they spent too much time had a 3.5-times greater risk of mental health problems. Overall, mothers who reported having one parenting-related stressor had triple the risk of poor mental health, while having two or more stressors increased risk nearly 12-fold. Improving family leave policies and making high quality child care more "affordable and accessible" could help ease the stresses on parents identified in the current study, they add. They conclude by calling for further research to investigate how such stresses affect fathers' mental health." 34. "Vaccines: Hot 'new' business for drugmakers- Gardasil, Prevnar give once-sluggish industry shot in the arm; business seen doubling by 2010, but no HIV vaccine in sight" dated 30 May 2007 by Aaron Smith from CNN Money at http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/30/news/companies/vaccine/. "The once-sluggish vaccine industry is anything but these days. The vaccine market was once "very small and fraught with the inability to price effectively," said Anthony Butler, analyst for Lehman Brothers. But now, with fewer manufacturers hawking new products, the business is expected to grow rapidly the next few years, with fast-growing vaccines like Wyeth's (down $0.55 to $57.22, Charts (down $1.24 to $52.16, Charts vaccine industry] to more than double" by 2010, said Butler, noting he expects Merck and Wyeth will sell some $10 billion worth of vaccines a year by 2010, accounting for a growing chunk of their total business. This is welcome news for vaccine makers that put up with years of sluggish growth or wild swings in demand when the market was focused on vaccines for hepatitis and seasonal flu. "There has been a renewed emphasis and interest in the vaccine business, but a lot of firms had exited the business in the last 10 years or so," said Joe Tooley, analyst for A.G. Edwards. "Only a few remain. It's a tough business to get into, but those stayed in it are in a better position now." Prevnar, Wyeth's second-biggest seller, is the leader of the pack. This fast-growing vaccine, for the immunization of infants and toddlers against pneumonia, meningitis and infections of the ear and blood stream, totaled nearly $2 billion in 2006 sales, up 30 percent from 2005. And growth is accelerating, with first quarter sales of $617 million, a 43 percent surge from a year earlier. Prevnar was launched years ago and first hit billion-dollar blockbuster status in 2004. Barbara Ryan, analyst for Deutsche Bank North America, believes the vaccine will total $2.5 billion in 2007 sales. But a new entry has rekindled interest in the vaccine market and helped prop up the stock for its maker: Merck's Gardasil, a vaccine to prevent sexually transmitted viruses that cause cervical cancer. Gardasil, on the market for nearly a year, is the potential blockbuster that helped the New Jersey-based Merck pull out of its Vioxx withdrawal blues. Since the Food and Drug Administration approved Gardasil last June, Merck's stock has surged 57 percent, outperforming S&P gains of 21 percent. ..." 35. "Spoonful of Medicine, and Risk?- Doctors Raise Concerns Over How the Safety of the Medications We Take Is Assessed" dated 31 May 2007 by JOHN MCKENZIE from ABC News at http://abcnews.go.com/WN/MedicineCuttingEdge/story?id=3226471&page=1. "It's been a week since the release of a controversial study suggesting the popular diabetes drug Avandia increases the risk of heart attacks and heart deaths. Bottom of Form 1 The Food and Drug Administration is convening a panel of experts to investigate, but there is at least one point on which most doctors appear to agree: The whole process of ensuring drug safety in this country is seriously flawed. In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Dr. Janet Woodcock, deputy commissioner of the FDA, conceded: "We are finding more problems with marketed medications, but not just with recently marketed medications, but drugs approved long ago." A report from the Government Accounting Office found that, after approval, 51 percent of drugs were later discovered to have major safety problems requiring label changes. And in 3 percent to 4 percent of drugs, the safety issues were so serious the drugs were pulled off the market. Dr. Jerry Avorn, author of "Powerful Medicines: The Benefits, Risks and Costs of Prescription Drugs," called that "unacceptable." "We don't have a good system for finding out if a drug is dangerous until it's been on the market for many years," he said. There are many reasons for this, one being that drugs are usually tested on younger and healthier patients than those who will ultimately be prescribed the medications - this often hides side effects. "A drug that works well in handpicked patients," Avorn said, "who are guaranteed not to be terribly sick, is not likely to have the same safety or efficacy as it does in typical patients." A second reason is that clinical trials are too small. Many drugs are tested on only 2,000 to 3,000 patients. This means serious, rare complications, such as a heart attack - which may be seen in one out of every 5,000 patients - may be completely missed in these studies. A third is that clinical trials are too short. Most of the Avandia studies lasted only six months to a year. But many of these drugs are meant to be taken for a lifetime, said Dr. Brian Strom, chairman of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania. "So we don't know what the long-term effects are at the time they're marketed," he said. ..." 36. "Special Education Inclusion- Making It Work" from Education World at http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr320.shtml. ""A generation ago, few classrooms in the United States included students with disabilities. As late as the middle of the 1970s, an estimated 1 million kids with disabilities didn't even attend school," reported a May 1999 NEAToday Online cover story, "Inclusion Confusion." For disabled children who did attend school, special education usually meant placement in a special class or a special school. Special education changed with the passage of the 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and its 1997 amendments. The landmark legislation moved children with special needs from segregated classrooms into regular classrooms. The problem with segregated special education is that "youngsters will not learn in segregated settings how to function in a non-disabled world," said Art Shapiro, a professor of special education at Kean University Attitudes Toward Classmates With Disabilities. "In a school or class for youngsters classified as emotionally disturbed, the normal thing is to be disturbed," Shapiro told Education World. "Similarly, many times youngsters classified as communication-handicapped are placed in segregated settings with other children who do not communicate." INCLUSION CONFUSION OR QUALITY EDUCATION? The string of federal statutes that began in 1975 created confusion in countless American classrooms as educators struggled to provide quality education for special and general education students. Parents and advocates feared that services to disabled children would be lost if they were moved to regular classrooms. Teachers weren't convinced that inclusion would work. At one point, the American Federation of Teachers have great problems with the movement that says 'Start by putting all the kids in the [regular] classroom,'" said Albert Shanker, then the president of AFT, in "A.F.T. Urges Halt to 'Full Inclusion' Movement," a January 1994 Education Week on the Web story. ..." 37. "Family wins $460,000 autism lawsuit against Hampshire Co. schools" from OWEB.com at http://www.oweb.com/state/story/0730202005_staWV--SchoolSettlement-M0039.asp . "A Hampshire County mother whose autistic daughter was restrained at preschool in a device that resembled "a miniature electric chair'' has won a $460,000 verdict against the school system. Cynthia Kilmer of Augusta filed the lawsuit in Kanawha County Circuit Court in 2000 on behalf of her daughter, Christina, who was 4 years old in 1998 when she was injured at Romney Elementary School. Kilmer said her daughter came home from school with bruises on her calves, chest, wrists and legs and experienced intense behavior changes and wet her pants at the mention of the word teacher or school. She also began having uncontrollable tantrums and sleeplessness. A doctor later diagnosed post traumatic stress syndrome. The problems started after the child was restrained in a wooden chair with a high back and leather straps and buckles across the chest, arms, wrists, legs and ankles, similar to those once used in mental institutions. "I'll never forget the day I saw that chair and knew I sent my daughter to a torture chamber every day,'' Kilmer said Friday. "I have a lot of guilt because I sent my baby to school and trusted these people. Her behavior kept changing and I knew something was not right that was above and beyond autism. "The school said she was going through an adjustment. Then they said it was the home environment because I'm a lesbian.'' A jury in June found the Hampshire County Board of Education negligently trained and supervised teacher Delores Delawder, aide Loretta Hott and speech therapist Pam Skiff. The jury awarded Christina Kilmer $400,000 for mental pain and suffering and $60,000 in lost wages to Cynthia Kilmer. The award is one of the largest in Kanawha County this year. "We won but in a sense we didn't win because the teachers where not held responsible,'' Kilmer said. "They morally and ethically knew what they did was wrong. You don't strap a child in a chair because she won't sit still.'' The lawsuit also named former superintendent Gerald Mathias, former Romney Elementary School Principal Stephen Keener, director of special education Paula O'Brien, former state superintendent Hank Marockie and state coordinator Sandra McQuain. All five were later dropped as defendants, according to court documents. O'Brien, who is now Hampshire County's acting superintendent, said Friday she could not comment on the verdict but there likely would be an appeal. She referred questions to the board's attorney, Jan Fox, who did not immediately return a telephone message Friday seeking comment. The jury's decision mirrors a $339,000 verdict awarded in 1999 in Kanawha County Circuit Court to Ron and Kathy Spaulding, whose autistic son was strapped to his chair by teachers at Williamson Elementary and later at Lenore Elementary from 1991 until 1993. Charleston lawyers Mary Downey and Beverly Selby represented both families in court. Kilmer's award also matches a $460,000 settlement Anne Gentry reached with the Kanawha County School Board in April 2004, for her 16-year-old autistic son, Logan. He attended Sissonville High School until behavior and other problems surfaced after students goaded him into licking bird droppings off a car window. Autism is a neurological spectrum disorder that affects social interaction and communication. Its symptoms and characteristics vary from mild to severe. Christina was home-schooled until last year when she told her mother one day she wanted to go to school with her twin brother, Charlie, who attended Augusta Elementary. "Augusta Elementary has been wonderful,'' Kilmer said. "Her worse day today is not nearly as bad as an easy day was seven years ago.'' Still, Kilmer worries about regression this fall when Christina is expected to move to Romney Middle School. She also worries that without written policies, other children will be harmed. Neither the state Board of Education nor the Hampshire County Board of Education has adopted a policy governing the use of restraints despite the large verdicts and settlement. "More parents need to be aware of what's going on with their children,'' Kilmer said. "Don't always listen to the teacher if your gut tells you something isn't right. This has got to stop. Restraining children is not right.'' 38. "New system allows autistic children to communicate with their environment" in a press release from HULIQ.com at http://www.huliq.com/23064/new-system-allows-autistic-children-to-communicat e-with-their-environment. "Communication ability of children who are intellectually disabled or have communication limitations (such as autism, down syndrome, or cerebral palsy) may soon be improved thanks to a research group of the University of Granada. SC at UT, which stands for Augmentative and Adaptive Communication System, has been created by the following researchers: 13 professors of the ETSI, ASPROGRADES association and a team of psychologists, psycho-pedagogues, and speech therapists. All are directed by José Juan Cañas Delgado, professor of Ergonomics of the Department of Experimental Psychology and Behavioural Physiology of the UGR and María José Rodríguez Fortiz, professor of the Department of System Informatics. SC at UT, software for augmenting communication by computer devices (PC's, laptops, PDA's, etc.), is for children with special communication and educational needs, such as those who suffer from autism. "This is a project promoted by the Regional Government of Andalusia which attempts to reduce differences between disabled and non-disabled people", states Cañas Delgado. "We have created a configurable parameter tool that allows disabled people to interact with their environment. In this way, their adaptation to a world full of barriers is much easier. In this world, social and labour integration is impossible without communication and access to education." The functioning of SC at UT is easy: through a PC (or even better, a PDA) parents or tutors can download the specific software from http://www.ugr.es/~scaut/. Later, the display is ready to be used as a way of communicating between the child and the society. Through the SC at UT project, the child can express such needs as going to the toilet or hunger, as well as such states as being happy, sad, or tired. SC at UT includes a speaker which transmits the "user's comments" to the listener.-Universidad de Granada." 39. "Rodney and Holly Robinson Peete on their son RJ's autism Celebrity Baby Blog at http://www.celebrity-babies.com/2007/05/rodney_and_holl.html. "Former NFL quarterback Rodney Peete, 41, and actress <\l > Holly Robinson Peete, 42, raise four children -- twins Rodney Jackson 'RJ' and Ryan, 9 1/2, Robinson, 4 1/2, and Roman, 2 -- but their toughest job as parents has been confronting RJ's autism. The couple tell their story in this week's issue of People. Rodney: I was really ready to be a dad and have a family. I thought, 'I'm going to get him involved and put a football <\l > in his hand.' I wanted him to be the smartest kid, the best athlete. When he was 2, I remember RJ standing by himself. He had a glazed look in his eyes, like he was a million miles away. It broke my heart, and I started crying and trying to will him to play with the other kids. I could just tell that something was wrong. Everything Holly had said was making sense. Later, when RJ came to my Panthers games <\l > , he was unable to grasp that amazing experience. I really wished he was able to: it would have been special for us both. But RJ is like me in many ways. We have a respect for one another. A part of him thinks that I'm hard on him, but there's that look in his eyes that tells me he craves structure and knows it comes from love. RJ wants to impress me with everything. He'll say, 'I did a good job today, Dad. Didn't I do good today?' And I'll say, 'Yeah, you did RJ. You did.' Holly: RJ was born two minutes before his twin sister Ryan. He was the most delicious piece of butterscotch candy I had ever seen: chunky, laid-back, with these big eyes and dripping juicy lips. Something drew me to him. When he started talking, 'cow' was his first word. 'Cow, cow,' he would say, pointing his fat fingers at the picture <\l > . He and his sister were hitting all their developmental milestones on time. He was sweet, had a great disposition and was always giving kisses and saying his few words. I will never forget that because one day he stopped. He went from saying, 'cow, cow' to nothing. Silence. Indifference. That change happened when he was about 2 1/2, very soon after he had received his inoculations for measles, mumps, and rubella. I noticed he ceased making eye contact and responding to his name without loud repetitive shouts. 'RJ, RJ, RJ!' we would scream helplessly. I called Rodney, who was traveling. 'Something's going on with RJ.' And he said, 'Maybe he can't hear. Get his ears checked.' But that wasn't it. Rodney, like every man who felt helpless when he couldn't fix things, called again. 'Everything's okay, right?' But it wasn't. Together we took RJ to a specialist. She was a rigid, hard-looking woman who sat us in this icy office. The room was cold; the toys were cold. I hated everything about the place. Even the diagnosis was cold. She said, 'Okay, here it is. He is a mid-to-high functioning autistic child. Here are a few phone numbers.' With pessimism in her voice she said, 'Unprompted, he will never say 'I love you Mommy,' or run to you and greet you at the front door.' Something died in me the day RJ was diagnosed with autism. ..." |
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