WEEK IN REVIEW

NewNASETPublications and Articles of Interest in Special Education and Disabilities That Were Reported This Week

August 22, 2014 - Vol 10, Issue 34

New This Week on NASET

Many Expectant Moms Don't Get Steroids That Protect Preterm Babies

Only half of eligible women in low- and middle-income countries at risk for preterm birth receive an inexpensive drug that seems to help prevent complications and deaths in premature infants, a new study shows. Researchers analyzed the use of prenatal corticosteroid injections in more than 300,000 births in 29 countries, and found that only 52 percent of women eligible to receive the simple and effective treatment actually get it. This is despite the fact that corticosteroids given before birth have been shown to significantly lower preterm infants' risk of death, breathing problems, bleeding in the brain, and long-term complications such as cerebral palsy and poor motor skills, the researchers said. To read more,click here

Increasingly, Parents Push For Inclusive Playgrounds

Four-year-old Lucas Dean has to have three things when he goes to the playground: long pants, Mickey Mouse gardening gloves and lots of energy. He needs them to crawl through the rough wood chips to reach the slides, stairs and swings. Lucas, who was born with spina bifida, moves swiftly in his purple wheelchair. But he can explore the playground near his suburban Minneapolis home only on his hands and knees. "There are all kinds of things for kids in wheelchairs around here, but the playground isn't one of them," said Lucas' dad, Jay Dean. "I want to get involved and change that." To read more,click here

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Children Prescribed Growth Hormone May Face Stroke Risk Later: Study

Children who are prescribed human growth hormone may be at greater risk of a stroke in early adulthood than their peers are, a new study suggests. While the study raises important questions about the safety of human growth hormone treatments, the study's French researchers encouraged parents to discuss the pros and cons of treatment with their child's physician. "For children and adolescents currently on growth hormone treatment, the treatment should not be stopped, but the doctor prescribing the treatment should be consulted," said study author Dr. Joel Coste, head of the biostatistics and epidemiology unit at Hotel Dieu at the University of Paris. To read more,click here

Nation's 911 System Inching Towards Greater Accessibility

A new federal rule is paving the way for 911 services to become more accessible for people with disabilities. The Federal Communications Commission will require all wireless carriers and certain other applications that allow users to send text messages to facilitate text-to-911 services by the end of the year under a rule adopted earlier this month. The offering is considered to be of particular benefit for those who are nonverbal or have hearing disabilities as well as people with speech and other communication difficulties. To read more,click here

NASET Sponsor - SJU

Classroom Hand Sanitizers Don't Curb Absences, Study Finds

Placing hand sanitizer dispensers in classrooms doesn't reduce student absences, according to new research. The study included children in 68 New Zealand primary schools who received a 30-minute lesson in hand hygiene. In addition, some of the schools had alcohol-based hand sanitizer dispensers installed in the classrooms over two winters. Students were asked to use the dispensers after coughing or sneezing and on the way out of the classroom for lunch or recess.

Rates of student absences due to any illness were similar whether the classrooms had hand sanitizer dispensers or not, according to the study published Aug. 12 in the journalPLoS Medicine. To read more,click here

Despite Laws, ABA Therapy Often Hard To Come By

Tony Burke was an energetic 2-year-old who loved drawing purple pictures of Barney and jumping on trampolines. But then his parents began to notice how he would grunt instead of talk, and couldn't look anyone in the eye. Before his third birthday, in 2005, he was diagnosed with autism. "It felt like my heart had been ripped out," said his mother, Suzanne Burke of Philadelphia. Seeking the best care, his parents found applied behavior analysis, a one-on-one therapy considered the most effective treatment to date for autism. To read more,click here

TRIVIA QUESTION OF THE WEEK

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Impartial Review of IEP App -Click here - To learn more about these Apps click on the image

Preemies' Thinking Skills May Catch Up by Adolescence

A new Australian study offers some potentially reassuring news to parents of preemies who are worried about their child's intellectual development: By adolescence, many of these infants appear to catch up to classmates who weren't born early. But some U.S. experts said the findings may be overly optimistic because only the healthiest premature babies were studied. Premature infants are born more than three weeks before their due date, but brain volume typically doubles in those final weeks before birth, explained Dr. Deborah Campbell, chief of neonatology at Children's Hospital at Montefiore in New York City. "There is tremendous growth and activity in that last month," she said. To read more,click here

Special Education Class Recycling Project Sparks Upset

After the first day of school at Patriot High, recent graduate Melvin Wells could tell something was bothering his little brother, who is autistic and has trouble communicating. Instead of having a great first day of high school Tuesday, the ninth-grader finally said he had to pick up trash after lunch, not just his own but "all of it" in the hot sun while wearing heavy gloves and an apron. Sorting lunch trash for bottles and cans is part of a project for special education students to learn to make financial decisions with the money they earn, but some ninth-graders' parents were outraged because they did not know about or agree to the project, a Jurupa school district official said. To read more,click here

For Breech Baby, C-Section May Be Safer Option: Study

Breech babies are much more likely to die during vaginal delivery compared with cesarean section, according to a new study. Breech deliveries -- when the baby is positioned to come out with the legs and buttocks first instead of the head -- account for up to 4 percent of births. Researchers looked at more than 58,000 women in the Netherlands who had term breech deliveries between 1999 and 2007. They found that the risk of death was 10 times higher for breech babies delivered vaginally than for those delivered by C-section. To read more,click here

U.S. Education Department Awards Almost $4 Million in Grants to Help Prepare Graduate Students for Leadership in Special Education

The U.S. Department of Education announced today the award of almost $4 million in grants to higher education institutions to prepare graduate students for leadership positions in special education, early intervention and related services. With many college professors and administrators in special education facing retirement in the coming years, shortages are expected. Some of these grants will help train future leaders at the doctoral and postdoctoral levels to fill faculty positions in special education, early intervention and related services. Other grants will help prepare scholars to serve as supervisors of personnel providing direct services to infants and children with disabilities. To read more,click here

Front-of-Head Hits Blamed for Nearly Half of Young Football Player Concussions

High school football players are more likely to lose consciousness after concussions if they get hit at the top of the head compared to the sides, back or front, according to a new study. And nearly half of all concussions suffered by high school players occur from player-to-player collisions on the front of the head, the researchers found. The findings support a growing movement for safer tackling. Football players are more likely to get hit at the top of the head if they tackle with their heads down, according to the study. "Something as simple as lifting their heads up when they're tackling can prevent fatal and catastrophic injuries," said study lead author Zachary Kerr, director of the NCAA Injury Surveillance Program at Datalys Center for Sports Injury Research and Prevention in Indianapolis. To read more,click here

NASET MEMBER'S BENEFIT -

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School District Has to Foot Legal Bill in Dispute

The Solana Beach School District has ended up with more than $800,000 in legal bills in a special-education dispute that started over one family's $6,100 of private-school tuition. The district unsuccessfully fought the Doyle family, now living in Utah, through several federal appeals and attempted to involve the U.S. Supreme Court. A federal court commissioner on Aug. 1 ordered Solana Beach to pay nearly $580,000 in attorney's fees for the Doyles, on top of hundreds of thousands the district has paid for its own counsel. To read more,click here

Exposure to Common Antibacterials May Affect Growth of Fetus: Study

Many pregnant women and their unborn children are being exposed to antibacterial compounds that may be linked to developmental and reproductive issues, a new small study suggests. The antibacterial triclosan appeared in the urine of every woman tested in the study, and triclocarban, another antibacterial chemical, appeared in more than 85 percent of the urine samples, the researchers report. Potentially worse, triclosan also showed up in more than half the samples of umbilical cord blood taken from the mothers, indicating that the chemical is reaching some fetuses. To read more,click here

Down Syndrome: Behind the Scenes of Genetics, Leukemia

A group of geneticists have focused for many years on the genetic characteristics of Down syndrome. They have sequenced the exome, a specific part of our genome, in a cohort of patients affected both by Down Syndrome and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a type of cancer relative to the cells of the immune system in the bone marrow.To read more,click here

Experts Issue Guidelines for Treating Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Newly released guidelines for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome and a type of constipation known as chronic idiopathic constipation reveal a number of proven treatments for these two common conditions. "There's a greater variety of approaches which reflect a greater understanding of the disorders," said guidelines co-author Dr. Eamonn Quigley, chief of the division of gastroenterology and hepatology at Houston Methodist Hospital. "We now have a better opportunity to improve the lives of our patients," Quigley said. To read more,click here

Scientists Confirm Effectiveness of Cognitive Rehabilitation in Multiple Sclerosis

In individuals with multiple sclerosis, patterns of brain activity associated with learning were maintained at six months post training, scientists report in a new article following up on a long term study. For the pilot study, participants underwent evaluation of memory performance and brain activity at baseline, immediately following memory retraining, and at 6-month followup. Results showed that the patterns of increased cerebral activation that correlated with learning were maintained at 6-month followup.To read more,click here

Regular Marijuana Use Bad for Teens' Brains, Study Finds

Frequent marijuana use can have a significant negative effect on the brains of teenagers and young adults, including cognitive decline, poor attention and memory, and decreased IQ, according to psychologists. "It needs to be emphasized that regular cannabis use, which we consider once a week, is not safe and may result in addiction and neurocognitive damage, especially in youth," said one expert.To read more,click here

Honor Society for Special Education Teachers

Discovery of New Form of Dystrophin Protein Could Lead to Therapy for some Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Patients

Scientists have discovered a new form of dystrophin, a protein critical to normal muscle function, and identified the genetic mechanism responsible for its production. Studies of the new protein isoform, published online Aug. 10 in Nature Medicine and led by a team in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, suggest it may offer a novel therapeutic approach for some patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a debilitating neuromuscular condition that usually leaves patients unable to walk on their own by age 12.Duchenne muscular dystrophy, or DMD, is caused by mutations in the gene that encodes dystrophin, which plays a role in stabilizing the membrane of muscle fibers. Without sufficient quantities of the protein, muscle fibers are particularly susceptible to injury during contraction. Over time, the muscle degenerates and muscle fibers are slowly replaced by fat and scar tissue. Many different types of mutations can lead to DMD, some of which block dystrophin production altogether and others that result in a protein that doesn't function normally. To read more,click here

Scientists Link Environment, Inclusion in Adults with Disabilities

Kessler Foundation researchers have identified an association between the built environment and disability-related outcomes for adults with physical impairments. The article, Disability and the built environment: an investigation of community and neighborhood land uses and participation for physically impaired adults, was published in the July issue of Annals of Epidemiology. The authors are Amanda Botticello, PhD, MPH, and Nicole Cobbold, BS, of Kessler Foundation, and Tanya Rohrbach, MS, of Raritan Valley Community College, Branchburg, NJ.To read more,click here

Involuntary Eye Movement a Foolproof Indication for ADHD Diagnosis

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most commonly diagnosed -- and misdiagnosed -- behavioral disorder in children in America, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unfortunately, there are currently no reliable physiological markers to diagnose ADHD. Doctors generally diagnose the disorder by recording a medical and social history of the patient and the family, discussing possible symptoms and observing the patient's behavior. But an incorrect evaluation can lead to overmedication with Ritalin (methylphenidate), which has parents everywhere concerned.Now a new study from Tel Aviv University researchers may provide the objective tool medical professionals need to accurately diagnose ADHD. According to the research, published in Vision Research, involuntary eye movements accurately reflect the presence of ADHD, as well as the benefits of medical stimulants that are used to treat the disorder. To read more,click here