WEEK IN REVIEW

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

March 1, 2013 - Vol 9, Issue 9

NASET Sponsor - Cal Poly Pomona

Draft of Next Generation of Educator Preparation Accreditation Standards Released for Public Comment

As the new national accreditor for educator preparation, theCouncil for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation(CAEP) is seeking public comment on the draft of the next generation of accreditation standards and performance measures. All stakeholders in education and educator preparation are encouraged to review and comment on the draft standards, which are available for public comment through March 29. Please visithttp://caepnet.orgor follow @CAEPupdates on Twitter for the most up-to-date information.

My Classmate, The Robot: New York Student Attends Remotely

In an elementary school hallway, a teacher takes her second-graders to the library, leading a single-file line of giggling boys and girls that's perfectly ordinary until you get to a sleek white robot with a video screen showing the face of a smiling, chubby-cheeked boy. Devon Carrow's life-threatening allergies don't allow him to go to school. But the 4-foot-tall robot with a wireless video hookup gives him the school experience remotely, allowing him to participate in class, stroll through the hallways, hang out at recess and even take to the auditorium stage when there's a show. What's most remarkable is how unremarkable this gee-whiz technology is viewed by his classmates. In a class of 7-year-olds raised on video games, avatars and remote-controlled toys, they don't see a robot. They just see Devon. To read more,click here

Pitt Researchers Work to Restore Function in Paralysis Patients

Five years ago, a cooperative multidisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) and its medical center set out to tackle an important translational research goal: Restoring function for those who can't move. Now, for the first time, breakthrough brain-computer-interfaceresearch publishedin the Lancet in December 2012 provides hope to nearly 6 million paralyzed individuals and another 1.7 million amputees nationwide. To read more,click here

GEEO Travel Programs for Educators

Global Exploration for Educators Organization (GEEO) is a 501c3 non-profit organization that runs summer professional development travel programs designed for teachers.

GEEO is offering 23 different travel programs for the summer of 2013: India/Nepal, Italy, Portugal/Spain, Amalfi Coast, Eastern Europe, Budapest to Istanbul, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Comfort Thailand, Thailand/Laos, Cambodia, China, Comfort China, Russia/Mongolia/China, Turkey 15 day, Turkey 8-Day, Kenya/Tanzania, South Africa / Mozambique / Zimbabwe / Botswana, Morocco, Peru, Ecuador, The Galapagos Islands and Costa Rica. The registration deadline is June 1st, but space is limited and many programs will be full well before the deadline.

Educators have the option to earn graduate school credit and professional development credit while seeing the world. The trips are 8 to 24 days in length and are designed and discounted to be interesting and affordable for teachers. GEEO provides teachers educational materials and the structure to help them bring their experiences into the classroom. The trips are open to all nationalities of K-12 and university educators and administrators, as well as retired educators. Educators are also permitted to bring along a non-educator guest.

Detailed information about each trip, including itineraries, costs, travel dates, and more can be found atwww.geeo.org. GEEO can be reached 7 days a week, toll free at 1-877-600-0105 between 9AM-9PM EST

Did You Know That....

Act of Sportsmanship Gives Texas high Schooler Shot at Glory

Coach Peter Morales of the Coronado High School Thunderbirds in El Paso, Texas, makes no qualms about it: he has a favorite on this team. Team manager Mitchell Marcus has a developmental disability, but he far surpasses everyone here when it comes to love of the game. "He's just an amazing person that our basketball team loves being around," Morales says.

Mitchell's mom, Amy, says he's always been that way. "Mitchell always had a basketball, that was always what he wanted for his birthday," she says. And because basketball is that important to him, on the last game of the regular season, the coach told Mitchell to suit up. "I was very happy," Mitchell says of what it was like to put on the team's uniform. To read more,click here

For Students with Multiple Disabilities, a New, Specially Designed School Opens

The Clark County School District welcomed more than 100 students with severe disabilities to a brand new campus this week. The Miller School - which serves about 125 special-needs students - moved into an $18 million, state-of-the-art facility on Wednesday. The new campus - located on the Pecos-McLeod Interconnect near Twain Avenue - replaced its predecessor about 3 miles miles to the north. The old Miller site was showing its age, Principal Jean Trudell said. Built as a traditional school in 1960, the building was converted about 25 years ago into a special school for students with multiple physical, intellectual, sensory and emotional disabilities. To read more,click here

Effects of Bullying Last Into Adulthood, Study Finds

Victims of bullying at school, and bullies themselves, are more likely to experience psychiatric problems in childhood, studies have shown. Now researchers have found that elevated risk of psychiatric trouble extends into adulthood, sometimes even a decade after the intimidation has ended. The new study,published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry on Wednesday, is the most comprehensive effort to date to establish the long-term consequences of childhood bullying, experts said. "It documents the elevated risk across a wide range of mental health outcomes and over a long period of time," saidCatherine Bradshaw, an expert on bullying and a deputy director of theCenter for the Prevention of Youth Violenceat Johns Hopkins University, which was not involved in the study. To read more,click here

Teachers Ditch Student Desk Chairs for Yoga Balls

In 11 years of teaching, ditching students' desk chairs in favor ofyogaballs is one of the best decisionsRobbi Giulianothinks she ever made. Replacing stationary seats with inflatable bouncers has raised productivity in her fifth-graders atWesttown-Thornbury Elementary School, making students better able to focus on lessons while improving their balance and core strength, she said. "I have more attentive children,"Giulianosaid. "I'm able to get a lot done with them because they're sitting on yoga balls." The giant rubber spheres, also calledstability balls, come in different sizes, colors and degrees of firmness. By making the sitter work to stay balanced, the balls force muscle engagement and increased blood flow, leading to more alertness. To read more,click here

Modifying Kids' TV Habits May Improve Behavior

Want to improve your preschoolers' behavior? Be choosy when it comes to the television shows they watch - even if you don't reduce the amount of time they spend watching them, a study finds. In one of the largest studies yet to examine how modifying television content affects the development of young children ages 3 to 5, researchers report that six months after families reduced their kids' exposure to aggressive and violence-filled programming and increased exposure to enriching and educational programming - even without changing the number of viewing hours - kids demonstrated statistically significant improved behavior compared to children whose media diet went unchanged. To read more,click here

Inclusion The Default At Innovative School

A unique New York City school is successfully serving kids with developmental disabilities alongside those who are typically developing by assuming that each child needs their own curriculum in order to thrive. At The IDEAL School, children of varying abilities all learn the same topics, but each student does so at their own level with an individual lesson plan tailored to their needs. Specialized services like speech and physical therapy are provided during elective periods so that no student misses out on academics or feels different. To read more,click here

Feds Omit ABA Therapy From New Insurance Requirements

Despite a heavy lobbying effort, the Obama administration declined to include autism therapy in final rules this week defining what must be covered by insurers under health care reform. Many states have established mandates in recent years requiring at least some health insurance plans to include coverage of behavior therapy to treat autism. But with the passage of the 2010 health care reform law, advocates were hopeful that a nationwide standard would be established. Under the federal law, most health insurance plans will be required to cover 10 so-called "essential health benefits" starting next year, one of which is "mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment." To read more,click here

TRIVIA QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Plastics Chemical BPA Common in 'Preemie' ICU: Study

Premature babies who spend their first few days of life in the neonatal intensive care unit may be exposed to a possibly harmful chemical widely used in the manufacture of hard plastics, new research says. The chemical, bisphenol A (BPA), is used to make many of the ventilators, intravenous lines, catheters and other devices tiny babies need to stay alive in those first critical days. BPA is believed to be an endocrine disruptor, which means it may interfere with the hormone system in humans. Some research has linked BPA with reproductive and developmental problems, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Last July, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned BPA from baby bottles and sippy cups. To read more,click here

Children Born With Heart Defects Show Growth Lags 3 Years Later

Poor growth among children born with heart defects may be due to abnormalities in growth regulation rather than nutrition problems, a new study suggests. Discrepancies in weight between these children and those without heart defects peaked at 4 months of age, the researchers found. Weight and other size differences were still evident when the children reached the age of 3 years. "When compared with their healthy peers, children with congenital heart disease have impaired growth, as measured in weight, length and head circumference," senior study author Dr. Meryl Cohen, a pediatric cardiologist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia cardiac center, said in a hospital news release. "We investigated patterns of poor growth in these children, as a starting point in guiding us toward more effective treatments." To read more,click here

New Guidelines Issued for Genetic Screening in Newborns, Children

New guidelines on testing newborns and children for genetic diseases recommend screening for childhood diseases but note that testing for diseases that strike in adulthood may not be worthwhile. About 4 million infants in the United States undergo newborn screening each year, but further genetic testing -- while increasingly available -- is less common. Newborn screening panels vary from state to state. All newborns should be tested for the genetic diseases that are included in their state's newborn screening panel, but anything beyond that is up to parents and the decision must be made in the child's best interest, according to the revised policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics. The new guidelines are published online Feb. 21 in the journal Pediatrics. To read more,click here

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Did You Know That....

Too Much Coffee in Pregnancy Tied to Smaller, Later Newborns, Study Says

The coffee or other caffeinated beverages a woman drinks during her pregnancy might up the odds for a low birth weight newborn or an extended pregnancy, a new study says. The researchers included data on nearly 60,000 Norwegian women. "As the risk for having a low birth weight baby was associated with caffeine consumption, pregnant women might be counseled to reduce their caffeine intake during pregnancy as much as possible," said lead researcher Dr. Verena Sengpiel, an obstetrician/gynecologist at the Sahlgrenska Academy of Sahlgrenska University in Goteborg, Sweden. To read more,click here

Researchers Detect an Anti-Autism Advantage in Females

A protective effect in females may help explain one of the biggest mysteries of autism: Why boys are five times more likely to develop the developmental brain disorder than girls. A new, preliminary study suggests that developing females are much better able than males to fight off genetic pressure to develop symptoms of autism. The findings aren't definitive and don't point to a treatment or cure. Still, "first steps like this are important" and could lead to greater understanding of autism, said study lead author Elise Robinson, an instructor in the department of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston. To read more,click here