WEEK IN REVIEW

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

March, 14 2014 - Vol 10, Issue 11

Younger Siblings of Kids With Autism May Show Early Signs of Problems

Younger siblings of children with autism may show signs of abnormal development or behavior as early as 1 year of age, according to a new study. The findings suggest that parents and doctors should keep close watch for such symptoms at an early age among younger siblings of children with autism so problems can be addressed sooner, the researchers said. The new study included nearly 300 infant siblings of children with autism and 116 infant siblings of children without the disorder. The children's development was assessed at 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months and 36 months of age. Researchers found problems in nearly half of the siblings of children with autism, with 17 percent developing autism and 28 percent having delays in other areas of development or behavior. To read more,click here

Kids With ADHD May Face Higher Obesity Risk as Teens

It might seem surprising for a condition with "hyperactivity" in its name, but a new study finds that kids who had attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder during childhood were more likely to be inactive and obese as teens. Researchers followed nearly 7,000 children in Finland and found that the 9 percent who had symptoms of ADHD at age 8 were more likely to be physically inactive and obese at age 16. The investigators also found that children who were less likely to be physically active at age 8 were more likely to have inattention when they were teens. Moreover, they found that a condition called "conduct disorder," which the researchers said is related to ADHD, increased the risk of teen physical inactivity and obesity. Conduct disorder involves tendencies toward delinquency, rule breaking and violence. To read more,click here

Shared Family Activities May Boost Preschoolers' Emotional Health

Taking part in family activities on a regular basis benefits the social and emotional health of young children, a new study finds. And the more of these shared family routines, the better. "Social-emotional health" is defined as being able to understand emotions, express empathy, have self-control and form good relationships with other children and adults. Researchers looked at parent-provided data about 8,550 preschool kids in the United States to assess how often the children did things with their families, such as eating dinner, singing, reading books, playing and telling stories. Fifty-seven percent of children participated in three or more regular family activities and more than 16 percent of the children had high social-emotional health. To read more,click here

Kids Lacking At-Home Enrichment Gain Most From Head Start: Study

Head Start, the U.S. government-funded preschool program, provides the greatest benefits to children whose parents give them little help with learning early in life, new research shows. The study, published March 6 in the journal Child Development, also found that showing parents how to assist their children with reading and counting may be beneficial. Head Start offers low-income children preschool education, nutrition services and medical, dental and mental health care. It currently serves more than 1 million children a year. Researchers analyzed data from nearly 5,000 children, aged 3 and 4, who were enrolled in Head Start. About one-third of the children were black, one-third were Hispanic and one-third were white or other races and ethnicities. To read more,click here

Lawmakers Press for Full Funding of Special Education

Even as President Barack Obama called for virtually no change to special education spending in his budget proposal, members of Congress are pressing forward with efforts to fully fund the program. A bill introduced this week with bipartisan backing in the U.S. House of Representatives calls for increases in spending over the next decade in order to bring special education up to a level known as "full funding." A similar proposal is expected to be introduced in the U.S. Senate in the coming weeks, sources say. To read more,click here

New 'Handicapped' Symbol Featured at Museum of Modern Art

An updated version of the familiar blue and white icon that's long symbolized accessibility in parking lots and restrooms alike is now taking its place in the art world. The Museum of Modern Art in New York City is displaying a new, more active version of the "handicapped" symbol alongside other culturally-relevant designs from the last few decades like the "@" symbol commonly used in email, the pin found on Google Maps and the video games Pac-Man, Pong and Tetris. To read more,click here

NASET Sponsor - The University of Kansas

TRIVIA QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Antibiotics May Be Linked to Serious Infections in Children

Antibiotics prescribed in doctors' offices are linked with many cases of serious bacterial infections that can cause severe diarrhea in children, according to a new study. Researchers found that 71 percent of cases of Clostridium difficile infection among American children aged 1 to 17 occurred shortly after they took antibiotics that were prescribed in doctors' offices to treat other conditions. Most of the children received antibiotics for problems such as ear, sinus or upper respiratory infections. Previous research has shown that at least 50 percent of antibiotics prescribed to children in doctors' offices are for respiratory infections, most of which do not require antibiotics, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers said in an agency news release. To read more,click here

Despite Media Companies' Claims, Your Baby Can't Learn to Read: Study

Read to your baby, sing and play games. But don't waste money on programs that claim to teach infants to read, a new study suggests. Researchers who explored this new twist on early learning effectively closed the book on the subject: "These children do not have the developmental capacity to learn how to read," said Susan Neuman, the study's lead author. "They don't understand that something on screen is representative of something in real life," said Neuman, chairwoman of the teaching and learning department at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. Babies cannot read, agreed Frank Manis, a professor of psychology and education at the University of Southern California who studies reading and is familiar with the new research. To read more,click here

Moving Out of Poor Neighborhood May Disrupt Boys' Mental Health: Study

Boys, but not girls, tend to suffer more from depression and conduct disorder after moving from a poor neighborhood to a better one, a new study says. Conduct disorder includes acting-out behaviors such as bullying, fighting, cruelty to people or animals, damaging property, cutting school and breaking other rules, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. "Giving poor families the opportunity to move to better neighborhoods has a significant mental effect on kids in the family," said lead researcher Ronald Kessler, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School. "The striking thing was the mental health effects were positive for girls and negative for boys," he said. One reason for this distinction might be how boys and girls are seen by their new neighbors, Kessler said. To read more,click here

Gene Therapy for Controlling HIV Shows Early Promise

In an early step toward drug-free HIV therapy, researchers are reporting the first success in genetically "editing" T-cells in patients' immune systems to become resistant to the virus. The findings, published in the March 6 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, are based on only 12 patients. But experts were cautiously optimistic about what the study accomplished. Specifically, researchers were able to take T-cells from the HIV patients' blood, then "knock out" a gene known as CCR5, which controls a protein that allows HIV to enter a cell. The scientists then infused the genetically altered T-cells back into patients' blood, where they expanded in number. What's more, a few patients were taken off their HIV drugs temporarily and saw their virus levels decrease. To read more,click here

For Many College Athletes, the Payoff Is Lifelong Disabilities: Study

Many elite college athletes are inactive later in life and it's often due to the lingering effects of injuries they suffered during their brief college sports career, a new study contends. The Indiana University researchers looked at 232 men and women who were former Division I athletes and 225 men and women who didn't play high-level sports in college. The participants were between 40 and 65 years old at the time of the study. Former Division I athletes were more than twice as likely to have physical problems that limited their daily activities and exercise. Sixty-seven percent of these former athletes said they had suffered a major injury and 50 percent said they had chronic injuries during college, compared with 28 percent and 26 percent, respectively, among non-athletes. To read more,click here

Lack of Sleep Compounds Health Problems for Obese Teens: Study

Obese teens who get too little sleep are at increased risk for heart disease and diabetes, a small study suggests. Researchers assessed the health, physical activity levels and sleeping habits of 37 obese American youngsters, aged 11 to 17. Among the study participants, only one-third met the minimum recommendations of being physically active at least one hour per day. Most slept about seven hours a night, typically waking up at least once. Only five got the minimum recommended 8.5 hours of sleep each night. Too little sleep was associated with an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes, independent of other risk factors, such as lack of physical activity and high levels of body fat, according to the University of Michigan Health System and Baylor University researchers. To read more,click here

Could More Time on Facebook Help Spur Eating Disorders?

Young women who spend a lot of time on Facebook tend to be more likely to be concerned about their body image and could be at increased risk for eating disorders, a new study suggests. Researchers looked at how much time 960 female college students spent on the online social media site, how important "likes" were to them and whether they "untagged" photos of themselves. The more than 95 percent of study participants who used Facebook typically spent 20 minutes on the site during each visit, and an hour on the site each day. Those who spent more time on Facebook were more likely to worry about their weight and body shape, and to have eating disorders, the investigators found. These women also tended to place greater importance on receiving comments and "likes" on Facebook, frequently untagged photos of themselves, and compared their photos to pictures of friends. To read more,click here

Overweight Moms May Have Dangerously Big Babies

Pregnancy isn't a license to gain weight, say researchers who have found that heavier moms-to-be tend to have fatter babies at greater risk for serious health issues. Bigger babies can pose problems during delivery, and a baby that's large for its age is at higher risk for obesity, asthma and diabetes later in life. "Obesity, excessive weight gain during pregnancy and pregnancy-related diabetes all contribute to having big babies," said lead researcher Shin Kim, of the division of reproductive health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And all three are increasing in the United States, she added. But excessive weight gain carries the greatest risk among those three, according to the report, which was published in the April issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology. To read more,click here

NASET Sponsor - University of Cincinnati

Balanced Diet During Pregnancy May Lower Risk of Preterm Delivery

Expectant mothers are often told to eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and a new study adds to evidence that a healthy diet is linked to a reduced risk of premature birth. Researchers analyzed data gathered from more than 66,000 pregnant women in Norway between 2002 and 2008. Premature birth (before 37 weeks of pregnancy) occurred in slightly more than 5 percent of the pregnancies. Women who ate a "prudent" diet that included plenty of vegetables, fruits, whole grains and water had a much lower risk of preterm delivery, as did those with a traditional Norwegian diet of boiled potatoes, fish and cooked vegetables, the investigators found. To read more,click here

Are All Home-Based Blood Sugar Tests Equal?

Every day, millions of people with diabetes -- both type 1 and type 2 -- rely on the results they get from their blood glucose meters to guide their treatment decisions. But, what if those test results were wrong? Recent research has found that even though a blood glucose monitor meets the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's standards for accuracy to gain device approval, the meter or test strips used in the meter may not perform as well as expected in the real world. And, those errors can have potentially life-threatening consequences. To read more,click here

Baby 'Sleep Machines' Could Damage Hearing, Study Suggests

Some of the "sleep machines" marketed to soothe infants seem capable of generating enough noise to potentially damage a baby's hearing, a new study suggests. The popular devices promise to help infants fall asleep and stay asleep by lulling them with constant sound -- such as a babbling brook, a heartbeat or simply "white noise." But in tests of 14 sleep machines, researchers found some were capable of decibel levels that surpass the limit recommended for workplace noise. All were capable of breaking the noise limit recommended for hospital nurseries. The findings, reported online March 3 and in the April print issue of Pediatrics, may not sound sweet to parents' ears. To read more,click here

Honor Society for Special Education Teachers

Food Allergies Have Nearly Doubled Among Black Children

Over the past two decades, reports of food allergies have nearly doubled among black children, a new study reveals. Although childhood food allergies are on the rise overall, the spike in these allergies among black children is alarming, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. It remains unclear if this sharp increase is the result of better detection or some trigger in the environment. The study, published in the March issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, involved more than 450,000 children. The researchers found that between 1988 and 2011, food allergies increased among black children at a rate of 2.1 percent every 10 years. Meanwhile, food allergies increased at a rate of just 1.2 percent each decade among Hispanics and 1 percent every 10 years among white children, the findings showed. To read more,click here

Allergy Rates Surprisingly Similar Across the U.S., Study Finds

Wherever you live in the United States, allergy rates are mostly the same, but young children in southern states are more likely to suffer allergies than their peers in other places. That's the finding of a government study that looked at blood-test data from about 10,000 people included in the 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. "Before this study, if you would have asked 10 allergy specialists if allergy prevalence varied depending on where people live, all 10 of them would have said yes, because allergen exposures tend to be more common in certain regions of the U.S.," Dr. Darryl Zeldin, scientific director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, said in an agency news release. To read more,click here

Social Security Ups Disability Safeguards

The Social Security Administration is expanding a program nationally to help bar criminals from controlling benefits on behalf of individuals with disabilities and the elderly. The program originally launched as a pilot in the Philadelphia-area in June 2012 in the wake of the Tacony dungeon case. That case made headlines after police rescued four people with intellectual disabilities from a filthy basement where Linda Ann Weston and four co-defendants allegedly held them captive in a scheme to steal their Social Security benefits. To read more,click here

Feds Earmark Millions For Disability Housing Assistance

Federal housing officials are putting $120 million on the table to help thousands of people with disabilities access rental assistance. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said Tuesday that state housing agencies can apply now through May 5 for a share of the funding that's intended to help prevent homelessness and unnecessary institutionalization of those with disabilities. The money is available under HUD's Section 811 Project Rental Assistance Demonstration Program, an initiative created through a 2010 law designed to expand community-based housing options for people with disabilities. To read more,click here

Can an App Help Make Life Easier for Children with ADHD?

We have tended to associate welfare technology with support for the elderly. Now researchers are looking at whether technology such as digital calendars and smartwatches can also provide support for children with autism and ADHD.Being able to function well in the morning is a challenge for parents of children with cognitive problems. Small details such as putting their leggings on inside out, or an adult saying something 'the wrong way' can trigger a temper tantrum and ruin the entire day. Children can become unruly, and some even become aggressive when something prevents them from following their routines and habits. This is one of many insights that researchers from SINTEF have learned from interviews with mothers of children who have autism or ADHD. "Being able to function well on a day-to-day basis is a big problem for these children -- and for their families," say Lisbet Grut and Øystein Dale of SINTEF. To read more,click here

Fragile X Syndrome: Trigger for Most Common Form of Intellectual Disability and Autism Uncovered

new study led by Weill Cornell Medical College scientists shows that the most common genetic form of mental retardation and autism occurs because of a mechanism that shuts off the gene associated with the disease. The findings, published today in Science, also show that a drug that blocks this silencing mechanism can prevent fragile X syndrome -- suggesting similar therapy is possible for 20 other diseases that range from mental retardation to multisystem failure.Fragile X syndrome occurs mostly in boys, causing intellectual disability as well as telltale physical, behavioral and emotional traits. While researchers have known for more than two decades that the culprit behind the disease is an unusual mutation characterized by the excess repetition of a particular segment of the genetic code, they weren't sure why the presence of a large number of these repetitions -- 200 or more -- sets the disease process in motion. To read more,click here