WEEK IN REVIEW

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

November 30, 2012 - Vol 8, Issue 46

New This Week on NASET

Device May Allow Blind to Read Braille Without Touch: Report

A blind patient was able to read Braille patterns that were streamed directly onto the retina using a special device, researchers say. The patient could read words with up to four letters accurately and quickly with the Argus II. The device uses a small camera mounted on a pair of glasses, a portable processor to translate the image from the camera into electrical stimulation, and a microchip and electrodes implanted directly on the retina, according to Second Sight, the company that developed the Argus II. The study was conducted by Second Sight researchers and published Nov. 21 in the journal Frontiers of Neuroprosthetics. To read more,click here

Did You Know That....

Youngest Kids in Class May Be More Likely to Get ADHD Diagnosis

A new study from Iceland adds to existing evidence that kids are more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder if they're among the youngest in their grade at school. The findings suggest -- but don't prove -- that some children are diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when they're just less mature than their peers. "Educators and health-care providers should take children's ages in relation to their [classmates] into account when evaluating academic performance and other criteria for ADHD diagnosis," said study author Helga Zoega, a postdoctoral fellow at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. "Parents can use these findings to help inform their decisions about school readiness for children born close to cutoff dates for school entry." To read more,click here

Benefit Of Popular Autism Therapy Questioned

New research is casting doubt on the merits of a popular autism treatment which relies on weighted vests, bouncy balls and other sensory stimuli. Researchers reviewed 25 existing studies looking at sensory integration therapy and found that the method is not scientifically supported. "Rigorous, methodologically sound studies do not indicate that it helps and, in fact, the majority of studies that were reviewed reported no benefits for children with ASD," said Mark O'Reilly of the University of Texas at Austin who worked on theanalysis, which was published in the journal Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders. To read more,click here

Tips for Warding Off Winter Allergies

Winter months can be rough for people who are allergic to mold spores and dust mites, and holiday decorations may contribute to the problem. "During the winter, families spend more time indoors, exposing allergic individuals to allergens and irritants like dust mites, pet dander, smoke, household sprays and chemicals, and gas fumes -- any of which can make their lives miserable," Dr. William Reisacher, director of the Allergy Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, said in a medical center news release. One way to prevent a winter allergy flare-up is to keep holiday decorations mold-free. To read more,click here

Did You Know That....

With Bullying, What's a Parent to Do?

When kids have academic problems, report cards make that clear to parents. And if a kid skins a knee or breaks a bone, parents know what to do. But detecting that a child is being bullied, and then knowing how to react, may not be so clear-cut. Kids often are reluctant to tell their parents they're being bullied, making it difficult to know that they're having trouble with other kids at school or online. One thing that's very clear, however, is that bullying is not a rare occurrence. About one in five kids reports being bullied at school in the past 12 months, and another 16 percent have been harassed online, according to a survey from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC also found that 6 percent of children and teens didn't go to school at least once in the previous month because they were concerned for their safety. To read more,click here

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TRIVIA QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Continued Use of ADHD Drugs May Reduce Criminal Behavior, Study Says

For teens and adults who don't grow out of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, staying on ADHD medications may help them stay out of trouble. Males with ADHD who stayed on medications for the disorder reduced their risk of criminal behavior by 32 percent, while women who did so reduced their rates of criminal behavior by 42 percent, according to a large Swedish study. "It seems as though ADHD medications decrease the risk for criminality while under treatment," said the study's lead author, Paul Lichtenstein, professor of genetic epidemiology at the Karolinska Institute, in Stockholm. To read more,click here

Bigger Babies Have Bigger Brains as Teens

Newborns who weigh around 9 pounds or more at birth tend to have bigger brains as teens than those who weigh less at birth, a new study finds. Although the differences in brain size may affect brain development in childhood, the full scope of those effects still isn't known, the researchers added. "It has been well known for some time that premature birth and very low birth weight can affect brain development," said study author Kristine Beate Walhovd, a professor of neuropsychology at the University of Oslo in Norway. "This study shows that also normal variation in birth weight is predictive of brain characteristics many years later." To read more,click here

Airport Security X-Rays May Damage Diabetes Devices

Full body X-ray scanners and luggage X-rays may damage some insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors, both used by many people with diabetes to manage their conditions. It's likely that every day, large numbers of travelers expose these diabetes care devices to X-rays while going through airport security "and some may unknowingly experience mild [or worse] malfunctioning as a result," wrote the authors of a recent editorial in the journal Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics. They recommend carrying a letter that details all of the medical supplies someone with diabetes needs to carry on board with them. They also recommend that if someone wears an insulin pump or continuous glucose monitors, the letter specifically state that these devices shouldn't be subjected to X-rays, either from a full body scanner or the X-ray machine that scans carry-on luggage. Instead, these devices should be hand-checked, according to editorial co-authors Andrew Cornish and Dr. H. Peter Chase, from the University of Colorado Denver. To read more,click here

White House Solicits Input From Disability Community

When President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden sat down last Friday with leaders from special interest groups to discuss the impending fiscal cliff, at least one disability advocate was at the table. Peter Berns, CEO of The Arc, was one of 13 leaders representing groups including AARP, the NAACP and the Human Rights Campaign at the afternoon meeting in the West Wing of the White House. The gathering was one of three sessions the president held with stakeholders last week as he looks to strike a deal with Congress to avert federal budget cuts scheduled to take effect in January. At that time, most federal programs are set to be slashed by at least 8.2 percent under a process known as sequestration, which was set in motion last year when Congress failed to reach a budget deal. Meanwhile, a series of tax cuts are set to expire as well. To read more,click here

Secondhand Smoke Very Unhealthy for Kids in Cars: Study

Spending just 10 minutes in the backseat of a car with a smoker in the front increases a child's daily exposure to harmful air pollutants by up to 30 percent, a new study finds. And cracking a car window doesn't help. U.S. researchers took 22 air-quality measurements inside a nonmoving vehicle after three cigarettes had been smoked within one hour. The measurements were taken in the backseat of the vehicle at the breathing height of a child, first with the front windows fully open and again with the front windows open about four inches. To read more,click here

State Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Scholarship Program

The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out a constitutional challenge by two school districts of a law that allows the use of public funds to send special-needs students to private schools. In the two years that the law has been in effect, it has stirred controversy over whether it violates the state constitution's ban on the use of public funds for private sectarian institutions.

Sleep Positioners Linked to Infant Suffocation: CDC

Parents should not use commercially available "infant sleep positioners" unless they are prescribed by their pediatrician. The devices have been associated with suffocation deaths, U.S. health officials warn. The U.S. Centers of Disease and Prevention released a report detailing one such case and including findings from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which has documented 13 deaths linked to infant sleep positioners in a 13-year period. "Infant sleep positioners pose a serious suffocation risk to babies," U.S. Food and Drug Administration spokeswomen Michelle Bolek said. To read more,click here

Did You Know That....

Parenting Style Has Big Impact On Kids With Disabilities

The approach that parents take with their children who have developmental disabilities is directly tied to how cooperative and independent they become, new research suggests. In ananalysisof existing studies looking at the influence of parenting on children with special needs, researchers found that when moms and dads employed so-called positive parenting, their kids exhibited greater independence, better language skills, stronger emotional expression and social interaction as well as improved temperament. "In households where positive parenting is applied, the symptoms and severity of the child's disability are more likely to decrease over time," said Tim Smith of Brigham Young University who worked on the study, which was published in the journal Research in Developmental Disabilities this month. To read more,click here

Number of U.S. Kids With Diabetes Could Skyrocket

If the current trends in diabetes for young people stay the same, rates of type 2 diabetes will rise by 49 percent by 2050, and rates of type 1 diabetes will increase by 23 percent, according to new government estimates. And that's not even the worse-case scenario. If the incidence starts to increase, as it has in other parts of the world, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that rates of children with type 2 diabetes could quadruple, while the number of children with type 1 diabetes could triple. "These numbers are very important," said study lead author Dr. Giuseppina Imperatore, of the CDC's division of diabetes translation. "As a society, we will need to plan and prepare for the high-quality care of these children." To read more,click here

Charter Schools in New York Perform Well in Serving Special Needs Students, Study Says

An analysis of charter schools in New York state concludes that they enroll comparable percentages of students with disabilities as regular public schools in many circumstances, despite concerns raised recently at the national level by the Government Accountability Office. Thestudy, which relies on state data from the 2011-12 school year, finds that on the one hand, New York charter schools on average serve a smaller portion of special-needs students than regular, district-overseen schools. But it also concludes that those overall averages are in some ways misleading. A closer examination reveals that six in 10 charter schools in the state are serving similar percentages of children with disabilities as the majority of district-run schools--roughly 70 percent of those schools. To read more,click here