| New This Week on NASET ADHD Series
Part #11- When an Attention Deficit Isn't By: Dr. Craig Pohlman
Reprinted with permission from the Special Education Advisor at http://www.specialeducationadvisor.com/when-an-attention-deficit-isnt/#more-12337 Addison is in the 6th grade, her first year in middle school. She did pretty well in elementary school, but she's getting slammed in 6th grade. A couple of her teachers have described her appearing distracted, making mistakes with details, and being disorganized with her work. Addison admits to "zoning out" a lot during classes like English, Spanish, science, and geography. So clearly she has ADHD and could use some medication to help her focus. To read or download this issue -Click here (login required) ______________________________________________________
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| For Collegians With Disabilities, Success Linked to Mentoring, Self-Advocacy A Rutgers study of recent New Jersey college graduates with disabilities has found that students attributed their academic success to a combination of possessing strong personality traits as perseverance and their relationship with a faculty or staff mentor. Accessing campus accommodations was not a major issue but learning about such help "was not always the smoothest process," the report noted. The research also determined that students mainly used campus resources for assistance rather than a combination of college and community services. Additionally, investigators examined problems faced by college disability and special services offices, including record-keeping and student-faculty outreach. To read more,click here |
| Did You Know That....About one in every 33 babies (about 3%) is born with a birth defect. |
| More Sleep Means More Focused, Emotionally Stable KidsHow important is sleep for children? Getting too little could leave them more emotional and impulsive. As a nation, we don't get enough sleep. And we're passing along our night-owl habits to members of the next generation, which could leave them with less control over their emotions and more prone to impulsivity, according to the latest study. Lead author Reut Gruber, a psychologist at McGill University, and her colleagues describe in the journal Pediatrics a study in which they either added or deprived healthy children ages 7 to 11 of one hour of sleep a night over five nights. Their goal, says Gruber, was to see if such modest changes in the amount of sleep children get could affect their behavior. The children's teachers were asked to fill out a 10-item standard questionnaire to assess the children's attention, impulsivity, irritability and emotional reactivity at the end of the study period. To read more,click here |
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| Once Banned, Special Needs App To Return A months-long legal battle over an iPad app designed to give voice to nonverbal individuals with disabilities is nearing an end. Earlier this year, assistive technology maker Prentke Romich Company sued the creators of a text-to-speech app called Speak for Yourself alleging that the product violated patents held by the company and Semantic Compaction Systems. The legal action led Apple to pull the app from its store. The app's creators defended their product calling the allegations "baseless" and a group of parents came to their aid, criticizing Prentke Romich for threatening access to a tool that they said offered their children with disabilities a voice. Ultimately, three families of individuals using Speak for Yourself moved to intervene in the court case and a parent-led onlinepetitionurging the return of the app garnered nearly 5,500 signatures. To read more,click here |
| Children With Autism Can Identify Misbehavior but Have Trouble Putting It in Words, Study Finds Children with autism have difficulty identifying inappropriate social behavior, and even when successful, they are often unable to justify why the behavior seemed inappropriate. New brain imaging studies show that children with autism may recognize socially inappropriate behavior, but have difficulty using spoken language to explain why the behavior is considered inappropriate, according to research published Oct. 17 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Elizabeth Carter from Carnegie Mellon University and colleagues. The authors say the results of their functional MRI studies support previous behavioral studies that reached similar conclusions about language impairment in children with autism. In the current study, the researchers asked children with autism and children with typical development to identify in which of two pictures a boy was being bad (social judgment), or which of two pictures was outdoors (physical judgment). To read more,click here |
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| Did You Know That....Folic acid is a B vitamin that, if taken before and during early pregnancy, can help prevent some major birth defects of the baby's brain and spine (anencephaly and spina bifida). In 1996, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandated that folic acid should be added to grain products, such as breads and cereals, to help reduce the risk of neural tube defects. This is known as folic acid fortification. |
| Family History of Alcoholism May Add to Damaging Effects of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Prenatal exposure to alcohol (PAE) can lead to serious deficiencies associated with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), such as impairments in general intelligence, adaptive function, verbal learning and memory, attention, executive function, and visual-spatial functioning. The role of family history of alcoholism (FHP) in the neurocognitive effects of PAE has not yet been studied. This study used neuroimaging to examine spatial working memory (SWM) in children with histories of heavy PAE and children with confirmed FHP but not PAE, finding that FHP may in fact have an impact on neural functioning of children with PAE. Results will be published in the January 2013 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. To read more,click here |
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| TRIVIA QUESTION OF THE WEEKGuess the answer to this week's trivia question and we'll recognize you in next week's Week in Review. Congratulations to: Olumide Akerele, Rebecca Birrenkott, Kathleen George, Ope-Oluwa Olubela, Marlene Barnett, Elena Ghionis, Pamela R. Downing-Hosten, Alexandra Pirard, Jesse Snyder, Craig Pate, Marilyn Haile, and Prahbhjot Malhi who all knew that approximately 19% of children with a sibling diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) will develop Autism due to shared genetic and environmental vulnerabilities. THIS WEEK'S TRIVIA QUESTION: According to a recent study of children, low-level prenatal mercury exposure may be associated with a greater risk of what type of related behaviors and that fish consumption during pregnancy may be associated with a lower risk of these behaviors? All answers must be submitted no later than Monday, October 29, 2012 at 12:00 p.m. |
| Jobs of Thousands of Special Education Teachers at Risk A new report from Democratic members of the House Appropriations Committee says that those looming automatic cuts to federal spending will take an especially big bite out of special education. Thereportissued last week says 12,000 special education teachers and aides could lose their jobs if automatic cuts in federal special education grants to states go through. These automatic cuts, the wonky term for which issequestration, are set to take effect Jan. 2. They stem from Congress' disagreement over raising the federal debt ceiling last summer. Lawmakers decided they needed to cut $1.2 trillion out of the federal budget over the next 10 years. The plan was to work on a bipartisan agreement to figure out what those cuts should be, but since they didn't figure out a compromise, across-the-board budget cuts go into effect automatically. (For schools, the single silver lining is that the cuts wouldn't really be felt until the 2013-14 school year.) To read more,click here |
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|  NASET MEMBER'S BENEFIT - Board Certification in Special Education Available to NASET MembersThrough an agreement with The American Academy of Special Education Professionals(AASEP), NASET members now have the opportunity to achieve AASEP Board Certification in Special Education - (B.C.S.E.) at a reduced fee. AASEP Board Certification in Special Education - (B.C.S.E.) is a voluntary choice on the part of the candidate. The candidate for Board Certification wishes to demonstrate a commitment to excellence to employers, peers, administrators, other professionals, and parents. From the standpoint of the Academy, board certification will demonstrate the highest professional competency in the area of special education. Board Certification in Special Educationestablishes a much needed standard for professionals, across disciplines, who work with exceptional children. For more information on Board Certification in Special Education,click here |
| NIH Study Shows Drug Fails to Prevent Preterm Birth in High Risk Group A formulation of the hormone progesterone, shown to be effective in women at risk for another preterm birth because they had a prior preterm birth, was not found to be effective in preventing preterm birth for women in their first pregnancy who have a short cervix, according to a National Institutes of Health network study. Each year, 1 in 8 infants is born preterm in the United States.Preterm birthincreases an infant's risk of death and survivors' risk of short- and long-term complications such as breathing and vision problems, learning disabilities and cerebral palsy. In February 2011, theU.S. Food and Drug Administration approvedthe use of 17 alpha-hydroxyprogesterone caproate (17P), a synthetic form of progesterone, to reduce the chances of preterm birth in women pregnant with a single fetus who had delivered a single infant early in a previous pregnancy. To read more,click here |
| Men Diagnosed With Childhood ADHD Struggle More with Jobs, RelationshipsAttention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common neurobehavioral disorder among children, and as incidence of the condition continue to rise, parents and patients are asking what happens next. How does ADHD affect children as they become teens and adults and start to form relationships, find jobs and establish families of their own? Does the condition put them at a disadvantage for coping with life's inevitable challenges? With 5.4 million children ever diagnosed with ADHD in the U.S., and 3% to 7% of school-aged children currently struggling with the condition, it's worth considering how ADHD affects their adult lives. Rachel Klein of the Child Study Center at New York University Langone Medical Center and her colleagues studied the potentially long-term effects of ADHD among men who were diagnosed as kids. In their 33-year follow-up study, Klein and her team looked at 135 middle-aged men with childhood ADHD who were referred to the study by their teachers when they were between six to 12 years old. The researchers compared this group to 136 men without ADHD and found that men with ADHD struggled more in occupational, educational, economic and social arenas later in life compared to men without the diagnosis. To read more,click here |
| 'Google' Ruling on Digitizing Books a Boon for Blind Readers When a federal judge this weekthrew outa copyright infringement lawsuit against universities working on a project with Google to digitize millions of books, he unleashed Google's plans and opened the door to the distribution of these books to people who are blind or have other print disabilities. The National Federation of the Blind on Thursday applaudedthe ruling, saying it will give blind students and scholars fresh access to the 10 million books placed in the digital library created by Cornell University, Indiana University, University of California, University of Michigan, and the University of Wisconsin. In the ruling, Judge Harold Baer specifically cited the potential the digital works have for people with print disabilities.To read more,click here |
| Yoga May Improve Behavior In Kids With Autism A simple, school-based yoga program can do wonders for kids with autism, researchers say, yielding gains in both behavior and socialization. In astudycomparing children with autism who did yoga each day at school compared to kids who followed a typical routine instead, those who participated in the stretching exercises exhibited significantly less aggressive behavior, social withdrawal and hyperactivity. The findings published this month in The American Journal of Occupational Therapy offer tremendous promise for the growing population of children with the developmental disorder, researchers say. To read more,click here |
| Exposure to Traffic Air Pollution in Infancy Impairs Lung Function in Children Exposure to ambient air pollution from traffic during infancy is associated with lung function deficits in children up to eight years of age, particularly among children sensitized to common allergens, according to a new study. "Earlier studies have shown that children are highly susceptible to the adverse effects of air pollution and suggest that exposure early in life may be particularly harmful," said researcher Göran Pershagen, MD, PhD, professor at the Karolinska Institutet Institute of Environmental Medicine in Stockholm, Sweden. "In our prospective birth cohort study in a large population of Swedish children, exposure to traffic-related air pollution during infancy was associated with decreases in lung function at age eight, with stronger effects indicated in boys, children with asthma and particularly in children sensitized to allergens." To read more,click here |
| Accidents Claim 12,000 U.S. Kids' Lives Each Year: Report About 12,000 children die from unintended, accidental injuries each year, most of them preventable, according to a report issued Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency also noted that between 2000 and 2009, almost 116,000 Americans age 19 and younger lost their lives to these types of incidents, with boys facing nearly double the risk compared to girls. More than 9 million young people are also treated in the nation's emergency departments for nonfatal injuries each year, the CDC estimates. With accidents remaining the leading killer of children, "decreasing the burden of injuries is a central challenge for public health in the United States," the CDC team concluded. To read more,click here |
| Did You Know That....Birth defects are one of the leading causes of infant deaths, accounting for more than 20% of all infant deaths. |
| Secondhand Smoke Ups Babies' Risk of Asthma, Study Says Babies exposed to cigarette smoke are at increased risk for developing childhood respiratory diseases such as asthma, according to a new study. Researchers exposed smooth muscle cells from the airways of deceased 18- to 20-week human fetuses to various levels of cigarette smoke. The cells exposed to cigarette smoke showed changes that were similar to the effects of inflammation in asthma. Even low levels of cigarette smoke caused these changes, while higher levels caused cell death. These changes narrow the airway and make it more difficult for a baby to breathe. The effects would be especially harmful in premature babies, according to the study, which is scheduled for presentation Monday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA). To read more,click here |
| Study Sees Link Between Prolonged Formula Feeding, Leukemia Risk When the introduction to solid foods is delayed and babies are fed formula for a prolonged period of time, it may place them at increased risk for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a new study suggests. But the study, which is considered preliminary, only found an association between prolonged bottle feeding and ALL; it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, ALL is a fast-growing cancer of white blood cells called lymphocytes. It is also the most common acute childhood leukemia, typically affecting children between the ages of 3 and 7. To read more,click here |
| New Studies Could Result in Better Treatments for Epilepsy, Behavioral Disorders Three studies conducted as part of Wayne State University's Systems Biology of Epilepsy Project (SBEP) could result in new types of treatment for the disease and, as a bonus, for behavioral disorders as well. The SBEP started out with funds from the President's Research Enhancement Fund and spanned neurology, neuroscience, genetics and computational biology. It since has been supported by multiple National Institutes of Health-funded grants aimed at identifying the underlying causes of epilepsy, and it is uniquely integrated within the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program at the Wayne State School of Medicine and the Detroit Medical Center. To read more,click here |
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