WEEK IN REVIEW

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

December 13, 2013 - Vol 9, Issue 49

New This Week on NASET

Slower Brain Connections May Be at Root of Dyslexia

Glitches in the connections between certain brain areas may be at the root of the common learning disorder dyslexia, a new study suggests. It's estimated that up to 15 percent of the U.S. population has dyslexia, which impairs people's ability to read. While it has long been considered a brain-based disorder, scientists have not understood exactly what the issue is. The new findings, reported in the Dec. 6 issue of Science, suggest the blame lies in faulty connections between the brain's storage space for speech sounds and the brain regions that process language. The results were surprising, said lead researcher Bart Boets, because his team expected to find a different problem. For more than 40 years, he said, many scientists have thought that dyslexia involves defects in the brain's "phonetic representations" -- which refers to how the basic sounds of your native language are categorized in the brain. To read more,click here

Nebulizers May Not Deliver Full Drug Dose to Kids With Asthma

Nebulizers -- devices that transform liquid asthma medications into an easy-to-inhale mist -- aren't providing people with asthma a full dose of medication, according to a small new study. Researchers found that less than 20 percent of the prescribed medication actually makes it into the lungs. "Our study demonstrated that the prescribed dose bears little resemblance to the proportion of the drug children actually inhaled, and that [the amount they inhaled] was largely dependent on the formulation of the drug," said Dr. Ahmad Kantar, head of the pediatric unit at the Institute Hospital Bergamo in Ponte San Pietro, Italy. The study results were published online recently in the journal Respirology. To read more,click here

Sensory Therapy Might Work for Kids With Autism

Children with autism can benefit from a type of therapy that helps them become more comfortable with the sounds, sights and sensations of their daily surroundings, a small new study suggests. The therapy is called sensory integration. It uses play to help these kids feel more at ease with everything from water hitting the skin in the shower to the sounds of household appliances. For children with autism, those types of stimulation can be overwhelming, limiting them from going out in the world or even mastering basic tasks like eating and getting dressed. "If you ask parents of children with autism what they want for their kids, they'll say they want them to be happy, to have friends, to be able to participate in everyday activities," said study author Roseann Schaaf. To read more,click here

Patrick Daunt Obituary

Patrick Daunt, who has died aged 88, led the European commission's first initiative in support of people with disabilities. From 1982 to 1987, he laid the foundations for the commission's policy in this field, initially focusing on employment, transport and education. His work culminated in 2010 with the EU's ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and its new task of working to ensure that disability rights became part of the mainstream of EU legislation. Patrick's book Meeting Disability: A European Response (1991) gave a frank and still relevant account of the obstacles to creating new policies both inside the commission and in working with governments. In the early 90s, he provided the first account of special needs education in the new democracies of eastern Europe for a book that I edited. I got to know him more fully when we co-edited a book on teacher education for special needs in Europe.To read more,click here

Why Johnny Can't Sleep

Having involved parents and feeling connected to school increase the likelihood that a teen will get sufficient sleep, a new study finds. Previous research has suggested that developmental factors, specifically lower levels of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, may explain why children get less sleep as they become teenagers. But this study -- published in the December issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior -- found that social ties, including relationships with parents and friends, may have a more significant effect on changing sleep patterns in teens than biology. "My study found that social ties were more important than biological development as predictors of teen sleep behaviors," David Maume, a sociology professor at the University of Cincinnati, said in a news release from the American Sociological Association. To read more,click here

More Than 6 Percent of U.S. Teens Take Psychiatric Meds: Survey

Slightly more than 6 percent of U.S. teens take prescription medications for a mental health condition such as depression or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a new survey shows. The survey also revealed a wide gap in psychiatric drug use across ethnic and racial groups. Earlier studies have documented a rise in the use of these medications among teens, but they mainly looked at high-risk groups such as children who have been hospitalized for psychiatric problems. The new survey provides a snapshot of the number of adolescents in the general population who took a psychiatric drug in the past month from 2005 to 2010. To read more,click here

Mother's Smoking, Early Birth May Raise ADHD Risk in Children

A new study from Australia sheds more light on what environmental factors might raise the risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). "Compared with mothers whose children did not have ADHD, mothers of children with ADHD were more likely to be younger, single, smoked in pregnancy, had some complications of pregnancy and labor, and were more likely to have given birth slightly earlier," said study co-author Dr. Carol Bower, a senior principal research fellow with the Center for Child Health Research at the University of Western Australia. "It did not make any difference if the child was a girl or a boy." The researchers did find that girls were less likely to have ADHD if their mothers had received the hormone oxytocin to speed up labor. Previous research had suggested its use during childbirth might actually increase the risk of ADHD. To read more,click here

Worries Run High As State of Kansas Outsources Disability Services

Aldona and Pat Carney call their son, Neil, "a 24-7 kid." He has profound autism, severe intellectual disability and attends a special school. He has tried to eat light bulbs and charcoal briquettes and can be aggressive, sometimes scratching people near him. Neil, 18, who walks with a limp and carries around a grey sock that calms him, lives in a beige single-family home with a professional caregiver who's known him for years. The house is equipped with cameras to track his movements and a backyard swing he loves to ride. Come January, the Carneys - and thousands of parents and relatives of Kansans with developmental disabilities - fear that the world their loved ones have become accustomed to may turn topsy-turvy. To read more,click here

TRIVIA QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Single Spray of Oxytocin Improves Brain Function in Children With Autism, Study Suggests

A single dose of the hormone oxytocin, delivered via nasal spray, has been shown to enhance brain activity while processing social information in children with autism spectrum disorders, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in a new study published in the Dec. 2 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "This is the first study to evaluate the impact of oxytocin on brain function in children with autism spectrum disorders," said first author Ilanit Gordon, a Yale Child Study Center adjunct assistant professor, whose colleagues on the study included senior author Kevin Pelphrey, the Harris Professor in the Child Study Center, and director of the Center for Translational Developmental Neuroscience at Yale. To read more,click here

Kids Whose Bond With Mother Was Disrupted Early in Life Show Changes in Brain

Children who experience profound neglect have been found to be more prone to a behavior known as "indiscriminate friendliness," characterized by an inappropriate willingness to approach adults, including strangers.UCLA researchers are now reporting some of the first evidence from human studies suggesting that this behavior is rooted in brain adaptations associated with early-life experiences. The findings appear in the Dec. 1 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Biological Psychiatry. The UCLA group used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to demonstrate that youths who experienced early maternal deprivation -- specifically, time in an institution such as an orphanage prior to being adopted -- show similar responses to their adoptive mother and to strangers in a brain structure called the amygdala; for children never raised in an institutional setting, the amygdala is far more active in response to the adoptive mother. To read more,click here

Special Educators Strained By Budget Cuts

Budget cuts are forcing larger class sizes, bigger case loads and leaving schools with too few staff to meet the needs of students with disabilities, special educators say. In a survey of over 1,000 special education teachers, administrators and other professionals across the country, more than 80 percent reported that budget cuts have impacted the delivery of services for kids with disabilities. Just as many said that such cutbacks have left "too few personnel to meet the needs of students with disabilities" in their school districts. The findings released Tuesday come from a poll conducted by the Council for Exceptional Children and the National Coalition of Personnel Shortages in Special Education and Related Services on the heels of significant funding declines in public education this year. To read more,click here

Understanding Hearing

Children learning to speak depend on functional hearing. So-called cochlear implants allow deaf people to hear again by stimulating the auditory nerve directly. Researchers at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) are working to overcome current limits of the technology. They are investigating the implementation of signals in the auditory nerve and the subsequent neuronal processing in the brain. Using the computer models developed at the TUM manufacturers of cochlear implants improve their devices.Intact hearing is a prerequisite for learning to speak. This is why children who are born deaf are fitted with so-called cochlear implants as early as possible. Cochlear implants consist of a speech processor and a transmitter coil worn behind the ear, together with the actual implant, an encapsulated microprocessor placed under the skin to directly stimulate the auditory nerve via an electrode with up to 22 contacts. To read more,click here

Prenatal Exposure to Alcohol Disrupts Brain Circuitry: No Safe Level of Drinking During Pregnancy, Neuroscientist Says

Prenatal exposure to alcohol severely disrupts major features of brain development that potentially lead to increased anxiety and poor motor function, conditions typical in humans with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), according to neuroscientists at the University of California, Riverside.In a groundbreaking study, the UC Riverside team discovered that prenatal exposure to alcohol significantly altered the expression of genes and the development of a network of connections in the neocortex -- the part of the brain responsible for high-level thought and cognition, vision, hearing, touch, balance, motor skills, language, and emotion -- in a mouse model of FASD. Prenatal exposure caused wrong areas of the brain to be connected with each other, the researchers found. To read more,click here

Depression in Pregnant Mothers May Alter the Pattern of Brain Development in Their Babies

Depression is a serious mental illness that has many negative consequences for sufferers. But depression among pregnant women may also have an impact on their developing babies.Children of depressed parents are at an increased risk of developing depression themselves, a combination of both genetic and environmental factors. These children also display alterations in the amygdala, a brain structure important for the regulation of emotion and stress. However, prior work in this area has assessed children years after birth, which means that the timing of these alterations has remained unidentified. Researchers led by Dr. Anqi Qiu at the National University of Singapore now have the answers, with their new work published in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry. To read more,click here

New Guidelines Rule out Same-Day Return to Play for Athletes With Concussion

Any athlete with concussion symptoms should not be allowed to return to play on the same day, according to the latest consensus statement on sports-related concussion. The updated guidelines are summarized in Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.The fourth consensus report from the Concussion in Sport Group (CISG 4) represents the latest recommendations from an expert panel, sponsored by five international sports governing bodies. "The statement now makes clear that no athlete at any age or level of competition should be returned to play on the same day a concussion is diagnosed," write Drs. Allen K. Sills, Gary Solomon, and Richard Ellenbogen. Drs. Sills and Ellenbogen were among the experts representing neurosurgery at last year's meeting of the CISG. To read more,click here

Fewer With Disabilities On The Job

As the nation's unemployment rate dropped to a five-year low last month, Americans with disabilities struggled to make gains in the job market, new data suggests. Unemployment among people with disabilities dipped to 12.3 percent in November, the U.S. Department of Labor said Friday. That's down from 12.8 percent the prior month. However, the declining unemployment rate came - at least in part - because fewer individuals with disabilities were seeking work. The number of people with disabilities who were considered to be employed actually fell between October and November, the Labor Department said. At the same time, the overall unemployment rate reached 7 percent for the first time in five years as the economy added 203,000 jobs. To read more,click here

Brain Shape Affects Children's Learning Capacities

The anatomy of the brain affects cognitive control, an essential skill for learning and academic success. This is the result of studies performed by the Laboratoire de Psychologie du Développement et de l'Education de l'Enfant (CNRS/Université Paris Descartes/Université de Caen Basse-Normandie), in collaboration with the NeuroSpin Center (CEA).The scientists showed that an asymmetry of the two brain hemispheres relative to a particular pattern of a cortical region could partly explain the performance of 5-year old children during a task designed to measure cognitive control. According to the research team, and depending on the characteristics of their brains, children may have different pedagogical requirements in terms of learning cognitive control. This work, published online in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience on 30 November 2013, opens new educational perspectives. To read more,click here

Seeking Inspiration, Runners Look To Those With Special Needs

When Tim Boyle started running less than 15 months ago, his goal simply was to get off the couch. "I had quit smoking and I found that all I was doing was sitting around, getting fatter," the 41-year-old said. "All I did was trade one bad habit for another." It worked. He got into shape and started running competitively, entering the 5K in the Sunshine Foundation's Walk and Fun Run in Grand Forks, N.D. in January. After finishing the run, he posted a photo on Facebook. Among those commenting on his photo was someone named Michael Wasserman, a 52-year-old California resident who has Down syndrome and bilateral hip dysplasia. To read more,click here

Low Iron in Brain a Sign of ADHD?

A newer MRI method can detect low iron levels in the brains of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The method could help doctors and parents make better informed decisions about medication, a new study says. Psychostimulant drugs used to treat ADHD affect levels of the brain chemical dopamine. Because iron is required to process dopamine, using MRI to assess iron levels in the brain may provide a noninvasive, indirect measure of the chemical, explained study author Vitria Adisetiyo, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Medical University of South Carolina. If these findings are confirmed in larger studies, this technique might help improve ADHD diagnosis and treatment, according to Adisetiyo. To read more,click here

Honor Society for Special Education Teachers

Frequent Cell Phone Use Linked to Anxiety, Lower Grade, Reduced Happiness in Students

Today, smartphones are central to college students' lives, keeping them constantly connected with friends, family and the Internet. Students' cell phones are rarely out of reach whether the setting is a college classroom, library, recreational center, cafeteria or dorm room. As cell phone use continues to increase, it is worth considering whether use of the device is related to measurable outcomes important for student success, such as academic performance, anxiety and happiness.Kent State University researchers Andrew Lepp, Ph.D., Jacob Barkley, Ph.D., and Aryn Karpinski, Ph.D., all faculty members in the university's College of Education, Health and Human Services, surveyed more than 500 university students. Daily cell phone use was recorded along with a clinical measure of anxiety and each student's level of satisfaction with their own life, or in other words happiness. Finally, all participants allowed the researchers to access their official university records in order to retrieve their actual, cumulative college grade point average (GPA). All students surveyed were undergraduate students and were equally distributed by class (freshman, sophomore, junior and senior). In addition, 82 different, self-reported majors were represented. To read more,click here