WEEK IN REVIEW

New NASET Publications and Articles of Interest in Special Education and Disabilities That Were Reported This Week

February 7, 2014 - Vol 10, Issue 6

Treatment Often Inadequate for Children With Anxiety Disorders

Less than half of children and young adults who undergo treatment for anxiety get long-term relief from their symptoms, a new study finds. The study "suggests the need for more intensive or continued treatment for a sizable proportion of youth with anxiety disorders," said Dr. Victor Fornari, director of the division of child/adolescent psychiatry at North Shore-LIJ Health System in New Hyde Park, N.Y. He was not connected to the study. The research was led by psychologist Golda Ginsburg of the Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore. Her team tracked 288 patients, aged 11 to 26, who were diagnosed with anxiety and underwent treatment for three months. Treatment included drugs, cognitive behavioral therapy or a combination of the two. After treatment, the patients were followed for an average of six years. To read more, click here

Workers With Disabilities Left Out Of President Obama's Wage Plan

Advocates are crying foul after learning that many individuals with disabilities will likely be left out of President Barack Obama's plan to hike the minimum wage for federal contractors. Obama said in his State of the Union address earlier this week that he will issue an executive order mandating that federal contractors pay their workers no less than $10.10 per hour. "In the coming weeks, I will issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally-funded employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour - because if you cook our troops' meals or wash their dishes, you shouldn't have to live in poverty," Obama said. To read more, click here

A Challenge at Work Might Ease Autism Symptoms in Adults

For adults with autism, having the chance to work somewhat independently may lead to a reduction in symptoms of the disorder, a new study suggests. The research puts new emphasis on the potential for adults with autism to develop and improve over their lifetimes, said study author Julie Lounds Taylor, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt University, in Nashville. "We have assumed it's really hard to budge autism symptoms in adulthood. Drugs are targeted to problems like acting out, for example," she said. "But this study suggests that these adults need a place where they're intellectually stimulated, and then we'll see a reduction in symptoms." To read more, click here

Blood Test Might Help Tell When Peanut Allergy Is Gone: Study

A type of treatment to help build up resistance in people with peanut allergy might leave telltale signs in the people's immune-system DNA, a new study reveals. The findings suggest that a blood test for these DNA changes could be used to monitor the long-term effectiveness of so-called "immunotherapy" in patients allergic to peanuts, according to the researchers. There is no cure for peanut allergy, but researchers are examining whether consuming increasing amounts of peanut powder helps desensitize people to the peanut allergen. After participating in this doctor-supervised therapy, patients typically are told to eat some peanuts every day for the rest of their lives. To read more, click here

Possible Gap Seen in Adult Care for Childhood Cancer Survivors

Many primary care doctors feel they're not prepared to deal with adult survivors of childhood cancer, a new study finds. Researchers surveyed internists -- primary care doctors for adults -- across the country and found that 51 percent of respondents said they had cared for at least one childhood cancer survivor. Among those doctors, 71 percent said they had never received a treatment summary for these patients. Most of the internists said they felt somewhat uncomfortable caring for childhood cancer survivors and most said they preferred to care for these patients in tandem with a doctor at a cancer center. To read more, click here

NASET Sponsor - Feiner Supply

Feds To Fund Tracking Devices For Kids With Autism

The Justice Department will make funding available immediately to provide free electronic tracking devices for kids with autism who are at risk of wandering. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that his department has existing grant money that can be used for the technology. Police departments nationwide can begin applying for funding immediately, Holder said. Local law enforcement would then use the money to pay for tracking devices to distribute to families who want them. To read more, click here

TRIVIA QUESTION OF THE WEEK

NEWLY UPDATED - NASET Application for iPhone and iPad

IEP Goals, & Objective with Common Core State Standards

Special Introductory Price of $9.99 good until February 14, 2014. After this date the price will be $19.99

NASET has updated it's very popular app. This vastly updated application allows you to easily build a list of students, and for each one, choose & build a list of IEP Annual Goals, Short Term Objectives, and Behavioral Objectives that include Common Core State Standards (CCSS). For each objective, you are provided with the option to add a Mastery Level. The output of each student's list of Goals and Objectives can then be sent by email or text message.

With This App You Can:

• Build a list of students and then save, edit, add, and/or delete selected Goals and Objectives that are unique for each student
• Develop multiple Goals and Objectives for each student
• Export the assembled annual goals, short term objectives and behavioral objectives for each student via email, or text message
• Plan certain significant components of each student's educational curriculum
• Build an exportable list of enrichment experiences to enhance student's development from a list of over 2,700 Suggested Activities

How Your Brain 'Hears' Speech

New research into human understanding of language suggests that the brain comprehends speech by picking up on certain kinds of sounds -- so-called acoustic signatures. "This is a very intriguing glimpse into speech processing," study senior author Dr. Edward Chang, a neurosurgeon and neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a university news release. "The brain regions where speech is processed had been identified, but no one has really known how that processing happens." Researchers wanted to track the brain's response to spoken sentences that include all the speech sounds in the English language. To do so, they monitored the neural activity of six patients who were undergoing surgery for epilepsy as they listened to 500 English sentences spoken by 400 different people. To read more, click here

Drivers With ADHD May Be at Higher Risk for Serious Crashes

Drivers with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are nearly 50 percent more likely to be in a serious car crash, a new study suggests. Further, men with ADHD can dramatically decrease their risk of traffic accidents if they take medication for their condition, the Swedish researchers said. "This study confirms the importance of treatment and medication for adults with ADHD as well as teens," said Ruth Hughes, CEO of Children and Adults With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, a patient advocacy group. To read more, click here

Premature Birth Linked to Asthma, Wheezing in Childhood

A new analysis of existing research suggests that premature babies face a higher risk of developing asthma and wheezing disorders when they're older. Researchers from Harvard Medical School, the Maastricht University Medical Center in the Netherlands and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland examined 30 studies that included about 1.5 million children. They found that premature children (born before 37 weeks of gestation) were 46 percent more likely to develop asthma or wheezing problems than kids who weren't born prematurely. Full-term birth is generally considered about 40 weeks' gestation. To read more, click here

Broadway Theaters Agree To Boost Accessibility

Some of Broadway's most iconic theaters are agreeing to make sweeping changes to improve accessibility for people with disabilities under a settlement with federal prosecutors. Nine Broadway theaters will eliminate more than 500 accessibility barriers in their restrooms, concession counters, waiting areas and box offices under a deal announced Wednesday to address violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The theaters will also provide a total of 70 wheelchair-accessible seating locations and offer 134 aisle seats for individuals who can transfer to a traditional seat. Under the settlement, priority will be given to people with disabilities for tickets in both seating areas. To read more, click here

Kids Who Undergo Heart Transplant Living Longer

More than half of babies and children who receive heart transplants are surviving many years, say the authors of a new study. Pediatric heart transplant patients are living 15 years and longer with good heart function, the scientists said. They are scheduled to present their findings Tuesday at the annual meeting of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, held in Orlando, Fla. Study author Dr. Hannah Copeland, a thoracic surgery fellow at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California, and colleagues analyzed data from 337 young patients who received heart transplants between the ages of birth and 17 years. To read more, click here

Gut Bacteria in Preemies Altered by Hospital Stay

Gut bacteria in premature infants don't come from their mothers, but from microbes in the neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU), a new study finds. Babies typically get their gut bacteria from their mothers during childbirth. Premature infants, however, receive antibiotics during their first week of life to prevent infections, and these antibiotics eliminate many of the microbes the infants receive from their mothers. As a result, microbes from the NICU colonize the digestive tracts of premature infants, the University of California, Berkeley, researchers found. To read more, click here

Childhood Events Tied to Slow Recovery From Depression Later

Recovery from depression might take longer among adults who suffered childhood abuse or had parents with addiction problems, a new study suggests. University of Toronto researchers analyzed data from more than 1,100 Canadian adults with depression who were assessed every other year until they recovered, for up to 12 years. "Our findings indicated that most people bounce back," study co-author Tahany Gadalla, professor emeriti, said in a university news release. "Three-quarters of individuals were no longer depressed after two years." To read more, click here

Children's Books Lauded For Highlighting Disabilities

Alongside the famed Caldecott and Newbery awards for children's literature, three books are being honored for focusing on the disability experience. The books - which include stories of a wounded soldier, a princess with a deformed foot and a look at medical experimentation by Nazi doctors - were named winners of the Schneider Family Book Awards this week. The honor is presented to authors and illustrators "for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences." To read more, click here

New Cause Identified for Children with Joint, Skeletal, Skin Problems

Scientists from The University of Manchester and Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have identified the cause of a rare condition called Leri's pleonosteosis (LP).Dr Sid Banka from the Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine at The University of Manchester, led a team of researchers on the study which is published in Annals of Rheumatic Diseases journal. LP is an inherited condition in which children are born with contractures of multiple joints and then develop difficulty of joint movements that progress in severity with age. The research team showed that extra genetic material on chromosome number 8 caused the condition in two families from Manchester. To read more, click here

Childhood Cancer Report Brings Mixed News

Progress has been made in fighting childhood cancer in the United States, but many challenges remain, a new report finds. There will be an estimated 15,780 new cases of childhood cancer diagnosed this year, and 1,960 deaths from childhood cancer among patients aged 19 and younger, according to the American Cancer Society report. The annual incidence of childhood cancer in that age group is 18.8 per 100,000, and about one in 285 youngsters will be diagnosed with cancer before age 20. Currently, about one in 530 young adults aged 20 to 39 is a childhood cancer survivor. To read more, click here

Small Size in Early Pregnancy Linked to Poor Heart Health Later in Life

Poor growth in the first three months of pregnancy is associated with a range of cardiovascular risk factors in childhood, finds a study published on bmj.com today.The findings add to a growing body of evidence and suggest that the first trimester of pregnancy may be a critical period for cardiovascular health in later life. The first trimester of pregnancy includes the 'embryonic phase' (a period of rapid development when the heart and other major organs start to form). So a team of researchers in the Netherlands decided to examine whether poor growth during this period is associated with cardiovascular risk in childhood. To read more, click here

Honor Society for Special Education Teachers

Visual System Can Retain Considerable Plasticity After Extended Blindness

Deprivation of vision during critical periods of childhood development has long been thought to result in irreversible vision loss. Now, researchers from the Schepens Eye Research Institute/Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have challenged that theory by studying a unique population of pediatric patients who were blind during these critical periods before removal of bilateral cataracts. The researchers found improvement after sight onset in contrast sensitivity tests, which measure basic visual function and have well-understood neural underpinnings. Their results show that the human visual system can retain plasticity beyond critical periods, even after early and extended blindness.To read more, click here

Prison-Trained Dog Proves Pivotal For Boy With Autism

Susy Tucker marks the time her son with autism, Zach, began hugging her again - after a lapse of four years - by the arrival of Clyde, a chocolate Labrador trained behind bars by a convicted killer. Within three weeks of Clyde's arrival at the Tuckers' home in Colorado Springs, Colo., Zach went from petting his dog to wrapping his arms around his mother. It was a stunning moment, one of many to follow. The boy who once grimaced and whined at any skin-to-skin contact had learned the warmth of touching from a dog. To read more, click here