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| ADHD May Have Different Effects on Brains of Boys and GirlsAttention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) manifests itself differently in the brains of girls than in the brains of boys, new research suggests. The results may help scientists better understand how ADHD affects boys and girls in unique ways, the researchers said. "The findings showed differences in the white matter microstructure between boys and girls," said study co-author Lisa Jacobson, a pediatric neuropsychologist at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, in Baltimore. White matter helps different regions of the brain communicate with each other. "These structural differences were associated with observed behavioral differences," Jacobson said. "Taken together, our findings provide preliminary evidence for unique differences in the brain's white matter structure and function between boys and girls with ADHD." To read more,click here |
| 'Sesame Street' Unveils Character With AutismThe makers of "Sesame Street" say Elmo, Abby Cadabby and Grover are getting a new friend with autism as part of an effort to reduce stigma and help those on the spectrum learn life skills. Sesame Workshop said Wednesday that it is introducing a new character named Julia, a preschool girl with autism who "does things a little differently when playing with her friends." Julia is part of the nonprofit's "See Amazing in All Children" initiative, which is designed to teach kids about autism and offer tools for those with the developmental disorder. To read more,click here |
| Brain Inflammation May Be Linked to SchizophreniaResearchers say they've found a link between brain inflammation and schizophrenia. British investigators used PET scans to assess immune cell activity in the brains of 56 people. Some had schizophrenia, some were at risk for the mental disorder, and others had no symptoms or risk of the disease. The results showed that immune cells are more active in the brains of people with schizophrenia and those at risk for the disease. "Our findings are particularly exciting because it was previously unknown whether these cells become active before or after onset of the disease," lead author Peter Bloomfield, of the Medical Research Council's Clinical Sciences Center at Imperial College London, said in a college news release. To read more,click here |
| Kids at Growing Risk of Deadly 'Superbug' Infection: StudyRates of a deadly "superbug" infection are on the rise among American children, especially those aged 5 and younger, a new study shows. The infections are caused by a type of bacteria called Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). CRE is most common in hospitals and long-term care centers and is resistant to many types of antibiotics. The death rate from CRE infections is about 50 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Past research on CRE has focused on adults, and there is little data on this type of infection in children. 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: Patsy Ray, Chaya Tabor, Pamela Downing-Hosten, Prahbhjot Malhi and Olumide Akerele who all knew the answer to last week's trivia question: True or False?--According to the latest research in the field, states that get tough on bullies by enacting anti-bullying laws actually do appear to reduce bullying and cyberbullying among high school students. ANSWER: TRUE
THIS WEEK'S TRIVIA QUESTION: Special education disputes are far more likely to be litigated in some states than others, with a new report finding that just 10 states account for nearly two thirds of all court decisions. Between 1979 and 2013, there were over 5,000 court decisions nationwide related to legal questions under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, according to an analysis published recently in the Journal of Special Education Leadership. Which state had the highest number of court decisions nationwide related to legal questions under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act? If you know the answer, send an email tocontactus@naset.org
All answers must be submitted no later than Monday, November 2, 2015 at 12:00 p.m. |
|  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 Education establishes a much needed standard for professionals, across disciplines, who work with exceptional children. For more information on Board Certification in Special Education,click here |
| Graduation Rates Rise For Students With DisabilitiesThe majority of states are reporting improvement in their graduation rates for students with disabilities. Preliminary data released this week by the U.S. Department of Education indicates that graduation rates for children with disabilities increased in 34 states for the 2013-2014 school year. At the same time, most states also saw their overall graduation rates rise, the agency said. "The hard work of America's educators, families, communities and students is paying off, particularly after several years of intense work by educators transitioning to new, higher standards," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. To read more,click here |
| Mulitasking And The Human Brain: Prefrontal Cortex Determines Concentration Level During Multiple ActivitiesWe are all guilty of doing it, and some of us pride ourselves for it. We text while we walk, send emails during lunch, and talk on the phone while we shop, making us self-proclaimed multitasking masters. But how exactly does the brain choose what visual and auditory stimuli to suppress when it comes to performing these various tasks? According to a recent study published in the journal Nature, the brain's prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for decision-making and complex behaviors like planning, saves information sent to the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) in order to choose how much visual or auditory information to process at a single time. The study's results show how the brain uses the TRN " as a switchboard to control the amount of information the brain receives, limiting and filtering out sensory information that we don't want to pay attention to," said Dr. Michael Halassa, senior study investigator and neuroscientist, in the press release. To read more,click here |
| Businesses Seek Relief From Congress Over ADA SuitsAmy Rowland spent Wednesday telling her story on Capitol Hill. The owner of the Bulldog Northeast bar and grill in Minneapolis says she was the victim of a lawyer who charged her business with violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act in hopes of a quick cash settlement. After spending $15,000 in legal fees on a preliminary hearing and facing tens of thousands more for future court dates, Rowland settled her case for $8,000. Now, she's urging Congress to rein in a legal tactic that has been used on scores of Minnesota businesses and on thousands of businesses across the country. "You have no notice, no time to do remedies," Rowland said as she sat in the office of Republican U.S. Rep. Ted Poe of Texas. To read more,click here |
| Study Challenges Theory That Birth Order Determines PersonalityForget what you're heard about birth order determining your adult personality, a new study suggests. Birth order does not influence any of the "big five" personality traits -- extroversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness or openness to experience, said lead researcher Julia Rohrer, a graduate student at the University of Leipzig in Germany. She and her colleagues reviewed data on more than 20,000 adults from the United States, Great Britain and Germany to arrive at their conclusions. Firstborns did score higher in intelligence, but Rohrer said she believes this stems more from social interactions within a family than from birth order. To read more,click here |
| Antibiotics Might Cause Weight Gain in KidsRepeated antibiotic use is linked to greater weight gains in children, and it could affect their weight for the rest of their lives, a new study suggests. Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore analyzed data from nearly 164,000 youngsters in the United States, and found that about 21 percent of them received seven or more prescriptions for antibiotics during childhood. At age 15, those who took antibiotics seven or more times at earlier ages weighed about 3 pounds more than those who took no antibiotics. This weight gain among those who frequently took antibiotics was likely underestimated due to lack of complete data, the researchers said. To read more,click here |
| NASET - Members Only SavingsNASET is pleased to provide our members with exclusive access to discounts on products and services. These savings are available to all currentNASETmembers. To find out more about savings from Life Lock, Avis, Budget, Cruises Only, Orlando Vacations and more -Click here |
| Secondhand Smoke in Infancy May Harm Kids' TeethWant your baby to grow into a tot with a cavity-free smile? Don't smoke when he or she is around. Children exposed to secondhand smoke at 4 months of age may be at risk for tooth decay by age 3, Japanese researchers report. Those children were roughly twice as likely to have cavities as kids whose parents didn't smoke. A mother's tobacco use during pregnancy was not a factor, the researchers added. "Secondhand smoke is one of the major public health problems still unsolved," said lead researcher Dr. Koji Kawakami, chairman of pharmacoepidemiology and clinical research management at Kyoto University. To read more,click here |
| The Best Schizophrenia Treatment Isn't Necessarily Prescription Meds: Recognizing The Power Of PsychotherapyNearly a century after doctors first coined the term "schizophrenia," researchers may have finally found a more effective way to treat the serious mental health condition. According to results from a recent study, therapy, not drugs, may be the key to finally controlling schizophrenia symptoms. In the past 60 years we've sent men to the moon, invented an invisible high-speed global network, and developed cars that run on electricity. Still, the antipsychotic medications prescribed to treat schizophrenia look very much the same way they did in the 1950s. In an attempt to improve both our understanding and treatment of schizophrenia, a team of researchers funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health recently spent four years studying 200 newly diagnosed individuals with schizophrenia at 34 treatment centers in 21 states. To read more,click here |
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| Teens Swayed by Alcohol AdsAdvertising strongly influences which brands of alcohol teens drink, a new study finds. The study found that 13- to 20-year-olds are over five times more likely to drink brands advertised on national television and 36 percent more likely to drink brands advertised in national magazines, compared to brands that don't advertise in these media. The results are from an online national survey conducted by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Boston University School of Public Health. More than 1,000 underage drinkers were asked which of nearly 900 alcohol brands available in the United States they had consumed in the past month. The survey was conducted between December 2011 and May 2012. To read more,click here |
| Claim: Proposed Pay For ABA Therapy Would Be Lowest In NationWhen Stephanie Hill's son was 3 years old, doctors diagnosed him with an autism spectrum disorder and predicted he might never speak. On Monday, Hill brought her now 11-year-old son, J.C., to sit before the Nevada Division of Health Care Financing and Policy as a testament to how important early therapy can be for children diagnosed with autism. "Most people wouldn't know J.C. is affected," said Hill, seated next to her son who wore khakis and a blue dress shirt. "The truth is he's a miracle." It's a miracle that Hill fears won't be repeated. To read more,click here |
| Autism Glass Project: Researchers At Stanford Are Using Google Glass To Help Treat Autism In ChildrenIt wouldn't be too surprising if by now you'd forgotten all about Google Glass. It launched with relative fanfare a few years ago but never really seemed to make the impression Google was hoping for. So, they quietly scaled back the marketing of the device to the point that many people thought it was dead - that was, at least, until they revealed earlier this year that it was still alive and well. Not everyone forgot about it, however; one group of scientists at Stanford University are now using it to help treat autism in children. In what's called the Autism Glass Project, researchers are combining face-tracking technology with machine learning to build at-home treatments for autism. In other words, Google Glass' software learns to identify people's faces and their emotional expressions - what project founder Catalin Voss calls "action units" - and then classifies them with specific words. This in turn helps the user recognize other people's emotions. Autism, which affects one in 68 children, is characterized by the inability to recognize emotions in facial expressions, among other symptoms. This in turn makes social interactions and developing friendships difficult to create and sustain. To read more,click here |
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| College Kids Easily Find Contraband ADHD Drugs, Other MedsIt's easy for U.S. college students to illegally obtain stimulants and other prescription drugs on campus, a new survey finds. Seventy percent of the more than 3,900 respondents said it was somewhat easy or very easy to get the medications without a prescription. The 2015 College Prescription Drug Study, conducted by Ohio State University, included undergraduate, graduate and professional students at six public and two private colleges and universities in five states. The survey found that undergraduates were more likely to misuse prescription drugs. Most claimed they used the drugs to help them study or improve their grades. To read more,click here |
| High Blood Pressure During Pregnancy Tied to Newborn Heart DefectsBabies born to moms with a pregnancy complication called pre-eclampsia may have a heightened risk of heart defects, a large new study finds. The Canadian researchers stressed that the risk is still very low: More serious heart defects were seen in only about 0.1 percent of newborns whose mothers had pre-eclampsia. And the findings, reported Oct. 20 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, do not prove that pre-eclampsia actually causes those heart problems. Instead, the results suggest that pre-eclampsia and congenital heart defects share some underlying biological causes, explained Dr. Siobhan Dolan, medical advisor to the nonprofit March of Dimes. To read more,click here |
| Study Reinforces Avoiding Alcohol While PregnantComplete avoidance of alcohol during pregnancy is necessary to prevent alcohol-related birth defects, including intellectual disabilities in children. That's not new advice for mothers hoping to avoid fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in their newborn babies. But repeated claims that small amounts may be safe, along with surveys showing that a percentage of women continue drinking alcohol during pregnancy, have prompted the American Academy of Pediatrics to publish an updated report this week in its online journal Pediatrics. Alcohol-related disorders in newborns occur at even greater frequency than previously thought, it found, because such disorders have been "significantly unrecognized." To read more,click here |
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