Week in Review - December 15, 2017

NASET

WEEK IN REVIEW

National Association of Special Education Teachers

December 15, 2017                     Vol 13 Issue #49




Dear NASET News,

Welcome to NASET'sWEEK in REVIEW.  Here, we provide you with the latest publications fromNASET to read and or download, as well as some of the most interesting articles that have happened this week in the field of special education. We hope you enjoy this publication.  Feel free to send us articles for this publication or let us know your thoughts about the WEEK in REVIEW at news@naset.org. Have a great weekend.

Sincerely,

NASET News Team
NEW THIS WEEK ON NASET
Autism Spectrum Disorders Series
Use of Social Narratives as an Evidence-Based Practice to Support Employment of Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Practitioner's Guide
This edition of NASET's Autism Spectrum Disorder series was written by Jamie Thomas, M.S. and Susan Nix, M.Ed. It was first published in the Winter 2017 edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Special Education Professionals (JAASEP). The statistical data reports that current unemployment rates for young adults with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the United States is bleak.  In 2004, Hurlbutt and Chalmers noted that difficulties obtaining and keeping employment are many times connected to issues involving social interactions and communication skills rather than performing specific job skills.  Research from Wehman, et al. (2012) recently noted that students with ASD with access to intensive strategy training have more employment potential than previously realized.  In addition, Klin, Volkmar and Sparrow (2000) note that there is a need to explicitly teach social skills to enhance the chance of employability.  The purpose of this article is to give teachers, service providers, parents, job coaches and/or employers practical evidence-based strategies in the use of social narratives to support employment for young adults with an ASD. Read More
Mindful Yoga Can Reduce Risky Behaviors in Troubled Youth
For some young people, dealing with life stressors like exposure to violence and family disruption often means turning to negative, risky behaviors -- yet little is known about what can intervene to stop this cycle. But one long-term study by the University of Cincinnati looks at the link between stressful life events and an increase in substance abuse, risky sexual behaviors and delinquency in a diverse population of 18- to 24-year-old youths. The research also sheds light on distinct coping strategies that can lead to more positive outcomes. As part of a 10-year study looking at risk-taking and decision-making -- or the lack thereof -- Jacinda Dariotis, UC public health researcher, spent 12 months focusing on early life stressors as a predictor of risky sexual behavior, substance abuse and delinquency for more than 125 at-risk youths. Surprisingly, she found a small number of the youths were already engaging in constructive coping behaviors on their own that will have positive outcomes later in life. Read More

Smartphone Case Offers Blood Glucose Monitoring on the Go for People with Diabetes
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a smartphone case and app that could make it easier for patients to record and track their blood glucose readings, whether they're at home or on the go. Currently, checking blood sugar levels can be a hassle for people with diabetes, especially when they have to pack their glucose monitoring kits around with them every time they leave the house. "Integrating blood glucose sensing into a smartphone would eliminate the need for patients to carry a separate device," said Patrick Mercier, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UC San Diego. "An added benefit is the ability to autonomously store, process and send blood glucose readings from the phone to a care provider or cloud service." Read More
New Approach to Predict Respiratory Allergy in Early Childhood
A new study in EBioMedicine by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the Medical University of Vienna, Austria suggests that immune response in early childhood to a handful of allergen molecules can predict the onset of allergic rhinitis and asthma in adolescence. These findings could accelerate the development of preventive strategies and novel treatments for respiratory allergy in children. Allergic diseases belong to the most common causes of chronic illness and create a high burden of suffering due to the great impairment in quality of life. Immunoglobulin E (IgE) sensitisation to allergens has been shown to be associated with increased risk of allergic diseases and asthma. In a new study, researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the Medical University of Vienna have used a novel approach to identify which specific allergens can predict the transition from IgE sensitisation in early childhood to the development of respiratory allergy later in life. Read More
Hope for Autism: Optogenetics Shines Light on Social Interactions
Ilana Witten didn't set out to study spatial learning. She thought she was investigating how mice socialize -- but she discovered that in mouse brains, the social and the spatial are inextricably linked. "The data had to be screaming at us for a while before we realized what was really going on," said Witten, an assistant professor of psychology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute (PNI). "I think it's pretty exciting, because it's a different way to think about how the prefrontal cortex is contributing to social behavior." In addition, she said, the data suggest new avenues of treatment for disorders that have social behavior deficits, from autism to schizophrenia or dementia. "This research could help us understand autism better," said Malavika Murugan, a PNI postdoctoral research fellow and the lead author on their Dec. 14 paper in the journal Cell. Read More
Parents' Reports of Children's Autism Symptoms Differ by Ethnicity
Racial differences in parents' reports of concerns about their child's development to healthcare providers may contribute to delayed diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in black children, according to a study led by Georgia State University. The study found that compared to white parents, black parents reported significantly fewer concerns related to symptoms of ASD in their children with the disorder. Black parents were less likely than white parents to report concerns about two ASD symptoms -- social deficits and restricted and repetitive behaviors. The findings are published in the journal Autism. Many parents begin reporting concerns about ASD during the child's first two years of life, and on average, children are diagnosed with ASD around their fourth birthday. However, black children are diagnosed with ASD at older ages than white children and children of other races. They are also nearly twice as likely as children of other races to be misdiagnosed with disruptive behavior disorders before receiving an ASD diagnosis. Read More
Board Certification in Special Education Available to NASET Members
AASEP Logo
Through 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.Read More
TRIVIA QUESTION OF THE WEEK
LAST WEEK'S QUESTION:
Since 1975, how many times has the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) been reauthorized?
ANSWER:  Four Times (1986, 1990, 1997, 2004). 

Congratulations to Maxine Swan, Cindi Maurice and Olumide Akerle who knew some or all of those dates.
This week's question:
Under the federal law (IDEA), at a minimum for infants and toddlers, periodic IFSP (Individualized Family Service Plans) reviews for a child and his or her family must be conducted how often?
If you know the answer, email us at contactus@naset.org by December 18, 2017.  We will acknowledge your correct answer in the next edition of the Week in Review
Preschool Program Helps Boost Skills Necessary for Academic Achievement
Children growing up in poverty face many challenges, but a preschool program that aims to improve social and emotional skills may help increase their focus and improve learning in the classroom, according to researchers. Researchers observed two groups of children from preschool through third grade. One group participated in the Head Start REDI (Research-based, Developmentally Informed) program and the other did not. Each year, the researchers measured the students' executive function (EF) -- skills that help children focus, control their impulses, remember details, and other skills essential in the classroom. Karen Bierman, Penn State Evan Pugh Professor of Psychology, said that while most children seemed to benefit from the REDI program, it was the children that started out with the lowest executive function that benefited the most. Read More
Hearing Different Accents at Home Impacts Language Processing in Infants
Infants raised in homes where they hear a single language, but spoken with different accents, recognize words dramatically differently at about 12 months of age than their age-matched peers exposed to little variation in accent, according to a recent study by a University at Buffalo expert in language development. The findings, published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, point to the importance of considering the effects of multiple accents when studying speech development and suggest that monolingual infants should not be viewed as a single group. "This is important if you think about clinical settings where children are tested," says Marieke van Heugten, an assistant professor in UB's Department of Psychology and lead author of the study with Elizabeth K. Johnson, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. "Speech language pathologists [in most of North America] typically work with the local variant of English, but if you have a child growing up in an environment with more than one accent then they might recognize words differently than a child who hears only one accent. Read More
Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Linked to Reduced Allergy risk in Children
New research from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden reveals that high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids in children's blood are associated with a reduced risk of asthma or rhinitis at the age of 16 years. The study is published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Allergic diseases such as asthma and rhinitis are common and often debut in childhood. Today we know that disease risk is affected by both hereditary and environmental factors. To date, the present study is the largest to investigate the association between levels of long-chain omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in the blood and subsequent development of asthma and other allergic diseases. This study was conducted as part of the Swedish birth cohort BAMSE, and is based on analyses of omega-3 and -6 fatty acids in blood samples from 940 children. Read More
Preemies' Dads More Stressed than Moms after NICU
For the first time, scientists have measured the stress levels of fathers of premature babies during the tense transition between the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and home and discovered fathers are more stressed than moms, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study. Fathers and mothers of these very low birth weight babies had high levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their saliva prior to being discharged. But the fathers experienced an increase in their stress levels as measured several times over the next 14 days at home while the mothers' stress levels stayed constant. "Dad goes from a situation where the baby and mom are cared for by experts in the hospital to having to simultaneously care for his baby, partner and work. He is supposed to be the 'rock' for his partner but the stress can really set in," said lead author Dr. Craig Garfield, associate professor of pediatrics and of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Read More
Dropping Out of High School Linked to Child Abuse
Children who have been victims of violence are more likely to drop out of high school before graduation than their peers, according to a new study co-authored by a Duke scholar. Girls who had experienced childhood violence were 24 percent more likely to drop out, while boys who had experienced violence were 26 percent more likely to drop out than their peers. One in five people in the United States drop out of high school before graduation, which decreases their lifetime earning potential by 20 percent. Yet there has been little previous research into the link between being a victim of violence before the age of 16 and dropping out of high school. The study, "Child Abuse, Sexual Assault, Community Violence and High School Graduation," was published in the November issue of the journal Review of Behavioral Economics. Read More
In Texas, Special Ed Advocates, Administrators Push State to Suspend Data-Mining Contract
Both special education advocates and administrators are asking the Texas Education Agency to suspend a controversial contract. The no-bid contract pays an Atlanta-based company called SPEDx more than $4 million to mine the data of special education students in Texas. It could involve up to 350,000 children with disabilities. Advocates with the group Disability Rights Texas and also the Texas Council of Administrators of Special Education told the state's Education Commissioner that they're very concerned there wasn't any public vetting of the contract and students' private data won't be protected enough. Read More
1 in 4 California School Districts Required to Get County Help Based on New State Performance Data
One in 4 California school districts received notice that they must work with county offices of education or with a new state agency to improve the education of at least one of their student groups that were ranked among the worst performers on the California School Dashboard, a new school and district grading system released on Thursday. In two-thirds of the 228 districts designated for assistance, students receiving special education services were among student groups identified as performing very poorly. In half of the designated districts, students with disabilities were the only student group flagged. The districts must now take a hard look, with help by the county or the new California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, at the factors behind the low achievement of students whose disabilities range from mild learning deficits to severe physical and emotional handicaps. Read More
Company Says It Will Seek FDA Approval for Video Game to Treat ADHD
Could physicians prescribe digital medicine in the form of a video game for children and teenagers with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)? That's what Akili Interactive, an affiliate of PureTech Health, is hoping after reporting positive results of its lead investigational digital medicine, AKL-T01. The company said it is planning to file AKL-T01 with the FDA for approval after results of a randomized, controlled trial of 348 children and adolescents with ADHD showed a statistically significant improvement compared with an active control (P = .006). The predefined primary endpoint looked for a change in the Attention Performance Index (API), a composite score from the Test of Variables of Attention, an objective measure of sustained attention and inhibitory control. "The objective improvements of attention observed in the study suggest that AKL-T01 addresses a key deficiency in ADHD that is not directly targeted by standard treatments," Scott Kollins, PhD, professor of psychiatry, director of the ADHD Program at Duke University School of Medicine, and principal investigator for the study. Read More

For Children with ADHD, a Brief, School-Based Program Can Help Dramatically with Homework Problems, Study Finds
Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder who took part in a brief, school-based program displayed significant improvements in their homework, organization and planning skills, according to a new study led by a Virginia Commonwealth University professor. The study, "Overcoming the research-to-practice gap: A randomized trial with two brief homework and organization interventions for students with ADHD as implemented by school mental health providers," will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology and was led by Joshua Langberg, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Psychology in the College of Humanities and Sciences. The study tested the effectiveness of the Homework, Organization, and Planning Skills intervention, better known as HOPS, which has been implemented in hundreds of schools across the country. Langberg designed the HOPS program to help children with ADHD improve their organization, time management and planning skills related to homework completion. Read More
jobs
LATEST JOB LISTINGS POSTED ON NASET

* Special Education Teacher (2018-2019 School Year) - Alliance is an ideal place for educators who thrive in an environment of high expectations and collaboration in service of strong results for our students. Alliance educators collaborate and mentor one another, and they embrace professional development and coaching to grow and hone their craft. Alliance's social justice mission also supports our restorative justice approach to student discipline, keeping students where they learn best-in classrooms.To learn more - Click here

* Special Education Teacher - Meeting Street Schools (MSS) is a groundbreaking initiative dedicated to the creation of a new mandate for education in South Carolina and beyond. MSS was founded upon the belief that all children deserve an excellent education regardless of their geographic or socioeconomic circumstances, and all children have the ability to excel in the classroom. To learn more - Click here

* Private Teacher - Are you an unencumbered teacher at a top public or private school looking for a new opportunity? Do you want to step out of the classroom and use your experience to support the academic journey of a young teen with a promising future? If so, we have an excellent Private Teacher opportunity to oversee the overall curriculum, education, and college preparation for a young teen's high school career. You will assist this bright adolescent in all subject matters, in addition to helping formulate strategies and taking the time to help the student manage their language based learning disability. - Click here

* Special Education Teacher - The Adolescent Care Unit (ACU) at Tséhootsooí Medical Center on the Navajo Nation seeks a Special Education Teacher to work with 8 to 10 teens aged 13-17 with mild emotional or behavior issues in a subacute 60-day inpatient program. ACU combines western therapy with Native American traditional cultural methods to foster health and Hozho or harmony, and is located in northeastern AZ. To learn more - Click here

* Early Childhood Special Education Teacher - This private special education school services students with language, learning, sensory motor disabilities, and moderate to high functioning Autism. This special education teacher position is for an early education classroom. To learn more - Click here

* Licensed Special Education Teacher - Think is a multidisciplinary center offering services to children in Bahrain who have developmental and behavior disorders. We are a dynamic center with in-clinic and outreach programs, supervisors, leads and primary therapists in addition to SLT and OT services. We have a beautiful, custom facility that accommodates over 20 clinical staff. To learn more - Click here
* Special Education Teacher - Various Positions Open: 2 positions for Special Education Resource 5th - 8th, Special Education Resource K-3rd, SPED - Social Skills le-4th, SPED - Social Skills 6th - 8th, Arizona certification required. To learn more - Click here

* Lead ED Special Education Teacher - The Lead Special Education Teacher for Cornerstone is an integral member of the academics team whose focus is to guide students in their social-emotional and academic development. To learn more -Click here

If you are an Employer looking for excellent special education staff - Click here for more information
Food For Thought..........
In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.
Teddy Roosevelt


Return to Week in Review Main Page - Click here

forgot username or password?