Is Punishment as Effective as We Think? Punishment might not be an effective means to get members of society to cooperate for the common good, according to a social dilemma experiment. A game to study human behavior has shown punishment is an ineffective means for promoting cooperation among players. The result has implications for understanding how cooperation has evolved to have a formative role in human societies. Human societies maintain their stability by forming cooperative partnerships. But, cooperation often comes at a cost. For example, a person taking time to raise the alarm in order to alert other members of a group to impending danger could be losing valuable time to save oneself. It is unclear why natural selection favors cooperativeness among individuals who are inherently selfish. Read More |
Adolescent Brain Makes Learning Easier The brains of adolescents react more responsively to receiving rewards. This can lead to risky behavior, but, according to Leiden University research, it also has a positive function: it makes learning easier. This work has been published in Nature Communications. Alcohol abuse, reckless behavior and poor choice in friends: all these are inextricably linked to puberty and adolescence. In the late teens, young people test their limits, and in many cases, push beyond their limits. This is due in part to increased activity in the corpus striatum, a small area deeply hidden away inside the brain. According to previous research, that part of the brain in young people is more responsive to receiving rewards. Read More |
Study Suggests Screening Patients with Fibromyalgia Syndrome for ADHD A recent study found patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) have a higher rate of co-occurring adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). FMS is a chronic pain disorder that impacts a patient's functioning. Symptoms may include musculoskeletal pain, chronic fatigue, sleep disturbance, and cognitive impairment. Cognitive impairment, or dyscognition, may include symptoms such as difficulty with concentration and attention, forgetfulness, and problems with word-finding and word fluency. These issues, sometimes called "fibro-fog," may be more disabling than the chronic pain, but they are mostly under-recognized, the study authors wrote. Patients with FMS have altered neurotransmitter activity involved in pain sensitivity, such as dopamine, serotonin, and noradrenaline. Likewise, ADHD is a chronic neurodevelopmental disorder also associated with impaired cognition and altered neurotransmitters. Read More |
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As Texas Special Education Overhaul Stalls, TEA Answers Don't Add Up At 5 p.m. on a Friday, the Texas Education Agency abruptly announced that it had pulled the plug on a special education data-mining project it had defended for months. Parents and advocacy groups had too many concerns over the $4.4 million, no-bid contract, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath said. He promised to review the agency's contracting processes. But documents, contracts and emails obtained by the American-Statesman show that the deal with Atlanta-based SPEDx was vetted at the highest levels. Morath was regularly updated on the project, approved the no-bid designation and signed the contract. Penny Schwinn, deputy commissioner of academics, helped write it. Justin Porter, executive director of special populations, worked closely with the company. Read More |
In PA., State Workers Help People with Intellectual Disabilities on Christmas after Provider Fails In a rare move, the state Department of Human Services called upon dozens of its own staff to assist people with intellectual disabilities in the Philadelphia region over Christmas following failures by a local service provider. Those failures came to light in October after the department revoked the license of Blossom Philadelphia, a major provider of housing for people with intellectual disabilities, after state inspectors uncovered a slew of health and safety violations within its Philadelphia homes. In November, after initially appealing the license revocation, Blossom reached an agreement with the state to transfer care of its 89 residents to new providers. Under the plan, Blossom agreed to continue caring for the residents in its homes until responsibility for those facilities could be transferred to those providers. Read More |
Nebraska Aims to Ease Path for Future Special Education Teachers State officials want to keep more candidates in Nebraska's teacher-preparation pipeline by easing testing requirements. What's clogging things up, they say, is a test Nebraska adopted three years ago to screen applicants for teacher-education programs. Good candidates who score a few points low in one academic subject area are getting screened out, they say. To open up the pipeline, officials are tweaking the scoring so more applicants will pass. Applicants will no longer have to hit target scores in each of the three tested subjects: reading, writing and math. Instead, applicants will pass if the sum of their scores is high enough. In other words, an applicant scoring high in reading and writing but lower in math - or vice versa - could potentially be accepted if his or her composite total hits the mark. Read More |
Honor Society for Special Education Teachers
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Folic Acid May Limit Autism Traits in Children of Epileptic Women Children whose mothers were treated for epilepsy who did not take folic acid during pregnancy were more likely to have autistic traits compared with those whose mothers took folic acid, a large Norwegian cohort study found. Mothers treated with antiepileptic drugs who did not have periconceptional folic acid supplementation during pregnancy had a substantially increased risk of having offspring with autistic traits at age 18 months and 36 months, reported Marte Bjørk, MD, of Haukeland University Hospital in Norway, and colleagues. Read More |
MA. Program Giving Those with Disabilities Chance to Play Hockey A team is western Massachusetts is breaking barriers on the ice. The Western Mass Knights is a team made up of kids and adults with disabilities. They play a sport called sled hockey - following the rules of hockey, but with a little twist. Mason Fontaine, 6, gets laced up for sled hockey practice at the MassMutual Center. Fontaine's mom and dad are right there by his side, making sure he's strapped in and ready to go. "I can't even move my feet. You have to tie my feet down," Mason Fontaine said. Mason was born with a form of spina bifida. He can't use his legs and uses a wheelchair to get around. However, when he's in his sled and on the ice, there's no obstacles. He's like everyone else. Read More |
LATEST JOB LISTINGS POSTED ON NASET
* Learning Specialist/Learning Program Teacher- Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart is seeking a certified learning specialist to teach in the school's Learning Program. The position is full-time, and the start date is immediately. Requirements include a master's degree or post-graduate work in education with emphasis in varied exceptionalities or learning disabilities.To learn more - * 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 * 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 If you are an Employer looking for excellent special education staff - Click here for more information |
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