Dear NASET News,

NASET News Team

NEW THIS WEEK ON NASET

NASET's Practical Teacher

A Classroom Without Walls: A New Method for Teaching Life Skills

This issue of NASET's Practical Teacher was written by Alison Mabery. In her article, she discussed that special education continues to explore new and innovating methods to educate children with special needs. She partnered with Reigning Grace Ranch in Palo Verde, Arizona to create a classroom without walls to enhance life skill development through exploratory education. The project participants were students with mild to severe disabilities who participated in a nine week program consisting of a 90 minute weekly lesson at Reigning Grace Ranch working with miniature horses. Students learned leadership, communication, and other life-skills necessary to be productive and independent citizens through activities like grooming and leading miniature horses through obstacle courses. The high school students made significant behavioral, emotional, and social growth during this exploratory program such as: increased social skills, fewer meltdowns, greater independence at school, increased communication skills, heightened teamwork abilities, increased initiation of task completion, and improved confidence and self-esteem levels.

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Rethinking Lethality in Youth Suicide Attempts

First suicide attempts are more lethal than previously realized, reports a study of children and adolescents published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP). Seventy-one percent of youth dying by suicide did so on their first attempt, also known as the "index" attempt; the authors also found that firearms are implicated in 85 percent of youth dying on first-attempt. "Suicide is a major public health problem affecting American youth and is the second most common cause of death for those between the ages of 10 and 24 years old," said lead author Alastair McKean, MD, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, USA. "Our findings show the high lethality of index attempt suicides in youth and their close relationship to firearms. This combined with the fact that index suicide attempts are often the first intersection with mental health care is very concerning. Future prevention efforts need to focus on youth before they make their first attempt." Read More

Elementary School Student Support Leads to Lower High School Dropout, Study Finds

Elementary-school students who participated in a comprehensive support intervention in the Boston public school district had about half the odds of dropping out of high school as students not in the intervention, according to a new study published online today in AERA Open, a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Educational Research Association. The 894 students who participated in the intervention from kindergarten through fifth grade had a 9.2 percent dropout rate in high school, compared to 16.6 percent for the 10,200 non-intervention students. For their study, a team of Boston College researchers examined the impact of City Connects, a schoolwide systemic student support program that is based at the college. Read More

For Better Multiple-Choice Tests, Avoid Tricky Questions, Study Finds

Multiple-choice tests and quizzes are an effective tool for: (a) assessing a student's mastery of facts and concepts; (b) helping students learn and retain facts and concepts. While some educators might see this as a trick question, the correct answer appears to be: (c) all of the above, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis. "Although people often think about multiple-choice tests as tools for assessment, they can also be used to facilitate learning," said Andrew Butler, a cognitive psychologist in Arts & Sciences who studies the brain processes behind learning and recall. "The act of retrieving information strengthens memory for that information, leading to better long-term retention, and changes the representation of the information, creating deeper understanding." Read More

Teen Cannabis Use is not Without Risk to Cognitive Development

Although studies have shown that alcohol and cannabis misuse are related to impaired cognition in youth, previous studies were not designed to understand this relationship and differentiate whether cannabis use was causal or consequential to cognitive impairment. A new study by researchers at CHU Sainte-Justine and Université de Montréal, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, shows that beyond the role of cognition in vulnerability to substance use, the concurrent and lasting effects of adolescent cannabis use can be observed on important cognitive functions and appear to be more pronounced than those observed for alcohol. Read More

Board Certification in Special Education Available to NASET Members

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

Congratulations to: Darlene Desbrow, Janice Mclaughlin, Laurine Kennedy, Barry Amper, Cindi Maurice, Mora Lopez, Patsy Ray, Melody Owens, Denise Keeling, Olumide Akerele, Leila Monserate,  who all knew the answer to last week's trivia question.
 

According to research led by the University of Chichester and University Centre Hartpury, this musical activity for 60 minutes a week can benefit children diagnosed with autism and supports learning at school. The musical activity showed students' ability to follow their teachers' instructions improved significantly and enhanced their social interactions between peers and members of school staff. Observations also highlighted significant improvements in dexterity, rhythm and timing. What is the activity? 

ANSWER:  DRUMMING 

This week's question:  According to recent research published by the American Psychological Association, as early as the fourth grade, is it girls or boys who perform better than the other on standardized tests in reading and writing? Note: And as they get older that achievement gap widens even more.

If you know the answer, email us at contactus@naset.org by October 15, 2018.  We will acknowledge your correct answer in the next edition of the Week in Review

New Technique Uses Umbilical Cord Stem Cells for Early Repair of Cleft Palate

A technique using umbilical cord blood stem cells could be a promising new approach for repair of cleft palate in infants, reports a paper in The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. Performed as part of reconstructive surgery when the infant is a few months old, the stem cell procedure provides good results in growing new bone to close the upper jaw cleft -- and may avoid the need for later bone graft surgery, according to the case report by Alejandro Garcia Botero, MD, of Hospital De San José, Bogota, Colombia, and colleagues. Dr. Botero and colleagues report their experience with the stem cell procedure in an infant with cleft lip and palate, diagnosed by ultrasound before birth. The baby girl had an alveolar cleft, involving an area of bone where teeth are located. Read More

Reading is a Team-Lift as Different Brain Parts Work Together to Predict Proficiency

Here's a sentence. Got it? You just involuntarily transformed symbols on a screen into sounds in your head. Or to put it another way, you read it. That seems simple enough, but moving from what letters look like to what they sound like is a complex multisensory task that requires cooperation among brain areas specialized for visual and auditory processing. Researchers call this collection of specialized brain regions that map letters to sounds (or phonemes) the reading network. The extent to which these sensory-specific parts of the brain are able to connect as a network, not necessarily anatomically, but functionally, during a child's development predicts their reading proficiency, according to a new neuroimaging study from the University at Buffalo. Read More

Conflict Management Improves ICU Team Knowledge, Mindfulness, and Awareness

The Intensive Care Unit is a stressful place, and conflicts invariably arise. To better understand the relationships between physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, and advanced practitioners, researchers created a conflict management education intervention. The study paid close attention to diagnosing the conflict type and cause, recognizing the internal dialogue, introducing conflict management modes used in conflict situations, and developing self and other awareness. Utilizing quantitative analysis, researchers evaluated 56 participants using pre and post knowledge and perceptions of conflict, Thomas-Kilmann descriptive statistics to investigate the participants' chosen conflict management mode, and a qualitative analysis to evaluate open-ended questions on the post-test. Pre post-test analysis had 45 participants and the Thomas-Kilmann descriptive statistics had 49 participants participate. Read More

Asking Questions, Testing Improves Student Learning of New Material

Jason Chan makes a point to periodically interrupt his lecture and ask students a question about the material they've covered. The associate professor of psychology at Iowa State University does this to regain students' attention, but more importantly, to enhance their ability to learn new information. Researchers know the retrieval process is beneficial for new learning and a new meta-analysis by Chan and his colleagues confirms that but found there are limits. The research shows the frequency and difficulty of questions can reverse the effect and be detrimental to learning. It also is not enough to simply ask a question; Chan says students must respond to see a positive effect on learning. The work is published in the Psychological Bulletin, an American Psychological Association journal. Read More

Delayed Pregnancy: Heart Health Risks for Moms and Sons, Study Shows

Delaying pregnancy may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in both women and their children, with boys at higher risk of disease, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of Alberta in Canada will present their findings today at the American Physiological Society's (APS) Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolic Diseases: Sex-Specific Implications for Physiology conference in Knoxville, Tenn. Previous studies have found that advanced maternal age -- 35 or older during pregnancy -- increases the risk of impaired blood vessel function and reduced blood flow to the placenta. These issues endanger the growth and overall health of the unborn child and may contribute to heart disease later in the pregnant woman's life. Read More

Insufficient Sleep Associated with Risky Behavior in Teens

Adolescents require 8-10 hours of sleep at night for optimal health, according to sleep experts, yet more than 70 percent of high school students get less than that. Previous studies have demonstrated that insufficient sleep in youth can result in learning difficulties, impaired judgement, and risk of adverse health behaviors. In a new study, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital examined a national data sample of risk-taking behaviors and sleep duration self-reported by high school students over eight years and found an association between sleep duration and personal safety risk-taking actions. Results are published in a JAMA Pediatrics research letter on October 1. "We found the odds of unsafe behavior by high school students increased significantly with fewer hours of sleep," said lead author Mathew Weaver, PhD, research fellow, Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Personal risk-taking behaviors are common precursors to accidents and suicides, which are the leading causes of death among teens and have important implications for the health and safety of high school students nationally." Read More

Scientists Use AI to Develop Better Predictions of Why Children Struggle at School

Scientists using machine learning -- a type of artificial intelligence -- with data from hundreds of children who struggle at school, identified clusters of learning difficulties which did not match the previous diagnosis the children had been given. The researchers from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge say this reinforces the need for children to receive detailed assessments of their cognitive skills to identify the best type of support. The study, published in Developmental Science, recruited 550 children who were referred to a clinic -- the Centre for Attention Learning and Memory -- because they were struggling at school. Read More

When Neglected Children Become Adolescents

Many migrant children separated from their parents at the U.S. border, some of them very young, have landed in shelters where they often experience stress, neglect and minimal social and cognitive stimulation. The latest findings of the long-running Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP), involving children in Romanian orphanages, tells a cautionary tale about the psychiatric and social risks of long-term deprivation and separation from parents. BEIP has shown that children reared in very stark institutional settings, with severe social deprivation and neglect, are at risk for cognitive problems, depression, anxiety, disruptive behavior and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. But BEIP has also shown that placing children with quality foster families can mitigate some of these effects, if it's done early. Read More

Media Violence, Impulsivity and Family Conflict Tied to Aggressive Behaviors in Teenagers

Teenagers exposed to TV and film violence and high levels of household conflict are at risk of engaging in aggressive behaviors, according to a new study by researchers at three U.S. universities. Especially prone to aggressive tendencies are those who also have high levels of impulsivity, the six-member research team reported in a study published online ahead of print in the journal Aggressive Behavior. The research -- an online survey of some 2,000 teens aged 14-17 and equally representing both blacks and whites -- also found that parental monitoring, more so for white teens, help to protect against aggressive behavior. "Accounting for all the risk factors we looked at in this study, parental monitoring continued to have a strong protective effect," said lead author Atika Khurana, a professor at the University of Oregon and director of graduate programs in the UO's prevention science program. Read More

Limiting Children's Recreational Screen Time to Less than Two Hours a Day Linked to Better Cognition, Study Finds

Limiting recreational screen time to less than two hours a day, and having sufficient sleep and physical activity is associated with improved cognition, compared with not meeting any recommendations, according to an observational study of more than 4,500 US children aged 8-11 years old published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal. Taken individually, limited screen time and improved sleep were associated with the strongest links to improved cognition, while physical activity may be more important for physical health. However, only one in 20 US children aged between 8-11 years meet the three recommendations advised by the Canadian 24-hour Movement Guidelines to ensure good cognitive development -- 9-11 hours of sleep, less than two hours of recreational screen time, and at least an hour of physical activity every day. Read More

Understanding Antibiotic Resistance in Patients with Cystic Fibrosis

A defective gene causes thick, sticky mucus to build up in the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). There, it traps bacteria, causing patients to develop frequent lung infections that progressively damage these vital organs and impair patients' ability to breathe. Most patients with this progressive genetic disorder die by the fourth decade of life. A key to helping patients live even that long -- a vast improvement from an average lifespan of 10 years just decades ago -- is judicious use of antibiotics, explains Andrea Hahn, M.D., a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Children's National Health System. But antibiotics are a double-edged sword, Dr. Hahn adds: Although they're necessary to eradicate lung infections, repeated use of these drugs can lead to antibiotic resistance, making it tougher to treat future infections. Read More

Honor Society for Special Education Teachers

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LATEST JOB LISTINGS POSTED ON NASET

* Behavior Trainer- New York - New York State Certification in Special Education required. Ability to work effectively with children with autism. Knowledge of signs of abuse and mandated reporting requirements as required by law. Proven ability to provide expert supervision to staff on individual or group level, based on ongoing and current knowledge of theory, research and best practices in field of developmental disabilities and autism spectrum disorders. To learn more - Click here

* Special Education Teacher- Chicago - Jewish Child & Family Services (JCFS) provides vital, individualized, results-driven, therapeutic and supportive services for thousands of children, adults and families of all backgrounds each year. JCFS is currently seeking a Special Education Teacher to work with individuals and small groups of children (K - 12) with emotional and behavior disorders in a therapeutic special education classroom. The Therapeutic Day School is located in West Rogers Park, Chicago, IL. To learn more - Click here

* Middle/High School Principal- New York - Under the direction of the Education Department's Vice President and/or Director, the Principal ensures that the school provides a safe, productive learning environment of the highest quality and is aligned with NYS Learning Standards and Individual Educational Program mandates.To learn more - Click here

* Special Education Teacher- West Chester, PA - The Devereux Pennsylvania Children's Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Services (CIDDS) center serves children, adolescents and young adults - from birth to age 21 - with autism spectrum disorders, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and behavioral and emotional disorders.To learn more - Click here

* DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTION (Per/DIEM) - Springfield, NJ - The Arc of Union County's Early Intervention Program is in search of Development Intervention Consultants to join our multi-disciplinary team providing services to children ages 0-3 with developmental needs ages in their homes or community settings throughout Union County. Schedules are flexible and based on the needs of the children and families.  To learn more - Click here

* Special Education Teacher - Chicago, IL - We are currently seeking full-time Special Education Teachers in Chicago, IL where you will be part of a dynamic, collaborative team of professionals focused on driving positive outcomes for students in Chicago area schools. Call 800-434-4686 today to speak with a dedicated Career Services Manager! To learn more - Click here

* Special Education Teacher - Philadelphia, PA - We are currently seeking a full-time Special Education Teachers in Philadelphia, PA where you will be part of a dynamic, collaborative team of professionals focused on driving positive outcomes for  students in a high school, charter school setting. For more information, call 800-434-4686 today to speak with a dedicated Career Services Manager! To learn more - Click here

* Director of the Arch Learning Community - The Director of the Arch Learning Community (a comprehensive academic enhancement program for students with diagnosed Learning Challenges). The Arch Learning Community has been widely regarded for 15 years as a premiere program for college students with learning disabilities and/or challenges. As a critical component of the Morton Family Learning Center, the qualified candidate will direct all aspects of the program including vision, staff supervision, development, implementation, budget and evaluation. To learn more - Click here

* Martin Luther School Director - Martin Luther School (MLS) serves students in kindergarten through eighth grade who require full-time emotional support in an out-of-district placement. The School's curriculum closely mirrors that of the public schools, and MLS has a strong record of helping students make sufficient behavioral and academic gains to successfully transition back to their home districts. To learn more - Click here

* Part Time School Social Worker - Under the direction of the Principal and Director of Student Services, perform a variety of social service case management functions involved in identifying, assessing, and counseling students and families with attendance problems; develop referral plans; provide intervention as needed; and participate in the development of programs aimed at improving student attendance, achievement, self-esteem, and behavior. To learn more - Click here

* Special Education Resource Teacher - Full Time Special Education Resource Teacher. Seeking candidates with PEL with Special Education (K-12) endorsement. We offer a competitive salary, health insurance, fully paid TRS pension, flexible benefits, 50K life insurance policy, etc. To learn more - Click here

* Special Education Coordinator - This position will work from home and can be based anywhere in the state. This is a statewide position and will provide support to districts throughout Wisconsin. This includes day and some overnight travel. The Wisconsin RtI Center works in a virtual office environment. To learn more - Click here

* Development Intervention (Per/Diem) - The Arc of Union County's Early Intervention Program is in search of Development Intervention Consultants to join our multi-disciplinary team providing services to children ages 0-3 with developmental needs ages in their homes or community settings throughout Union County. Schedules are flexible and based on the needs of the children and families. To learn more - Click here

* Teacher - Special Education (all categories) - Responsible for planning and providing for appropriate learning experiences for students based on the district's AKS curriculum as well as providing an atmosphere and environment conducive to the intellectual, physical, social, and emotional development of individuals. GCPS offers full benefits and 2 Retirement Packages! To learn more - Click here

* Special Education Teacher - Rivermont Schools are now hiring special education teachers at multiple locations throughout Virginia. Sign on bonus of $2,000 and relocation assistance of $5,000 are available for those who qualify. To learn more - Click here

* Special Education Teacher - DCD Center Based at Roosevelt Elementary School - Provides research-based specialized instruction to address the instructional goals and objectives contained within each student's IEP. Assesses student progress and determines the need for additional reinforcement or adjustments to instructional techniques. Employs various teaching techniques, methods and principles of learning to enable students to meet their IEP goals. To learn more - Click here

Food For Thought..........

Kids don't remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.  

                                 Jim Henson