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Showing posts with label BRAIN IMAGING. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BRAIN IMAGING. Show all posts

From the Publishers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter

FOUR BOOKS LOOK AT DYSLEXIA is the title of a story in the Boston Globe. The writer describes: 
  • Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain, from 2007, by Maryanne Wolf, the director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University, that offers a scientific/evolutionary perspective on the condition
  • In the Mind’s Eye: Creative Visual Thinkers, Gifted Dyslexics, and the Rise of Visual Technologies, second edition 2009, by Thomas West
  • The Human Side of Dyslexia: 142 Interviews with Real People Telling Real Stories, 2001, by Shirley Kurnoff, on the less-than-bright side of dyslexia
  • My Dyslexia, 2011, a personal account by Pulitzer-prize-winning poet Philip Schultz.
EFFECTS OF "TIGER MOTHERING." A professor at Michigan State University (and Chinese mother) refutes parts of the popular book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, saying that her research shows that happiness is important to a child's development as well as success. She found that Chinese students are more anxious and depressed than white students because of traditional Chinese parenting methods. Read more. 
LDONLINE'S newsletter is out, containing articles on helping with homework, a review of The ADHD Book of Lists,  and a legal column by Matt Cohen on the use of an IEP after high school graduation. Find the newsletter.
AD/HD IN CANDADA. Ontario's Ministry of Education has stated that kids with AD/HD and are having difficulty in the classroom  may receive special education supports. The provision also applies to other "non-LD" conditions such as fetal alcohol syndrome and Tourette's. Read more.
COMPETITION. Got a middle-school science whiz? The 3M Young Scientist Challenge is now open for 2012. Find out more.
EDUCATOR'S RESOURCE. The UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools has published "RTI and Classroom & Schoolwide Learning Supports: A Guide for Teachers and Learning Supports Staff." The Center says that the guide is designed to:
  • Broaden perspectives of response to intervention
  • Provide frameworks for contextualizing the work in classrooms and schoolwide
  • Generally enhance practices.
Find the PDF. 

THE DANA FOUNDATION has published "Brain Imaging Technologies and Their Application to Neuroscience" for all of you neuroscience mavens.  Need to know more about past and current imaging technologies? Find the 45-page PDF.

From the Publishers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter

A GRAMMY AND AD/HD. About.com, in its AD/HD section, provides an interview with a Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter who was diagnosed with AD/HD in his early teens.Adam Levine, of Maroon 5, describes  his early difficulties, how AD/HD has affected his adult life, and his advice to kids or teens with AD/HD. Read more.
GIFTED RESOURCE. Thanks to Carolyn K for pointing us to Cogito.org, an online community for gifted kids interested in math and science. Sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, the site features interviews, news, forums, links to sites and tools, and extracurricular programs. Go to the site. 
DAVID RABINER pointed us to a free download from ADDitude, titled "40 School Accommodations for Your ADD/LD Child." If your gifted young person is of the AD/HD persuasion, check it out.
UNWRAPPING THE GIFTED. Tamara Fisher writes about using Symbaloo in gifted education. Symbaloo, she says, is "a place where you can collect a plethora of links on various topics and organize them however you want."  She has created one containing resources for her gifted students to use then they do projects. Find out more.
THE WEINFELD EDUCATION GROUP has created a blog on topics related to its areas of expertise. The first posting is by Russell Barkley and titled "Understanding AD/HD -- Part 1." Find it.
PREDICTOR OF MATH LD. Young children who cannot associate small quantities with the numerals that represent those quantities are more likely to develop math LDs, according to a new study. The study also identified other predictors of later math difficulty. Dyscalculia in your family? Check out the study.
THE DANA FOUNDATION has posted two new articles on its website. One provides evidence about how childhood trauma -- physical or sexual abuse -- leads to later psychopathology; read it. The other provides a tutorial on brain imaging technologies and  how they are used in neuroscience; it looks like a must-read for all neuroscience mavens. Find it. 
SHARP BRAINS has posted articles on the impact of stress, emotion, and self-regulation on the structure and performance of the brain. Find them. 
TESTING AD/HD DRUGS. Researchers used used brain scans on mice to determine whether treatment drugs increased dopamine levels in the brain, and thus would be effective. The study concerned a type of attention deficit caused by "neurofibromatosis type 1" -- NF1 -- which affects about 100,000 people in the U.S., according to Science Daily. Find out more.
NOT TO LATE TO GET IRATE. If you live in the U.S., you may -- once again and maybe for the last time ever -- attempt to block legislative attempts to scuttle the Javits Act, which is, according to CEC, "the sole Federal investment in gifted education." Seems that the Javits Act is one of 43 programs deemed "inefficient and unnecessary." CEC has more.

SENG SURVEY FOR PARENTS OF GIFTED. The organization Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted is sponsoring a survey to help educate doctors and the public about gifted kids and to support appropriate training for doctors and medical personnel. SENG invites parents of gifted children to participate in the survey. Find out more.
BRAIN IMAGING FOR DIAGNOSIS? Not yet, but maybe soon. ABC's station WLS in Chicago reported on research at the University of Illinois/Chicago where researchers are attempting to use brain imaging to "see" disorders such as AD/HD and to differentiate AD/HD from bipolar disorder. Read more.
LD IN COLLEGE. As many as 8 percent of first-year students entering four-year colleges in the United States self-report that they have AD/HD or a learning disability, according to research from UCLA. The percentage has increased in recent years. An article in the UCLA Daily Bruin provides background information on the ADA and how UCLA handles such students; read it.
CHILDHOOD IMMUNIZATION RECOMMENDATIONS UPDATED. Read in US News about the most recent guidelines on vaccination from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
AUTISM AND "THEORY OF M IND." Research at MIT indicates that those with high-functioning autism "appear to have trouble using theory of mind to make moral judgments in certain situations," and to have trouble understanding the intentions of a second party. Read more.
AD/HD AND NUTRITION. Parents sometimes suspect that AD/HD symptoms may be worsened by certain foods; now a study in the Netherlands showed that an "elimination diet" improved symptoms in 46 percent of the children participating. The elimination diet reduces the foods in the diet most likely to cause allergic reaction. Read about the study.
COMPETITION. Discovery Education and 3M have announced the 2011 call for entries for the 13th annual Young Scientist Challenge, the nation's premier science competition for students in grades 5th through 8th. Ten finalists will be selected to receive an all-expense paid trip to the 3M Innovation Center in St. Paul, Minn. to compete in the final challenge in October, 2011. The winner will receive $25,000 and the title of "America's Top Young Scientist."