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Showing posts with label autism spectrum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label autism spectrum. Show all posts

From the Publishers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter

ELIGIBILITY FOR SPECIAL SERVICES. In raising or teaching a twice-exceptional child, one basic consideration is whether the child is eligible for special services, for example under IDEA. The current edition of Wrightslaw's Special Ed Advocate provides answers to three questions regarding eligibility: who determines it; what the law says; and what the school must do before determining a child is not eligible. Read the newsletter. 
AUTISM SPEAKS now has over a million fans for its Facebook page; check it out. 
SPOTTING AUTISM DEVELOPMENT. Researchers have found significant differences in brain development in infants as young as six months old who later develop autism, compared with babies who don’t develop the disorder. The imaging study, by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the University of North Carolina, and other centers suggests autism doesn’t appear abruptly, but instead develops over time during infancy. Read more. (From materials provided by Washington University.) 
GAME ADDICTION can be real, according to a researcher who studied more than 1,000 8- to 18-year-olds and compared their behaviors to those common to any addiction. The behaviors are: "excessive use that impedes other aspects of life, increasing tolerance in order to obtain the 'high,' withdrawal symptoms, and a willingness to sustain negative consequences in order to maintain the habit." Got a bright gamer kid? Read more. 
TEXTING AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT. Text more, lose some linguistic ability. That's the conclusion of a study comparing university students who text more or less frequently. The study author suggests that "reading traditional print media exposes people to variety and creativity in language that is not found in the colloquial peer-to-peer text messaging used among youth or 'generation text.' She says reading encourages flexibility in language use and tolerance of different words. It helps readers to develop skills that allow them to generate interpretable readings of new or unusual words." Find out more.  
MORE TO WORRY ABOUT. Mice genetically engineered to be susceptible to autism-like behaviors that were exposed to a common flame retardant were less fertile and their offspring were smaller, less sociable and demonstrated marked deficits in learning and long-term memory when compared with the offspring of normal unexposed mice, a study by researchers at UC Davis has found. The researchers said the study is the first to link genetics and epigenetics with exposure to a flame retardant chemical. Read more at the UC Davis press release, from which this item was taken.

LD GOES TO COLLEGE. US News provides eight steps for students with LDs who want to attend college: Start preparing early; experiment with technology; be creative; put the student in charge; and four more. Find the article. (The article says that 3 percent of teens are diagnosed with LDs, a figure that sounds low to us.)
DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION WEBINAR. Compass Learning is offering a complimentary, one-hour, on-demand webinar on differentiated instruction. You may find more information and register here.
WAR: OPHTHALMOLOGY VERSUS DEVELOPMENTAL OPTOMETRY. We've run articles in 2e Newsletter about developmental optometry and the use of vision therapy for reading problems. In the second of two articles in the St. Louis Beacon, titled "Ophthalmologists express skepticism about vision therapy," you can get a look at what appears to be a dispute between two professional organizations concerning the use of vision therapy. Find it. Read the first article, the one presenting the point of view of developmental optometrists, here.
BOOK DEAL. Until December 10, Prufrock Press offers 20 percent off the cover price of Beverly Trail's new book Twice-Exceptional Gifted Children. Find out more.
AUTISM MARKER? Yale School of Medicine researchers may have found a fMRI pattern that could characterize a predisposition to ASD. The study included kids 4 to 17, and discovered three distinct "neural signatures. Read more.
SOCIETY FOR NEUROSCIENCE MEETING HIGHLIGHTS. Glen Close and Representative Patrick Kennedy both addressed the annual meeting on the topics (respectively) of the stigma of mental illness and brain research. You may view their presentations here.
PARADE MAGAZINE ON TEEN BRAINS. Last Sunday, Parade ran an article characterizing the teen brain and why it's like it is -- and what we can do about it. Find it.
CULTURAL NEUROSCIENCE is the topic of a podcast and brief article at the Scientific American site. Neural responses to similar situations differ across cultures. For example: "Scientists found that when American subjects viewed a silhouette in a dominant posture (standing up, arms crossed) their brain’s reward circuitry sparked. Not so for Japanese subjects. For the Japanese, their reward circuitry fired when they saw a submissive silhouette (head down, arms at sides)." Find out more.     
FOLLOWUP ON CYBERTHERAPY. A Scientific American writer comments on a New York Times article we blogged about recently concerning therapy by machine.The writer brings up the "Dodo effect," which (if you're heavily into therapies) you can read about here.
STUDY IN SPAIN, FLY FOR FREE. But the offer is restricted, of course. It applies to high school students enrolling in a particular Spanish-language immersion program and flying from Los Angeles to Madrid on Iberia Airlines. The deal is supposedly to mark the resumption of non-stop service by Iberia between the two cities. None-the-less, if your bright young person happens to need to learn Spanish next summer, check it out. 
APP FOR HEALTH CARE. An emergency-room physician has developed an app for iPhones that helps parents track various aspects of a child's care, helping to coordinate providers, keep food diaries, provide medication alerts, schedule appointments, record therapists' recommendations, chart sleep habits, and more. Originally developed to help the physician's wife care for their autistic child, the free app may help manage a variety of chronic conditions. Find out more.
LITERATE AND DYSPRAXIC. A young woman in the UK who has strengths in written and verbal communication writes about her dyspraxia, a condition characterized by difficulties in motor coordination which can also manifest itself with other challenges. Read more.

BACK TO SCHOOL WITH AN LD. The Washington Post offers advice for parents of children with LDs or conditions such as AD/HD who are starting the school year. Drawing on the experience of Pam and Pete Wright as well as other experts, the article offers tips such as: know your rights; communicate ahead of time; prepare a statement of your concerns; and more. Find the article.

2e RESOURCE. Another reminder for the beginning of the school year -- the Colorado Department of Education has an online, 118-page resource book titled Twice-Exceptional Students: Gifted Students with Disabilities. The resource book contains information on identifying 2e students, IDEA considerations, planning and problem-solving, and case studies. Find the resource book.

AD/HD IN MIDDLE SCHOOL. Dr. David Rabiner pointed us to a piece on the ADDitude site about AD/HD in middle school and how to help students there with homework, classwork, social skills, and organizing. If your bright young person needs this help, check out the site.

ASD AND SENSORY PROCESSING. Science Daily reports on a study showing that children on the autism spectrum process sensory information differently than typically developing children. They apparently have difficulty dealing with sensory input from multiple sources -- sight, sound, and touch. ASD kids' brains responded more slowly and to a lesser level to multi-sensory stimuli. Read more.

MEDITATION CAN HELP REGULATE BEHAVIOR? A study showed that students trained in meditation developed new fibers in the part of the brain that helps regulate behavior, but study write-ups did not evaluate changes in subjects' behavior, just the structural changes. The type of meditation is IBMT (integrative mind-body training), evidently not currently available in the United States. Read more.

ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY. A columnist for ZDNET reviewed a smartpen by Livescribe recently, then did a follow-up column on the pen's possibilities for students with learning challenges. The pen allows users to record what is written (using special paper) and also what is being said. The sound and writing capture are synchronized. Read the initial review, where the reviewer claims "This is a genuinely disruptive [in a good sense] tool that can change the way students and teachers interact in the classroom." Read the follow-up, in which he gets more specific about how kids with special issues can use the pen.

"WE DO NOT ACCELERATE" -- and so a gifted Canadian 10-year-old who has completed Grade 8 in a private school will not be allowed to enter public school at the Grade 9 level. Instead, the board wants him to enter at Grade 6. The boy, according to the article, says "I'd get really bored doing Grade 6 again." Find the story.

PESTICIDES AND AD/HD. More to worry about -- CBS News reports on a study linking pesticides used in food production to a two-times-higher risk of receiving an AD/HD diagnosis. One thousand kids were tested in the study, which was reported in Pediatrics. Read the CBS report. See the Pediatrics abstract.

DON'T GET CAUGHT IN THE LAZY TRAP. That's the advice -- and the title of an article -- from 2e Newsletter publisher Linda Neumann. The article appears in a special edition of SENG Update in observation of Parenting Gifted Children Week. The article offers advice for what to do when you hear the label "smart but lazy" applied to your child. Find it.

BOOK-THEMED DAY CAMPS. 2e Newsletter book columnist Bob Seney has enthusiastically reviewed books from the "Percy Jackson and the Olympian" series for young people, which builds a world for readers to imagine and immerse themselves in, much like "Harry Potter" readers do. A recent article in The New York Times spotlights New York area literary camps structured around books and their themes. One of them is Camp Half-Blood, based on the Percy Jackson series. Read more.

TOXIC CHILD. In an earlier post we pointed to an article that perhaps absolved parents who raise a bad kid. The article generated several letters to the publisher, one letter agreeing and the other urging stricter parental oversight. Find the letters.

ARE WE TOO EASY ON OUR CHILDREN? Have we spoiled them? If you have strong opinions on this issue, read a thought-provoking article in The Washington Post. Find it.

ASD AND DIET. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) can demonstrate feeding problems, food refusal, and limited food preferences from infancy, but energy intake and growth are not affected. A study published in Pediatrics showed that children with ASD ate fewer vegetables, salads, and fresh fruit, but also consumed fewer sweets and carbonated drinks. Study authors determined that even though children with ASD consumed less of some vitamins and accepted a more limited number of different foods, their intake of carbohydrates, protein, fats and total energy were similar to controls. No significant differences were apparent in weight, height, or body mass index up to 7 years of age.

TESTING FOR KINDERGARTEN is a book, and a press release for it says this: "Karen Quinn, whose own son was headed for special education until she cracked the code of kindergarten testing and boosted his score from the 37th to the 94th percentile, wrote her latest book, Testing for Kindergarten, revealing for the first time to parents what is on these tests and teaching them how to prepare their kids." If you're interested in competing equally with "wealthy families who can afford expensive tutors and enrichment activities to ensure high test scores for their kids," then check out the website for the book.

AND IF YOUR BRIGHT CHILD IS BURNED OUT by the time high school graduation rolls around, consider a "gap year." The Boston Globe describes how high-achieving students and admission officials are encouraging time off to recharge. Read the article.

AD/HD AND YOUR MARRIAGE. We're fond of an expression a 2e Newsletter subscriber once told us, that "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." If you've got an AD/HD apple in your family tree, consider the effect on the marriage when perhaps not only a child has AD/HD -- but also your spouse (or you). Read what it's like -- and what some people have done to try to address the issue of AD/HD in their marriage.

GENDER DIFFERENCES. A recent study found that males and females multitask equally well on simple math and reading tasks. The researchers also found, however, that "women far excelled men when it came to planning how to search for a lost key, with 70 percent of women performing better than their average male counterparts." (A snide interpretation of these findings would ascribe the difference simply to more previous practice on the part of females.) Read more.

From the Week of January 18th

ALONG WITH THE BIENNIAL WORLD CONFERENCE for Gifted and Talented Children this August in Vancouver, the Lower Mainland Gifted Contacts is sponsoring a Youth Summit Vancouver 2009, according to one of our good subscribers (thanks, Louise). The international event is geared for gifted students ages 15–18 and is being held at the University of British Columbia. The chairperson of the Youth Summit says that they are already registering students from around the world, including Germany, New Zealand, China, Singapore, and Afghanistan. Information about the Summit is included in the World Conference brochure -- look hard or else visit http://www.worldgifted2009.com/.

KNOWING OUR CHILDREN. A New York Times Magazine blog, "Motherlode," asks whether we really know our children, and then suggests that, for parents, "there is often a mismatch between what we see when we look at our children, and what is really there." The writer relates stories of parents who don't notice patterns of behavior until an educator comments on them, or until a child asks for help with the behavior; or missing AD/HD for years, all-the-while just urging the child to try harder. The reasons? We're too close, and we sometimes we don't want to acknowledge certain things. Reading the article gave us flashbacks to some of our omissions of observation and reasoning. You can feel guilty too, if you read the article.

REMEMBER THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE, and the faces on the fronts of all of the engines? British researchers have developed a video DVD called The Transporters that uses a similar technique to get autistic children to look at faces and learn about emotions. Vehicle such as trams, cable cars, and tractors are fronted with faces of highly expressive actors. An NPR report this week relates successful results from the use of the DVD; you may also see an excerpt from the DVD at NPR's site.

STRESS AND ASTHMA. An international study by researchers in New Zealand has found that stress in childhood -- psychosocial, physical, or mental -- are associated with an increased risk of developing asthma later in life. Whether the link is causal is unclear, although, according to the lead researcher, "Chronic stress and mental disorders are known to be associated with deleterious changes in stress hormone pathways and in immune responses, leading to inflammation."
 Read the Reuters article.

MENSA RECOGNIZES GIFTEDNESS PROFESSIONALS. The organization Mensa has awarded Miraca Gross with its Lifetime Achievement Award for 2008. Gross is a professor of gifted education at the University of New South Wales, Australia, and long-time contributor to the field of giftedness. This award is presented every other year by the Mensa in recognition of a lifetime of contributions to the field of intelligence and related subjects. Read the announcement. In addition, Deborah Ruf is the current winner of the organization's Intellectual Benefits Award, which recognizes the application of intellectual abilities that result in tangible benefit to society. Ruf is the founder of Educational Options, an author, and a frequent presenter. Read Mensa's announcement. Subscribers to 2e Newsletter may find our coverage of some of Ruf's NAGC sessions in the subscriber-only area of the 2e Newsletter website. Thanks to OGTOC for bringing these awards to our attention.

AUTISTIC VERSUS "NORMAL." The BBC reports on UK researchers who contend that children diagnosed with autism have severe versions of character traits shared by many other, presumably "normal," children. So the traits, according to the article, do not begin and end on the autism spectrum, but continue into the population of children as a whole. A quote from one of the researchers: "Clinicians and those involved in education need to aware that there are children who do not have autism but who nevertheless have somewhat elevated levels of autistic traits - our research suggests that these children are at slightly greater risk of developing behavioural and emotional problems." Read the article.

MORE ON THE "GIFTED" LABEL. We've reported previously on the ruckus over the Washington Post's reportage that the MCPS schools were dropping the gifted label, and on the schools' response to the article. (See our posts from the weeks of January 4th and December 14th.) The debate over the label, however, continues on the pages of the Post. You can read more about how advocates for the gifted and school officials feel about the gifted label at the Post's website. You can even take a poll about whether you feel the gifted label should be dropped. (Over 10,000 people have voted as of the date of this posting.)

RESOURCES FOR HARD-CORE BRAIN FREAKS. This month's issue of Brain in the News from the Dana Foundation brings pointers to a couple of sites that might be of interest to parents, educators, and clinicians who are seriously interested in brain research. One is a blog called "Brain Windows," focusing on new tools for examining the brain; be advised that the discussion is often technical (eg, "Update: Structure of G-CaMP2"). The other is a series of online videos from the Society of Neuroscience -- dozens of interviews with "eminent and senior scientists" in the area of neuroscience.

GIFTED EDUCATION PRESS QUARTERLY. Want to hear why Maurice Fisher has been publishing a journal/newsletter on gifted education for over 20 years? Who else but Michael Shaughnessy interviews Mr. Fisher on his goals for the quarterly and the contents of the most recent issue. Read the interview.

GIFTED ED: CLUSTER VS. PULL-OUT. An article in the Arizona Republic explains how some Arizona schools cluster young gifted students within the classroom rather than providing pull-out services, where students leave the classroom. The director of gifted education for the Paradise Valley Unified School District, Dina Brulles, says in the article that "the practice of cluster grouping provides full-time academic services to gifted students with minimal budget implications." Read more about the practice.

NEGLECTING THE GIFTED? EdNews.org's Michael Shaughnessy interviewed psychologist, professor, and SENG board member Steve Pfeiffer this week, soliciting Pfeiffer's opinions on the book about child giftedness he recently edited, the unmet social/emotional needs of gifted children, identifying gifted children, and his work with SENG. Read the interview.

LEARNING OUTSIDE THE BOX. We were in the car driving through Wisconsin last weekend and heard a "To the Best of Our Knowledge" program from NPR on the topic of learning outside the box. The program turned out to be a re-broadcast, but it's interesting listening regardless. Moderator Jim Fleming talks to experts such as author/speaker Jonathan Mooney, alternative education advocate Matt Hearn, and author and professor Michael Piechowski, who talked about the intensity with which gifted children experience their lives. Hear it.

MIND CANDY. In a recent Frazz cartoon, the good janitor and Caulfield discussed the definition of insanity... and expectations. Read it.

From the Week of November 9th

MAYBE IT'S NOT THE KIDS -- IT'S US. Harvard professor and author Jerome Kagan, writing for the Dana Foundation's Cerebrum, suggests that the increase in the diagnosis of childhood disorders such as AD/HD stems as much from social conditions as from biology. Among those social conditions (which have changed over the past several hundred years): changing definitions of pathology and an over-reliance on parental input for a diagnosis; emphasis on schooling as a requirement for success, an emphasis which causes stress in parents should a child show difficulty with school; and just a change in the way we live. For example, in the 17th century, says Kagan, children were likely "not required to maintain attention on an intellectual task for five of six hours a day." Kagan discusses what he evidently feels are over-diagnoses of AD/HD, bipolar disorder, and autism. This is a "big picture" article that might provide perspective to parents, educators, and clinicians who are "down in the weeds" worrying about and dealing with children's behaviors; we highly recommend it to those who deal with twice-exceptional kids. Read it.

OR -- MAYBE PREGNANCY CAUSES MENTAL DISORDERS. Seriously. An article in November 11th's New York Times outlines a new theory that parents' genes -- and competition between them in the developing embryo -- influence the development of mental disorders. It's a big theory, one that posts autism and schizophrenia on opposite ends of a spectrum of disorders. Experts in the field say, according to the article, that the theory has "demonstrated the power of thinking outside the gene." Read the article.

NO EXCUSES for not meeting the needs of gifted students. On her blog "Unwrapping the Gifted," Tamara Fisher debunks 10 common excuses for not giving gifted students what they need -- excuses such as, “If only that gifted student would bother doing his assigned work, I might consider giving him something different to do.” Read what Fisher has to say about excuses like this.

TEACHER'S RESOURCE. Edutopia has made some of its videos available through Apple's iTunesU. For example, a series of short videos on social-emotional learning is available for free download at iTunesU. So is a series titled "Integrated Studies," presenting ways teachers and students can work together in making curricular connections around a theme or topic. While you're at it, the Lucas Foundation is still soliciting founding memberships for Edutopia; find out more at Edutopia's site. (Note: you'll need iTunes installed on your computer for the video links in this item to work.)

ET (EXCELLENT TEACHER) PHONE HOME. LD Online's feature article for November is called "The Teacher's Role in Home/School Communications: Everybody Wins." It provides tips for teachers in communicating with parents. And parents? Some of the tips apply to you too. Read it.

SCHOLARSHIPS FOR DEBATERS. Now Debate This, a national educational debate and $250,000 scholarship contest for high school students, launched its 2009 program this week in partnership with the National Forensic League Speech and Debate Honor Society. The 2009 topic and focus of the second year is: "How can America achieve energy independence through the lessons of history?" More information.

SORRY, WE NEED TO SAY THIS. ScienceDaily, one of our news feeds, passed on a study today about watching television. Here's the net-out: unhappy people watch more TV. The question: is it cause and effect or something else?

EDWEEK CHAT. This week: "What Does RTI Mean in the Classroom." Transcript is here. Free registration may be required.

DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MIRROR NEURONS? If you raise or teach an Aspie, or anyone with poor social interactions, perhaps you should. Read a Society for Neuroscience article here.

GOOGLE 1. We love Google almost as much as we love Costco. Teachers and homeshooling parents can now use a Google Earth feature to tour a simulation of ancient Rome. What's more, innovative teachers can participate in a contest of lesson plans based on this virtual visit. Info here. You've got to have Google Earth installed to take advantage.

GOOGLE 2. A "vast" collection of public domain children's literature (from International Children's Digital Library) is to be scanned, digitized, and available on Google. We couldn't verify this on the Google site, but stay tuned.

HE SENT IT TO US, BUT YOU CAN'T HAVE IT YET. Each month, David Rabiner sends out "Attention Research Update," and each month we tell you what's in it. But unless you're a subscriber to his newsletter, you have to wait to access it until weeks later when he posts the newsletter. That said, the November edition is about an electronic method for diagnosing AD/HD. The method: Quantitative EEGs, which may detect distinctive brain activity in those with AD/HD. The results: QEEGs can provide a biological marker for AD/HD and complement comprehensive diagnostic examinations for AD/HD. The study review will be here -- eventually.

NAGC CONTINUES FOR CAROLYN K -- IN MALAYSIA. Carolyn K, the webmistress of the Hoagies' Gifted site who is apparently intent on building a website with more pages than any other in the world, was at the U.S. NAGC conference in Tampa, Florida, a couple weeks ago. This week she followed that up with a visit to NAGC of Malaysia, where she presented a keynote address. She is blogging about her travels and visit, and you can read all about them here.