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AUTISTIC PRODIGY. An alert reader pointed us to a "60 Minutes" program which has this promotional blurb: "At age two, Jake Barnett was diagnosed with autism and his future was unclear. Now at age 13, Jake is a college sophomore and a math and science prodigy. Jake says his autism is key to his success." Find the program. (Thanks, Ida.) 
EDUCATION WEEK published an article titled "Special Educators Borrow from Brain Studies," noting as an example how kids with Asperger's can be taught to maintain self-control when frustrated. Another example: how an MIT professor is doing a longitudinal MRI study to try to predict which kids will have trouble reading. Find the article.
FUNDING FOR LD RESEARCH. The National Institutes of Health have announced funding for four centers that will conduct research on the causes and treatment of learning disabilities in children and adolescents. The centers are at:
  • Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder
  • Texas Center for Learning Disabilities at the University of Houston
  • NIH Multidisciplinary Learning Disabilities Center at Florida State University, Tallahassee
  • The Center for Defining and Treating Specific Learning Disabilities in Written Language at the University of Washington, Seattle.
As they report their new findings, the centers will also work to convey their findings to the public, through the media, community groups, and school systems. Read more. 
DSM-5 AND AUTISM. The article's lead sentence will tell you whether you need to read this article: "Proposed changes in the definition of autism would sharply reduce the skyrocketing rate at which the disorder is diagnosed and may make it harder for many people who would no longer meet the criteria to get health, educational and social services, a new analysis suggests." The article discusses the proposed elimination of Asperger's as a separate category. Find the article in The New York Times. 
ASPIES IN LOVE. We pointed readers a while back to an article about two young people with Asperger's who were navigating the difficulties of having a close relationship. NPR's "Talk of the Nation" included a segment on the couple in a recent edition of the program. Find out more.
APPLE AND EDUCATION. Apple today unveiled a variety of tools to facilitate learning using iPad tables, including a new release of iBooks 2 to support digital textbooks and an iTune U app for the iPad. Apple also announced partnerships with major textbook publishers. Read more. Note that the upcoming issue of 2e Newsletter will feature assistive technology and devices such as the iPad.
INCLUSIVE STORYLINES. Awards for children's books with inclusive storylines are to be presented at a CEC conference this week. Among the honored books is Mockingbird, reviewed by Bob Seney in the July 2011 issue of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter in his column "Bob Seney on Books." Read more about the books.
SENG has announced its new website with a new look and enhanced navigation. Read more about it in the current SENGVine newsletter or see for yourself.

From the Publishers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter

NAGC WOW. The National Association for Gifted Children offers "Webinars on Wednesday" -- WOW -- throughout the year. This spring the lineup includes two that deal with twice-exceptionality. On April 4, Lois Baldwin, Daphne Pereles, and Stuart Omdal present "RTI and Twice-Exceptional Students: A Promising Fit." On April 11, Lois Baldwin presents "The Intricacies of Twice-Exceptional Children: An Overview." Both are in the evening. Find out more about WOW.
THE APPLE AND THE TREE. Maybe you've heard us use one of our favorite 2e-related expressions, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." Carla Crutsinger, in her Brainworks newsletter, addresses a mom's discovery that she, as well as her son, have AD/HD -- and offers a symptom checklist for moms who might be in a similar situation. Find the newsletter.
INTERNET ADDICTION DISORDER is receiving attention from scholars, clinicians, and researchers. A recent study in China found that teenagers diagnosed with IAD performed less well on certain behavioral assessments. The also found that lower scores on those assessments were linked with a lower density of white matter in certain brain regions. In particular, IAD is "characterized by impairment of white matter fibers connecting brain regions involved in emotional generation and processing, executive attention, decision making and cognitive control." Got a smart kid at your house who spends a lot of time online? Check out the study.
GIFTED EDUCATION PRESS QUARTERLY. The winter edition of this e-newsletter is out, and it contains an article called "Bringing the Educational Power of Steve Jobs into Your Gifted Classroom." Also in the issue: an article exploring what kids' familiarity with technology means for gifted education. Find the newsletter. 
AND FINALLY, THIS, in the category of "parenting." Americans evidently consume over 13 billion gallons of sugar-sweetened drinks per year. That's about 43 gallons for each American, about two 12-ounce cans per day per person. A study estimates that a penny-per-ounce sales tax -- eg, 12 cents on a can of soda, almost $3 on a case -- would reduce consumption by 15 percent, leading to almost $2 billion annual savings in healthcare costs plus $13 yearly in additional tax revenue. Would you support such a tax? Read more.

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.