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Showing posts with label stress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stress. Show all posts

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.

From the Publishers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter

EIDES IN WIRED. Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide have a Q&A in Wired Science centering on their new book The Dyslexic Advantage. In the Q&A, the Eides provide their definition of dyslexia, cover various misconceptions of the condition, and get into the strengths that may be associated with dyslexia. At the Q&A page you may also read an excerpt from the new book. Go there.
HIGH PERFORMERS: LOSING IT. Education Week reports on a Fordham Institute study showing that "many high-performing students lose ground from elementary to middle school and from middle school to  high school." The study raises the issue of whether programs such as NCLB impose a trade-off, helping kids at the bottom but hurting those at the top. Find the EdWeek article.
METHYLPHENIDATE: LATER PUBERTY -- in monkeys, at least. The active ingredient in Ritalin delayed puberty in young male monkeys, although the treated monkeys later caught up in development. Read more.
APPS FOR AUTISM is the goal of a partnership between Hewlett-Packard and two autism-focused organizations. HP will bring together developers to build free apps addressing areas such as communication and scheduling. Find out more.
2e  SOLUTION IN VANCOUVER. The Vancouver Observer published an article about a gifted young man with learning challenges for whom "school never quite fit." [Sound familiar?] The young man and his family found a solution through a company called BrainBoost Education, which tailored a curriculum for him based on online learning courses. The results: a more engaged, confident, and achieving young man. Read more.
AD/HD RELIEF. A study has indicated that playing outside in green areas may ameliorate symptoms of AD/HD, compared to playing in other settings. Find out more.
JUNK FOOD, DEPRESSION, AND ANXIETY. Adolescents eating diets of junk or processed foods are more prone to depression and anxiety, according to a new Australian study. While the results are consistent with what's been seen in adults, the researchers had this to say about the results: "[W]e think it could be more important because three quarters of psychiatric illnesses start before adulthood, and once someone has depression they are likely to get it again." So serve up those fruits and veggies. Read more.
THE THINKING PERSON'S GUIDE TO AUTISM is a book and website with the following mission: "to help people with autism and their families make sense of the bewildering array of available autism treatments and options, and determine which are worth their time, money, and energy." As part of that mission, TPGA accepts submissions on the topic of autism from writers 13 and over. Find out more.
EARLY-LIFE STRESS. Twice-exceptional kids can suffer more stress than other children for a variety of reasons. To find out how stress may affect children, check out a new article at Cerebrum on the Dana Foundation website. 
DON'T FORGET our stash of categorized article links at http://www.delicious.com/2eNewsletter. The articles cover 2e, giftedness, various exceptionalities, child development, parenting, education, and more.

KID-INSPIRED RAGE. Did you ever spank or slap your kids? Ever think about it? In an op-ed piece in the NY Times, Katherine Ellison, author of "Buzz: A Year of Paying Attention," reflects on violence in the home, a reflection precipitated by a horrific event in the news. Find it. 
NAGC WEBINARS. On a list of upcoming NAGC "Webinars on Wednesdays," we notice that on April 27th the topic is "Twice Exceptional: The Curious Dilemmas that Occur at the Intersection of Gifted and Special Education" The presenter is Shelagh Gallagher, of Engaged Education in Charlotte, North Carolina. Find out more about "WOW."
AD/HD COACHING. Another recent article on the topic is at the Seattle Times website, featuring thoughts from coaches and "coachees." Read the article which mentions the Edge Foundation, "a Seattle-based nonprofit that matches ADHD students with coaches who, through weekly meetings by phone or Skype, teach them the skills to make college worth the money and time."
FREE SPIRIT PUBLISHING. If you're a fan of this company's offerings on topics such as giftedness and self-help for young people, be aware that the company now offers many titles as e-books. Find out more. 
KID-SAFE SOCIAL NETWORK? A new site, www.WhatsWhat.me, purports to offer safe social networking for kids 13 and under. The subscription-based site uses technology such as biometric facial recognition technology; the computer's webcam is used to verify that the person logging in is actually the child who is registered for the site. If your young person is longing to get involved online, you might check out the site at the site's parent resource center.  
STRESS, ANXIETY, AND DEPRESSION. The stress hormone cortisol is abnormally high in some children with behavior problems, abnormally low in others. Now researchers think the difference is caused by the length of time the children have experienced problems, and that the stress response can be blunted over time. This leads them to suggest that interventions should begin as soon as behavior problems begin. Read more.
ENERGY DRINKS: A CAUTION. Energy drinks may pose a risk for serious adverse health effects in some children, especially those with diabetes, seizures, cardiac abnormalities or mood and behavior disorders. A new study, “Health Effects of Energy Drinks on Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults,” in the March issue of Pediatrics, determined that energy drinks have no therapeutic benefit to children, and both the known and unknown properties of the ingredients, combined with reports of toxicity, may put some children at risk for adverse health events. You may read an abstract of the article on the Pediatrics site; you may read another report about the research here. 
AND FINALLY, THIS. Scooby-Doo had dissociative identity disorder. That's the conclusion of a writer in Wired Magazine who analyzes the characters in this early cartoon series. Find out how he diagnoses Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, and others.

TRANSFORMING EDUCATION. The New York Times ran a column the other day that wasn't about giftedness, or LDs, or even about the nuts and bolts of education. It was about power and politics versus accountability and coherent management -- in education, specifically in the New York City school system. The occasion was the departure of Joel Klein as chief of that system, and the venue was a column by a business writer for the Times. We have generally ignored the New York City schools as we have blogged and published the newsletter over Klein's tenure; little of what we read seemed relevant. The Times column, however, gave a different perspective to how we can look at education, and  at how a leader who believed "in the transformative power of education" (and who took the job with no preset ideas) could try to fix a broken system. Some of the lessons mentioned do apply to the education of that twice-exceptional child you know. You may find the column at the Times site. 
PARENTS' STRESS -- EFFECT ON KIDS. While parents may think that the stress they undergo has little or no effect on their children, offspring of those parents will indicate that they notice, and that the stress bothers them. About one-third of the chldren surveyed reported stress symptoms themselves as a result of parental difficulties, according to a Wall Street Journal article. Read more, and don't underestimate the effect of your problems on your children.   
UNIVERSITIES RANKED. The website StateUniversity.com has listed the top 2000 universities. The top three are MIT, Standford, and California Institute of Technology. Some of the ranking factors that might be relevant to 2e applicants include ACT/SAT scores of attendees, student retention, and student/faculty ratio. You may find the ranking and information about how the schools are scored at that website.
GIFTED ATHLETE, GIFTED STUDENT. A pre-med student at Stanford who got straight A's last spring is also the only two-way (offense and defense) starter in Division I college football. His coach, former NFL quarterback Jim Harbaugh, describes Own Marecic as "the football player I always wanted to be," according to an article in The New York Times. While  his parents worry about the possibility of concussions, Marecic says that he's having "the time of his life." Read the article.
BRAIN CONNECTIONS IN AUTISTICS. Autism Speaks has funded research into brain research on autism, and the results of one of those studies, recently published, indicates that the brains of autistic persons show differences in the way neurons and axons connect different parts of the brain. In autistic brains, some neurons branch more by way of axons, leading to more "local" connections as opposed to "long-distance" connections to other parts of the brain. Read more about the findings and a  hypotheses stemming from the study.

AUTISM'S FIRST CHILD -- That's the title of an article in Atlantic Magazine about the first person to receive that diagnosis, in a medical article in 1943. The writers of the Atlantic article tracked down Donald Triplett, the boy who was the subject of the article, to see what his life was like. The result is an engaging and enlightening piece. Find it.
PERCEPTIONS OF MENTAL ILLNESS. A survey reported in the Los Angeles Times sheds light on peoples' perceptions of those with mental illness and on how comfortable people are in associating with those with mental illness. There's been increased "enlightenment" in some ways -- but social stigma is largely unchanged. Find the article.
CHILDHOOD STRESS AND LATER DEPRESSION may be linked, according to a study reported in Science Daily. Researchers have noted that elevated stress levels in adolescence, as measured by the amount of the hormone cortisol, doubles the risk of developing a serious mood disorder as a young adult. Find the writeup.
DEFINITION OF GIFTED. Ever wonder how "gifted" is defined? This year, the National Association for Gifted Children revised their definition. You may find that definition, along with some implications of giftedness, on the organization's website.


MENTORS AND MENTEES. That's the subject of several articles in the  newest issue of the Educators Guild Newsletter from the Davidson Institute. Included are an interview with a mentor to one of the 2010 Davidson Fellows, tips for students on finding a mentor, and a pointer to the 41-page document Mentorships: A Guidebook, from the Institute. See the newsletter.
HEALTHCARE REFORM CHANGES. Families of 2e children often depend on healthcare professionals for assistance in terms of diagnosis, medications, and therapies. On September 23rd, some of the U.S. healthcare reform changes went into effect. Changes affect preventive care, exclusions for pre-existing conditions, and lifetime limits. WebMD has posted a new section on the reform on their website; find it.
GRADE-SKIPPING is the topic of a Jay Mathews column in the Washington Post. Although it's now out of fashion, he's for it. He cites a Belin-Blank study on acceleration, and points out that acceleration could provide academic challenge in the absence of gifted education classes, which may face budgetary constraints. Read the column.
STRESS, DEVELOPMENT, AND DISORDERS. Researchers now say that stress can affect our bodies by altering gene activity, for example turning on genes that are supposed to be silent. This affects fetal development but also the body's functioning in later life. Find out more.
NEED A SERVICE ANIMAL FOR YOUR 2e CHILD? Regulations have changed, and CEC points out that the state of Florida has developed guidelines for evaluating requests for service animals. Find the CEC comment.
SCHOOL REFUSAL. We posted about this topic on September 16, but a recent Wall Street Journal article also covers the topic. As many as 28 percent of children may exhibit this behavior at one time or another, according to the article. If your 2e child is one of them, check out the article.
ON RTI. UCLA, in the newsletter Addressing Barriers to Learning, has published an article called "Moving Beyond the Three-tier Pyramid: Fitting RTI into a Comprehensive System of Student and Learning Support." And that title pretty much lets you know whether or not the article will be of interest to you; if so, find it here.

WE MISSED PART OF NAGC'S recent report on gifted education in the United States. In our most recent posting, we pointed to a summary of the report -- "State of the Nation" -- but did not point to the "State of the States" document, the full report; we assumed it was a for-fee publication, our bad. You may find links to the various components of the biannual report at the NAGC site. Be advised that the full "State of the States" report is 293 pages long and covers topics such as state education agencies, GT funding and mandates, identification of GT students, programs, personnel preparation, related policies and practices, and lots of tables. One table consists of state report cards. Another is a three-part, state-by-state assessment of areas needing attention. For example, in our home state of Illinois, funding for gifted education is assessed as "most in need," while the representation of minority students in GT education is assessed as "in need." You may also find the way your state defines giftedness in Table 11.

TECHNOLOGY AND READING. In past posts, we've pointed to articles about Kindle and how it might affect all students, not just GT/LD learners. An article in Education Week explores "the risks and rewards of electronic reading devices" in general. And at CNN Money, you may read about a camera that reads text aloud, the Intel Reader, a device the article calls "profoundly different" from other readers. Instead of using electronically packaged and transmitted text, as the Kindle does, the Intel Reader captures text on a printed page and pronounces it aloud. The article calls the device "a potential godsend for those who struggle to read standard text because of learning disabilities or vision problems." One drawback: the just-released reader costs $1500. Find out more from the article or from Intel.

ASD AND FINE MOTOR SKILLS. Researchers have found that fine motor control, as manifested in handwriting, is different in children with ASD than in typically developing children. According to an article in Psychology Today, the researchers feel that the difference may provide clues about problems with socialization and communication in children on the autism spectrum. Find the article.

DYSLEXIC DIFFICULTY FOCUSING ON RELEVANT AUDITORY INPUT. A Northwestern University study reported in Yahoo News and Science Daily finds that dyslexic children have difficulty focusing on "relevant, predictable, and repeating auditory information," instead becoming distracted by sounds such as banging lockers or scraping chairs. According to the Science Daily piece, "The study suggests that in addition to conventional reading and spelling based interventions, poor readers who have difficulties processing information in noisy backgrounds could benefit from the employment of relatively simple strategies, such as placing the child in front of the teacher or using wireless technologies to enhance the sound of a teacher's voice for an individual student."

IF YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT WIRELESS PHONE USAGE by your child, check out an article in Science Daily about a Swedish study that found links between wireless phone usage and biological changes in the brain as well as to overall health. Find it.

FINALLY, RESEARCH RESULTS YOU WANT TO HEAR -- from the American Chemical Society and the Journal of Proteome Research, no less. A clinical trial has shown that eating an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduces the levels of stress hormones in highly stressed people. While the study did not specifically mention those who raise and teach twice-exceptional children as being highly stressed, this may be the first study to explain how chocolate has those, mmmm, comforting effects. Read about the study. Or, if you're brave and scientifically inclined, read the study.