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Assistive Technology: Write Answers
Education Week
Assistive technology is designed to make hard or even seemingly impossible tasks doable—and for students with disabilities, writing can be one of the hardest school tasks of all. But since difficulties in writing are wide-ranging—and technology is rapidly evolving—finding the right AT device can be an ordeal.
At Book Summit, Access to Reading Matters Most
Education Week
Publishers, writers, preservationists, technology experts, and literacy advocates gathered at the Library of Congress last week to discuss the future of reading and reading technology at the first International Summit of the Book. While the summit offered a variety of perspectives on the evolving role of the book in knowledge-sharing, access to reading emerged as a shared interest and challenge for those concerned with books in relation to literacy.
At Galindo Elementary School, Special Education Students Shine in Integrated Classrooms
Austin American-Statesman
Students in a fourth-grade classroom at Galindo Elementary School are taking turns reading from "Romeo and Juliet." It's difficult at first glance to tell the students in special education from those who are not. The South Austin school's principal, Donna Linn, said she has worked hard not just to develop an appreciation for the needs of individual students, but also to develop a schoolwide appreciation for including students receiving special education services in regular classes.
At Perkins, High-Tech is Both Future and Now
Boston Globe
Before Ashley Bernard got her new iPod Touch, the Perkins School for the Blind student could not use an MP3 player without help. But thanks in part to school officials, who encouraged Apple Inc. to make an iPod that gives and responds to spoken commands - standard on the latest models - Bernard can listen to her music like any other 16-year-old. Such technological advances received a major boost Monday night with a $10 million donation from the Grousbeck Family Foundation.
At Senate Hearing, Witnesses Offer Alternatives to Restraints, Seclusion
Education Week, On Special Education blog
While many of the reports and previous testimony on the subject in the House have centered on horror stories in which students were severely injured or died because they were restrained or isolated without supervision, the witnesses who testified at a Senate hearing on restraints and seclusion were generally measured and offered specific solutions for reducing their use, and misuse, in schools.
Los Angeles Daily News (CA)
Parents send their children to Westmark, a school for those with learning differences such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, attention-deficit disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Then they arrive at the Encino campus, and something changes. They find something within themselves: the ability to learn.
Athletics and Special Education: Reaction to New Guidelines
Education Week
A document from the U.S. Department of Education intended to clarify schools' responsibility to make sure students with disabilities have access to extracurricular sports has drawn sharply different opinions. Disability-rights advocates welcome the guidance, while critics say federal officials are pushing requirements that could place new financial burdens on districts.
Atlanta High Schools Broke Rules to Meet Performance Standards
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A learning disability made school hard for Chantel Cox. But she always stayed on grade level and looked forward to earning a high school diploma. She actually was excited about taking the state graduation tests. But the morning of the high school writing test, in September 2009, school administrators pulled Chantel and several other Carver juniors aside. All stood a good chance of failing — and of lowering the school's odds of meeting its do-or-die performance targets. While the rest of the 11th grade took the test required for all juniors, Chantel and the others worked puzzles in a special-education classroom.
The Boston Globe
Armed with an improved sense of how attention works, scientists have begun researching whether attention can be trained. And their findings have been intriguing. Building upon this new understanding, researchers are discovering that skills of focus can be bolstered with practice in both children and adults, including those with attention-deficit disorders.
Attention Deficit Disorder Can Make Work Difficult
The Vancouver Sun (Canada)
People with ADD can benefit from disclosing their learning disability at work, but people should make the decision carefully. Fortunately, there are plenty of strategies people with ADD can employ at work to manage things more effectively.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
WSOCtv.com (NC)
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a condition characterized by problems paying attention, hyperactivity and impulsive behaviors. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates about 4.4 million school children (4 to 17) have been diagnosed with ADHD. It's three times more common in boys than in girls.
Attention Deficit Presented From a Mother's Perspective in 'Distracted'
The Grand Rapids Press (MI)
Written by Lisa Loomer and presented off-Broadway in 2009, "Distracted" is the story of a family whose 9-year-old son is acting out, refuses to go to bed at night, and is disruptive at school. The parents are inundated with solutions from teachers, therapists, and friends ranging from pills to diet, biofeedback and homeopathic treatments. "It's told from the point of view of the mother," director Fred Sebulske said. "She knows the audience is there and uses them as a sounding board. She always has someone to talk to."
Attention Problems, Except for Screens
The New York Times
Why is it that children with attention deficit problems at school can be held in rapt attention by a video game or television program?
A child’s ability to stay focused on a screen, though not anywhere else, is actually characteristic of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. There are complex behavioral and neurological connections linking screens and attention, and many experts believe that these children do spend more time playing video games and watching television than their peers.
Attention-Deficit Child Deserves to Have Choices
Washington Post
The concerned mother of an 8-year-old child with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder writes into advice columnist Marguerite Kelly about allowing her child to go to a sleepover. The mother says, "My daughter is invited to a sleepover and I have to say no, since she takes her medicine at night and first thing in the morning and is too young to medicate herself. How do I politely decline this invitation? How can I explain it to my daughter?"
Attention-Deficit Disorder Linked to Obesity
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
"Obese people are three to five times more likely to have [ADD] than the regular population. And if you treat them, you will see a significant weight loss," claims physician Lance Levy. Levy and his co-authors — psychologist John Fleming and dietitian Doreen Klar — have just published their groundbreaking research in the International Journal of Obesity, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal.
Audit Critical of Special Education at HISD
Houston Chronicle
Black students and high schoolers who aren't native English speakers are too often funneled into special education, while dyslexic students who need the extra help are left to flounder, according to a critical study of the Houston Independent School District's special education department.
Audit Reveals Progress, Needs For Special Education
Alexandria Times (VA)
When a group of independent observers reviewed the Alexandria City Public Schools' special education system this past spring, they saw shades of 1995. Born out of last year's news that special education within ACPS was out of compliance, the study — conducted by a team from the Virginia Association of School Superintendents — cited several areas in which the schools could improve and recognized some programs that are already having a positive effect.
Audit: San Francisco Schools Outdated on Special Ed
San Francisco Chronicle
The $122 million San Francisco schools spend on its 6,300 special education students fails to consistently address the needs of those children, too often needlessly segregating them in special classrooms and disproportionately diagnosing disabilities based on race, an independent audit found.
Australia: Link between ADHD and Genes Probed
Brisbane Times (Australia)
Australian neuroscientists will launch a study this month to investigate links between genes and children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). More than 600 families will be studied by researchers from the Queensland Brain Institute, the Mater Children's Hospital Brisbane, Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital and Curtin University of Technology to understand better what causes ADHD.
Australia: Mum's Insight Key in Dyslexia Battle
The Age (Australia)
As a mother of three children with dyslexia, Liz Dunoon is used to dealing with the learning difficulty — but she remembers how her first encounter with it broke her heart. Despite his best efforts and hard work, her elder son, then aged 6, struggled with reading, writing and spelling when he started school in 2004.
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