LD News
Each week, LD OnLine gathers interesting news headlines about learning disabilities and ADHD issues. Please note that LD OnLine does not necessarily endorse these views or any others on these outside websites.
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AACLD
The National Association for the Education of African American Children with Learning Disabilities (AACLD) provides numerous resources for the African-American LD community. You can access this information, as well as infobriefs, IDEA guidelines, and advocacy training information on their site.
Blind Rider Teaches Others with Disabilities
The Journal News (NY)
While there are numerous programs to teach disabled children and adults how to ride horses, the one at the Ramapo Equestrian Center in Suffern, NY is unique because it is led by an instructor who is herself disabled. Alison Dolan, who two years ago became the first blind instructor to be certified by a national organization, in December started her own instructional program for others with disabilities.
Boilermakers Leave Messages Behind at Mintonye Elementary
Journal and Courier (IN)
When Mintonye Elementary School students went to the Purdue University football home opener, they didn't know they'd soon meet the players off the field — in their school gymnasium. Defensive tackle Ryan Baker told the kids about his own struggles with a learning disability and encouraged them not to make fun of each other but to respect their classmates.
Boise Schools to Standardize Services for Students Who Are at Risk of Failing
Idaho Statesman
Guided by outside auditors who studied the district's special-ed services and outlined the strengths and weaknesses, district officials plan to refine the way they help students who are at risk of failing at school. Under the system now in place, "in our district, depending on what school you're at ... you'll have a very different experience," said Charlie Silva, special education coordinator for the Boise School District. "It needs to be streamlined, and that is what we're doing."
Book Review: 'Lightning Thief' Good Read for Kids, Adults
Wausau Daily Herald (WI)
Percy Jackson, the young hero of "The Lightning Thief" is far from perfect; he has ADD and dyslexia and has been kicked out of more schools than he can count. He soon learns, however, that he is in fact a demi-god — half god, half human. Ultimately, it is a story about finding your gifts, even if you think you don't have any, and using them in the best way possible.
Books to Match Diverse Young Readers
The New York Times
Introductory chapter books aimed at second, third and fourth grade readers overwhelmingly reflect a suburban milieu with white protagonists. Students of other races and ethnicities seldom encounter characters like themselves in books, and some education experts say that can be an obstacle to literacy. Below, click on titles that feature main characters who are black, Latino, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native and read the beginning of each book.
Boston Charter Schools Lag in Serving the Neediest
Boston Globe
Governor Deval Patrick has touted his proposed expansion of charter schools as a way to help students who face the greatest academic challenges, such as language barriers and disabilities. But a Globe analysis shows that charter schools in cities targeted by the proposal tend to enroll few special education students or English language learners.
Boston Schools Lag in Special-Ed Plans
Boston Globe
The Boston public system is facing a ballooning backlog in its review of special education plans, federally mandated each year for thousands of students, prompting officials to propose one-time bonuses to staffers to get the job done.
Braille Under Siege As Blind Turn To Smartphones
National Public Radio
Like a lot of smartphone users, Rolando Terrazas, 19, uses his iPhone for email, text messages and finding a decent coffee shop. But Terrazas' phone also sometimes serves as his eyes: When he waves a bill under its camera, for instance, the phone tells him how much it's worth. Terrazas is blind, and having an app to tell bills apart can be a big help. Terrazas' daily life is full of useful technology like this, but it also has a downside: The more he uses technology, the less he uses Braille, the alphabet of raised dots that the blind read with their fingers.
Brain Activity in Sleep May Impact Emotional Disturbances in Children With ADHD
Science Daily
Sleep consolidates emotional memories in healthy children but not in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to research published May 29 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Alexander Prehn-Kristensen and colleagues from University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein. The study suggests these deficits in sleep-related emotional processing may exacerbate emotional problems experienced in the daytime by children with ADHD.
Brain Activity Pattern Signals Ability to Compensate for Dyslexia
NIH News
Brain scans of dyslexic adolescents who were later able to compensate for their dyslexia showed a distinct pattern of brain activity when compared to scans of adolescents who were unable to compensate, reported researchers funded in part by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The finding raises the possibility that, one day, imaging or other measures of brain activity could be used to predict which individuals with dyslexia would most readily benefit from various specific interventions.
Brain MRI Diagnoses Dyslexia Early
Hive Health Media
A recent study conducted at the Children’s Hospital Boston has concluded that the brain activity recorded on MRI scans even before a child actually learns to read could provide an early diagnostic marker for Dyslexia. It has been found that children at risk for Dyslexia have significant differences in brain activity that can be captured through MRI scans even before the child is capable of picking up his first lessons.
Brain Research Will Help Predict Mistakes
Canada.com (Canada)
Researchers have found that brain activity called alpha rhythms, the most predominant signal recorded in the brain, increases before a mistake is made. Lead researcher Ali Mazaheri imagines this could be used to alert a person with ADD/ADHD that their attention is declining and direct them to refocus, or help determine whether drugs for the disorders are effective.
Brain Scans Link ADHD to Biological Flaw Tied to Motivation
Washington Post
Scientists maintain that they've been narrowing in on the origins and mechanics of disabling distraction, while gathering increasing evidence that ADHD is as real as such less controversial disorders as Down syndrome and schizophrenia. Their most recent progress is described in a Sept. 9 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, based on a new study that indicates a striking difference in the brain's motivational machinery in people with ADHD symptoms.
Brain Scans Shed Light on Dyslexia
U.S. News and World Report
New brain scans reveal more about how the minds of people with dyslexia work. The key problem seems to be a mismatch between seeing the letter and connecting it to the sound it represents or vice-versa, said researchers from the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands.
Brain Scans Spot Early Signs of Dyslexia
Reuters
Instead of waiting for a child to experience reading delays, scientists now say they can identify the reading problem even before children start school, long before they become labeled as poor students and begin to lose confidence in themselves.
Brain Test to Diagnose A.D.H.D. Is Approved
The New York Times
The Food and Drug Administration announced on Monday that it had approved the first brain wave test to help diagnose attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children. The test takes 15 to 20 minutes, and measures two kinds of brain waves — theta and beta. Certain combinations of those waves tend to be more prevalent in children with A.D.H.D., the Food and Drug Administration said in a news release.
Branson Urges Curriculum Changes
BBC
Sir Richard Branson, one of the UK's richest men, went into business in his teens. "It's important people do learn the difference between gross and net, and how Tesco, Virgin or Apple works," he told BBC News School Report. "Some of the things people study at school are not particularly relevant for when they actually leave school."
Branson's success with the Virgin Group has made him one of the wealthiest men in the world, and he suggested the ability to learn the key skills of business was something that students could pick up by being given the opportunity to try their hand. On how dyslexia shaped his career, Branson said, "I just don't think people who are dyslexic need worry because they are often really good at other things," he added. "They'll realise they've got a problem in some areas but they'll be really good at other things."
Independent (Ireland)
Author Robert Fannin had to wait until he was more than 50 to discover that he suffers from dyslexia. "Because of dyslexia, I was locked out of society," he explains. "It gave me very low expectations of myself. It was an incredibly lonely and painful experience. But now, at university, I have a special programme on the computer, and, of course, I don't have anyone holding a cane over my head."
Breaking through Reading Barriers
T.H.E. Journal
After using a tech-based reading program with struggling readers and special education students at Homestead Elementary School in Crossville, TN, fourth-grade inclusion teacher Ashlee Ritzko witnessed a new phenomenon: Students that were reluctant or resistant readers were suddenly excited about reading the novels. Ritzko, who is currently a fifth-grade teacher, credits the school's Successful Reader implementation with creating that breakthrough moment.
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