http://www.ldonline.org/ en-us LD OnLine Administrator hourly 1 http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Dyslexia_Advocates_Call_for_Changes_In_Classrooms%2C_Standardized_Testing Wed, 21 Aug 2013 12:00:18 GMT Dyslexia advocates have had some success in the nation's capital and in changing the rules at some colleges and universities. Some colleges now allow dyslexic students extra time on exams and make other types of accommodations. In Washington, 55 lawmakers are currently part of a bipartisan Dyslexia Caucus. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Dyslexia_Advocates_Call_for_Changes_In_Classrooms%2C_Standardized_Testing http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/ADHD_May_Be_More_Likely_in_Children_with_Asthma_or_Allergies Tue, 20 Aug 2013 14:00:14 GMT Children with a history of asthma and various allergies may be at higher risk of developing ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), according to a study published in the journal Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/ADHD_May_Be_More_Likely_in_Children_with_Asthma_or_Allergies http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Feds_Urge_Schools_To_Tackle_Bullying_Of_Kids_With_Disabilities Tue, 20 Aug 2013 12:00:53 GMT In new guidance sent to educators across the country, federal education officials say that schools may be liable if they don’t properly address bullying of students with disabilities. The guidance details the unique obligations that schools have under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to ensure that children with disabilities are not victimized. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Feds_Urge_Schools_To_Tackle_Bullying_Of_Kids_With_Disabilities http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/%27Dislecksia%3A_The_Movie%27_Set_For_October_Launch Mon, 19 Aug 2013 14:00:49 GMT Distribution company Area 23a will launch the documentary "Dislecksia: The Movie" theatrically in the U.S. throughout October in conjunction with National Dyslexia Awareness Month. The documentary includes classroom footage and interviews, presenting Hubbell's belief that dyslexia is a learning "difference" rather than a disability. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/%27Dislecksia%3A_The_Movie%27_Set_For_October_Launch http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Handwriting_Camp_Helps_Kids_with_LD Mon, 19 Aug 2013 12:00:28 GMT Kathy Colunga, an occupational therapist at West Texas Rehabilitation Center, wrote a book called “Planet L: Where Letters Become Legible.” Colunga struggled with dyslexia and dysgraphia, a neurological disorder that leads to inappropriately sized and spaced letters, and writing wrong or misspelled words, throughout her life, inspiring her to help children who have the same learning disabilities. Planet L serves as curriculum for summer handwriting camp. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Handwriting_Camp_Helps_Kids_with_LD http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Helping_Children_with_LD_Using_a_Computer-Interfaced_Drawing_Pad Fri, 16 Aug 2013 14:00:13 GMT For less than $100, University of Washington researchers have designed a computer-interfaced drawing pad that helps scientists see inside the brains of children with learning disabilities while they read and write. Researchers studied 11- and 14-year-olds with either dyslexia or dysgraphia, a handwriting and letter-processing disorder, as well as children without learning disabilities. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Helping_Children_with_LD_Using_a_Computer-Interfaced_Drawing_Pad http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Test_Scores_Sink_as_New_York_Adopts_Tougher_Benchmarks Fri, 16 Aug 2013 12:00:04 GMT The number of New York students passing state reading and math exams dropped drastically this year, education officials reported, unsettling parents, principals and teachers and posing new challenges to a national effort to toughen academic standards. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Test_Scores_Sink_as_New_York_Adopts_Tougher_Benchmarks http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Biological_Deficit_Causes_Children_with_Dyscalculia_to_Have_an_Imprecise_Representation_of_Numbers Thu, 15 Aug 2013 14:00:50 GMT Researchers at the University of Graz in Austria surmised that a biologically driven deficit causes children with dyscalculia to have an imprecise internal representation of numbers, which explains their difficulty with the number line task. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Biological_Deficit_Causes_Children_with_Dyscalculia_to_Have_an_Imprecise_Representation_of_Numbers http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/More_Students_Are_Taking_Both_the_ACT_and_SAT Thu, 15 Aug 2013 12:00:18 GMT Not a single college requires it, but many applicants to the nation’s most selective colleges and universities are taking — and retaking — both the ACT and the SAT. Although almost every college for years has accepted either test, the SAT has long represented the gold standard. Yet the ACT has pulled ahead for the first time: 1,666,017 students took the ACT last year; 1,664,479 took the SAT. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/More_Students_Are_Taking_Both_the_ACT_and_SAT http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Scientists_Study_Brain_Activation_When_Processing_Chinese_Characters Wed, 14 Aug 2013 14:00:13 GMT A recent study explores the neurological mechanisms underlying the process of reading in Chinese and potential treatments for difficulties experienced by those with dyslexia. Qing-Lin Wu and team from Taiwan Normal University divided 72 high-frequency Chinese characters into four categories: hand-action verbs with and without hand-radicals, and verbs not related to hand actions, with and without hand-radicals. Twenty-eight healthy participants, aged 21-30 years, underwent functional MRI scans while reading the characters. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Scientists_Study_Brain_Activation_When_Processing_Chinese_Characters http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/With_New_Version_Looming%2C_States_Rethink_GED Wed, 14 Aug 2013 12:00:18 GMT As implementation of the redesigned GED approaches, test-takers are rushing to complete the old GED test before Jan. 1, when the new version makes its debut. The 2014 version of the test will have more rigorous questions to align itself with the Common Core standards. It will also combine what were previously the writing and literature sections, bringing the number of test sections down from five to four. It will also now be completely computerized and test-takers will be required to use computer calculators. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/With_New_Version_Looming%2C_States_Rethink_GED http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/U.S._Probes_Use_of_Antipsychotic_Drugs_on_Children_ Tue, 13 Aug 2013 14:00:31 GMT Federal health officials have launched a probe into the use of antipsychotic drugs on children in the Medicaid system, amid concern that the medications are being prescribed too often to treat behavioral problems in the very young. In New York, a spokesman for the state health department said some children between ages 1 and 2 received antipsychotics for conditions such as autistic disorder and attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/U.S._Probes_Use_of_Antipsychotic_Drugs_on_Children_ http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Mentoring_Students_to_Prevent_the_%91Summer_Slide%92 Tue, 13 Aug 2013 12:00:24 GMT New research suggests that nearly all students lose a month or more of skills and knowledge over the summer break. However, not all kids are affected equally. Middle-class children who make trips to the library, travel and take classes, experience some slide in math but little in reading. Low-income students lose math abilities like their middle class counterparts. In addition, though, poor kids can lose between one and two months in reading achievement. One summer mentoring program in New York is working to ensure that everyone returns in the fall with the skills and knowledge they possessed the previous spring. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Mentoring_Students_to_Prevent_the_%91Summer_Slide%92 http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/In_Defense_of_Working_Memory_Training Mon, 12 Aug 2013 14:00:55 GMT The potential payoff of working memory training for helping those who could truly benefit from it is too great to not at least attempt to get this right, and take a more nuanced approach that takes into account multiple factors. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/In_Defense_of_Working_Memory_Training http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/What_the_New_SAT_and_Digital_ACT_Might_Look_Like Mon, 12 Aug 2013 12:00:12 GMT Big changes are coming to the nation’s two competing admissions tests. The president of the College Board, an architect of the Common Core, is intent on rethinking the SAT to make it an instrument that meshes with what students are learning in their classrooms. Meanwhile, the ACT, which has always been more curriculum-based, is the first of the two to move into the digital age. In adapting its test for the computer, ACT Inc. is tiptoeing past the fill-in-the-bubble Scantron sheets toward more creative, hands-on questions. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/What_the_New_SAT_and_Digital_ACT_Might_Look_Like http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/How_Thinking_in_3D_Can_Improve_Math_and_Science_Skills Thu, 08 Aug 2013 14:00:31 GMT Spatial thinking skills, the researchers point out, are an important predictor of academic achievement and professional success in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and these skills begin developing—or not—in children’s own homes. A large study called Project Talent, for example, “found that people who had high scores on spatial tests in high school were much more likely to major in STEM disciplines and go into STEM careers.” http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/How_Thinking_in_3D_Can_Improve_Math_and_Science_Skills http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Parliamentary_Outreach_Resource_Helps_People_with_LD_%27Get_Government_System%27 Thu, 08 Aug 2013 12:00:04 GMT The Houses of Parliament (UK) Outreach Service has developed a package of learning resources to help adults with learning disabilities understand how Parliament works. Launched by the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow MP, the specialist resource pack forms the basis of a learning session in which participants are encouraged to think and talk about who runs the country and the laws they would like to make. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Parliamentary_Outreach_Resource_Helps_People_with_LD_%27Get_Government_System%27 http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Addictive_Gaming_More_Common_with_Autism_and_ADHD Wed, 07 Aug 2013 12:00:12 GMT In a recent study, researchers surveyed the parents of 141 boys between the ages of 8 and 18 years old. Of those, 56 had an autism spectrum disorder, 44 had ADHD and 41 were developing normally. They found that kids with an autism spectrum disorder played - on average - 2.1 hours of video games per day. Children with ADHD spent about 1.7 hours per day playing video games and normally developing kids played about 1.2 hours per day. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Addictive_Gaming_More_Common_with_Autism_and_ADHD http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Why_We_Need_To_Value_Students%92_Spatial_Creativity Wed, 07 Aug 2013 12:00:01 GMT Can enhancing spatial thinking improve outcomes in STEM? A new study by David Uttal, David Miller, and Nora Newcombe published in Current Directions in Psychological Science notes that “a recent quantitative synthesis of 206 spatial training studies found an average training improvement of 0.47 standard deviations.” The authors suggest that including spatial thinking in STEM curricula would “enhance the number of Americans with the requisite cognitive skills to enter STEM careers.” http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/Why_We_Need_To_Value_Students%92_Spatial_Creativity http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/1.7_Million_Pound_Boost_for_Disabled_Teens_in_Lincolnshire%2C_UK Tue, 06 Aug 2013 14:00:05 GMT 1.7 million pounds has been earmarked to help students with learning difficulties and disabilities in Lincolnshire, UK. The money will help set up facilities for disabled students or those with learning difficulties, to help them continue studying after mainstream school. http://www.ldonline.org/ldnews/1.7_Million_Pound_Boost_for_Disabled_Teens_in_Lincolnshire%2C_UK