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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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Teaming Up to Help People with LD
Scotsman.com
The social care landscape in Scotland is currently undergoing huge and transformational change with the introduction of self-directed support (SDS), which gives people greater choice and control over their support, along with the opportunity to control their own support budget.
Community Garden Program for Adults with Learning Disabilities
CambsTimes
Greenvale (UK) is helping Fenland Area Community Enterprise Trust, FACET, through a community garden scheme. FACET, in March provides skills training for work and independent living for adults with learning and other disabilities including physical or sensory impairment, mental health problems or who are head injury victims.
Man with Learning Disabilities Faces Being Evicted From Rural Home
This is Cornwall
A FATHER with learning disabilities faces the threat of eviction from his home near St Stephen because of planning policy red tape. Locals have rallied behind Craig Martinhull, who lives in a caravan on the land at Brannel Mill, Coombe, following a proposal by Cornwall Council to turn him off the land.
Challenge of Identifying Learning Disabilities
Deccan Herald
The most common challenge for parents and teachers is to recognise the ‘symptoms’ of Learning Disabilities (LD). One can identify a child with LD through the various discrepancies in the child’s activities / performance. Following are some common signals which can be observed in school going children (you may find the problems in varying degrees and not all signs may be present in the same child.
Review of New Zealand Funds for People with LD
Manawatu Standard
Learning disability support groups say a review of the system determining which children get special help to sit exams needs to level the playing field by removing the cost to parents. New Zealand ministry special education group manager Brian Coffey said a review was under way and is due to be completed towards the end of August. It is currently mandatory for students applying for extra help during exams to have a report from an educational psychologist diagnosing a specific learning disability.
Housing Options for People with Learning Disabilities
The Guardian
The Cameron Trust, Housing & Support Alliance and the Centre for Welfare Reform have launched the Investing in Ordinary Lives initiative to explore how private finance could be used to develop ethical housing options for people with learning disabilities in Britain. People with learning disabilities struggle more than most to get decent housing. Although most people want a home of their own in their own communities, they are often forced to accept places in residential services where they cannot choose their flatmates or how they get support. A bad situation has been made even worse by housing shortages, reduced benefit entitlements and significant cuts in social care.
Close Personal Relationships Could Aid Teens with Learning Disabilities
Science Daily
In addition to struggling in school, many children with learning disabilities are known to face social and emotional challenges including depression, anxiety, and isolation. Often beginning early in childhood, they become more pronounced during adolescence, an emotionally turbulent time. For these youngsters, more positive relationships with the significant adults in their lives -- including parents and teachers -- can improve learning and "socioemotional" experiences, says Dr. Michal Al-Yagon of Tel Aviv University's Jaime and Joan Constantiner School of Education.
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.
Decreased Funding for Grad Students with Disabilities
Times Higher Education
Postgraduates are most likely to be affected by a shortfall in funding. According to a report, 56.2 per cent of postgraduates with disabilities said they had experienced financial difficulties at university compared with 29.2 per cent of undergraduates. Since 2008, five times as many postgraduates have applied for additional grants from the Trust.
Apple Highlights Disability Offerings in App Store
Disability Scoop
Apple is highlighting a growing number of apps catering to individuals with special needs with a featured special education section in its App Store. The section titled “Special Education” launched late last week and includes 72 applications for the iPhone and 13 applications for the iPad in 10 categories ranging from communication to emotional development and life skills, according to Trudy Muller, an Apple spokeswoman.
Children With ADHD More Likely to Be Moderately Disabled After TBI
Science Daily
Researchers at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Chicago have found that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to demonstrate a moderate disability after sustaining a mild traumatic brain injury than children without ADHD.
Revised Psychiatric Disorders 'Bible' Changes Disability Definitions
Education Week
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders was last published in 1994 and updated in 2000. Many of these changes reflected in the DSM-5 have been the subject of widespread debate for several months. The diagnostic criteria also have potential to affect schools, though the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has its own definitions of disabilities covered under special education law.
Yale Researchers Unravel Genetics of Dyslexia and Language Impairment
YaleNews
A new study of the genetic origins of dyslexia and other learning disabilities could allow for earlier diagnoses and more successful interventions, according to researchers at Yale School of Medicine. Many students now are not diagnosed until high school, at which point treatments are less effective.
NJ State Senate Passes Bills Aimed at Students with Dyslexia
Press of Atlantic City
The New Jersey bills, which passed the Assembly in April, are based on the recommendations of the task force. The most crucial requires the state Board of Education to incorporate the International Dyslexia Association’s definition of dyslexia into state special education regulations. Students have typically been instead diagnosed with a specific learning disability, which advocates said did not mandate the specific remedial programs students with dyslexia need.
PARCC Adopts Special Education Testing Policy For Common Core
Education Week
Students with disabilities will be able to use read-aloud accommodations on the English/language arts portion of the common core tests, with no requirement that they be virtually unable to read printed text or be at the beginning stages of learning to decode, according an accommodations manual approved today by the governing board of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for Colleges and Careers.
Not All Reading Disabilities Are Dyslexia
Vanderbilt Research News
A common reading disorder goes undiagnosed until it becomes problematic, according to the results of five years of study by researchers at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of education and human development in collaboration with the Kennedy Krieger Institute/Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Results of the study were recently published online by the National Institutes of Health.
Smithsonian Spotlights Disability History
Disability Scoop
The exhibition from the National Museum of American History, which was unveiled this week, explores everything from stereotypes to laws, technology and issues in everyday home life for people with disabilities.
Fiber-Optic Pen May Help Scientists Understand Dyslexia
Mother Nature Network
A new fiber-optic pen may help reveal the unique brain patterns in people with writing and reading disabilities, such as dyslexia.By analyzing the brain scans alongside the computer-generated record of the pen's path, the team hopes to identify regions of the brain associated with specific symptoms of writing disabilities. The pen may also be useful in examining brain patterns of patients with motor-impairing diseases, such as Parkinson's disease or multiple sclerosis.
Putting Social Skills in the IEP
Smart Kids With Learning Disabilities
"Although parents are often intimidated by the IEP process, you need not hold back when it comes to addressing social-skill deficits with your child’s team. You know that social skills are vital for success in life. Teachers know this too. That is the common ground on which to begin the discussion."
New Book on ADHD in Children and Adults
Smart Kids With Learning Disabilities
"Dr. Thomas E. Brown, one of the world’s leading authorities on ADHD, has just published a book that sheds new light on the condition for both parents and professionals. In A New Understanding of ADHD in Children and Adults: Executive Function Impairments (Routledge) Brown redefines ADHD while also setting the record straight on 35 of the most common myths about the disorder. In addition Brown provides answers to many of the questions parents ask about ADHD."
Read the excerpt here.