Over on Parents Grove, a blog associated with the Forest City Behavior & Development site, Pam Vivian has an entry about drivers’ education for individuals who have Autism. When one knows that Ms. Vivian is the parent and the individual in question is her son and when one throws in an IEP meeting as the setting, it makes for a worthwhile read. Link to Ms. Vivian’s entry.
Sphere: Related ContentMonthly Archive for September, 2007
Altough I’ve only recently skimmed it, Erica Westly has a blog that appears to have some relevant content. Readers might wish to take a peek at Adolescent Psych. I saw content on many topics that overlap with those we cover here at EBD Blog.
Sphere: Related ContentAccording to a story in the Richmond (VA, US) Times-Dispatch, the Richmond Public Schools have collaborated with a statewide legal-aid group called JustChildren to address problems arising when discipline rules conflict with the right to an education under US and VA laws that is due to students with disabilities. In the article, Olympia Meola describes efforts to ensure that children with disabilities who are subject to disciplinary rules because of misconduct are not suspended or expelled inappropriately.
This week, JustChildren and Richmond schools entered a broad agreement aimed at improving services for all special-education students who are disciplined for violating the student code of conduct in school.
“There was good will, there were good people, and the teachers would rally around that individual child, but we were fishing kids out of the stream one at a time,” she said. “We needed to step back and make the system as a whole better.”
The agreement with Richmond schools is a first for JustChildren, and it’s intended to help the schools boost services for students who are facing a disciplinary hearing or have been suspended or expelled. During the 2006-07 school year, 166 exceptional-education students in Richmond schools had a disciplinary hearing.
JustChildren approached the Richmond school system with the partnership idea about nine months ago. The move was spurred not by one particularly egregious case, but rather by the cumulative effect of many cases, and the fact that JustChildren’s growth has allowed the organization to do more expansive work, said Andrew Block, the program’s legal director.
The intersection of disciplinary rules and disabilities has been a lightening rod in special educational policy. Why, some people wonder, aren’t rules applied equitably regardless of whether students have disabilities? Why, some other people wonder, should a problem that is manifestation of a student’s disability cause her or him to lose access to educational services? I’m very glad to see advocates and a local education agency addressing this issue in a positive and reasoned manner.
Link to Ms. Meola’s story. Learn more about JustChildren, which is one of several programs of the Legal Aid Justice Center.
Sphere: Related ContentPolice used a stun gun to subdue 15-year-old Taylor Karras, a young man who has Autism. According to reports, hours after Mr. Karras fled from a counseling session at a regional services center, police were alerted that he was on streets in traffic. Los Angeles (CA, US) Times reporter Jennifer Delson wrote that police representative Jim Amormino said that a deputy used a Taser gun to prevent Mr. Karras from going into traffic and being hit by automobiles.
Amormino said Taylor yelled something when approached by a deputy, then ran across Newport Avenue, causing two cars to swerve. It was then that a deputy shot him with a Taser gun.
The deputy handcuffed the youth to keep him out of traffic, Amormino said.
I cannot tell whether the deputy who subdued Mr. Karras knew that Mr. Karras has a disability. It seems unlikely. I infer from comments by Mr. Karras’ mother that police probably did not know that a youth with Autism was on the streets unaccompanied.
Ms. Delson reported that Mr. Karras’ mother considered the officer’s action “aggressive.” I do not know exactly how this scenario unfolded, but I can understand this concern. I know from my own failures that approaching children and youths with disabilities in an over-powering way can result in flight and other erratic behavior. Of course, for the person asserting power, flight and erratic behavior can elicit escalation of threats and authority assertive behavior.
Just the same, I can also understand the importance of sometimes taking quick and overwhelming action to protect a child. Mr. Amormino claimed that this was the case when the officer found Mr. Karras moving in and out of traffic.
Without additional information, it’s hard to make a reasoned determination of whether the officer should or should not have used the level of force represented by the stun gun. However, it is relatively easy to reiterate a point that I’ve stressed in earlier entries on this blog: Societies deserve to have law enforcement officers who are prepared—explicitly trained to mastery—to recognize and respond appropriately when they encounter our children and youths with disabilities.
Previous posts from EBD Blog on this topic:
- Police training recommended,
- Letter to editors,
- Law enforcement protection, and
- More than police preparation needed.
Coverage of this story in the press:
- LA Times,
- Associated Press,
- All Headlines News, and
- LAist (well, it’s sort of “the press”).
Follow the story via Google News.
Flash of the electrons to Liz Ditz of I Speak of Dreams for alerting me to this story.
Sphere: Related ContentOver on LD Blog there is a post about the absence of evidence favoring the Dore Achievement Center’s exercise-based treatment. This activity therapy is sometimes recommended for children with Aspergers Syndrome, so the entry may be of interest to some readers of EBD Blog.
Sphere: Related ContentUnder the headline “Schools hope mental health screenings will help end stigma,” Heather Parker reported that Carlsbad (NM, US) High School will conduct screenings for mental illness among students. The school will use grant funds to help identify students who might be at risk for depression, suicide, or other problems and, therefore, in need of further evaluation.
With parent permission, 475 ninth grade students will be screened for signs of depression and suicidal tendencies.
“This effort is part of the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Suicide Prevention Grant the school district received,” said Janey Lynn, wellness and prevention coordinator at CHS.
I have to guess this effort will raise some of the same concerns as educators have see with Teen Screen (see here for an EBD Blog post and related comments).
Link to Ms. Parker’s article.
Sphere: Related ContentChildren’s Mental Health of Ontario (CA) issued a statement supporting efforts to reduce child poverty. Because the mental health of children and youths has often been found to be associated with poverty, this is an important part of comprehensive mental health policy.
One in five children in Ontario struggles with their mental health. Although often invisible, mental health disorders are pervasive, affecting nearly half a million children and youth in Ontario. Last year, 40% of children served by children’s mental health agencies in Ontario came from families whose annual income is less than $30,000.
Reducing child poverty coupled with early intervention can provide a hopeful and healthy future for kids struggling with their mental health. Undiagnosed and untreated, children may suffer needlessly from conditions like depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.
Children’s Mental Health Ontario—a non-profit organization focused on creating a sustainable system of mental health services for children, youths, and their families— is composed of 81 community-based children’s mental health centers. These constituent centers serve ~150,000 children and their families annually. Link to Kids Mental Health.
Links about poverty and children’s mental health:
- Science Daily (2006): Long-term Poverty Affects Mental Health Of Children, about Lisa Strohschein’s study at the University of Alberta.
- The mental health section of the US National Center for Children in Poverty.
- Abstract for the study entitled “Poverty, Family Process, and the Mental Health of Immigrant Children in Canada” by Morton Beiser and colleagues in American Journal of Public Health (2002).
- Vicki Quay’s 2003 story for National Public Radio on Jane Costello’s study of the effects of moving families out of poverty on children’s mental health.
The Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (whew, that’s a mouthful) has established an Autism Center. Under the direction of Michael Lewis, it will study biological and psychological aspects of Autism. The center will collaborate with several other organizations: Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, the Children’s Specialized Hospital, and Rutgers University.
The broad mission of RWJAC is to employ molecular and cell biology to understand the brain structure and function of children with autism, and then relate this knowledge to the behavior associated with autism spectrum disorder. Basic scientists from four fields will work both independently and in groups, along with clinicians, educators, and others involved in interventional outreach. The four research groups will be: the Brain and Behavior Group, the Genetics Group, the Pharmacology/Toxicology and Environmental Group, and the Cell Biology Group. The center will also have a Medical and Education Intervention Group.
Links:
Sphere: Related ContentThe PACER Center provides valuable resources for parents and families of children and youths with disabilities, including those with EBD. The center, which began as a local non-profit offering assistance in Minneapolis (MN, US), has blossomed over the past 30 years into a valuable national and even international resource.
PACER Center is a parent training and information center for families of children and youth with all disabilities from birth through 21 years old. Located in Minneapolis, it serves families across the nation, as well as those in Minnesota. Parents can find publications, workshops, and other resources to help make decisions about education, vocational training, employment, and other services for their children with disabilities.
See the section devoted to EBD as well as the general PACER Center page.
Sphere: Related ContentIs the frequency of bi-polar disorder increasing among youth and young adults? In an article circulated by Reuters International, the answer appears to be “yes,” among younger individuals the chances of coming away from an office visit with the diagnosis of bi-polar disorder increased dramatically in the decade from 1994 to 2003.
Dr. Mark Olfson, from Columbia University, New York and New York State Psychiatric Institute, and colleagues compared increases between 1994-1995 and 2002-2003 in office visits that culminated in a diagnosis of bipolar disorder among individuals aged 19 and younger to that among adults aged 30 and older.
They found that outpatient visits with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in the younger age group increased approximately 40-fold, from 25 per 100,000 in 1994-1995 to 1,003 per 100,000 population in 2002-2003. During the same time, the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in adults increased nearly 2-fold, from 905 to 1,679 per 100,000.
This finding, coupled with others about the incidence of bi-polar disorder, will spur questions about diagnostic criteria and ascertainment bias in assessment. Just as the question about “true” and “identified” incidence of Autism have been raised, there will be similar questions about bi-polar disorder.
The Reuters report is based on a study in the Archives of General Psychiatry, but the Web site for the journal does not yet show the September table of contents. However, one can get the Reuters story from many sites (e.g., Yahoo! news).
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