VESID Special Education Updates

Re: State Assessments

A memorandum has been issued providing revised guidelines regarding
the participation of students with disabilities in State assessments, as
required by recent directives from the United States Department of
Education (USDOE). child-autism-parent-cafe.com

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Re: Behavioral Interventions

Effective June 23, 2006, the Board of Regents approved regulations
that establish general standards for behavioral interventions and set a
general ban on the use of aversive behavioral interventions,
with a provision and procedures for a child-specific exception to this
ban. child-autism-parent-cafe.com

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Safe or Sorry

Here’s a bit of important news most pediatricians don’t tell you…
The MMR vaccine is given twice to children. "The first shot protects 95 percent of the children. The second shot is essentially for the 5 percent not immunized the first time. But there is a simple blood test to determine if any given child needs the second shot," Ball says. "Parents can opt for the blood test to find out if the second shot is needed." child-autism-parent-cafe.com

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The Age of Autism: Something Wicked -- 2

The idea of a "chemical connection" in many cases of autism arose
during the 1970s and 1980s, then gave way to gene-based theories. But
the time has come to revive it.
The last column highlighted a study by Thomas Felicetti, in the journal Milieu Therapy in 1981,
he compared the occupations of 20 parents of autistic children, 20
parents of retarded children and 20 parents of "normal" children who
were friends and neighbors of those attending the Avalon School in
Massachusetts where he taught at the time. child-autism-parent-cafe.com

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Discovery Toys And Autism Speaks Help Children With Autism

Discovery Toys partners with Autism Speaks and the Princeton Child Development Institute (PCDI) to raise hope and skill levels of children with Autism with a comprehensive development support program, helping parents of children with Autism understand the most commonly shared learning difficulties and select the most appropriate playthings and activities to support tailored development programs. child-autism-parent-cafe.com


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Tantrum-Free Haircut Parent Tips

Free ebook offers parents 20 tips and resourses leading to a tantrum and meltdown-free haircut. child-autism-parent-cafe.com

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Autism Health Alert

An organization called the Autism Treatment Network hopes to open up a whole new world of resources for parents and children. Six different hospital sites nationwide will conduct autism research and share their findings. The participating autism treatment network centers include:
Baylor College of Medicine, Massachusettes General, Cleveland Clinic, The University of Washington Medical Center, Columbia University Medical Center, and Oregon Health and Science University. child-autism-parent-cafe.com

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Teaching The Person With Autism How To Drive

Teaching The Person With Autism How To Drive is an article written by a parent and speech pathologist whose son was taught to drive, and shares steps necessary for teaching the person with autism to drive. child-autism-parent-cafe.com

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More useful autism articles

Link between autism and abnormal blood-vessel function and oxidative stress

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine discovered that children with autism showed signs of abnormal blood-vessel function and damaging levels of oxidative stress compared to healthy children. The children with autism possessed levels of biochemicals that indicate the presence of constricted blood vessels via the (cells that line vessels) endothelium with a higher tendency to form clots (through cells called platelets). child-autism-parent-cafe.com

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GAO Autism Report: Federal Research Funding Increased, but Agencies Need to Resolve Surveillance Challenges

NIH and CDC have undertaken a range of autism activities, and the agencies reported that their funding of autism activities has increased. Federal agencies support services for people with autism primarily through broader disability programs, and some services may not always be available to meet the needs of this population. Education and HHS’s Administration for Children and Families support services for children with autism through education programs for children with disabilities. Other federal agencies support services for people with autism, generally as part of broader programs to provide services or enhance the delivery of health care to people with developmental disabilities. For example, HHS’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services supports services to meet the needs of people with autism through Medicaid programs targeted to people with developmental disabilities. However, many people with autism may not be able to obtain services under these Medicaid programs because they do not meet eligibility rules or because states limit enrollment. The IACC developed recommendations on how to better serve people with autism and established autism research goals. Agency officials told us that federal coordination is limited, in part because, except for education services, no agency perceives itself as having lead responsibility for supporting services for people with autism. GAO recommends that the Secretaries of HHS and Education work together to promptly identify options for overcoming challenges to CDC’s ability to use education records for autism surveillance. child-autism-parent-cafe.com

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"Money Follows the Person" Helps States Rebalance Long-Term Care Systems

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt announced today that states will get additional help from the federal government to support elderly and disabled Medicaid recipients who wish to live in the community rather than institutions. In addition to the Money Follows the Person initiative, Medicaid will allow states to add home and community-based services to their permanent array of benefits without having to go through the waiver process. For example, states now have the option to provide home and community-based services without needing a waiver. A copy of the "2006 Money Follows the Person Rebalancing Initiative Demonstration Program," including the application forms, can be obtained at http://www.grants.gov. child-autism-parent-cafe.com

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Book explores autism rise to mercury in vaccines

Here are some following questions parents need answers to: Why did the CDC and the FDA allow mercury exposures from childhood vaccines to more than double between 1988 and 1992 without bothering to calculate cumulative totals and their potential risks? Why was there a corresponding spike in reported cases of autism spectrum disorders during this time period? Why did autism grow from a relatively rare incidence of 1 in every 10,000 births in the 1980s to 1 in 500 in the late 1990s? Why did it continue to increase to 1 in 250 in the year 2000 and then 1 in 166 children today? Many should ask why trusted health agencies would allow a known neurotoxin to be interjected into the bodies of small babies - in amounts that exceed federal safety exposure levels for adults by up to 50 times per shot? Why are rates of ADD, attention deficit /hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), speech delay, and other childhood disorders also rising? Why does one in every six American children have a developmental disorder or behavioral problem? Why does autism affect boys at a 4-to-1 ratio over girls? Why to this day, is thimerosal still found in the majority of flu shots, which the U.S government recommends for pregnant women and children between six months and 23 months of age? Why in 2004, did the CDC decline to state a preference for mercury-free flu shots for infants? Why is autism research that has been successfully treating this disease as mercury poisoning using chelation and glutathione not being recommended to combat this epidemic? For anyone interested in this subject, Google the name Boyd Haley, the leading expert in the world on mercury toxicity, and look for his open letter to Congressman Dan Burton's House Reform Committee investigation on autism. I think any parent and/or teacher should read Dr. Haley's writings on this subject and should pick up The New York Times Bestseller "Evidence of Harm - Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy," by David Kirby. Book available at http://www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com/autism-books.html. Click on Vaccines and Autism.

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