News for the Special Education Community
by Kim Archer – Gov. Mary Fallin signed into law on Tuesday a measure that will give local school districts a role in determining whether the most profoundly disabled students have made enough progress to graduate from high school. The bill, authored by Republican Rep. Jadine Nollan of Sand Springs, provides an exception to the [...]
by Yagana Shah – Cecelia Scheeler was just 4 years old when she started exhibiting odd behavior — throwing a fit when walking by dirty laundry or refusing to sit on certain furniture. She would wash her hands until they bled. “My daughter’s behavior blew in like a storm overnight,” said Mary Ellen Pease of [...]
Common symptoms between disorders can lead to a misdiagnosis of childhood bipolar disorder which prevents adequate treatment. by Marla W. Deibler – Approximately 1.5% of the population, worldwide, bipolar disorder is not uncommon. However, bipolar disorder in children presents differently than it does in adults, an important difference which is not addressed in our current [...]
by Theresa Hegel – For Lynn Plewes of Warminster, one of the hardest parts of caring for her three special-needs children was the isolation she felt. Years ago, one of her daughters was diagnosed with childhood-onset schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder and was receiving psychiatric care by the age of 2. Another daughter has autism and [...]
Students who fit the category of “emotionally disturbed” typically have high rates of addiction, criminal activity and incarceration. But long-term research has shown that these outcomes are not inevitable, and addressing self-destructive behaviors is part of a good IEP plan for a student labeled ED. Mary Wagner of the Center for Education and Human Services [...]
With the media saturated with stories about the need for schools to improve test scores and use data-centric instruction, it can be refreshing to read an article about a day in the life of a dedicated special education teacher. by Marlene Sokol – Sandra Denham caught the bug in high school. A friend was working [...]
by Mike Benner – A children’s learning center in Longview offers an isolation booth to help special education students calm themselves down, and now the booth has been shut down while the school district investigates complaints. The padded room with a plexiglass ceiling allows students to decompress when things get tough, educators say. The program [...]
by Russ O’Reilly For four decades, federal law has enabled children with disabilities to be integrated with general education students at school, but even today that integration is a puzzle in progress. Anna Dill works with her son, Kristopher, at the Altoona Area Public Library to get started with his cyber school class. “Not a [...]
by David Dobbs – Every decade or two, the American Psychiatric Association reworks its Diagnostic Statistical Manual, or DSM, to try to have diagnostic categories reflect the current state of theory and practice. Given enormous evidence that we’re currently overdiagnosing things and medicalizing normal behavior, many had hope that the upcoming DMS-5 — the fifth [...]
by Catherine Pearson - Much research probing the link between bullying and mental health has focused on how being bullied contributes to the development of issues like anxiety and depression. But a new study suggests the relationship goes both ways, finding that boys and girls with mental health disorders are three times more likely to [...]
