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Jan
22
 
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Most women suffer from lack of self-confidence, even despite greater job and educational opportunities than ever before. As noted in an earlier post, the lack of self-esteem starts as early as nine years old for girls and steadily worsens in adolescence, even if they excel in school.
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Without a sense of self, it is difficult to be alone, to make decisions, to set boundaries, to identify and accomplish goals, to succeed professionally, and to enjoy healthy, intimate relationships. Poor self-esteem underlies anxiety, depression, addiction, and sexual dysfunction.
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What do I actually mean by self-esteem and self-worth? It is a realistic, positive self-concept, humbly accepting your attributes and shortcomings. It is a feeling of worth, determined neither by comparison to nor approval from others. It is a feeling of appreciation and satisfaction with yourself, not based on beauty, talent, achievement, intelligence, status, or popularity. It is an inner contentment – a feeling of “I have value, worth, and am lovable.” Just as a toddler and each breed of dog, cat, and horse are unique and lovable, so are you. I use them as examples, because worth is intrinsic and not based on accomplishments or beauty, and need not be earned. Love from parents and others helps to establish self-esteem, but it is not a substitute. You can be loved and admired, even have prestige and material success, and still lack core self-esteem. Some leading actors and CEO’s can only temporarily bask in the reflection of their success, ever compelled to exceed their last performance. Without self-esteem, as soon as a lover leaves, self-worth plummets. Chasing after others’ approval, material possessions, physical perfection, or worldly success, even if achieved, is ephemeral and won’t result in self-esteem, because it is an inner state of consciousness, independent of external events – a peaceful state of mind – not striving, judging, competing, or in conflict with itself. This doesn’t mean you don’t have goals. On the contrary, more creativity, courage, and energy are freed to accomplish them, and more satisfaction is attained.
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Read in Full:Â
http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=41277&cn=96
 
Nashville classroom
December 3, 2010Â
NASHVILLE (AP) — A new state report says Tennessee lacks standardized methods for training teachers of students with autism.
 The report by the Comptroller’s Offices of Research and Education Accountability also says there is insufficient information to track the effectiveness of the training.
The report is the second in a three-part series examining Tennessee public services for infants, children and youths with autism.
“Autism in Tennessee: Part 2 Education†provides an overview of education services available from birth through high school for autistic children.
According to the report, youths with autism will transition into and out of several different special education programs during their elementary and secondary education.
Alex Barton, circa 2008.
Yep, Barton is p****d. In 2008, her 5-year-old son, Alex, was voted out of his kindergarten class, Survivor-style, for misbehaving.
Before the boy was sent to the office, his classmates were each given a chance to explain why they didn’t like him. That the boy’s misbehavior was due to autism didn’t factor into the judgments of the teacher, 
 Wendy Portillo — who, after Alex’s parents complained, was suspended  from teaching for a year. (She received full pay during her absence.) 
Two years later, life has returned to normalish for all involved. Alex is an 8-year-old honor student who only suffers a little from the PTSD with which he was diagnosed after being voted out of his own class.
Portillo is teaching again, allegedly abusing a whole new class of differently abled kids. The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights says Portillo and two other teachers discriminated against a girl with a hearing impairment.
And Barton says she’s close to settling with the St. Lucie County School Board, which she has sued. Pending the approval of Alex’s guardian ad litem, the Bartons are set to receive $350,000 — most of which will be set aside for their children’s future. Then, with the litigation over, Barton will use her new free time to punish teachers like Portillo, mercilessly.
“Wendy Portillo’s attorney admitted that the district paid her legal fees,” says Barton, reached over the phone as she wrangled all three of her kids (aged 1, 8, and 12) into her car after school. “That’s $200,000 in legal fees. So here’s your punishment for the systematic abuse of children, Wendy Portillo: a year of paid leave, and we pay your legal fees.”
After returning to the classroom in Port St. Lucie Portillo once again became a figure of controversy for abusing a little girl with a hearing disability, according to the Department of Education findings. Portillo and two other teachers refused to use a microphone so that their voices could be amplified by the girl’s hearing aid. Rather than use the microphone, Portillo and the other teachers would scream at the girl to “pay attention” and even make fun of her deafness — with the microphone off.
“Why does this happen?” asks Barton. “How could a teacher — a teacher on probation after violating the rights of a little boy — behave in this way and not lose her job? It’s the union. And it’s tenure.”
To back up her claim, Barton rattles off a long chain of abuses she claims have been suffered by children across the country at the hands of unaccountable teachers. Perhaps the most shocking incident involved a 300-pound Texan teacher who sat on an autistic child until he died. Though the incident was ruled a homicide, the man, who has since moved to Virginia, still teaches.
“The kid was a foster child his whole life,” Barton says. “Eventually he found a good mom — that was the mom he had when he was murdered. She’s fought so hard to eliminate restraint and seclusion — I would never want to be that mother. That my child could be murdered in a public school — and the murderer would be free to walk around! To teach! It’s incredible.”
In Support of Alex Barton & Family
 
Pediatricians First Line of Defense, Experts Say
That was the explanation a recent visitor to the Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness in West Palm Beach, Fla. gave when asked why she starved herself to the point of hospitalization. She was eleven years old.
Anorexia and its sister-disorder, bulimia, have historically been thought of as striking white, middle to upper class teenage girls. But a recent report from the American Academy of Pediatrics warns doctors that eating disorders are happening to younger girls — and boys — at an alarming rate.
“People tend to have this idea of who gets eating disorders, but an eating disorder doesn’t discriminate between age, gender, race, or class,” says Johanna Kandel, founder and director of the alliance.
“Some research says that as much as ten percent of those with eating disorders are under the age of ten. What I’m finding at the alliance is that the number of parents seeking help for their 7-, 8-, 9-year-olds is escalating rapidly,” she says.
A 2009 analysis found that in the last decade, hospitalizations for eating disorders more than doubled among children under twelve and now account for four percent of all such hospitalizations.
“Pediatricians need to be aware of the early symptoms of eating disorders because they are the medical professional that a child is mostly likely to see in any given year,” says Dr. Jim Lock, director of the Eating Disorder Program at Packard Children’s Hospital. “They are the gatekeepers.”
It used to be that the onset of an eating disorder tended to be around mid-adolescence, around age fifteen or around the time of first menses at about age thirteen. So why are there a growing number of girls who are showing signs of bingeing and purging as young as eight?
Read in Full:Â http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/eating-disorders-prevelant-kids-twelve/story?id=12238077
 
Liz Lynch, author of Smart Networking, adds, “I started my business 10 years ago in late October, so holiday networking was vital for my prospecting strategy.†Lynch believes that networking with existing contacts is the fastest way to bring in new clients. Why? “Because the people who already know, like, and trust you are more ready to hire you or refer you to people they know,†she says.

 
 
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Windsurf Publishing LLC offers a new book called What Can You Expect When You Fly? by Maureen Lagana for children with autism and other developmental disabilities. What Can You Expect When You Fly? was created to help reduce the stress of airline travel for children with autism who benefit from knowing what to expect in advance.
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Greenwich, CT (PRWEB) November 26, 2010
Windsurf Publishing LLC now offers a book for children on the autism spectrum to help prepare them for airport and airplane travel. Many children with autism and other developmental disabilities have challenges in public settings such as airports. Airport travel can be quite difficult because many children with autism can get overwhelmed from the crowds of people, noises, demands of standing on long lines, and going through airport security. What Can You Expect When You Fly? by Maureen Lagana is written by someone who knows. The author is the mother of a child with autism who is also the narrator of this book. And yes, in real life he is on the autism spectrum. Pictures and text in this book are used to both visually and verbally prepare these children for airplane travel.
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Maureen Lagana remembers when her son didn’t travel as well as he does now. There was a time when it was particularly challenging because her child would not be able to stand in the long lines at the airport without getting upset and having some anxiety. Yet, although her son travels much better now, she doesn’t think there is enough substantive support for families with children with autism at our airports nationwide. She feels that in her experience there was no one to go to for assistance if needed and that most airports do not have enough proactive protocols in place to help families with children with autism. As airplane security and travel is increasingly getting more invasive on people, this should be a concern of airport personnel and policy. Many children with autism get very upset when people touch them. For some, it could feel like someone is hurting them. And for many others standing still, even for a few seconds or minutes through an airline security machine, can be challenging. What kinds of accommodations are going to be made for these children? And what is most concerning to Windsurf Publishing LLC, who is supportive to families with autism, is whom can you go to if you need assistance?
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What Can You Expect When You Fly? is a book that can help many children with autism that are not yet comfortable during airport and airplane travel. It is a what to expect book just for children with autism and other disabilities. You can rehearse what to expect with your son or daughter and help to prepare them for a future trip. While Windsurf Publishing LLC is pleased to make this title available, it’s timing is interesting. Airline companies are starting to get involved in mock flight preparation for children with autism that need it. While Windsurf Publishing LLC thinks this is great, Windsurf Publishing LLC also feels that there are still much needed interpersonal protocols for airport personnel and how they treat individuals with autism and their families.

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What Can You Expect When You Fly? by Maureen Lagana is available at Amazon online, Barnes and Noble online, and many others internationally.
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Source:Â
The Salt Lake Tribune
Dora Raymaker, above, of Portland, Ore., offers an inside look at living with autism. She is a member of the Oregon Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorder, co-director of the Academic Autistic Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education (www.aaspire.org) and sits on the board of directors of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (autisticadvocacy.org).
Can you speak to the importance of relationships in your life?
My relationships are the reason why I’m alive. That is not hyperbole. I’ve been very fortunate in that I’ve always had good people around me who care about me and who have been able to support me (and I them) and keep me safe and fed.
What about autism makes it difficult to maintain relationships?
The biggest difficulty I have is that it can be really hard for me to remember to, or figure out how to, contact people … . One way I deal with this is to make dates with people far in advance and get the dates solidly in my schedule. Every time I meet a new person, I learn a whole new language (and they need to learn at least a small amount of Dora-ese). This can be slow and a lot of work for both of us, but I also think it results in relationships that are richer and more honest and committed. It is hard to enter into a trivial or throw-away relationship with me.
There’s a perception that people with autism can’t internalize emotions and can’t empathize with others.
Just because someone may not express emotions in a way that is recognizable to others does not mean they are not feeling them. I often feel things too deeply or have too much empathy and have to run away, not because I am callous, but because I feel so strongly it causes my brain to shut down or freak out.
The notion that we don’t have feelings frees up people to commit atrocities against us without accountability. A person involved with my local school system once told me they heard a well-known educational speaker tell a room full of autism specialists not to worry about autistic students being bullied because the autistic students don’t have any feelings.
How do you help friends and family members empathize with you?
I love that it’s recognized that others have just as much of a responsibility to understand us as we have to understand them.
It took me a long time to realize I did need to explain my experience of the world to others in order to facilitate clear communication and understanding. Non-autistic people typically assume that I experience the world in some way similar to them, which leads to a lot of misunderstandings and at times dangerous situations, and I suppose I am no different.
Read in Full:Â http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50340283-76/autism-experience-autistic-relationships.html.csp
 
The Government announced a review of specialist disability employment programmes on 2 December 2010.
Ensuring equality for disabled people is a key priority for the Coalition Government. Since May 2010, the Government has set out an ambitious programme of employment support to ensure that people disadvantaged in the labour market will get the help they need to find and keep jobs. Our aim is that Government programmes should support more disabled people than ever before into employment.
On 25 October, DWP launched Work Choice – a new flagship programme to support disabled people with complex disability-related barriers to work. From summer 2011, the Work Programme will provide personalised employment support to a wide range of customers, including disabled people. Building on these foundations, the Department has announced an independent review of specialist disability employment programmes. Liz Sayce, Chief Executive of RADAR, the UK’s largest disability campaigning organisation, is leading this review.
To support this review the Government has published the following call for evidence. This provides an opportunity for people and organisations to submit written evidence to inform the review. We expect to publish the review by summer 2011.
This call for evidence will close on 28 February 2011.
Please send your responses or any queries about this document to:
Disability Employment Support Review Team
 Disability and Work Division 
 Floor 2 
 Caxton House, 
 Tothill Street, 
 London, SW1H 9NA.
Email: employmentsupport.review@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
 Fax: 0207 449 5746 
Please ensure your response reaches us by 28 February 2011
Source:Â http://dwp.gov.uk/consultations/2010/disability-employment.shtml
    
South Pasadena Middle School
I could tell you that my husband and I moved our children from South Pasadena public schools to private ones because of “fit,” and that would be true. Children are not interchangeable widgets, and to assume they will all thrive in the same environment is perhaps naive. But, mostly, we moved our children because it got to the point where I could not drive by the South Pasadena Middle School without crying.
Know this: There are good people at SPMS. Eric Aispuro gets to school an hour early every day to tutor students in math. Sella Simonian brings ancient history alive. The nurse, the administrative assistants, the counselors, the recently retired librarians: good people, every one.
But my kids are not widgets, and if you want to thrive at SPMS, it seems to me that not only do you have to be a widget, but you also have to be a high-achieving widget with no issues. To do well in your 38-student classes you’ve got to be smart, independent, energetic and self-motivated. If your parents can afford tutors or stay home and oversee your homework, that’s a plus.
You will need these advantages because SPMS demands a lot from children, which is appropriate. But I am not sure demanding a lot is the same thing as turning education into a rat race. Last year, my children spent the better part of all their weekends on homework, and that doesn’t even include the hours they spent on it most school nights–this despite the fact that evidence presented to the South Pasadena Unified School District’s own homework committee showed that more than about 90 minutes of homework a night is counter-productive in the middle-school years.Â
I’m also not sure that demanding a lot from children is the same thing as providing quality instruction. Let me say it again: SPMS has some outstanding educators, but it’s got clunkers too. I’m just saying what everyone knows. I used to think this was OK. Who hasn’t survived a bad teacher, after all? This is an actual statement I remember making to an SPMS mother: “In 7th grade, it doesn’t matter which teacher track your kids gets because there is a stinker in each one. So it’s fair.” But is that fair? Is that even acceptable?Â
Outside the classroom, your child will do well to be athletic, socially adept and familiar with the right pop culture references. Without them, go ahead and start them on anti-depressives. You won’t be the first. This is a competitive town–again, I’m just saying what everybody knows–and no place is more competitive than the SPMS quad, where people will even make fun of you if have seizures. I know. My daughter has seizures and she spent most of last year hearing people sing-song “seizure, seizure” behind her back–even at graduation.Â
Early on, when I met with the school about this, I was told, “Don’t worry, Mrs. Finnegan, earlier it was the boy with autism. It’ll pass.” It didn’t, and that’s pretty cold comfort anyway, especially if you’re the mother of the kid who is gay or has ADHD or has whatever difference someone decides to prey on.
When my kids were younger, I worked within the system. I volunteered in classrooms. I was a room parent. I organized science fairs. I served on School Site Council at Marengo and on the SPUSD homework committee. But I couldn’t help my daughter feel safe at her own promotion.
Read in Full:Â http://southpasadena.patch.com/articles/paying-for-superman

