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Archive for July, 2011

ScienceDaily (July 7, 2011) — Pupils with special needs and teachers in mainstream schools in the UK are often the victims of a “one size fits all” approach to schooling and education, a leading academic has claimed.

 

Professor Paul Cooper, a chartered psychologist and professor of education at the University of Leicester, said pupils with social, emotional and behavioural problems (SEBD) are at particular risk of under-achieving because schools are frequently ill-equipped to handle their problems.

 

Teachers need better training in the appropriate skills and methods for supporting pupils with special needs, while the children themselves require a more diverse range of provision to meet those needs both within and beyond mainstream schools.

 

In a new study, Professor Cooper and co-author Barbara Jacobs, also of the University of Leicester’s School of Education, argue that it is not children with special needs that present the problems for schools and teachers — but failings within the education system.

 

Professor Cooper, whose study also examines classroom strategies and approaches that have been found to be effective, said that too often “blanket assumptions” are made about pupils’ needs, and teachers frequently lack the skills and knowledge to be able to support them.

 

He said: “There should be a diverse range of educational facilities so that children can move between one or another as needs arise. Everyone should have the right to go to their local school, but they also have a right to be educated in accordance with their needs and aspirations.

 

“It is patently obvious that many of our schools experience difficulties in catering for the needs of all students, and demanding that they do so in the absence of appropriate training and resources is disheartening for teachers and disastrous for students — especially those who are most vulnerable.

 

Teachers are as much victims of this muddled approach as children, Professor Cooper argues.

 

“Initial teacher training has not changed sufficiently to accommodate the inclusion policy, leaving most teachers lacking in the skills required to deal with children with serious difficulties.

 

“This failure means that the most vulnerable pupils often do not tend to achieve educational success. There is also a knock on effect from this, whereby teachers facing the most challenging circumstances find themselves locked into a fire fighting role, which has a negative effect on the learning experience of all students.”

 

Read in Full:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110707101959.htm



Published: Wednesday, June 29, 2011; Last Updated: Wed. Jun 29, 2011, 5:36pm

 

OLD SAYBROOK (AP) — Federal law enforcement officials say an early-learning center in Old Saybrook has agreed to pay more than $7,000 to settle allegations that it terminated the enrollment of a toddler because he has autism.

 

The U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday that Beach Babies Learning Center LLC denied it discriminated against the child who was 2 years old at the time. Authorities did not say when the discrimination allegedly occurred.

 

Beach Babies agreed to implement t policies and procedures to ensure disabled children benefit from its programs. It also agreed to pay $7,341 in damages to the child’s parents, Ali and Josh Linkov.

 

A call to Beach Babies was not immediately returned.

 

The Justice Department investigated allegations that the learning center violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.

 

Source:

http://middletownpress.com/articles/2011/06/29/news/doc4e0a8a39e9207505492679.txt



 

For 40 years, ‘inclusion’ has been the buzzword for special-needs education. Now radical reforms will mean fewer disabled children in mainstream schools. Is this what families want? Sarah Cassidy reports

 

Thursday, 30 June 2011

 

Ten-year-old Olivia Locke has not been to school for two years. When she did attend classes, she became so anxious that she felt physically sick – complaining of headaches, stomach- and leg-pains – and then refused to go back.

 

By the time her parents removed her at the age of eight, Olivia had refused to attend a nursery, three state primaries and one private school.

 

Olivia has Aspergers syndrome – a form of autism that causes difficulty in processing and understanding language – but also a generalised anxiety disorder, a combination that, her parents argue, makes attending mainstream school impossible.

 

Her mother, Kay Locke, 45, says: “We are being told by our local authority that her needs can be met in a normal mainstream secondary school. But all the reports we have had say she needs specialist provision. My sadness is that, as parents, we felt very much labelled as being inadequate. They said: ‘Just bring her into school and it will all be fine’, but we felt they just didn’t understand the situation. Unfortunately, there is a real culture of blame and it quickly turns into ‘you and them’.” The family – which is from Stockport – is now taking its local authority to a tribunal in an attempt to get Olivia a place at a specialist unit, but the process has caused a huge amount of stress and anguish for everyone.

 

It is families such as the Lockes that the Coalition Government hopes to help with its radical shake-up of provision for children with special needs or a disability. The consultation on its Green Paper closes today. The document boasts that the proposals will mean the biggest reform in the education and health support for children with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities in 40 years. This is a package of reforms that has been influenced heavily by the Prime Minister’s own personal views and experiences.

 

David Cameron, whose late son Ivan was severely disabled, personally drafted the Conservative manifesto pledge to end the “bias towards the inclusion” of children with special needs in mainstream schools. In a wide-ranging Green Paper published in March, Children’s Minister, Sarah Teather, unveiled proposals that also promised to remove this “bias” from the system, as well as reforming everything from statementing to teacher training and giving new rights to – and choices for – parents.

 

Around two million children and young people have been identified as having a special educational need or disability. The aim of the Green Paper – called Support and Aspiration – was to respond to the frustrations of these young people, their families and the professionals who work with them, who have complained that the system is bureaucratic, bewildering and adversarial, and that there is limited choice about the best schools and care.

 

According to the Council for Disabled Children, on average a disabled child experiences 32 assessments as they grow up, which ministers describe as being “unacceptable” and “inefficient”.

 

The most radical proposal would see the statement – the foundation of the SEN system for more than 30 years – scrapped and replaced with a “combined education, health and care plan”, which would last until the age of 25. Ministers also hope to speed up the process by reducing the time limit for statutory assessments.

 

The “school action” and “school action plus” categories for children with SEN – but without a statement – will also be axed.

 

Read in Full:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/separation-anxiety-parents-voice-fears-over-specialneeds-education-2304884.html



July 4, 2011

 

The school bells rang their final song of the 2010-2011 school year in Eastern Ontario last Wednesday. For many people it marked the beginning of 8 weeks of relaxation and fun in the sun with no thought to school. For others, especially those with children who have special needs, it is a time to garner energy and resources to help their children out for the next school year.

 

Here is a list of some resources available in the Ottawa area and online for parents of children with special needs. If you know of others, please add them in the comments and they will be added to the list!

 

Ottawa Special Education – Parents Helping Parents: The best resources often come from those who know of your experiences first hand. “The [website’s] goal is to provide parents with information to help them support their exceptional children.”

 

Navigating the Special Education System: A PowerPoint presentation (presented as a pdf document) from Diane Wagner, Manager of Public Policy, Client Services & Training, Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario

 

Read in Full:

http://www.examiner.com/special-education-in-ottawa/special-education-resources-ottawa-and-other-areas



Doctors at certain practices refuse to treat kids whose parents refuse immunization schedule

 

July 6, 2011

A small but growing number of parents think vaccines against childhood diseases are unsafe and are refusing or delaying shots for their children, despite the discrediting of a medical study linking vaccines and autism that stirred alarm.

 

Ground zero in the debate is the pediatrician’s office.

 

Some frustrated pediatricians are drawing a line in the sand by requiring parents in their medical practices to vaccinate their children or seek health care elsewhere, a position that rubs some medical professionals the wrong way.

Among those taking a stand are the eight pediatricians of Northwestern Children’s Practice in Chicago. They no longer see children whose parents refuse to follow the childhood immunization schedule developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics. A letter and email sent to parents this year announced the policy, which went into effect in June.

 

“All of the available research shows that the safest and most effective way to vaccinate children is on the schedule set by the CDC and AAP,” said Dr. Scott Goldstein, one of the pediatricians. “To go against that schedule goes against proven scientific research and puts patients who do follow the schedule at risk.”

 

So far, fewer than a dozen families have chosen to leave the practice of about 5,000 to 6,000 patients, said Goldstein, who participates in the Illinois Immunization Patient Advocacy Leadership Initiative run by the Illinois chapter of the AAP.

Statistics show that the vast majority of parents support vaccination, regarded by many physicians as one of the greatest success stories in public health. But the number of parents resisting shots for their children has been increasing.

 

Read in Full:

http://www.ky3.com/news/ct-x-0706-vaccine-refusal-20110706,0,3968732.story