+ Disaster Preparedness

other topics: use search box

From the LDA Newsbriefs (May/June 2011) here are some thoughts  about emergency preparedness .

Get a small waterproof and fireproof strong box for

• social security cards
• birth certificates
• marriage certificates
• death certificates
• copies of driver’s licenses
• insurance policies
• home deeds
• credit cards
• health care/benefit cards
• any other vital records

These records can help smooth the way if it should be necessary to apply for any type of disaster aid.

The American Red Cross has a website: http://www.recross.org.   You will find lists of Preparedness Fast Facts on topics such as

• Coping with Shelter-in Place Emergencies
• Pets and Disaster Safety
• Power Outage
• Taking Care of Your Emotional Health after a Disaster

These emergency facts are in English, Spanish and several other languages.

The Red Cross Store (http://www.redcrossstore.org) carries a variety of items:

• Emergency radios
• Personal Safety Emergency Packs
• Emergency Preparedness Kits
• Planning Kits
• LED Glowsticks
• and other items.

Visit the site to order items or use as a guide to develop your own kit. 

Tip: if you decide to store water, ensure that containers are classified as PETE (1), HDPE (2), LDPE (4), or polypropylene (5) to avoid toxic chemicals.

Visit http://www.healthychildrenproject.org for additional information on plastics.

sole source: Article in LDA Newbriefs, May/June 2011, prepared by their Public Policy/Advocay Committee.  Visit http://www.ldaamerica.org

tutoring in Columbus OH:  Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021 or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

 

+ Responding to Students’ Depression

other topics: use search box

An article in the October 2010 Educational Leadership , ASCD’s publication for educators, outlines characteristics of depression in children and adolescents, as well as suggestions for dealing with their problems in a school setting.

The article, by R. Marc A. Crundwell and Kim Killu, states that depressed young people often don’t ask for help at school because of negative thinking patterns.

And they may lack the necessary language skills and self-awareness to report — or recognize — their depressed state.

Characteristics of Depressed Children

• Irritability — at school: complaints of feeling sick, frequent absence, lack of participation, sleepiness.
• Difficulty concentrating on tasks/activities — at school: isolation from peers, problems with social skills, defiance.
• Short-term memory impairments — at school: poor work completion.
• Difficulties with planning, organizing, and executing tasks — at school: forgetting to complete assignments, difficulty concentrating.
• Facial expressions or body language indicating depression or sadness — at school: working slowly.
• Hypersensitivity — at school: easily hurt feelings, crying, anger.
• Poor performance and follow-through on tasks — at school: poor work completion.
• Inattention — at school: distractability, restlessness.
• Forgetfulness — at school: poor work submission, variable academic performance.
• Separation anxiety from parents or caregiver — at school: crying, somatic complaints, frequent absences, school refusal.  

Characteristics of Depressed Adolescents

• Depressed self-esteem and feelings of self-worth — at school: self-deprecating comments.
• Mild irritability — at school: defiance with authority figures, difficulties interacting with peers, argumentativeness.
• Negative perceptions of student’s past and present — at school: pessimistic comments, suicidal thoughts.
• Peer rejection — at school: isolation, frequent change in friends.
• Lack of interest and involvement in previously enjoyed activities — at school: isolation and withdrawal.
• Boredom — at school: sulking, noncompliance.
• Impulsive and risky behavior — at school: theft, sexual activity, alcohol or drug use, truancy.
• Substance abuse — at school: acting out of character, sleeping in class.

The authors suggest that establishing a “touchstone teacher” who can be a non-threatening liaison between the student and other teachers.  They might meet once a week — perhaps on Monday morning — to target areas that need attention, review work, and set goals.  This teacher might communicate clear guidelines and coordinate work across subjects, as well as help with follow-through on a self-management checklist.

Crundwell and Killu also suggest teaching study strategies, such as establishing timelines, breaking schoolwork into discrete tasks, outlining or creating graphic organizers, setting up the use of recording devices to make sure class information isn’t lost and can be reviewed.

In addition, some students need help staying socially interactive.  Teachers can make a deliberate effort to promote an accepting and inclusive environment and to set up cooperative group work activities.

Sometimes, communicating with the student’s family is not only appropriate, but necessary.  Developing a robust home-school relationship can mean that everyone understands what is happening in both milieus.  When parents know about classroom events and deadlines, they can support their child’s engagement with school. 

And finally, the topic that must be confronted once it is mentioned: suicide.  When a student suggests that she’s had suicidal ideation, school personnel must faithfully monitor her.  For some students, it is helpful to develop a “no-suicide” contract, an agreement between the student and the school in which she promises that if she’s experiencing such impulses she will inform a health care professional, a family member or a teacher.  Make a list of people who would be contacted.

Strategies to Help Students with Depression

• Give frequent feedback on academic, social, and behavioral performance.
• Teach goal setting and self-monitoring skills.
• Teach problem-solving skills.
• Coach the student in ways to organize, plan, and execute tasks demanded daily or weekly in school.
• Develop modifications and accommodations to respond to the student’s fluctuations in mood, ability to concentrate, or side effects of medication.  Assign one individual to serve as a primary contact and coordinate interventions.
• Give student opportunities to engage in social interactions.
• Monitor frequently to see whether the student has suicidal thoughts.
• Develop a home-school communication system to share information on the student’s academic, social and emotional behavior and any developments concerning medication or side effects.

 sole source: article in Educational Leadership, October 2010 (http://www.ascd.org) .  Author R. Marc A. Crundwell is a school psychologist in with Greater Essex County District School Board in Windsor, Ontario,Canada; author Kim Killu is associate professor of special education at the University of Michigan, Dearborn.

tutoring in Columbus OH: Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021  or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Instant Recess: A New Approach to Exercise

other topics: use search box or click a “category

In Jane Brody’s “Personal Health” column in the NY
Times, she quotes Dr Toni Yancey,

Being sedentary is the norm in America.  Even activities that we still do regularly demand less exertion.  And the less people have to do, the more quickly they get tired when they exert themselves just a little bit, which of course discourages them from exercising.

Dr Yancey is a professor of health services at the University of California, Los Angeles.  She has published a book titled “Instant Recess,” in which she demonstrates the value of two-a-day 10-minute breaks of enjoyable communal exercise.

She suggests they can be instituted anywhere: schools, day-care centers, workplaces, conferences, places of worship, senior centers —  anywhere people gather.

The secret to motivating more Americans to make regular physical exercise part of their lives is to incorporate it into the everyday routine.

We might, for example, gather a group to take a brisk walk around the grounds twice a day.  Getting people to exercise in groups is easier: “Everybody’s doing it!”

 Yancey calls instant recess “a point of entry, a calling card for national physical activity.”  She sees it as a way to stimulate health promoting activity, especially among people whose lives and value systems have never included it.

These short bouts of activity can spill over to the  rest of a person’s life.  Once people feel more fit and better about themselves, they are more likely to engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity during their leisure time.

She thinks of the recess model as

the aerobics of the 21st century — an updated exercise prescription for an increasingly over-scheduled, ethnically diverse, multicultural, media-and-information-technology-driven global modern society.

 When we make instant recess the default option, she says, no one has to decide to exercise, or carve out special time to do it; and some of the rewards are immediate: camaraderie, social interaction with friends and co-workers, stress-relief, muscle relaxation, increased energy, improved mood and better concentration.

AT WORK

At sites around the country, students, employees and older people are taking dancelike musical exercise breaks  that have actually been shown to enhance achievement, productivity, self-esteem and well-being.

Companies including LL Bean and Replacements Ltd are using the kind of breaks Yancey promotes.  They have found that output is increased and injuries and workers compensation claims have decreased.

LL Bean employees who take part in three five-minute stretch breaks each workday have given back “a 100 percent return on its investment,” says Yancey.  Within three years, work related injuries dropped from 14 a year to essentially none.

At Replacements Ltd, 10-minute exercise breaks resulted in less time lost from work because of problems like carpal tunnel or low back pain.

Yancey is now involved in a study of recess breaks at 70 work sites in LA County.

AT SCHOOL

Dr Yancey stresses that 10-minute exercise breaks during the school day could do more to forward the goals of No Child Left Behind than double that amount of time learning math and English. 

She cites a federally funded study by the University of Kansas which found that 10-minute activity breaks, usually done to music, led to improved scores in math, spelling and composition among the participants. 

These students also increased their activity levels outside school, on weekdays and weekends, and they gained less weight than those who did not participate in the breaks.

Since schools around the country are reducing PE and recess time in order to do more test preparation, Yancey feels this study  is especially telling.

Other studies have shown that athlete-led exercise breaks in schools, even via DVDs or CDs, can motivate sedentary kids to get moving and improve fitness levels.

source: Jane Brody’s article on 11/23/2010.  See “Instant Recess: Building a Fit Nation 10 Minutes at a Time,” by Toni Yancey, MD, MPH.  University of California Press, paperback $22.95.  ISBN 9780520263765

tutoring in Columbus OH:  Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021  or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Book: The Evolution of Childhood

other topics: click a “category” or use search box

Melvin Konner has published “The Evolution of Childhood: Relationships, Emotion, Mind,” (Harvard University Press).

It has been thought that children’s play, including the testosterone-driven adolescent variants, may have played a part in the development of civilisations.  Michelle Pridmore-Brown’s book review  in the Times Literary Supplement says

Since play is costly in terms of energy expenditure, and it is risky, it must have conferred survival and reproductive advantages.

All mammals play, Pridmore-Brown says, but none play the intricately constructed sorts of games humans do; they don’t have such complex emotional connections to their play; and no other species continues to play into adulthood.

Konner is a professor of neurobiology and anthropology at Emory University.  He has spent a lifetime studying the biological evolution of behavior and its cultural manifestations.

This ambitious book surveys human childhood from three vantage points: an evolutionary and cross-species perspective, that of genes, hormones and brain development, and also from perspectives considering social and cultural issues.

 Konner considers three stages of childhood.

First Stage

The first is birth; and human babies are strikingly immature compared to normative ape development.  Infants ought to be born at eleven months, but they would be so big they would break their mothers’ hips.

Nine  months in the womb is an evolutionary compromise: a standoff between big brains and bipedalism.  Human infants continue fetal growth through their first year.

This makes their survival chances fragile.  So it has been suggested that a reason babies are asocial for the first month is to make it   easier for mothers to postpone attachment.  Ape mothers bond immediately, unconditionally.

By three months, babies are exquisitely in control, using their helplessness as a front.  They are able to manipulate the behavior of the mother/caregiver using a kind of hormonal glue: holding an infant has opiate-like effects, even on men.  

According to Konner, the tripling of the size of the whites of human eyes — since the time of our ape ancestors — accounts for the power of the human gaze.   Infants are able to engage their helpers via a mixture of gaze, smiling and vocalization.

In its first half-year, the infant is indiscriminate with its affections.  But in the second half, it consolidates its attachments, hones its play repertoire, and experiences “stranger anxiety” as a result of limbic circuitry growth.  As this circuitry comes online, the infant needs other minds to develop normally.  If a child is deprived of social contact at this critical stage, it will likely be unable to form emotional attachments later on.

Humans wean their infants radically earlier than Great Apes, and this increases language proficiency and more sophisticated forms of play.  “Needless to say, language is crucial for increasing cognitive and social complexity in general,” writes Pridmore-Brown.

 Second Stage

The human child’s years between six and eleven are a dramatic structural alteration to standard Ape maturation.  Chimps go straight from weaning into puberty.

Homo sapiens experience a long hormonally quiescent “middle” stage before adolescence, keeping sex hormones at bay for several years in order to allow learning.  The evidence suggests that children with longer middle childhoods had an edge over those who did not.

The start of this period can be identified at eruption of the first molar.  In cognitive terms, this “5-to-7 shift” is known as the moment of “school readiness” in the industrialized world.

Instead of brain circuits coming visibly online as in the first period of growth, neural consolidation occurs.  This permits “metacognition” (thinking about thinking), which enables self-talk or interior speech. 

The ability to shift perspective makes for greater variability in play.  As children begin engineering their own games, they are in a sense directing their own brain assembly.  According to Pridmore-Brown

play serves to control emotion, to test limits and measure oneself against others, to acquire spatial skills and indeed culturally valued competencies that will later attract mates.

Play at this age also tends to solidify cultural group identity, an “us” in contradistinction to “them.”

These in-groups and out-groups trouble all playgrounds.  Konner believes these difficulties can be short-circuited through training.

Third Stage

However, with the onset of adolescence this finely enculturated, mostly moral, well-equipped being is assaulted by hormones . 

Testosterone and — in the case of girls, estradiol –transform white and gray brain matter ratios.  This amplifies some brain regions, shrinks others, and leads to sexual behavior, aggression and risk-taking.  After further hormonal surges, brain maturation usually enables adult levels of inhibition and reason.

Susceptibility to peer influence is highly variable, but generally peaks at around the age of fourteen.  Aggression has a remarkably stong genetic component, but can be modulated by environment.  In cultures where adolescents undergo ritualized puberty initiations, this aggression can be channeled; in contexts like our own, “the transition to adulthood is messier.”

The vast majority of children emerge unscathed, although one study estimates that approximately 11 per cent of adolescents have chronic difficulties.

At this age, a child may become idealistic or turn to religion. These young people may choose self-imposed rigid rules of conduct, gaining a bulwark against entropy and anxiety.

If average behavior typically follows a set pattern between birth and five, and between six and eleven, this is no longer the case in adolescence.   Cultural context matters a lot, as does individual biology.

The fact is that hormonal surges that increase risk-taking enable new levels of cognition.  Play takes on a new form, potentially more rebellious but also potentially creative, in the case of young computer tinkerers.

Pridmore-Brown calls Konner a compassionate Darwinist.  He insists on understanding, rather than judgement.  Knowledge of our evolutionary legacy affords us the knowledge that enables better interventions.

sole source for this post is Michelle Pridmore-Brown’s article in the October 1, 2010 issue of the Times Literary Supplement.  Melvin Konner’s “The Evolution of Childhood: Relationships, emotion, mind”is published by Harvard University Press, $39.95.  ISBN 978-0-674-04566-8.

tutoring in Columbus OH:  Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021  or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Test the Brain BEFORE Concussion?

other topics: click a “category” or use search box

Education Week, the weekly newspaper, frequently contains articles on concussion.

In a letter in the October 13th issue, Sue Klund notes that Bethesda Hospital in St Paul Minnesota specializes in brain injuries.  The hospital offers an online test that anyone can take to document what his or her healthy brain looks like.

After the viewer takes this ImPACT test, she says, no one examines it, but it is saved.

If the test-taker later suffers a brain injury, doctors will have a record of what that “normal”  brain looked like before the injury.

When medical personnel have a baseline with which to compare damage, treatment can be much more specific.

For more information        http://www.healtheast.org/search.html?q=online+brain+test

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021  or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Babies Disinterest in Faces Possible Risk for Autism

other topics: use search box or click a tab/category

Shari Roan’s blog at the L A Times notes research published in the Journal of Child Psychiatry and Psychology.

Researchers from the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore and the University of Delaware have observed 25  6-month-old infants who were siblings of children with autism.  (Siblings are at much higher risk of developing the disease.)

These infants were compared with 25 infants from families with no history of autism.

The infants were observed performing a task that measures their ability to learn, and their level of social engagement with a  caregiver.

Researchers found that infants in the low-risk group were more likely to have normal social gazing: they looked at their caregivers, pointed to toys and became excited as they played.

The high-risk siblings, though, spent less time looking at caregivers and more time focused on the toy.

The two groups did not differ in how well they learned the game being played with the caregiver.

Authors are A N Bhat, J C Galloway and R J Landa. 

Landa says the study provides more evidence for early diagnosis, and that the lack of interest in people’s faces is “a subtle difference that could be easily overlooked by both parents and some professionals.

for access to the complete journal article : http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02262.x/abstract.  For Roan’s 9/2 LA Times blog post, find it at  http://www.latimes.com .

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021   or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Host a Fresh Air Kid from New York’s Inner City

other topicsl click a “category” or use search box

If you live in the environs of New York City or New York State, you might want to invite an inner city child to spend part of the summer with your family.

The Fresh Air Fund has been providing country and suburban summer experiences  for many years.  In 2010, they still need some volunteer host families.  Visit http://freshairfundhost.com/ ( or call 800-367-0003) for details.

In 2009, the Fresh Air Fund’s Volunteer Host Family program, called Friendly Town, gave close to 5,000 New York City boys and girls, ages six to 18, a chance to experience memorable weeks outside their urban setting.

More than 65 percent of all Fresh Air children are reinvited to stay with their host family year after year.

Thanks to host families who open up their homes for a few weeks each summer, children growing up in New York City’s toughest neighborhoods have experienced the joys of Fresh Air experiences.

Visiting the Web site will offer stories from family and their visitors, in addition to details about how to become involved.

Fresh Air Children

Fresh Air children are boys and girls, six to 18 years old, who live in New York City.  Children on first-time visits are six to 12 years old and stay for either one or two weeks. 

Youngsters who are re-invited by the same family may continue with The Fund through age 18.  Many enjoy longer summertime visits year after year.

A visit to the home of a warm and loving volunteer host family can make all the difference in the world to an inner-city child.  All it takes to create lifetime memories is laughing in the sunshine and making new friends.

The majority of Fresh Air children are from low-income communities.  These are often families without the resources to send their children on summer vacations. 

Most inner-city youngsters grow up in toweing apartment buildings without large, open outdoor play spaces.  Concrete playgrounds cannot replace the freedom of running barefoot through the grass or riding bikes down country lanes.

Fresh Air children are registered by more than 90 participating social service and community organizations, located in disadvantaged neighborhoods in the five boroughs of New York City. 

These community-based agencies are in close contact with children in need of summer experiences in rural and suburban areas.  Each agency is responsible for registering children for the program. 

Fresh Air Host Families

Friendly Town host families are volunteers who live in the suburbs or small town communities.  Host families range in size, ethnicity and background.  They share the desire to open their hearts and homes to give city children an experience they will never forget. 

Hosts say the Fresh Air experience is as enriching for their own families as it is for the inner city children.  There are no financial requirements for hosting a child. 

It should be noted that Volunteers may request the age group and gender of the Fresh Air youngster they would like to host for up to two weeks.

You Might Offer a Child…

Playing in the backyard, laughing in the sunshine, catching fireflies, riding bicyles, learning to swim, running barefoot in grass, looking at stars at night, building sandcastles, making new friends…

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021  or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com  

+ Five Easy Tips for Summer Learning

other topics: click a “category” or use search box

From Reading Rockets, research tells us what works to aid learning and avoid losses over the summer.

We know that, as Harris Cooper of Duke University says, that “Overall, children experience an average summer learning loss   across reading and mathematics of about one month.”  Some children experience even larger losses.

1.     Read Every Day

Research tell us that at the middle school level, reading four to five books over the summer has a positive impact on fall reading achievement comparable to attending  summer school (Kim, 2004).

So experts suggest that you take your kids to the library often and let them choose which books to check out.  Listen to books on tape.  Subscribe them to a magazine.  Take turns reading to each other.  Allow your kids to stay up half an hour later at night as long as they’re reading!

2.     Use Math Every Day

The research suggests that the largest learning losses for all children occur in mathematical computation, and average of 2.6 months (Cooper, 1996).

They suggest that children practice the multiplication tables by making each point in a basketball game worth 7 points (or 8 or 9).  Ask your children to make change at the drive-thru.  Show your child how to go to Cool Math or other math learning sites to play math games.  Make up math word problems in the car or at the dinner table.

3.     Get Outside and Play

From research we know that intense physical activity programs have positive effects on academic achievement, including increased concentration, improved mathematics, reading, and writing test scores, and reduced disruptive behavior (Journal of School Health 1997).

So try to find ways to ensure your child is active for 60 minutes each day.  Have him or her walk the neighbor’s dog, go swimming, play badminton or soccer, take walks, or go for family bike rides.  Look for safe, fun ways to play outside together year-round.  Go to Family Corner Magazine and PBS Parents for more ideas.

4.     Write Every Week

Research tells us more freshmen entering degree-granting postsecondary institutions take remedial writing courses than take remedial reading courses (NCES 2003).

Ask your child to write a letter to his or her grandparents, relatives, or friends.  Encourage him to keep a summer journal.  Have her write the family’s grocery list.  Organize a secret pal writing projects for adults and kids at your church or in your community.

5.     Do a Good Deed

Interestingly, research tells us that students learn better and “act out” less when they engage in activities to aid in their social-emotional development, such as community service (The Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning, 2004).

You might encourage your child to help out neighbors or friends.  He or she might volunteer with a local group, or complete a service learning project.  Suggest that your child set aside part of his allowance for charity.  Look at Nickelodeon’s Big Help web site together for more ideas.

source: http://www.readingrockets.org .  They say these tips were adapted from a presentation by Brenda McLaughlin, director of Research and Policy, Center for Summer Learning, Johns Hopkins University; and Jane Voorhees Sharp, Office of Early Care and Education, New Jersey Dept of Human Services.

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021  or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com .

+ Children’s Book Week: May 10-16 2010

other topics: click a “category” or use search box

Children’s Book Week has been celebrated nationally since 1919, in schools, libraries, bookstores, clubs, private homes — or any place where there are children and books.

This year the dates are May 10-16.  Visit http://www.bookweekonline.com for free bookmarks, information about scheduled events across the country, and suggestions for activities.

Educators, librarians, booksellers and families celebrate children’s books and the love of reading with storytelling, parties, author and illustrator appearances, and other book-related events.

It all began with the idea that children’s books can change lives.  Franklin K. Matthiews, the librarian of the Boy Scouts of America, began touring the country in 1913 to promote higher standards in children’s books.  He proposed creating a Children’s Book Week, which would be supported by like-minded groups.

Matthiews enlisted two important allies: Frederic G. Melcher (editor of Publisher’s Weekly) and Anne Carroll Moore, who was Superintendent of Children’s Works at the New York Public Library and a major figure in the library world.

In 1916, the American Booksellers Association and the American Library Association cooperated with the Boy Scouts in sponsoring a “Good Book Week.”

By 1944, the newly established Children’s Book Council assumed responsibility for administering Children’s Book Week. 

And in 2008, the celebration was moved from November to May.  At that time, responsibility for Children’s Book Week was transferred to Every Child a Reader, the philanthropic arm of the children’s publishing industry.

Also in 2008, the Children’s Book Council created the Children’s Choice Book Awards, the only national child-chosen book awards program, which gives young readers a powerful voice in their own reading choices.

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021   or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Auditory Processing Disorder Stifles Communication and Learning

other topics: click a “category” or use search box

Tara Parker-Pope writes in tne NY Times about auditory processing disorder and its effect on Rosie O’Donnell’s son Blake.

Children with auditory processing disorder are often called “slow.”  They can be told to “pay attention,” or “stop being so lazy.”

APD is a poorly understood syndrome that interferes with the brain’s ability to recognize and interpret sounds. 

Perhaps 2-5 % of children have this disorder, according to Gail D. Chernak, speech and learning sciences expert at Washington State University.  And it’s likely that many cases are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed.

 The symptoms include trouble paying attention and following directions, low academic performance, behavior problems, as well as poor reading and vocabulary. 

Children may have challenges retrieving information and also formulating spoken language.  (If you visit the link to the article below, you will hear O’Donnell describe the expressive language difficulties Blake has largely overcome.) 

Often these symptoms are mistaken for developmental problems, attention problems and even autism.

Lois Kam Heymann is a speech pathologist and auditory therapist who has written “The Sound of Hope” (Ballantine).  She is the therapist who worked with Blake O’Donnell.

Blake always struggled to retain the words he heard.  It resulted in a limited vocabulary and trouble with reading and spelling.  He couldn’t understand abstract language, such as “cover third base;”  even “knock knock” jokes confused and frustrated him.

Ms. Heymann says

The normal reaction by the parent is ‘Why don’t you listen?’  They were listening but they weren’t hearing the right thing.

Often the solution is a comprehensive approach, both at school and at home.  Parents can dampen unwanted noise, for example, with strips of felt.  Tennis balls can be placed on the legs of chairs or desks.  Parents can simplify language, avoid metaphors and abstract references. 

Rosie O’Donnell, who wrote the forward to Ms Heymann’s book, says in their family, they cut back on large, noisy gatherings, which were upsetting to Blake.  They also saw to it that Blake had twice-weekly sessions with Heymann: these focused on sounds and words, using rhyme and body gestures.  Such interventions helped him catch up on missed learning.

Classroom help is essential.  One family met with teachers to agree on a series of adaptations.  Among those adaptations was having a teacher wear a small microphone that directed her voice more clearly to a speaker on the boy’s desk.  In that way, he was able to distinguish her voice from competing background noise.

Parents do take heart from knowing that the disorder seems to have little or nothing to do with intelligence.  O’Donnell says Blake has an encyclopedic knowledge of animals — he once corrected her when she referred to a puma as a mountain lion.

According to O’Donnell, treatment is about more than better grades.

[APD] definitely affected his whole world.  Not just learning.  It cuts them off from society, from interactions.  To see the difference in who he is today versus who he was two years ago, and then to contemplate what would have happened had we not been able to catch it — I think he would have been lost.

For the complete Times article by Tara Parker-Pope, visit http://tinyurl.com/2eh5dkp.  Watch a short video of Rosie O’Donnell and her son, and hear some of the ways Blake’s situation improved.

Scientists are conducting brain imaging studies to better understand the neural basis of APD and perhaps determine if it manifests in several forms.

For a trove of information and a vast number of resources, vist the site of  The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders at  http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/.

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021   or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com