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At first glance, Quiet Time - a stress reduction strategy used in several San Francisco middle and high schools, as well as in scattered schools around the Bay Area - looks like something out of the om-chanting 1960s. Twice daily, a gong sounds in the classroom and rowdy adolescents, who normally can't sit still for 10 seconds, shut their eyes and try to clear their minds. I've spent lots of time in urban schools and have never seen anything like it.

Making decisions about medication for a child with emotional or behavioral problems can be daunting and fraught with worry, especially when more than one medication is involved. Studies show that the number of children taking several psychoactive medications is soaring. Here are some guidelines to help you understand why your doctor might recommend multiple medications for your child, and whether you should have concerns about this treatment.

I know what you’re thinking when you read the title of this podcast. You’re thinking what the **** — economists? What can economists possibly have to say about something as emotional, as nuanced, as humane, as parenting? Well, let me say this: because economists aren’t necessarily emotional (or, for that matter, all that nuanced or humane), maybe they’re exactly the people we need to sort this through. Maybe. You may remember that we wrote a bit about parenting in Freakonomics; now we’ve put together an entire roundtable of economists to talk about a great many elements of child-rearing, with one essential question in mind: how much do parents really matter, and in what dimensions? So you’ll hear about parents’ effect on everything from education and culture cramming to smoking and drinking.

What exactly is happiness? The answer isn’t a simple cut and dry definition. I think of it as a state of mind. One that exists along a spectrum from feeling blue, to elated with neutral somewhere in the middle.  Most people move along the happiness spectrum from day to day, hour to hour or even moment to moment depending on the situation and circumstances. Special needs Mom’s tend to have overly full plates and the combination of exhaustion, challenging situations, and constant stress can leave our mood falling more toward the neutral or unhappy end of the spectrum.  However, that doesn’t mean we are stuck there.  There are several things we can do for ourselves to help us shift the balance and move closer to the happier side.

Peace, Purpose and a Pool: Sweetwater Spectrum, a California residence for autistic adults, hopes to become a model for like-minded experiments across the country.

“Treating children at home whenever possible,” said Patrick Gardner, an attorney with Young Minds Advocacy Project, “is more humane, less costly, and more effective than institutionalization.” Under the agreement the state will establish a new program and approach for delivering mental health services called Wraparound with Intensive Services or “WISe.” The program will help prevent adverse outcomes for youth with serious mental illness such as hospitalization, long-­term institutionalization in psychiatric facilities, and placements in the foster care and juvenile justice systems. These are all experiences Smith has known personally and doesn’t want repeated for other kids. “This case,” says Smith, “was about doing something to make a difference so kids with illnesses like mine won’t have to go through the things I did.” Leecia Welch, Senior Attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, agrees. “Approval of this settlement has set the stage for increasing access to appropriate mental health services for Washington’s most vulnerable youth. Better access to care means better outcomes for kids like Phillip.”

Gone are the days of teaching students to simply memorize math facts. Brain research has shown that it’s important that students first develop “number sense,” because after gaining a firm grasp of math concepts (like multiplication), young minds are better prepared to put math facts into long term storage. Also gone are the days when teaching meant showing students a single procedure for solving a math problem.

MCHA will begin accepting applications for this new option on July 1, 2010.  The first date that coverage can be effective is August 1, 2010.  Please keep in mind that applications received on the 1st through the 15th of the month may have an effective date of the first of the following month.  Applications received the 16th through 31st may have an effective date of the 15th of the following month.  To qualify, an individual must be a citizen or national of the United States, or lawfully present, must be a Montana resident, must have a preexisting medical condition and must have been uninsured for at least 6 months before applying for the federal program. Enrollment in the federal MAC Plan is limited and on a first-come basis. 

Every September, millions of parents try a kind of psychological witchcraft, to transform their summer-glazed campers into fall students, their video-bugs into bookworms. Advice is cheap and all too familiar: Clear a quiet work space. Stick to a homework schedule. Set goals. Set boundaries. Do not bribe (except in emergencies).

And check out the classroom. Does Junior’s learning style match the new teacher’s approach? Or the school’s philosophy? Maybe the child isn’t “a good fit” for the school.

Such theories have developed in part because of sketchy education research that doesn’t offer clear guidance. Student traits and teaching styles surely interact; so do personalities and at-home rules. The trouble is, no one can predict how.

Doctors can’t formally diagnose autism in children younger than age 2, but that’s not stopping researchers who are working to identify infants who are at risk and begin therapy. The idea is to take early intervention and apply it at ever-younger ages. Researchers at the MIND Institute at the University of California, Davis are enrolling children as young as 6 months who are exhibiting signs of autism — such as lack of eye contact or failing to smile or babble — in a pilot project called Infant Start.

What: People diagnosed with mental health problems have significantly shorter life spans and are more likely   to have serious but preventable health conditions—including obesity, diabetes, and hypertension—compared to people who do not have mental health problems. Traditionally, the mental health field has focused primarily on a person’s psychiatric stabilization rather than taking a broader, holistic approach that looks at the wellness of the whole person—mind, body, and spirit. Recent preventive and holistic approaches along with complementary and alternative  medicines (CAMs) have shown success in improving the overall health of individuals with mental health problems which contributes to their ability to live a more full and satisfying life in the community. The SAMHSA 10x10 Wellness Campaign invites you to a free training teleconference titled “Prevention and Holistic Approaches to Wellness: A Fresh Perspective on Mental Health Recovery.” This teleconference will educate diverse stakeholders about both peer-delivered and community mental health provider-delivered alternatives to wellness that focus on building resiliency and supporting individuals to establish healthier lifestyles. It also will address how to create educational campaigns and outreach to disseminate information about complementary and alternative healing practices in the context of rigorous science.   When: Tuesday, December 7, 2010 1 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Mountain

Click Here to Participate in the Survey As the federal Statewide Family Network Agency under the Child, Adolescent and Services Systems Program (CASSP), Family Support Network’s mission is to establish a child and family focus in all programs serving children and adolescents with mental health issues in Montana. Our goal is to strengthen families through advocacy and education by partnering with local agencies and the federal Center for Mental Health Services. With this mission in mind, we want to alert you on a survey developed to help assess mental health systems development.

The Special Education Division is pleased to announce that Tim Harris, our State Director of Special Education, is the recipient of the Glenn I. Latham award.  Please join in our congratulations to Tim for this well deserved recognition. Tim Harris, State Director of Special Education in Montana recently received the Glenn I. Latham award from the Center for Technical Assistance for Excellence in Special Education (TAESE) at the Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University. Before his passing in 2001, Dr. Glenn Latham was internationally known for his research and technical assistance in the areas of behavior management and parenting.  Dr. Latham was highly respected throughout the country.   Each year, the award is presented to an individual working at the state level that has the following attributes: Has made contributions to improving services for children with disabilities at the local, state, and regional levels. Shows ongoing compassion and dedication in the area of special education. Has demonstrated leadership-leading with heart and mind. Promotes results for children with disabilities. Keeps the main thing the main thing for children with disabilities. Possesses similar characteristics and philosophy of special education as Dr. Latham.

Do you understand all the requirements, procedures and pitfalls of fiscal planning with supplemental needs trusts? This legal briefing will provide you with the specialized skills required to provide special needs beneficiaries with financial structure and stability. Offer your clients the guidance and peace of mind they so desperately need - register today!

Today, we are opening up auto-captions to all YouTube users. There will even be a "request processing" button for un-captioned videos that any video owner can click on if they want to speed up the availability of auto-captions. It will take some time to process all the available video, so here are some things to keep in mind: While we plan to broaden the feature to include more languages in the months to come, currently, auto-captioning is only for videos where English is spoken. Just like any speech recognition application, auto-captions require a clearly spoken audio track. Videos with background noise or a muffled voice can't be auto-captioned. President Obama's speech on the recent Chilean Earthquake is a good example of the kind of audio that works for auto-captions. Auto-captions aren't perfect and just like any other transcription, the owner of the video needs to check to make sure they're accurate. In other cases, the audio file may not be good enough to generate auto-captions. But please be patient -- our speech recognition technology gets better every day. Auto-captions should be available to everyone who's interested in using them. We're also working to provide auto-captions for all past user uploads that fit the above mentioned requirements. If you're having trouble enabling them for your video, please visit our Help Center: this article is for uploaders and this article is for viewers.

Another view: MMR vaccination vindication By The Associated Press - 02/10/2010 It has been obvious for years that a British study positing a possible link between a common vaccine combination and autism failed the physician's injunction to "do no harm." Still, it's significant that the influential medical journal that published Dr. Andrew Wakefield's discredited study in 1998 finally has retracted it.The decision by the Lancet won't change the minds of some parents. It will not entirely dispel the conspiracy theories about how the medical establishment covered up a connection between autism and the MMR vaccine, which protects infants against measles, mumps and rubella. Still, the conclusive repudiation of what has been a sacred text for the anti-vaccination movement should reassure at least some of the families that have refused to accept an overwhelming medical consensus that MMR was safe as well as effective.

Ask most basketball players if they'd mind subbing in to a game with less than a minute to play - they'd *scoff* at the notion.  But not Huntley Project senior Sam Shaules.  Q2's Casey Conlon has the heart-warming story of the 30 seconds of game-time that not only make his night - but his entire season.

This mass of flesh in the wheelchair - obese, constricted, imperfect - is Chris Johnson's body. It is, he says, "his monster." It's a cruel joke of Mother Nature, explained in words such as "cerebral palsy" and delivered in humorless punch lines that, instead of laughter, can leave him lonely, melancholy and despairing.Chris Johnson knows them all. But know this about Johnson - the brain damage that he experienced at birth 30 years ago relegated his body to a wheelchair but did not limit the boundaries of his mind.As proof, he will roll across the stage May 22 at Augustana College's commencement ceremony, a double major in French and English with a 3.95 grade-point average and a story of inspiration.