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The Council for Exceptional Children provides ongoing articles and updates (based on research) to support that students with varying abilities are capable of reaching higher levels of achievement than was once thought possible. The trick comes as we strive to update the mindsets of administrators, teachers and families (as well as the personal belief systems of the students) about the capabilities of diverse learners.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The secret to boosting the language skills of preschoolers with disabilities may be to put them in classrooms with typically developing peers, a new study finds.Researchers found that the average language skills of a child’s classmates in the fall significantly predicted the child’s language skills in the spring – especially for children with disabilities.The results support inclusion policies in schools that aim to have students with disabilities in the same classrooms alongside their typically developing peers, said Laura Justice, co-author of the study and professor of teaching and learning at The Ohio State University.

“We are finding more solid evidence, based on higher quality studies, that these early intensive behavioral interventions can be effective for young children on the autism spectrum, especially related to their cognitive and language skills,” said lead author Amy Weitlauf, Ph.D., assistant professor of Pediatrics and a Vanderbilt Kennedy Center investigator. “But the individual response to these treatments often varies from child to child.”

The Guide to Clinical Preventive Services includes U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations on screening, counseling, and preventive medication topics and includes clinical recommendations for each topic. This new pocket guide provides family physicians, internists, pediatricians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other clinicians with an authoritative source for making decisions about preventive services.

Most of the genetic risk for autism comes from versions of genes that are common in the population rather than from rare variants or spontaneous glitches, researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have found. Heritability also outweighed other risk factors in this largest study of its kind to date. About 52 percent of the risk for autism was traced to common and rare inherited variation, with spontaneous mutations contributing a modest 2.6 percent of the total risk.

Neuroscience may seem like an advanced subject of study, perhaps best reserved for college or even graduate school. Two researchers from Temple University in Philadelphia propose that it be taught earlier, however—much earlier. As in first grade.