She said that the biggest question children are likely to have is whether something similar can happen to them. Parents should reassure them and help them feel safe while also providing age and developmentally appropriate information. Her other tips for talking to your children about the shooting include: Take care of yourself first. Calm your own fears and anxiety before talking to your children. They pick up on your emotions, and your calm demeanor will go a long way to reassure. Turn off TV and other media. Graphic details and images can be upsetting to all of us. Younger children may think that the event is happening over and over. Tuning in for the latest is tempting; pace yourself with the news and listen in only when children are out of earshot. Consider the child’s age when deciding whether bring it up. A preschooler may not know about the event and probably doesn’t need to know about it. Answer questions if they ask. Be proactive with older children. You can start the conversation with “you may have heard about…” and ask what questions they may have. Help the child understand that it is OK to feel sad or angry that this had happened. Reassure and emphasize their safety. Discuss the steps that adults in their life take to keep them safe, such as their schools’ safety plan and safety measures taken at home. Help your child find ways to cope with their fear and grief. Providing outlets like artwork or imaginative play can help them process their feelings. Draw on ways your family typically copes with a crisis such as sending a card, making a donation as a family to help the victims or praying together. If you or your child need additional help dealing with this tragedy, be sure to contact your doctor or mental health provider.

what’s the advantage of aerosol medicines?Many drugs that used to be administered as a high dose pill, or by IV injection, are now available as aerosols.  Inhaled medications include corticosteroids to treat patients with asthma and antibiotics to treat patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). By delivering these drugs directly to the lungs as an aerosol, we are able to bypass delivery into the systemic circulation, which allows us to give lower doses and reduce unwanted side-effects. Other drugs, such as bronchodilators and hypertonic saline, also benefit from this route of administration.

Netbuddy is full of handy tips and bright ideas from parents, carers, teachers and therapists with experience of learning disability and autism. It is a ‘by you, for you’ special needs resource, offering practical solutions to everyday issues – from brushing teeth to challenging behaviour.

"Do I have a right to observe the class before agreeing (or not agreeing) to a placement for my child? The special ed director said I cannot observe the class because of confidentiality issues with the other children." Pete says: I have represented kids with disabilities since 1978. In all these years, I have never had an instance where a school denied a parent, or the parent's private sector expert, the opportunity to observe a potential placement. The school board attorneys with whom I have worked over the years have always permitted observations by parents and the parent's outside experts.   When a school administrator takes this position, it creates an appearance of two things (both bad): (1) that the program is clearly not appropriate and the parent will quickly discover this, and (2) that the school is attempting to keep important information from parents. I think many Hearing Officers and Administrative Law Judges would view a refusal to allow an observation as grounds to find that the proposed placement was not appropriate.

Her career blossomed, with residential and commercial design work. At the same time, she began watching home improvement shows on television. She realized there was important work to be done in designing -- or redesigning -- spaces for children like her son. And for those with other special needs, whether physical disabilities or challenges like autism, the key word, Schutte says, is "functionality."

Many teachers (including parents) witness children who lack social competence, which includes critical, life-enriching friendship skills. As a result, these students often not only have difficulty establishing and maintaining friendships, but are poorly accepted by their peers, and may later engage in more serious and violent acts when their discourteous and disrespectful behaviors persist over time. Furthermore, social competence opens doors for academic success.

In between those scenarios is a zone between life and death, between viability and futility. If a baby is born after the 22nd week of pregnancy but before the 25th, not even the smartest doctors in the world can say what will happen to it. New technologies can sometimes keep these micropreemies alive, but many end up disabled, some catastrophically so. Whether to provide care to these infants is one of the fundamental controversies in neonatology.

The national standard recommends a ratio of one registered, professional school nurse to every 750 students, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Association of School Nurses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Nurses Association.Current 2012 data indicate that Montana has a ratio of 1 registered school nurse to 1,985 students, according to Montana Association of School Nurses’ April 2012 comprehensive study of school nursing services.

Monica Paoli and her 17-year-old daughter Bella watch the performance of “Miracle on 34th Street: The Musical” adapted for people on the autism spectrum and with sensory integration issues last week at the MCT Center for the Performing Arts. Bella, a sophomore at Sentinel High School, said she liked the performance “because it’s quiet and there’re no surprises.”

MISSOULA - The Missoula Children's Theater has once again produced a play specifically for children with autism. Reporter Cristy Aranguiz spoke to Miss Montana, who says MCT changed her life, and that performances like the one held Tuesday night can help others as well.

Two new studies that follow the development of children with autism suggest that distinct subgroups of the disorder exist early on and that the severity of symptoms in most of these children remains stable over time. 

Miss Montana 2012 Alexis Wineman has made autism awareness her mission for the year, and she brought her passion for the subject to CMR High School in Great Falls on Wednesday.

One of the most popular intervention therapies for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) lacks scientific support according to a literature review published by University of Texas at Austin professor Mark O’Reilly and an international team of scientists.

The Positive Behavior Support-Nevada program, located in the University of Nevada, Reno's College of Education's Nevada Center for Excellence in Disabilities, offers a way to positively impact the quality of life for individuals and families struggling with disabilities. In addition to a variety of services already provided, the non-profit, statewide program installed a new series of workshops that have helped its participants make strides in improving the specific challenging behaviors that many individuals with disabilities face.

Today, however, most of the approximately 10,000 infants, children and youth who are deaf-blind in the U.S. live at home and attend local public schools. This change, Mr. Gense says, is incredibly positive and profound for children and families. However, it presents a growing challenge to serve an increasing number of widely dispersed children with complex disabilities, like deaf-blindness, in settings that often lack access to trained personnel on-site.

A federal appeals court has upheld a longtime U.S. Department of Education regulation requiring school districts, under certain circumstances, to reimburse parents for independent educational evaluations of their children with disabilities. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, ruled unanimously to uphold the regulation promulgated under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the main federal special education law. The rule requires districts or other public agencies to pay for independent evaluations when parents disagree with the public agency's initial assessment of their child.

Nike modified a pair of its Hyperdunk basketball shoes, which usually have a lace system. The Matthew Walzer version has a zipper customized with Walzer's name and a large Velcro closing wrap at the ankle.

There seems to be some confusion as to what Response to Intervention is and how teachers and schools can use this approach to help children. So, let’s start with some basics: RTI is not an action verb. You cannot RTI a student to support his or her learning and behavioral needs. RTI is not a place or a room in your school; you cannot send a student to the RTI room. So what exactly is RTI, then? RTI was added to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 2004 and became part of the nation’s approach to identifying and helping students who are struggling academically or behaviorally in school. It is a multi-tier approach to the early identification and support of students with learning and behavior needs. Struggling learners are provided with interventions at increasing levels of intensity to accelerate their rate of learning, and you, general education teachers, special educators, and specialists, provide th0se services.

"Montana's suicide epidemic is a public health crisis,” said Matt Kuntz, executive director of the Montana chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.During 2010, at least 227 Montanans killed themselves. In 2011, the number was closer to 225. That’s about 22 people per 100,000 residents, nearly twice the national average.The victims are military veterans, American Indians, senior citizens and teenagers. Often, they are depressed and hundreds of miles from the nearest mental health professional. Even where they can get help, they tend to "cowboy up," afraid their illness will be seen as weakness.

Marilyn Bartlett, Ph.D., J.D., who was initially denied accommodations for the bar exam, filed a landmark lawsuit for reasonable accommodations and won!