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Over the past decade, tremendous progress has been made in ensureing that families have access to hearing screening when a baby is born. Approximately 95% of babies now receive a hearing screen shortly after birth. Now, greater emphasis must be placed on training early childhood education and health care providers.

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.

Welcome to the American Academy of Pediatrics' home for the latest information and resources on autism for health care professionals and families. Many new autism resources are now available and are being featured in April--Autism Awareness Month.

Katie Beckett died Friday morning in the same hospital where she'd once made history. Beckett was 3 years old when her case changed health care law. She was 34 when she died. NPR's Joseph Shapiro explains why she was important to other children with disabilities.

May 24, 2012 -- New research provides a snapshot of what life is like for school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder in the U.S. The findings, which appear in the NCHS Data Brief, highlight areas where there is room for improvement, including earlier diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and access to behavioral therapies and other services. The new study looked at children aged 6 to 17 with special health care needs and autism spectrum disorder in 2011. More than half of school-aged kids were age 5 or older when they were first diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, the study showed. Less than 20% were diagnosed by age 2. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that pediatricians screen children for autism at 18 months of age.

Creating a Community and Solving Challenges 1. You, A Caregiver for a Child with Autism 2. Autism and the Family 3. Grandparents and the Extended Family 4. Safety at Home 5. Building Your Faith Community 6. Creating a Community in Your Neighborhood 7. Creating a Community at School 8. Evaluating Interventions, Treatments and Resources 9. Technology 10. Your Child’s Health Care Providers and Medical Home

Register here now!What:Reaching the age of 18 can be an exciting time. It’s also a time when many questions arise around legal responsibilities for young adults with disabilities and needs for continuing support. Families and professionals need information and assistance to think through questions around who will makes certain legal decisions- including about health care- and how to support young adults to assume greater responsibility for decision making over time. Guardianship is often used as a solution, yet it is important to understand the potential benefits and drawbacks of this and other legal approaches to providing decision making assistance. From an advocacy perspective, the goal is to protect as much independence as possible while supporting safe and clear decision-making processes. This webinar will discuss the options for support including from its least to most restrictive options. Tina Campanella, Executive Director of Quality Trust for Individuals with Disabilities, will lead this discussion. Quality Trust is an independent, nonprofit organization in Washington, DC supporting children and adults with disabilities through lay and legal advocacy services.When:Wednesday, March 14, 201212:00 pm - 1:00 pm MTContact:Got Transition? NHCTCPhone: (603) 228-8811

A training program designed to teach pediatricians to better identify kids with autism may be an effective way to decrease wait times and flag children with the developmental disorder at younger ages, researchers say. Currently many children suspected of having autism wait months to see diagnosticians for an evaluation, but researchers say that training community pediatricians to conduct assessments may allow kids to enter treatment programs more quickly. In a three-year study, researchers at Vanderbilt University trained 27 pediatric providers — including doctors and nurse practitioners — across the state of Tennessee to conduct brief evaluations in their practices of children who screened positive for autism. After participating in the two-day trainings, researchers found that the health care providers reached the same diagnostic conclusions as specialists 90 percent of the time. What’s more, providers reported making more autism diagnoses within their practices and said they were more comfortable discussing the developmental disorder. “The findings provide initial evidence suggesting early accurate diagnosis of autism may be possible and appropriate within many community pediatric practices,” said Amy Swanson of Vanderbilt who was the lead author of the study published online this month in the journal Autism. “Given the potentially harmful consequences of lengthy waits for comprehensive diagnostic evaluations, the potential impact of such training programs for advanced autism diagnosis within community practice settings could be quite powerful.”

HELENA – Montana officials seeking to free up bed space in the state hospital transfer mentally ill patients to prison, where they are warehoused, mistreated and denied proper mental health care, a disability rights advocacy group claims in a federal lawsuit Monday.

A new clinic inside Orchard Elementary that promises to make health care more convenient for its students and families is now enrolling patients, the first of its kind to open in Billings and only the third in the state.

Part II Seminar Coverage: How to Beat Bad Seizures Including a discussion of chronic AED meds and Diastat; Discussing DIASTAT with your doctor; Use of DIASTAT in various settings as school, work, vacation, etc.; Summer travel, summer camp, returning to school, and having Diastat on hand for these situation; Case studies; Review of various state laws relating to which professionals can administer DIASTAT. Who Should Attend: Families and Caregivers; Physicians; Nurses; Educators and School Administrators; Allied Health Care Professionals; Institutions Serving the ID/DD Population: State and privately-held facilities, Military Healthcare personnel.

The Senate Finance Committee worked for eight days to amend Chairman Baucus’ Mark. In sum, close to 150 amendments were considered by the Committee on topics that included affordability, the public option, Medicaid expansions, private insurance market reform, and many more. Please join Families USA this Friday, October 9th at 3 PM, to demystify the Senate Finance mark-up.

Mary and Robert Phillips of West Yellowstone learned first-hand the benefit of the Tele-Stroke Program that links expert Kalispell neurologists by video to stroke victims in emergency rooms in Libby, Ronan and Whitefish.

Shriners Hospitals for Children, which provide health care to more than 123,000 children annually, without financial obligation to patients or their families, is implementing a fundamental policy change intended to solidify the hospital system’s financial standing.

Families with mentally ill children face many extra hurdles. Costs and access to care are just part of the challenges. Despite significant scientific progress in understanding and treating mental illnesses over the past 20 years, many people still blame parents for children’s illnesses. Stigma is a heavy burden for a family with a child who is ill with a brain disorder. Treatment systems still tend to leave parents out of the process.