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A child's autism diagnosis can mess with parents' heads. Media portrayals of children with autism and their adult spectrum-mates dwell almost exclusively on negatives and challenges, so when a parent is told that their child is autistic, they are usually incredibly upset. it doesn't help when doctors lack the bedside manner to soften the emotional impact of their diagnoses, or have no information about contemporary autism therapies and resources. When that happens, parents are both freaked out and flapping in the wind. Their child's doctor was supposed to give them answers and guidance, but instead upended their lives, then shoved them out the door. No one can explain why they have a child with autism, and they know nothing about autism. They are emotionally reeling, angry with the medical establishment, and hungry for any information that will help their child.

The longest study of its kind shows that an early education program for children from low-income families provides benefits that last well into adulthood.

Click here to register for this event What: The Center for Autism and Related Disorder will host a CARD Montana Autism Conference on Saturday, November 19, 2011 at the University of Montana. The one-day conference will take place from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm in the University Center Theater, located at 32 Campus Drive in Missoula. The conference is free and designed especially for parents, caregivers, students and practitioners. Attendees will learn about applied behavior analysis (ABA) and how it can be used to effectively to treat individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), as well as strategic and effective treatment programs for children with ASDs. Attendees also have the opportunity to meet Joe Mohs, who has recovered from autism and is living proof that recovery is possible. Where: University Center Theater 32 Campus Drive Missoula, MT When: Saturday, November 19, 2011 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Mountain Contact: For questions, contact Marcia Kmetz at drkmetz@hotmail.com.

Click here to register for this webinar What: The rapid growth in adoption of "Response to Intervention" across the nation's public schools, sparked in large measure by changes to IDEA's identification procedures for specific learning disabilities, is raising issues of compliance with IDEA's Child Find mandate.   Specifically, under IDEA (2004), school districts are no longer required to use a discrepancy model when determining eligibility, but instead, may use alternative means (e.g., response-to-intervention (RTI) or processing deficit approaches) to identify students. Consequently, significant variability among states in the SLD identification criteria now exists. The implementation of new criteria - particularly RTI - may result in delay or failure to properly identify students as eligible for IDEA services.   This Webinar will present the latest information on RTI adoption across states and the use of RTI for SLD identification. it will review recent challenges, including litigation, and provide guidance on an array of practical advocacy options that can be used to capitalize on the RTI process-to help struggling students regardless of whether they are suspected of having SLD-and deal with the delay or denial of access to special education potentially posed by RTI.  Time will be provided for questions from participants. When: Wednesday, November 2, 2011  12:00pm - 1:30pm Mountain

STRYVE is a national initiative, led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which takes a public health approach to preventing youth violence before it starts. To support this effort, STRYVE Online provides communities with the knowledge and resources to be successful in preventing youth violence.

When students have behavior problems at one school in Maine, staff take a hands-off approach, forgoing restraint and seclusion in nearly all cases, and they say it works.

There are many signs or clues to dyslexia which are discussed in depth on this website; however it is also important to be aware of the misconceptions and myths surrounding the disorder. There are several myths regarding dyslexia. We have highlighted some of the more common ones.

Traveling with disabilities is not only possible, it can also be a wonderful, life-changing experience. Whether you are visiting relatives or going on vacation, traveling can bring out many different reactions and emotions. However before you get to your final destination there is much planning that must be done. Traveling with a child that has special needs is not easy task. There are many details that should not be overlooked. To help you get to your destination as easily as possible we have created the Special Needs Travel Guide

oday, Hart continues to challenge status quo assumptions about the frequency of addiction and how drug use affects people. He’s even held Eric Holder to task for calling heroin use in the country “an epidemic.” Instead, Hart argues that the number of true addicts is much smaller, and when addiction does occur, it’s often because of environmental factors, rather than hardwired doom in the brain. His conclusion: Much of what we’ve been taught about drugs is wrong. With more than $40 billion being spent on anti-drug efforts a year, it’s not a message that many people want to hear. But when mass incarceration, often for misdemeanor drug possession charges, affects communities of color so deeply that health studies can’t conduct statistically sound surveys on the population not in prison, it’s a message that could disrupt the social order. We spoke to Hart about how he reached his conclusions and what it takes to speak truth to power in the scientific community.

The Yale Seminar on Autism and Related Disorders is the United States' first undergraduate course of its kind. Our goal for this website is to make all of the lecture content and supporting materials available online for free for anyone who desires to learn about Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Child Health USA is an annual report on the health status and service needs of America’s children. It provides graphical and textual summaries of secondary data on over 50 health-related indicators.

The animated characters in your preschooler’s favorite TV show invite her to interact, play and learn. But is she learning? Only a little, according to a Vanderbilt study, which found that educational programming is minimally effective unless parents watch too—and engage the child. In a first-of-its-kind study, parents were trained to pause, ask questions and encourage the child to tell parts of the story while they watched educational videos together. When evaluated, the 3-year-olds whose parents used this simple technique—known as dialogic questioning—showed significant gains in vocabulary and comprehension over those who watched alone.

We go to George Washington Middle School in Alexandria, Va., which participates in the NHD competition. This year, the theme is “Rights and Responsibilities.” We chose the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act as our topic for several reasons. We were inspired by “Including Samuel,” a video about a boy with disabilities and his struggles and successes of inclusion, told by his father. Between the three of us we have three relatives who are involved with special education, but we realized many people have no idea what the IDEA stands for and what it does (even us!). We also realized that though civil rights and women’s rights are taught in school, the rights of people with disabilities are mostly left out.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has been widely celebrated for providing millions of disabled children with broader educational and life opportunities. This Note seeks to improve the implementation of the IDEA by questioning one of its key assumptions: that parents possess the tools to advocate for their children in special education matters. This Note argues that many parents need assistance to achieve optimal outcomes for their children because of the complexity of both the disabilities involved and the formal rules of the system itself. Several policy options are considered in the hope that local educational agencies will implement pilot programs to further explore the issue of external advocacy in special education.

I’ve always believed that as a parent I am the best advocate for my children. If I don’t do it, who will? I also believe in giving back and paying forward so I joined the Bozeman Area Special Education PTA to help advocate for families who are still in need. Please join me in helping to raise awareness regarding disability issues in the community at the Legislative Candidate Forum on Disabilities on August 27. The forum will be held at Eagle Mount at 6901 Goldenstein, at 6:30 p.m., with a reception to follow. Childcare, accommodations, and transportation will be provided. This event is sponsored by The Arc Montana, Disability Rights Montana, Bozeman Area SEPTA, NAMI Bozeman, and PLUK and hosted by Eagle Mount Bozeman. For more information and transportation, please contact Mary at 406-461-2384.

The proposal would expand on a set of pilot youth crisis diversion programs around the state. In the last year, four programs -- serving Helena, Missoula, Yellowstone County and Eastern Montana, have been having some "good results," said Jani McCall of the Yellowstone Youth Crisis Network, who works with the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch.

The panel unanimously endorsed the draft legislation, setting it up for discussion in the 2015 Legislature.

A major pediatricians’ group is issuing new guidelines for physicians diagnosing intellectual and other developmental disabilities. In a clinical report published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatrics updated its recommendations, which were first released in 2006. Specifically, the new report emphasizes advances in genetic testing in recent years that can aid in providing a more precise diagnosis for children with various delays.

The U.S. Department of Education today announced new guidance for schools and districts on how to keep parents and students better informed about what student data is collected and how it is used. In the guidance issued by the Department’s Privacy Technical Assistance Center, schools and districts are urged to be proactive in communicating how they use student data. Information should be available to answer common questions before they are asked.

All parents endure stress, but studies show that parents of children with developmental disabilities, like autism, experience depression and anxiety far more often. Struggling to obtain crucial support services, the financial strain of paying for various therapies, the relentless worry over everything from wandering to the future — all of it can be overwhelming.

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.