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A Handbook for the Inclusion of People with Disabilities in National and Community Service Programs

• A Handbook for the Inclusion of People with Disabilities in National and Community Service Programs

  tags: inclusion

  • A Handbook for the Inclusion of People with Disabilities in National and Community Service Programs

  • Created in 1993, the Corporation for National and Community Service engages more than 2 million Americans annually in improving communities through service. The Corporation supports service at national, state and local levels through:

    • Senior Corps, a network of programs that helps Americans age 55 and older use their skills and experience in service opportunities that address the needs of their communities. Senior Corps includes RSVP,The Foster Grandparent Program, and the Senior Companion Program.
    • AmeriCorps, whose members serve with local and national organizations to meet community needs while earning education awards to help finance college or training.
    • Learn and Serve America, which helps link community service and learning objectives for youth from kindergarten through college as well as youth in community-based organizations.

Game On For Paralympic Athletes With Intellectual Disabilities - Disability Scoop

• Game On For Paralympic Athletes With Intellectual Disabilities - Disability Scoop

  tags: paralympics

  • Athletes with intellectual disabilities will be allowed to participate in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London following a vote of the International Paralympic Committee.

Feds Give Abilify Green Light To Treat Autism Behaviors - Disability Scoop

• Feds Give Abilify Green Light To Treat Autism Behaviors - Disability Scoop

  tags: autism, medication

  • The drug Abilify has received federal approval for treatment of irritability and aggression in children with autism, the drug’s makers say.

Science-Based Medicine » The autism “biomed” movement: Uncontrolled and unethical experimentation on autistic children

• Science-Based Medicine » The autism “biomed” movement: Uncontrolled and unethical experimentation on autistic children

  tags: autism

  • the myth that vaccines cause autism has led to ideas. Dangerous ideas, and not because they “challenge” medical orthodoxy. These ideas are dangerous because they have direct consequences for children with autism. These consequences take the form of subjecting children to unscientific treatments that are ineffective at best and harmful at worst, sometimes even life-threatening.

NeuroLogica Blog » Some Good Autism Reporting

• NeuroLogica Blog » Some Good Autism Reporting

  tags: autism

  • Last week the Chicago Tribune printed a long piece on biological treatments for autism by Trine Tsouderos and Patricia Callahan, and an excellent piece it was. They clearly understand what the real story is – a subculture of fringe doctors and others who are essentially doing unethical experiments and children with autism. They are exploiting desperate parents (who then sometimes contribute to the exploitation of the next desperate parents) who are seeking any possible help for their children.

    Of course the desire of parents of autistic children to do everything they can to help them is perfectly understandable. But there is a quagmire out there – an insidious trap waiting to ensnare the vulnerable, in the guise of professionals offering help. So-called DAN (for Defeat Autism Now) doctors and others are offering a slew of experimental and often highly implausible treatments for autism.

Autism treatments: Risky alternative therapies have little basis in science -- chicagotribune.com

• Autism treatments: Risky alternative therapies have little basis in science -- chicagotribune.com

  tags: autism, treatments

  • Besides taking many pills, the boy was injected with vitamin B12 and received intravenous infusions of a drug used to leach mercury and other metals from the body. He took megadoses of vitamin C, a hormone and a drug that suppresses testosterone.
    
    This complex treatment regimen -- documented in court records as part of a bitter custody battle between Coman, who opposes the therapies, and his wife -- may sound unusual, but it isn't.
    
    Thousands of U.S. children undergo these therapies and many more at the urging of physicians who say they can successfully treat, or "recover," children with autism, a disorder most physicians and scientists say they cannot yet explain or cure.
    
    But after reviewing thousands of pages of court documents and scientific studies and interviewing top researchers in the field, the Tribune found that many of these treatments amount to uncontrolled experiments on vulnerable children.

AAPD Summer Internship Applications - Washington, DC

Each year the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) hosts two Summer Internship Programs for College Students with Disabilities in Washington, DC, providing paid travel to and from DC, paid fully-accessible housing and living stipends. AAPD is now accepting applications for the 2010 Summer Internship programs.

Application deadline is January 8, 2010.

 

Get information at: http://www.disability.gov/employment/youth_programs/mentoring_&_internships

NIMH · Parent Training Complements Medication for Treating Behavioral Problems in Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders

• NIMH · Parent Training Complements Medication for Treating Behavioral Problems in Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders

  tags: Parent Training, autism, study

  • Treatment that includes medication plus a structured training program for parents reduces serious behavioral problems in children with autism and related conditions, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The study, which was part of the NIMH Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology (RUPP) Autism Network, was published in the December 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Learning from your peers

• Learning from your peers

  tags: special education, Head Start, inclusion

  • “This is a good way to get special-education students integrated with nondisabled peers,” said Marvin Williams, special-education administrator for the district. “Head Start children are good role models for our children with disabilities.”

    The setting works, Williams said, because the more peer modeling children have, the quicker they learn. It’s better to have their peers show them how to behave than have teachers tell them, he added.

Gazette opinion: Montana’s future depends on raising fit kids

• Gazette opinion: Montana’s future depends on raising fit kids

  tags: montana, Children

  • Children in Montana are more likely than their fellow American kids to engage in physical activity daily, spend less time watching television or playing video games and are less likely to have a television in their rooms. Thirty-two percent of U.S. children ages 10 to 17 are overweight or obese, compared with 26 percent of Montana children. This information comes from the 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health, which included telephone interviews with 1,800 Montana households.