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Effects of Weighted Vests on Appropriate In-Seat Behaviors of Students with Autism and Other Disabilities

Link: Effects of Weighted Vests Applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy may be more helpful than weighted vests in keeping children with autism calm and in their seats. Sensory therapies are one common occupational therapy approach to the treatment of autism. The study was designed to see if the use of weighted vests during a group activity would increase the amount of time that three school-aged children with autism would stay in their seats.

"Zero-tolerance" Policies Make Zero Sense

Link: Policy

District "zero-tolerance" policies are counterproductive, writes Rhonda B. Armistead, president of the National Association of School Psychologists. Such measures prevent school administrators from using their professional judgment and rob educators of being able to use student wrongdoing as a springboard to teach better behavior. "Does this mean that discipline should never include serious consequences? Absolutely not. But punishment should be balanced with learning. We need policies that allow administrators the latitude to respond in accordance with the unique characteristics of each student and situation," Armistead writes.

WashingtonPost.com: For Parents of More Than Usually Trying Children, New Approach May Help

Link: The Washington Post

As a group they bear various labels: difficult, challenging, hard to handle, defiant, volatile, willful. For nearly a century, experts have advised confused and anguished parents who are stymied by their children's difficult behavior on ways to change that behavior. Now two new books by veteran psychologists offer advice for parents culled from decades of clinical practice. Both volumes emphasize behavior modification and "positive parenting," setting clear limits, consistently and calmly adhering to them, and prompting and rewarding desired behavior.

MSNBC: Kids with ADHD may be more likely to bully

Link: MSNBC Study

A new study shows that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are almost four times as likely as others to be bullies. And, in an intriguing corollary, the children with ADHD symptoms were almost 10 times as likely as others to have been regular targets of bullies prior to the onset of those symptoms, according to the report in the February issue of the journal Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology.

UPI.com: ADHD medication may not help long-term

Link: United Press International

Stimulant medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, may not affect what ADHD looks like in teens, a U.S. doctor found. University of California, Los Angeles researcher Dr. Susan Smalley looked at youth in Finland and America, and found that, even though youth in northern Finland are rarely treated with medicine for ADHD, the prevalence and symptoms of the disorder is relatively the same as in the U.S, where stimulant medication is widely in use. "We know medication is very effective in the short-term," Smalley said in a statement. "But the study raises important questions concerning the long-term efficacy of ADHD treatment. Here we have two different cultures and two different approaches to treatment, yet at the time of adolescence, there are few differences in the presentation and problems associated with ADHD."