PLUK News feed

President Bush Signed Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act Into Law!

Link: Genetic Fairness
WASHINGTON, D.C. - May 21, 2008 - The Coalition for Genetic Fairness (http://www.geneticfairness.org/) commends President George W. Bush for signing into law today the first civil rights legislation of the new millennium, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). GINA is the first and only federal legislation that will provide protections against discrimination based on an individual's genetic information in health insurance coverage and employment settings.

NJ.com: How to advocate for your learning disabled child

Link: NJ.com
When our daughter's kindergarten teacher suggested that Allison be tested for ADHD I felt a burst of panic in my chest.
I barely knew what the initials stood for (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). And the thought of taking her to a pediatric neurologist, who makes the diagnosis, was terrifying.

Rich.com: Perseverance pays off

Link: Rich.com
"A lot of kids with learning disabilities don't think success is theirs to achieve," Beatrice Bell said. Jessie Bell did.
Beatrice Bell thinks her daughter Jessie's story could be anyone's.

LJWorld.com: Parent asks how IEP can cover sports participation

Link: LJWorld.com
Dear Dr. Wes & Julia: My son is 14 and in eighth grade. He has attention-deficit disorder and bipolar disorder. In seventh grade, all he’d do was sit in his room and play video games. He had only one friend. Then along came weight training and a growth spurt. That combination gave him a boost in self-confidence. Then the track coach recruited him, and that gave him an even bigger boost. That was the first sport my son had ever played and he earned a spot on an invitational meet and won a medal. Thanks to that coach he came out of his room and started to enjoy life.

billingsgazette.com: Billings man with MS directs his energies towards a normal life

Link: billingsgazette.com
Adams, who has multiple sclerosis, has to put some extra thought into navigating himself around his house and yard. He has come to realize what most people would consider obstacles in their walking path are his "friends."

billingsgazette.com: Method rounds autism's words into form

Link: billingsgazette.com
Logan Booth was 11 years old when he formed his first word, and he didn't say it. He wrote it.
Logan, 14, has autism and does not talk.
But he can communicate with about a half-dozen people who are close to him by reading their written questions and writing out his answers longhand. He can also hunt-and-peck his responses onto a computer keyboard.
Because a trusted person's hand must be touching Logan's hand for the process to work, the communication technique is controversial. Critics say it isn't Logan who is writing or typing but the person who is touching him.

Missoulian.com: More than words: Montana School for the Deaf and Blind gives students a music lesson

Link: Missoulian.com
Normally, the University of Montana students in “General Music Methods & Materials” ask to take a five-minute break during the 110-minute-long class.
But on Tuesday, when the choir from the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind arrived to give the college students a tutorial on teaching music to grade-school students with special needs, the class was awestruck.

Gov't Seeks Help With Vaccine Questions

Link: Vaccine Questions
By LAURAN NEERGAARD – Apr 11, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government began an unprecedented effort Friday to give vaccine critics a say in shaping how the nation researches safety questions surrounding immunizations.
The meeting, the first of more to be set, came amid new controversy about vaccines and autism — and a fledgling theory that vaccinations might worsen a rare condition called mitochondrial dysfunction that in turn triggers certain forms of autism.
Federal health officials said the work, being planned for two years, wasn't in response to that controversy, and encompasses many more questions than autism — from rare side effects of the new shingles vaccine to how to predict who's at risk for encephalopathy sometimes triggered by other inoculations.

CNN.com: Autism's mysteries remain as numbers grow

Link: CNN

ELLICOTT CITY, Maryland (CNN) -- It remains one of the greatest mysteries of medicine. Although autism will be diagnosed in more than 25,000 U.S. children this year, more than new pediatric cases of AIDS, diabetes and cancer combined, scientists and doctors still know very little about the neurological disorder.

SeattleTimes.com:Dogs get their own wheels

Link: The Seattle Times

A custom two-wheeled cart gave Bear, a German shepherd with an incurable nerve disease, a new life. Eddie and Leslie Grinnell built their first dog wheelchair in 1989, but demand for "Eddie's Wheels" has grown so much that they launched their own business in 1998.