Y3K Tutor In Your Home

ADHD By the Numbers

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Nearly 20% (1 in 5) of high school age boys in the United States and 11% of school aged children overall have received a medical diagnosis of ADHD according to new data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These rates reflect a marked rise over the last decade. Check back tomorrow for the surprising statistics.

Asperger’s & Autism-Friendly Theater Productions (Part 2)

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There are many ways certain theater productions are becoming Asperger’s and autism – friendly. They welcome these patrons and address the sensory overload that usually would deter people with sensory problems from attending. Theaters keep the house lights on but just dimmed. The play’s noise is reduced. Actors are introduced to the audience out-of-character before the show begins. Audience members have stress balls to squeeze during the performance. People with Asperger’s or autism are free to get up and move around during the show. If the music feels too overwhelming, they can escape to a designated quiet room. Some shows offer a downloadable book telling them about the show before the day of the performance so they will know what to expect ahead of time.

Great Pleasure In Life

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A great pleasure in life is having your student do what others including the know-it-all “experts” say your student cannot do.

Asperger’s & Autism Anxiety

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Students with Asperger’s or autism commonly experience anxiety. They can be overwhelmed by the world around them. Many have sensory problems in which they feel, hear, and see more sharply. For example a doorbell might sound like a cannon and a clothing label may feel like a porcupine. This can easily lead to stress.

Slowing down, limiting stimuli, and training to better handle sensory stimulation can make a big difference for people with these challenges research suggests. In future Y3K Tutor In Your Home Blog posts, we will offer advice on how to limit stimuli at home by creating a calming environment and how to better deal with situations traditionally over-stimulating such as at a theater. If you have suggestions of what did or did not work for your child, please share with us so that we may post to help thousands of parent readers.

How To Include Special Needs Children At Birthday Parties

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If your child has certain special needs issues and invited to a birthday party, try to include them as much as possible. If the birthday party is a drop off party, you may ask to stick around by volunteering to help all the kids in order to be there for extra support and safety. Socialization is important and it is your duty to do everything possible to make sure it happens.

New Autism Treatment – Early Start Denver Model Behavioral Therapy

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Intensive early behavioral therapy may normalize the brain activity in children with autism when they look at faces and improve their social skills according to a recent study. This is on top of what was previously known that it could help develop language and thinking skills. Researchers looked at 48 autistic children between 18 and 30 months. Half of the children were treated with a new type of therapy called Early Start Denver Model for 20 hours per week for 2 years. After 2 years, researchers used electroencephalograms to measure the brain activity of the children with autism as well as of children without autism while they watched faces and toys. The majority of autistic children treated with the Early Start Denver Model showed greater brain activation when looking at faces rather than objects (a response common to children without autism). The opposite was found among the kids with autism who received other interventions.

The autistic children with increased brain activity at the sight of faces also had better social and behavioral skills. The study is the first to find underlying changes in brain function along with behavioral changes after early therapy. The full study can be found in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, November 2012.

The Crucial Role of Recess in School

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The following is a new policy statement regarding the importance of recess for students released in the January 2013 issue of Pediatrics: The Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics

“Recess is at the heart of a vigorous debate over the role of schools in promoting the optimal development of the whole child. A growing trend toward reallocating time in school to accentuate the more academic subjects has put this important facet of a child’s school day at risk. Recess serves as a necessary break from the rigors of concentrated, academic challenges in the classroom. But equally important is the fact that safe and well-supervised recess offers cognitive, social, emotional, and physical benefits that may not be fully appreciated when a decision is made to diminish it. Recess is unique from, and a complement to, physical education—not a substitute for it. The American Academy of Pediatrics believes that recess is a crucial and necessary component of a child’s development and, as such, it should not be withheld for punitive or academic reasons.”

Do you agree or disagree? Why? Let us know.

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