This is the transcript of an interview Gordon F. Sherman, Ph.D. did with Schwab Learning that although a few years old, is an good summary of the neurological basis of dyslexia. Dr. Sherman is the Executive Director of The Newgrange School in New Jersey. He was previously Director of the Dyslexia Research Laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and is a former president of the International Dyslexia Association.
A debate among medical professionals over how to define autism has spilled over into the public domain, stirring anger and fear among many parents and advocates of those with the neurological disorder, even as some argue that the diagnosis has been too loosely applied.
Personally, I’m very disappointed that the issue of adjusting the definition of Autism in the as-yet-to-be-completed DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) is first generating controversy about protecting costs and other basic questions concerning eligibility. Changes to the Autism Spectrum Diagnosis have been debated now for a few years and we’re first hearing there’s not even consensus about how many people currently meeting the criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder would still meet them and how many folks would lose eligibility for services? To hear that the scientific community is still in seeming disarray about fundamental issues such as these seems ridiculous and gives me way less faith in the process already undertaken.
“We have to make sure not everybody who is a little odd gets a diagnosis of autism or Asperger disorder,” said Dr. David J. Kupfer, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and chairman of the task force making the revisions, which are still subject to change. “It involves a use of treatment resources. It becomes a cost issue.”
Ugh. I’m sorry, but the chairman of the task force is still voicing a concern about that? Really? They haven’t settled that yet and the manual’s due to come out next year? I understand the impetus to refine and not make this diagnosis a catch-all and fall-back category. I really do. There are pressures and self-serving motivations for some parents and professionals to diagnosis shop, but they are not the majority and further, most learning disabilities (like dyslexia) and developmental disorders (such as Autism Spectrum) do run on a continuum from “mild” to “severe.”
I realize everything these days is a “cost issue,” but jeez, are the scientists on task forces designed to protect children the ones who should have that as their go-to concern about which they’re speaking in news interview? Those questions should have been settled long ago. Let the scientists and educators and other expert and interested parties struggle with the data and human questions and let the policy makers and politicians argue out the monitory pieces.
Apple announced its entrance into digital textbooks, now selling through its iTunes and iBooks online. Though this has been somewhat expected, it’s exciting news.
Believe me, this is not even the tip of the iceberg. I’ve already downloaded samples of the 8 textbooks listed in the iBooks store. While I think these books will become significantly more interactive and creative in design, much like some of the early digital magazines, they’re already way more interesting than standard textbooks.
Imagine how much students backs and shoulders will love when they can carry five 300 page textbooks inside their iPad.
The NYU Child Study Center announces a series of free workshops in which expert clinicians and researchers will address these and other concerns. The Autism Spectrum Disorders Clinical and Research Program’s 2012 Family Workshop Series is open to the public at no charge.
Even as awareness of autism grows along with the number of cases diagnosed, it remains a topic likely to raise more questions than answers. If you are a parent whose child is on the spectrum, or a school or health professional encountering increasing numbers of children with this mental health condition, you may have a host of concerns. Are there medications that can help? How much improvement in symptoms can be expected with good treatment? What are the best treatments? What can be done in the home and in general classroom settings to best support these children?
Temple Grandin, a noted animal scientist and professor at Colorado State University, who is also one of the world’s best known people with Asperger’s Syndrome (a form of high-functioning Autism) is often fascinating to listen to. She sometimes pops out with little gems, with a completely uncomplicated turn of phrase, that can go by so fast you might not even notice it.
In this video interview, listen later on (at about the 2:20 mark) when she describes how she went from being fixated with watching cattle go through squeeze chutes for vaccinations, to learning more and more about them. Eventually she not only reinvented various processes related to the raising of livestock, but noticed that she herself would become noticeably calmer while being in one of the cattle squeeze machines.
Later on she helped adapt some of these for kids on the autism spectrum. It apparently helps provide the right amount of deep pressure on large muscle groups, which in turn helps to calm down the person’s sensory system. They are now used in schools and occupational therapy offices across the country.
Temple says, “You have to take the fixations and broaden it out.” Brilliant.
She’s proving one of Mel Levine’s axioms about kids with LD; that you help kids capitalize on their “affinities” (areas of natural interest), and use that singular focus and knowledge-base to help them to broaden the focus and to develop other areas of expertise. People with Asperger’s often show hyper-focused interests in specific and somewhat idiosyncratic areas. Our choice is in how we respond to that. Our responsibility it seems to me is to use it as a positive. It’s called going with the path of least resistance. A child who’s fixated on trains and train schedules for example can then expand to learn more and more about trains and then eventually about other forms of commercial transportation.
Wealth and finance expert Charles Schwab didn’t quite figure out he has dyslexia until his son was a teenager. Pulitzer Prize winning poet Philip Schultz also didn’t realize he is dyslexic until well into adulthood as his son was receiving the diagnosis.
Although early intervention is the name of the game and the concept most covered in the news, finding out the reasons for one’s struggles and differences at any age can be a huge relief and a light bulb moment.
Despite the compelling and alarming statistics on the impact Learning Disabilities (LD) has on the mental health of our youth, there remains a great need to better understand the relationships between language-based LDs, Autism Spectrum, and depression, substance abuse, and defiance, and low self-esteem. While some in the therapeutic community know that upwards of 60% of adolescents in treatment centers have learning disabilities (Hazelton and NICHD), deeper understanding of why that is, and how clinicians and counselors can better respond, is the substance of this presentation. Similarly, knowing the presence of learning disabilities among clinically depressed, hospitalized children was 7 times higher than in the general population (Journal of Affective Disorders), compels us to learn more about specific experiences and mechanisms at play.
Conscious linking between information processing styles and therapeutic intervention will significantly increase effectiveness and speed up results.
By better understanding the experience of having neurological variance and differences, therapeutic attunement follows. The time is ripe for moving beyond and beneath surface understanding of how self-esteem is negatively impacted from school failure. Experiences and research is beginning to help us see how differences in information processing impact everything therapeutically.
Accepting the fact that many states use literacy and special education statistics from 3rd and 4th grades to accurately predict future prison beds is no longer acceptable. Combining best practices from both Learning Disabilities and Therapeutic disciplines is a key to solving this dilemma and national challenge. Therapeutic education is poised to play the leadership role.
Researchers continue to find that while intensive dietary modifications may help some small sub-groups, kids with ADHD need a overall healthy diet of low processed foods and high on quality proteins, fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and quality fats, such as Omega-3.
Back in November, I’d posted about reported shortages of medications for ADHD, and at the time I hadn’t heard enough about it nor had I heard of anyone who’s actually experienced this, so I wasn’t sure what to make of it.
A couple of days ago, The New York Times reported further on these medication shortages. According to the report, these shortages are the result of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA ) being out of synch with the FDA and others involved with the sale and safety aspects of such medications.
The disconnect between the D.E.A. and just about everyone else involved in the sales of the medicines is so profound that they even disagree over whether there are shortages.
“We believe there is plenty of supply,” Special Agent Gary Boggs of the D.E.A.’s office of diversion control said in an interview.
And yet, among others, multiple drug manufacturers announced that their supply of these medicines are scarce. The Food and Drug Administration also lists these drugs as being in short supply.
Officials at the F.D.A. blame the shortages on overly strict quotas set by the D.E.A. — making for a rare open disagreement between two federal agencies.
Shortages, no shortages, essential medications, ripe for being misused on college campuses and elsewhere. The government agencies need to get their act together.
The lecture is one of the oldest forms of education there is.
… lecturing has never been an effective teaching technique and now that information is everywhere, some say it’s a waste of time. Indeed, physicists have the data to prove it.
Many of us, me for example, have known this about lecturing for a while.
In this article from NPR, Physicists at Harvard have figured this out after one of their physics instructors, Eric Mazur, began questioning his own assumptions about teaching and started observing and thinking about what his students actually knew versus formulas they memorized.
Using approaches that asked students to reassess what they think they know, slow down their answering process so that they can work in small groups to ponder and converse with one another about a particular problem, Mazur found that learning improved significantly.
Historically and with frustration, students with learning disabilities have long-known that collaboration and hands-on learning are always more effective that dense lectures.
I’ve felt for years that teenagers and young adults with Asperger’s Syndrome or with High Functioning Autism really need help understanding and negotiating romantic and sexual relationships. Moving from Social Skills or even Social Thinking curriculums (there’s a difference) to dating, sex, love and adult relationships is no easy task when your primary difficulties are recognizing and understanding non verbal communication, emotional fluency and regulating sensory experiences.
This is a wonderfully written piece in the NYTimes.com called Navigating Love and Autism. Compelling in it’s depth, this article captures many of the challenges particular to couples struggling with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
The first night they slept entwined on his futon, Jack Robison, 19, who had since childhood thought of himself as “not like the other humans,” regarded Kirsten Lindsmith with undisguised tenderness.
This is an honest account of their struggles and one that provides glimpses into what it must be like for a young man with ASD, who, despite feeling love and romance for his sweetheart, has to tell her (and I assume because of some sensory overload issues), after she smiled at him one morning, as she leans in for a kiss, seeking his lips, he turned away, “I don’t really like kissing,” he said.
It’s a touching piece and although having ASD adds a particular burden to relationship, I want to tell the young man in the article, that many of their struggles are generic to the confusion we all feel at times in relationships. You want to put your arm around his shoulder and smilingly tell him you know just how he feels when he’s not sure what his girlfriend wants from him. Here’s an example:
One might start over Kirsten’s request that Jack hug her when she came home from school, or his perception that she was already angry at him when she came through the door.
“The more we argue, the worse it gets,” Jack said once, close to despair.
One night as Kirsten cooked dinner, he peered into the pan where she was sautéing vegetables to comment on the way she had cut the cauliflower.
“It’s too big,” he explained. “It won’t cook through.”
“It’s better when it’s not all mushy,” she insisted.
“No,” he said. “You’re just doing it wrong.”
Eventually, Kirsten, unable to contain her tears, fled to the living room.
“What I want,” she told him when they analyzed their clashes in less-fraught moments, “is to be held and rocked and comforted.”
The Anne Ford and Allegra Ford Scholarships offer financial assistance to two graduating seniors with documented learning disabilities (LD) who are pursuing post-secondary education. The Anne Ford Scholarship was first awarded in 2002; in 2009, with a generous donation from Anne’s daughter, Allegra, the award was renamed the Anne Ford and Allegra Ford Scholarship and granted to two students.
To be considered, your complete application must be postmarked by December 31, 2011.
Notice that these are scholarships specifically awarded to students with documented a LD. However, also note that winners are selected by criteria above and beyond simply having a diagnosis of Learning Disabilities.
Here are examples from parts of the selection criteria. Go to the NCLD website to read all the criteria.
The ideal Anne Ford Scholar is a student who:
Articulates his or her LD and clearly demonstrates the importance of self-advocacy
Is committed to completing a four-year college degree and has begun to set realistic career goals
Excels as a role model and spokesperson for others who struggle with LD
To be eligible for the 2012 Anne Ford Scholarship, an applicant must:
Be a graduating high school senior who will be attending a four-year bachelor’s degree program in the fall of 2012
Have an overall grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or higher on a 4-point scale (or equivalent)
LD Resources is a collection of resources on various aspects of learning disabilities with comments from community members. For more on this web site see our About page. Use the sidebar for navigation and browsing content by category. Use the search field below for general searches. We hope you find this site a useful resource.
