________________________________________________________________
Monday,
March 8,
2010
Vol. 14 No. 23
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Autism
Calendar Deadline for April is March 25
EDUCATION
Court Awards Bullied Student $800,000
Teaching Self-Control Skills to Children Reduces Classroom Problems
Wisconsin Bill Would Limit Seclusion
RESEARCH
Gut Bacteria And Disease May Be Linked
Scientist Absconds with $2 million, Who "Proved" Vaccines Don't Cause Autism
SAVANTE CITINGS
Autistic Musicians Play With Perfect Pitch; Gigs in San Jose, Santa Clara
PEOPLE
The Mother of Three Autistic Children Shares Her Story
Date set for UFO Hacker Gary McKinnon’s Judicial Review
TREATMENT
A Diagnosis In The DSM-5 Has Power To Change Lives
Unsupported Antipsychotic Use in Children Widespread
Therapy Dogs Lift Spirits
EDUCATION
Court Awards Bullied Student $800,000
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By Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki, Detroit Free
Press. is.gd/9U6pl In what experts say could be a landmark decision, a Michigan school district has been ordered to pay $800,000 this week to a |
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This week's jury verdict against Hudson Area Schools puts districts on notice that it's not enough to stop a student from bullying another. There needs to be a concerted effort to stop systemic bullying, too.
Essentially, the federal court ruling says schools can be held responsible for what students do, if there is a pattern of harassment or if they don't do enough to provide a safe environment.
"This is going to have implications across the nation," said Glenn Stutzky, a Michigan State University instructor and an expert on bullying.
The district's attorney, however, says the verdict puts schools in the tricky position of being held liable for student behavior.
The district plans to appeal.
"You're never going to completely stop kids from being mean to kids," said Timothy Mullins of Giamarco, Mullins and Horton of Troy.
The case
It started with name-calling in middle school and escalated as Dane Patterson entered high school. Some of the harassment was bullying, such as being shoved into lockers.
Other harassment was decidedly sexual in nature. He was called sexual insults, his locker and notebook were defaced with similar names, and worse. He and his parents say they reported the abuse, and yet it continued. Finally, in 10th grade, he was taunted in a locker room by a naked student rubbing against him.
That was the last straw for the Patterson family. In 2005, they sued Hudson Area Schools under Title IX, the Equal Opportunity in Education Act, using the sexually tinged bullying as the basis for a sexual harassment lawsuit.
This week a jury in U.S. District Court told the school district to pay $800,000 in damages to Patterson, now 19. Anti-bullying proponents say the case will send a message to all school districts that they are responsible for sexual harassment and, by extension, bullying.
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Teaching Self-Control Skills to Children Reduces Classroom Problems
From sciencedaily.com is.gd/9Vbj7
Children taught skills to monitor and control their anger and other emotions improved their classroom behavior and had significantly fewer school disciplinary referrals and suspensions, according to a study by University of Rochester Medical Center researchers.
Children in a school-based mentoring program were about half as likely to have any discipline incident over the three-month period of the study, according to an article published online by the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. They also had a 43 percent decrease in mean suspensions as compared to the control group, which did not receive mentoring of the self-control skills. In the four-month interval after the intervention began, 1.8 percent of children in the mentored group were suspended compared to 6.1 percent of the control group. Children taught the new skills also had a 46 percent decrease in mean office disciplinary referrals as compared to the children in the study's control group "It is exciting that adult mentors, who are not mental health professionals, taught children a set of skills that significantly strengthened the children's ability to function well in their classrooms and meet school expectations," said Peter Wyman, Ph.D., lead author of the article and associate professor of Psychiatry at the Medical Center. "This study suggests that with appropriate guidance from a trained adult, young children are capable of learning a great deal about their emotions and skills for handling their emotions effectively and those skills can have direct, positive benefits for their functioning in school."
The study evaluated the effectiveness of the Rochester Resilience Project that was developed by Wyman and Wendi Cross, Ph.D., associate professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the Medical Center, to address the needs of young children with emerging behavioral and social-emotional problems by providing an accessible school-based intervention. In a relationship with an intervention mentor over four months, children learn and practice behavioral and cognitive skills designed to strengthen their self-regulation of emotions and address specific goals to improve school adaptation.
+ Read more: is.gd/9Vbj7
• • •
Wisconsin Bill Would Limit Seclusion
By Nicole Strittmater is.gd/9Vg9z
Central Wisconsin school officials say they use seclusion and restraint for students as a very last resort, and they don't use inappropriate methods that would put kids in harm's way, so proposed legislation wouldn't affect them much.
Senate Bill 468 would restrict dangerous practices in restraining and secluding students and would require that parents be notified if their child is secluded or restrained. It would require that teachers document the incidents and report them to the state Department of Public Instruction and be trained in Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. That means teachers would know how to determine the best course of action for a child with emotional or behavioral stress, because sometimes seclusion or restraint only makes it worse.
Sen. Julie Lassa, D-Stevens Point, and Rep. Sandy Pasch, D-Whitefish Bay, who introduced the bill, say parents and teachers have raised concerns about the use of these practices for many years. Seclusion and restraint should be used as a last resort they say, but often it is used as a first response.
"Student discipline should never cause injury or death," Lassa said in a release. "Unfortunately, we have heard from many concerned parents that seclusion and restraint in our schools is being used frequently and inappropriately. Confining and restraining a student should be the last resort in every classroom."
Jeff Spitzer-Resnick, managing attorney at Disability Rights Wisconsin and who is working on this bill, said the legislation isn't an "outright ban" on seclusion and restraint. But it does prohibit dangerous practices, such as locking a child in a room for being disruptive.
+ Read more: is.gd/9Vg9z
• • •
RESEARCH
Gut Bacteria And Disease May Be Linked
Digestive bugs could play role in cancer, obesity and Crohn's, scientists say Reuters
is.gd/9UKGv
Some of the hundreds of bacteria found in the digestive systems of humans may be linked to specific diseases like cancer, diabetes and obesity, an international team of scientists said in a paper on Thursday.
Researchers, led by Chinese scientist Wang Jun, said in the latest issue of Nature they found more than 1,000 different species of bacteria in the human gut.
They said they had sequenced, or analyzed, the genes of each bacteria, creating the first genetic catalog of the organisms found in the human digestive system.
Their research was based on analysis of stool samples from 124 people from Denmark and Spain.
Wang and his fellow researchers found several genes that may be linked to obesity and Crohn's disease, but he said more validation work was needed.
"Apart from helping you digest, these bacteria may also play a very important role in ... diseases like Crohn's disease, cancer, obesity," Wang, executive director of the Beijing Genomics Institute, said in an interview with Reuters.
"If you just tackle these bacteria, it is easier than treating the human body itself. If you find that a certain bug is responsible for a certain disease and you kill it, then you kill the disease," Wang said.
Crohn's disease is an inflammatory illness of the intestines which some believe may be caused by a variety of bacteria. Other possible causes include genetics and environmental factors.
Wang said creating the genetic catalog of all the bacteria in the human gut was only a beginning.
"There are a lot of unknown bacteria and pathogens that can cause different kinds of diseases," he said.
"So this is the first step and we have to study further to find concrete associations between these bacteria and human diseases, and then you can start learning how to get diagnosis, prognosis and then treatment," Wang said.
Wang and colleagues in China are working on a similar 120-sample study in Chinese hospitals.
"There are four groups: obese diabetics, obese non-diabetics, lean diabetics and lean non-diabetics. And we found some interesting bugs related to each type of diabetes," Wang said.
• • •
Scientist Absconds with $2 million, Who "Proved" Vaccines Don't Cause Autism
This startling story, as yet unseen in the mainstream media, is from The Autism Action Network. is.gd/9VmUO
From Age of Autism is.gd/9UZjU
A Danish scientist who was a key researcher in two studies that purport to show that mercury used in vaccines and the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine do not cause autism is believed to have used forged documents to steal $2 million from Aarhus University in Denmark according to reports in the Copenenhagen Post Online and a statement from Aarhus University.
Poul Thorsen, MD PhD, headed up a research unit at Aarhus University that was hired by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prepare a series of studies that would exonerate thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative and adjuvant used in vaccines, and the MMR vaccine from any role in causing autism. The veracity of the two studies he co-authored is now in doubt.
These studies formed the foundation for the conclusions of several Institute of Medicine reports that claimed that it was highly unlikely that thimerosal or MMR were implicated in autism.
In a statement Aarhus University officials said that believe Thorsen forged documents supposedly from the CDC to obtain the release of $2 million from the University. Thorsen resigned abruptly in March 2009 and left Denmark. Since then Thorsen has held several jobs in the US, first at Emory University in Atlanta and then at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Documents show that as late as January 22, 2009. Thorsen was employed at Drexel. Any reference to Poulsen has now been deleted from the Drexel website.
+ Read more: is.gd/9UZjU
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SAVANTE CITINGS
Autistic Musicians Play With Perfect Pitch; Gigs in San Jose, Santa Clara
By Lisa Fernandez, mercurynews is.gd/9TU8O Lawrence Wang used to hate the shrill sounds of the flute. He'd clamp his hands over his |
 Members of "Magic Makers" perform at a special needs performance (Patrick Tehan) |
On Saturday, though, he tapped his feet while blowing happily on his saxophone, a member of an unusual band of special-needs performers.
Those who love Wang and his peers are thrilled to see how music calms their autistic nerves and becomes a unifying force in a world where they often don't easily fit.
"Don't ever give up on your children," said Lawrence's mother, Anna Wang of Fremont, who through her son, now 20, has become a prominent Silicon Valley autism activist. "You've got to open them up to possibilities. We so often write them off. It doesn't do our children justice. God has gifts for everyone."
Later this month, Wang and 21 others have gigs at the East Side Union High School District and at a Santa Clara restaurant with his predominantly autistic band, the Magic Makers.
Autism is a bioneurological disease often marked by impaired social behavior, such as making scant eye contact and speaking repetitively.As the 1988 film "Rain Main" demonstrated, autistic people can also have geniuslike qualities. In that Academy-Award winning film, the lead character, played by Dustin Hoffman, was gifted in memory and math.
Some of the Magic Makers are gifted in music.
Wang's mother calls him a "music savant." He doesn't practice.
Advertisement He doesn't sight-read. And he still mostly argues with his music teachers during lessons. But pop in a CD, and in an instant "Lawrence hears the music and almost simultaneously transposes it," his mother said. "It's really weird."
Perfect pitch
It may be a little weird at first, said David Ladd Anderson, the band's director, but it's also wonderful.
"These guys can sing and play at a really high level," said Anderson, who is also a wildly popular music teacher at Buchser School in Santa Clara, where he started a dancing group for kids with special needs 10 years ago. "The singers have perfect pitch. The musicians give 100 percent effort even if they don't look or talk to each other much."
On Saturday, Wang and his three autistic friends didn't need to look at each other much as they jammed on Disney's "The Jungle Book" tunes at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose. They joined a larger performance put on by Angels on Stage, a theater troupe of children with special needs.
As the performers entertained the audience from the balcony, you'd never know Wang picked up the saxophone three months ago and rarely practices. He hit the notes and kept up with the steady beat of drummer Chi-Ling Wu, 19, of San Jose.
In between sets, you might notice that Wang is autistic. He didn't really want to answer questions about his musical talents. Instead, he slouched over a video game and kept asking his mother if they'd be back in the car by 4 p.m. after the show, as she had promised.
"He likes things a certain way every day," Anna Wang said. "These performances mess up his schedule."
+ Read more: is.gd/9TU8O
• • •
PEOPLE
The Mother of Three Autistic Children Shares Her Story
|
By Justine van der Leun aolhealth.com is.gd/9ULVs Connecticut- based stay-at-home mom and autism advocate Kim Stagliano chronicles her trying |
 Courtesy Kim Stagliano |
AOL Health: You have three daughters, all of whom fall on the autism spectrum. What do you believe caused or contributed to their autism?
KS: The million-dollar question. I think we have a genetic predisposition to environmental insults, which could include vaccines, toxins, my husband and my heavy metal load, the quality of my breast milk and unknowns.
AOL Health: Over the past 15 years, what treatments have you tried with your girls, and how have they responded to them?
KS: The GFCF [Gluten Free Casein Free] diet has been our best treatment. The diet has helped with stomach problems, which, in turn, has greatly cut down behavior issues. It also helps the girls sleep through the night. Imagine taking a test on a day when you have terrible cramps or a headache. How well would you do? We've also used a number of biomedical treatments -- supplements, vitamins, other natural products -- that have helped the girls function and feel better.
AOL Health: On your blog, you contend that autism is curable and that your role as the mother to children with autism is to "get rid of it." Can you explain your perspective?
KS: Every mom wants to make her child's path easier to travel -- whether it's tutoring to get better grades for college admission or weight-loss camp to address health issues or trying to ameliorate the undesirable behaviors and pain associated with autism. Autism affects every aspect of my children's lives. I'd be remiss if I didn't try to help them.
+ Read more: is.gd/9ULVs
• • •
Date set for UFO Hacker Gary McKinnon’s Judicial Review
By Chris Richards is.gd/9VfsP
The mum of an autistic man wanted in the US for computer hacking has expressed relief after her son was given nearly three months to prepare for his latest court hearing.
Janis Sharp spoke out after it was announced that a judicial review of the Government’s decision NOT to block her son Gary McKinnon’s extradition to America on medical grounds would take place at the High Court in London on May 25 and 26.
Mrs Sharp, from Brookmans Park, told the Welwyn Hatfield Times she became emotional when she learned of this latest development in her seven-year battle to keep Asperger’s sufferer Gary in the UK.
“I cried when I heard the news,” she said.
“I couldn’t believe it."
Mrs Sharp, an author and musician, believes that her son would be at risk of suicide should he be put on a plane to the US.
However, these concerns were dismissed by the Home Secretary Alan Johnson in November who said he had no power to prevent Gary from being extradited.
Now, at the hearing in May, two senior judges will review the minister’s ruling – with a decision expected to follow around two weeks later.
Prosecutors in America allege that Gary, 43, caused nearly £500,000 worth of damage to military computers in 2001 and 2002.
If convicted in a US court, he could face up to 60 years in jail.
Glasgow-born Gary, who lives in North London, admits hacking but maintains he was looking for evidence of alien life.
• • •
TREATMENT
A Diagnosis In The DSM-5 Has Power To Change Lives
By Rita Rubin, USA Today. is.gd/9UXG3
From the day she brought her son Jack home from the hospital, Kim Leserman knew something wasn't quite right.
Leserman and her family live a quarter-mile from the Pacific Ocean in Manhattan Beach, Calif., but Jack wouldn't touch sand. In preschool, the sight of finger paints made him gag. At night, he awoke whenever the furnace kicked on.
Jack, who's now 9 and an A student, is much improved, his mother says, thanks to thousands of dollars' worth of occupational therapy paid for entirely out-of-pocket. The family's health insurance plan wouldn't cover any of it because Jack's diagnosis, sensory processing disorder, isn't in the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual, better known as the DSM.
After a decade spent reviewing the scientific literature and consulting scores of international experts, the psychiatric association last month posted the first draft of the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5. The public can read the draft at dsm5.org and submit comments until April 20. The final version is due in May 2013.
+ Read more: is.gd/9UXG3
• • •
Unsupported Antipsychotic Use in Children Widespread
By Pam Harrison, Medscape. is.gd/9VczP
A significant proportion of children younger than 18 years in at least 1 state Medicaid population received a second-generation antipsychotic for conditions that have no published evidence supporting their use.
Prathamesh Pathak, MS, BPharm, currently with Health Economics and Outcomes Research, IMS Health, Falls Church, Virginia, and colleagues found that the number of children younger than 18 years in a state Medicaid database who were newly treated with a second-generation antipsychotic doubled between 2001 and 2005. They also found that among new users, 41.3% had no diagnosis for which treatment was supported by a published study. The highest level of non–evidence-based use was with aripiprazole at 77.1%.
"These results add to the evidence that treatment of children with second-generation antipsychotic medications increased dramatically in the early years of this new century," the study authors write. However, they add that "further studies are needed to determine whether this trend is evident in other pediatric populations, especially among children not enrolled in Medicaid."
Medicaid Claims For the analysis, the study authors retrospectively examined Medicaid claims between January 2000 and December 2006 for children younger than 18 years who had received a second-generation antipsychotic. The final sample included 11,700 children.
"The primary measure of interest was the proportion [of children] for whom use of the antipsychotic was based on evidence," the investigators write. Evidence-based use was defined as any use of an antipsychotic for any diagnosis that was supported by clinical trial findings published before the end of 2005.
Analyses showed that risperidone was given as the initial therapy in 51.2% of the children. "The agent least used for initial treatment was ziprasidone (2.5%)," the study authors write. Interestingly, they note that 5% of the sample received more than 1 second-generation antipsychotic on their index date."
+ Read more: is.gd/9VczP
• • •
Therapy Dogs Lift Spirits
By Deborah Circelli, news- journalonline is.gd/9VlfZ Daytona Beach -- In the quiet living room at the Mental Health Association of Volusia County, clients watched the TV news |
 Sue Reichel with her dogs Frosti, left, and Jingles at the Mental Health Association of Volusia County. Sean McNeil. |
One lady looked at her hair in a handheld mirror. Others kept to themselves, not talking. Some held handfuls of carrots waiting patiently for their visitors.
The mood changed as the door swung open and in waddled Frosti and Jingles decked in red-and-white striped bandannas.
Eileen Whelan, 54, who has schizophrenia, jumped to her feet -- "Hello, baby. Hello, baby. You're a good girl," she said petting Jingles, an 8-year-old black Labrador.
Frosti, a 14-year-old yellow Labrador, strolled in behind Jingles at a slower pace.
The therapy dogs are specially certified and have been a fixture once a week for years at the association's Debra Anne House Drop-In Center on Ridgewood Avenue in Daytona Beach. Frosti started coming when she was almost 2 years old and Jingles at 9 weeks old.
They've been there for holidays and clients have celebrated the dogs' birthdays through the years.
Dogs, similar to horses, which are used by other agencies for therapy, help people learn socialization skills and open up about various problems, area counselors say.
Bob Decker, president/CEO of the Mental Health Association of East Central Florida, said dogs and cats are "very calming."
+ Read more: is.gd/9VlfZ
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