Every week, the Special Needs Blog Week in Review gives you a brief review of each and every blog that appeared here in the past seven days. This is a quick and easy way to catch up on whatever you might have wanted to read, but didn’t have the time to when the blog first went up. What did you miss this week?
The Special Needs Podcast Roundup went up on April 30, 2012. This time, I’d like to point out an episode of The Coffee Klatch that was called “Dr. Temple Grandin – Different Not Less”. This is Dr. Grandin’s fifth appearance on the Coffee Klatch podcast.
California Really Does Cover ABA Therapy
As of July 1, 2012, California law requires all health insurance plans to cover ABA treatments for pervasive developmental disorder or autism. I discovered this when my health insurance company sent me information about new changes to my health insurance plan. This is good news for parents of children who have an autism spectrum disorder and who live in California!
What is the Best Way to Integrate Special Needs Students?
NPR did an episode of “Talk of the Nation” that discussed the successes and failures of public schools in their efforts to find ways to integrate students who have special needs into mainstream classrooms. Host Jennifer Ludden spoke with Claudio Sanchez, who is NPR’s education correspondent. She also spoke with Thomas Hehir, the former director of U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs.
Doubling Dosage to Stay in School
A mother in Canada says that she felt pressured by her child’s public school to double her son’s dosage of Ritalin in order for him to remain in school. She believes that the school wants her son, (who has autism and ADD), to be drugged, and tired, so that he will not disturb the other students in his classroom. Would this happen if the school was located in the United States?
Avery’s Bucket List
A baby named Avery Lynn Canahuati was born with type 1 SMA. It is a rare genetically heritable disease. Kids born with it usually do not live longer than two years. Her father created a blog to raise awareness of SMA. He put together a Bucket List for Avery, and blogged about her progress through them. To me, it sounds like a way to celebrate her life, every day, while she was here to enjoy it.
Allergy Awareness Bracelets for Children
Several different companies have created child-friendly allergy awareness bracelets. This is a great way to enable small children to tell people about their food allergies before the child is able to talk coherently about them.
Image by H. Michael Karshis on Flickr