SEPTEMBER 2005

Group builds nationwide playground network to serve disabled

SCIO TOWNSHIP, Mich. --Shallon Kovac loves her school's new playground, which is designed so that children with disabilities and those without can play together.

"Awesome," the 15-year-old with Down syndrome said repeatedly last week while leading visitors on a tour of the playground, rushing from sandbox to climbing wall to slide to rocking boat.

Shallon, who was attending day camp at Honey Creek Community School and enters Ann Arbor's Huron High School in the fall, quickly scampered up one side and down the other of the climbing wall.

The playground opened in June at the Washtenaw Intermediate School District's campus west of Ann Arbor. It was the 75th playground to open under the sponsorship of the Connecticut-based National Center for Boundless Playgrounds. No. 80 is scheduled to open Wednesday in Kalamazoo, 100 miles west of here.

Rubber matting lines the playground, making it wheelchair-friendly, and the central play area is accessible by ramp, rather than by stairs. Young people with Down Syndrome can walk across a series of low stools to help develop their balance.

Boundless Playgrounds can be found in 21 states and Ontario. By year's end, 11 more are scheduled to open in Michigan, along with others in Shreveport, La., Kingsport, Tenn., and Hartford and West Hartford, Conn. Dozens more are in development.

Among the nonprofit group's most effective representatives is Matthew Cavedon, a 16-year-old from Berlin, Conn., who uses a wheelchair.

Cavedon says he didn't know what he was missing until 10 years ago, when he was asked to help design a playground accessible to children with and without disabilities.

"Once I experienced it, I was hooked," says Cavedon, who was born with arthrogryposis, a condition that prevents him from fully extending his joints.

Playing, he says, is "an important, essential part of life."

According to the U.S. Department of Education, there are about 5.6 million people ages 6 to 18 with disabilities nationwide.

Those who work with children with disabilities stress the importance of play in their development.

"Unstructured play is as integral to a child's development as shelter, love and food," says Mara Kaplan, chief executive of the Pittsburgh-based Center for Creative Play, which promotes "universal access" play facilities.

The Boundless Playgrounds group was born a decade ago in a couple's sorrow at the death of their 9-month-old son from spinal muscular atrophy.

Amy and Peter Barzach recruited 1,200 volunteers to help create Jonathan's Dream, a 25,000-square-foot playground "where children of all abilities could play together." It opened in 1996 in their hometown of West Hartford, Conn.

The couple asked members of a club for children with disabilities to think up play equipment for Jonathan's Dream. Cavedon, then 6, was among the designers.

His idea was for a swing that he and other wheelchair users could operate.

The Barzaches liked the idea, as did the design engineers, and they made it the playground's focus. The rocking boat also has a special wheelchair platform.

Publicity surrounding Jonathan's Dream spurred Amy Barzach and Jean Schappet, a founder of a play equipment company, to start the National Center for Boundless Playgrounds in 1997.

Toy-maker Hasbro Inc. in Pawtucket, R.I., kicked in with a $521,000, three-year grant. Last year, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation pledged $7.5 million for 19 Boundless Playgrounds in Kellogg's home state of Michigan. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says he wants 50 in his state.

Amy Barzach is happy at how Boundless Playgrounds have spread but says she would be even happier to see her group go out of business -- for lack of need.

"We have this vision that in 15 to 20 years, people wouldn't think about building playgrounds that exclude children with disabilities," she says.

By David N. Goodman, Associated Press Writer
August 16, 2005
On the Net
Boundless Playgrounds: http://www.boundlessplaygrounds.org
W.K. Kellogg Foundation: http:http://www.wkkf.org
Matthew Cavedon's site: http://www.play4all.net/
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2005/08/16/group_builds_
nationwide_playground_network_to_serve_disabled/
group_builds_nationwide_playground_network_to_serve_disabled/



TRIBUNE PROFILE: MARCA BRISTO
Champion for rights of disabled

The president of a Chicago advocacy group takes the fight for fair treatment to an international level

In her mind, Marca Bristo was fine. Her new life in a wheelchair was just another test of her strong will, and she would learn to make do.

So she tried not to take it personally when waiters asked her dinner companions, "What does she want to order?"

She tried not to be annoyed when she couldn't use Chicago's bus system because the buses had no hydraulic lifts, or when she couldn't go to the store around the corner from her apartment because she couldn't get her wheelchair over the 6-inch curb.

"I'm just going to persevere," she recalls thinking.

But when Bristo, a family-planning nurse working in a women's health-care center, lined up the medical charts of all the disabled women she had seen, she realized none of the women had been asked the normal questions about their reproductive health that would be asked of any other woman.

She saw that the frustrations she experienced were the problems of so many others. They were ignored. Or they were treated like inanimate objects.

She took that personally.

That's not right.

Bristo uttered that phrase then, words that have propelled her through a career spent nudging, pushing, changing.

"You say, `Wait a minute. I'm still sexy. I still want to go to the movies. I don't want to have to pick my restaurant according to whether I can get in,'" said the East Lakeview resident and mother of two.

For more than 25 years, Bristo and Access Living, the Chicago center for independent living that she heads, have helped craft local, national and international reforms to protect the rights of people with disabilities.

On Tuesday, Access Living, considered a model around the nation, broke ground for its permanent headquarters, a $13 million building in the Loop.

"I see Access Living as kind of a thought leader within the disability-rights field and Marca as an important thought leader in the disability-rights movement," said Andrew J. Imparato, president of the Washington, D.C.-based American Association of People with Disabilities.

Nudge to schools

As head of Chicago Public Schools in the late 1990s, Paul Vallas was on the receiving end of the push by Bristo and Access Living to make schools more accessible.

"She gave us the proverbial kick in the pants to really get our ADA compliance programs going," said Vallas, referring to the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Their meetings could have been marked by tension and confrontation, but Vallas said Bristo came at them with intelligence, passion and sincerity, and they were loath to disappoint her.

"She didn't just push us to do the right thing; she helped guide us," he said. "She really gave me an education as to what the responsibilities were of a school district" to make buildings more accessible.

During a staff meeting, Bristo, 52, takes her place at the head of a long table at the group's current headquarters on Roosevelt Road. The mood is light, but the agenda is heavy--lawsuits that could set precedent, meetings with housing authorities, attempts to press society to rethink the idea of placing people in institutions.

Bristo, with stylish glass frames and long dark hair, mostly listens as the staff details its work, interrupting to share her insight on the broader issues. She is the president, chief executive officer and public face of the organization, which now has more than 50 people on its staff.

Sometimes such work can be embarrassing to the people or institutions they're trying to change, said Diane Coleman, executive director of a center for independent living in Forest Park. "Access Living has not shied away from taking clear and strong stands on issues."

The disability rights movement has marked some victories of late, such as the Chicago Transit Authority's buses recently becoming 100 percent accessible, a milestone reached after years of litigation by disability activists.

Excluding disabled people from riding the buses reinforced stereotypes "about everything they think we can't do--you go to a job interview and the person is thinking, `How is she going to get to work?' It's a little thing, but big," Bristo said.

Costs of compliance

But she also sees a backlash occurring as officials argue that it's too expensive to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"I can look out and see we are beginning to make big changes in the world around us," she said. "Still, we see resistance to our work."

Last month, Bristo marked the 15th anniversary of the ADA--which she helped draft--by taking part in a coalition suing the State of Illinois. Access Living, Equip for Equality and other advocacy agencies allege that the state places people with developmental disabilities in institutions rather than less-restrictive community settings.

Bristo was 23 when she broke her neck in 1977 diving off a Pratt Boulevard Beach pier to retrieve a pair of sandals that had fallen into the water. She was partially paralyzed, but has use of her arms.

She was treated at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, which at the time was trying to figure out how to keep the young people being treated there from spending the rest of their lives in institutions.

Because Bristo had come to Chicago to train to become a nurse-midwife, they asked her to help. She said no.

But after she started working with patients at the women's health center, she learned that disabled women weren't being treated the same as other patients. In 1978, she agreed to attend a conference in Berkeley, Calif., on sexuality and disability.

She said the trip transformed her.

There, the buses had lifts; the streets had curb cuts. She later learned that a group of disabled activists there had begun to push for changes.

"These were not just my problems," Bristo said.

She started working with the Rehabilitation Institute staff, who wanted to start a transitional living center where disabled people would learn the skills they needed to live at home.

"Learning how to mop the floor and make the bed wasn't my problem," she said. "My problem was my house had seven stairs."

Then the institute staff considered the benefits of a center for independent living, which would be a meeting place, a referral center, but not a residential home.

Such centers, which are run and staffed predominantly by people with disabilities, help with issues like where to find personal assistants and accessible apartments. The centers also are advocates for the disability community.

In 1980, Bristo was appointed director of Access Living, one of the first 10 federally funded centers for independent living in the country.

"To have a good, organized front in Chicago was very important," said Mike Ervin, a longtime activist and founder of ADAPT, a grass-roots disability rights organization in Chicago.

Writing civil rights bill

In 1982, Access Living and other centers for independent living formed the National Council on Independent Living to organize centers nationwide.

While advocates were discussing how to press for national change, Bristo attended the early meetings about whether to try to amend the Civil Rights Act or write new legislation.

"What greater form of discrimination than not to be included in the Civil Rights Act?" Bristo asked. "Even the people writing the Civil Rights Act discriminated against us."

But the National Council on Disability decided the group should write its own bill, so Bristo and other activists took their stories to Washington D.C., and met with legislators who had a disability or a disabled relative. They wanted Congress to understand the issues on a personal level. The Americans with Disabilities Act became law in 1990.

Longtime friend Sam Assefa, an architect, said he went to Bristo to learn more about ADA requirements.

"I was impressed with how she gets across to people who haven't had experience with disabilities what this means," he said.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton appointed Bristo the first disabled person to head the National Council on Disability.

"Beyond preaching to the choir, she's been able to bring the disability rights message to a larger audience," said Karen Tamley, who worked under Bristo at Access Living, but was recently tapped to head the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities.

Impacting the world

Married with two teenagers, Bristo lives in Chicago but travels often for her work. That's partly because the movement she has been such a key player in now has a global impact.

A group from South Korea visited Access Living a few years ago to learn about centers for independent living and disability rights. When Bristo visited this year, she saw the group had started 10 organizations and had put together a demonstration involving 800 disabled people.

Bristo also is working with international groups and the United Nations to create a convention on disability rights.

"We've moved out of our youth and into our adolescence," Bristo said as she shares a list of the challenges that remain for the disability rights movement. "What will we do when we leave our adolescence and move into adulthood?"

Crystal Yednak
cyednak@tribune.com
Tribune staff reporter
August 10, 2005
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0508100128aug10,1,2576537.story?
page=1&URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chicagotribune.com%2Fnews%2Fnationworld%
2Fchi-0508100128aug10%2C1%2C2576537.story%3Fcoll%3Dchi-newsnationworld-
hed&coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed


New UW study documents autistic regression

Just before his first birthday, Marilyn Filley took her son, Damien, to Bellevue Square to buy some shoes. The gregarious toddler waved and smiled at everyone he saw.

"I was kind of embarrassed," Filley said. "I said, 'He thinks he's a celebrity.' "

A few months later, he stopped waving altogether.

Damien's other burgeoning efforts to communicate receded as well. He started avoiding eye contact. "Ma ma ma ma ma" was replaced by a string of incomprehensible noises. During a later trip to the mall, he appeared not to notice other shoppers and concentrated instead on twirling his wrists around.

The boy with blond curls who once danced to his dad's funky guitar riffs was drifting away.

"It didn't look like he was exploring his world anymore," Filley said.

An estimated 20 percent of autistic children follow the same regressive pattern as Damien, losing skills they'd acquired as seemingly normal babies. By contrast, children with early onset autism (the majority of cases) typically haven't made progress in key areas of development by their first birthdays.

Experts have recognized autistic regression for at least a decade, but they've previously relied on parents' recollections of a child's backslide.

Now, a new study from the University of Washington documents regression using videotapes of children's behavior during their first and second birthday parties.

"We were pretty sure there was a phenomenon of regression, but this (study) documents it ... in a much more objective way," said Sally Ozonoff, an autism researcher at the MIND Institute at the University of California-Davis.

Researchers reviewed homemade videotapes and talked to the parents of 56 children: 15 with regression, 21 with early onset and 20 children without autism.

On their first birthday, the children later diagnosed with autism had reached the same developmental milestones as those never diagnosed. They babbled in long strings of sounds, used single words, pointed out objects and people and responded to their names.

By their second birthdays, the same children looked very different when compared with their peers without autism.

"We found that what parents have been telling us all along was true," said Geraldine Dawson, a psychologist and director of the University of Washington Autism Center. Dawson is the lead author of the study, which appears in this month's issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

The study also found that children with regression had difficulty sleeping, eating and being soothed during their first year. Those symptoms could be precursors of autism, said Dawson.

In a surprising turn, children with autistic regression were actually using more complex babbling, words and pointing than children who were not later diagnosed with autism.
"That was an unexpected finding and we don't know what to make of it," Dawson said.

It remains unclear if autistic regression is a biologically distinct form of autism.

And, like all types of disorders on the autism spectrum, no one knows yet what causes regression.

The study comes as parents, public health officials and physicians continue to debate whether thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative used in vaccines since the 1930s, contributed to the rapidly rising rates of autism seen in the past decade.

Between 1994 and 2003, the number of children with autism enrolled in special education programs nationwide increased from 22,664 to 141,022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some trace the steep upturn to more children being diagnosed.

But many parents believe their children were developing normally until receiving multiple vaccines as toddlers.

Pharmaceutical companies stopped producing most childhood vaccines with thimerosal in 2001. Only some influenza doses are still manufactured with a trace amount of the preservative.

A number of studies, including a report from the Institute of Medicine, have failed to find a link between autism and thimerosal.

The long-simmering controversy heated up this summer after an article written by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared in the online magazine Salon and Rolling Stone magazine. Kennedy claimed that federal health officials attempted to conceal initial findings implicating thimerosal in the rising number of autism cases.

Last month, public health officials and scientists held a news conference to reinforce the importance of vaccinations and reiterated that there's no evidence of thimerosal causing autism.

Dawson declined to comment on the debate, pointing out that her study does not address the source of autism regression.

"Until we really understand what causes autism, I think we need to fully investigate all possibilities," Dawson said.

She added that if a genetic distinction between early and late onset autism is discovered, it could eventually help researchers pinpoint potential environmental triggers.

"That's still something we're trying to understand and sort out -- the degree to which genetics play a role and the environment interacts with genetics," Dawson said.

For Filley and her husband, Daniel Pitt, it seems Damien was snatched away before their eyes.

"We get a glimpse of our children's personality and we get a glimpse of what could be and then all of the sudden it's gone," said Pitt, a computer programmer for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Filley quit her job as a high school math teacher to care for Damien after his diagnosis.

The West Seattle couple don't know for sure what happened to Damien. But they suspect vaccines and other environmental factors played a role.

"He wasn't locked into this pattern of regression," Filley said.

By Julie Davidow
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter
August 2, 2005

AUTISM RESOURCES
University of Washington Autism Center: depts.washington.edu/uwautism
Autism Society of America: www.autism-society.org
FEAT (Families for Effective Treatment of Autism) of Washington: featwa.org
P-I reporter Julie Davidow can be reached at 206-448-8180 or juliedavidow@seattlepi.com.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/234906_autism02.html


Report on Risks of Ritalin Prompts a Federal Study

Federal health officials said Thursday that they were looking into a suggestion by a small Texas study that Ritalin and other stimulant drugs given to children might increase their risk of cancer later in life.

A team of experts from the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency went to Texas on May 23 to examine the methods used by the researchers, who found damage to the chromosomes of 12 children who took Ritalin for three months.

Ritalin, which entered the market in 1955, has been used for decades to treat children for attention or hyperactivity problems.

Dr. David Jacobson-Kram of the Office of New Drugs at the food and drug agency said that the study, by researchers at the University of Texas and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, had flaws in its methodology but that its results could not be dismissed. Drugs that are known to cause cancer cause similar chromosomal changes, Dr. Jacobson-Kram said.

But other scientists cautioned that the study was far too small and its finding far too preliminary to cause alarm. The study did not include a comparison group of children who had not taken Ritalin. And federal officials said there was no reason for children currently taking Ritalin or other stimulants to stop taking them.

Dr. Lawrence Greenhill of Columbia University, an expert on Ritalin and other stimulant drugs used for children, questioned why the government was devoting so many resources to following up on the study's findings. Dr. Greenhill, like many other academic researchers, serves as a consultant for companies that make the drugs.

Several research teams are trying to reproduce the study on a larger scale, using better controls. And federal officials are examining millions of health records to determine if children who took Ritalin decades ago now have higher rates of cancer. The drug agency has also asked the makers of Ritalin-like stimulants to provide it with any information about their drugs' effects on chromosomes.

''I would say that if these data are reproducible, then that would be very concerning,'' Dr. Jacobson-Kram said.

He added that it would be at least a year before the results of those studies were known.

It is unclear, Dr. Jacobson-Kram said, how Ritalin might damage chromosomes.

''There's no obvious mechanism by which these drugs should be doing this,'' he said. ''And there is nothing about them by which they clue us that they are DNA damaging.''
About 29 million prescriptions were written last year in the United States for Ritalin and similar drugs to treat attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity, 23 million of them for children. The drugs are among the most widely prescribed medicines in the world.

Controversy has long surrounded their use, however, with critics saying that the medications are greatly overprescribed.

Dr. Jacobson-Kram made his presentation before an F.D.A. advisory committee called to examine the most recent reports of adverse events among children taking Concerta, a long-acting form of Ritalin. The committee found nothing new or unusual about the reports, which included cases of children who had become psychotic and others who had developed heart problems.

The drug agency said no committee members had conflicts of interest that would prevent them from evaluating the drug's safety in an independent manner.

F.D.A. officials told the committee that the agency planned to change Concerta's label to make the risks of such side effects clearer. Among the mental side effects reported among children taking Concerta were hallucinations, thoughts of suicide, psychotic behaviors and aggression.

''It's not that this is something new or that this is something that's happening at a higher incidence than before,'' Dr. Paul Andreason, a psychiatrist who is part of the agency's division of neuropharmacologic drug products, told the committee.

But, Dr. Andreason said, descriptions of these problems in the labels of Concerta, Ritalin and similar stimulants are often written in technical language. So the F.D.A. has decided that descriptions of the drugs' potential side effects must be stated more clearly, he said.

Still, agency officials and several committee members said they were not convinced that Concerta caused mental problems like hallucinations and psychosis. Rather, the children taking the drug may also suffer from other mental disorders.

''The agency believes that it is not yet possible to determine whether these events, especially the more serious ones, are causally associated with these treatments,'' said Dr. Dianne Murphy, director of the Office of Pediatric Therapeutics at the drug agency.

The most common side effects of Ritalin, Concerta and similar drugs are appetite suppression, headaches, abdominal pain and sleep disturbances. Children who take these drugs chronically often weigh less and are shorter in stature as a result.

By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: July 1, 2005
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/health/article-page.html
?res=9B06E2DC103AF932A35754C0A9639C8B63


Cruise's aversion to antidepressants at odds with scientific evidence

ST. LOUIS - (KRT) - The doctor just couldn't accept what he was hearing.

"I was shaking my head in disbelief, saying, `This can't be happening. Not in 2005,'" said Dr. Charles Conway, medical director of inpatient psychiatry at St. Louis University.

The source of his dismay was a television interview with actor Tom Cruise. The star of the movie "War of the Worlds" wasn't talking up his film, which opened June 29, or even his latest romance. Instead he criticized actress Brooke Shields for taking antidepressants for postpartum depression and declared that there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance in the brain.

Cruise's religious beliefs - the actor is a Scientologist - clash with the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence on the matter of mental illness, neuroscientists say.

"It's safe to say that we know that metabolic changes in the brain are present for all major mental illnesses," Conway said.

The case for brain changes accompanying mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder and autism is closed, experts say. Now the debate is over which changes lead to mental illness and which are the result of having the disease, said Dr. Kelly Botteron, an associate professor in the departments of psychiatry and radiology at Washington University.

Botteron and other researchers are turning to brain-imaging studies and genetics to help solve the chicken-and-egg question and figure out how to improve treatment of mental illnesses. The solution may lie in unraveling the complex interaction between genes and everyday life.

Scientists have identified some genes that clearly play a role in causing mental illnesses such as depression, said Dr. Joseph Coyle, a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Harvard University School of Medicine. But it's not enough to say that a person gets sick because his or her brain is wired that way, he said.

The brain is not a static organ; it rewires itself with new experiences, Coyle said. In people who have genes that predispose them to mental illness, negative events such as abuse, neglect or other traumatic experiences may result in faulty circuitry, which leads to depression or other psychiatric disorders, he said.
Scientists know that genes aren't the sole cause of mental illness from studying identical twins. Identical twins come from the same fertilized egg and are alike in 100 percent of their genes.

But the identical twin of a person with schizophrenia has only a 50 percent chance of developing the disorder; life experience determines the rest. Schizophrenia has been linked to harm to the brain that happens at birth or even before. Babies who suffer low oxygen to the brain during birth are more likely to develop schizophrenia, said Deanna M. Barch, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Washington University.

Children of mothers who got the flu in the second trimester of pregnancy also have a greater risk of getting schizophrenia, she said. But Barch stressed that only people who already have a genetic susceptibility to developing the psychosis would be more likely to get schizophrenia after those early life problems.

Environment also can help protect against mental illness, even when a person has a form of a gene associated with mental illness, Coyle said.

"If you have the form (of the gene) that confers vulnerability to depression, but your life is like `Leave it to Beaver,' you'll probably come out all right," Coyle said.

Barch studies the siblings of people who have schizophrenia, looking for clues about the types of brain changes that may lead to the disease. About 10 percent to 15 percent of brothers and sisters of people with schizophrenia will develop the disease, while only about 1 percent of people in the general population get the mental illness. That means that siblings of schizophrenics are more likely than people without a family history of the disease to show signs of the brain disorder.

Researchers have found that people who have schizophrenia and their at-risk siblings have altered levels of brain chemicals called N-acetylaspartate and dopamine.

The researchers also have detected changes in the structure and function of other brain regions in people with schizophrenia and some of their siblings. The hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped region of the brain involved in memory, is shrunken in schizophrenics. Changes also occur in the thalamus, a part of the brain that helps coordinate communication throughout the brain, and in the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex, the portion of the brain that controls decision making, problem solving, language and social regulation.

Botteron has found changes in the size and activity of a structure called the amygdala in the brains of depressed women when compared to the brains of nondepressed women. That structure helps set the context of an experience, telling the person whether it's a fearful situation or a happy one. People with depression are often unable to tell the difference between the two.

Barch, Botteron and others would like to use these types of changes to predict who is most likely to develop schizophrenia, depression and other mental illnesses. But the changes are often slight, Barch said.

"It's not a big hole in the head or anything," she said.

Technology is not yet advanced enough to actually diagnose mental illness with brain scans alone.

The same is true for other illnesses, Botteron said.

"We can't just look at a heart and diagnose a condition without EKGs and blood tests," she said.

But science has clearly shown that leaving mental illnesses untreated is bad for the brain, scientists say. Depression elevates levels of a stress hormone called cortisol, Botteron said. That hormone causes the hippocampus to shrink, leading to memory and learning problems and making the disease last longer and become more severe.

Scientists have shown that antidepressants and talk therapy can restore health to the brains of depressed people and even may help inoculate against future episodes of depression, Conway said.

BY TINA HESMAN
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
July 1, 2005

Visit the Post-Dispatch on the World Wide Web at http://www.stltoday.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/12032542.htm


Software a sight for sore eyes

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Judy Malk, 76, has such poor vision that she needed to lean in and view Web pages with her magnifying glass.

"You didn’t want to stay at the computer very long because it’s not very comfortable," said Malk, who lives in Campbell, Calif.

Now she’s surfing the Internet night and day, doing online banking and buying books for her daughter-in-law in Hawaii — using IBM software designed just for seniors like her.

The company’s Web Adaptation Technology software allows Malk and others with vision impairments and disabilities to manipulate Web pages to suit their needs. The software can read aloud what’s on the page, magnify text, block distracting screen backgrounds or animation as well as make the keyboard easier to use.

The technology is also now being rolled out for use by children with learning disabilities and physical impairments, including those in Santa Clara County school districts, according to IBM.

"It reduces the fear factor that inherently comes with the new paradigm of the Internet," said Kristin Fabos, executive director of SeniorNet, a Santa Clara-based non-profit that trains seniors how to use computers and technology. SeniorNet worked with IBM to develop and roll out the software at its centers nationally. "If you add to the fear a disability like low vision or an arthritic condition, it makes using computers and the Internet that much more daunting."

The Web Adaptation Technology addresses common problems experienced by seniors.

Sufferers of arthritis or tremors, for example, may hold down a key too long and get repeats of the same letter. The software automatically eliminates key repeats. If someone drags his or her fingers across the keyboard because of poor coordination, it filters out the jumble of letters that would normally appear on the screen.

"Typing problems change not just day-to-day but even in the same session as they get tired," said Vicki Hanson, manager of IBM’s Accessibility Research Group, which developed the technology. "The software is monitoring how you’re typing and automatically adjusts to your typing pattern. It’s looking for characteristic errors and eliminates them."

The text of Web pages can also be reformatted into a single column of magnified text, eliminating the need to scroll to the right when text is enlarged.

In 2002, IBM installed Web Adaptation Technology at SeniorNet centers across the country. Earlier this year, the software was put on the Web download.

IBM gives free access to the technology through its not-for-profit partners and is distributing the software through 40 partners in 13 countries, said Jocelyn Zona, the company’s community relations manager for the western United States. There are 10,000 users of the technology, and the company plans to make it available to many more, Zona said.

Hanson’s group, based in New York, is now working with children with physical and learning disabilities to add even more features.

One downside of the software is that Web pages don’t retain their look and feel.

"It never looks as good when you change it," Hanson said. "But if you can’t read it the way it was designed, it’s no good to you."

July 1, 2005
By K. Oanh Ha
Knight Ridder Newspapers
http://www.dailyitem.com/archive/2005/0701/biz/stories/05biz.htm


The power of music: Therapy opens up new world for
developmentally disabled children

Like many kids, it's commonplace for 9-year-old Jonathan Lin to break into a big smile while drumming. But Lin is autistic, which makes that smile all that much more rewarding for his mother, Christine Lin.

"It's a real highlight for him," she said of her son.

Jonathan travels from East Brunswick each Saturday to take part in a new Music Therapy program offered by the Hoboken School of Music, in partnership with the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Center at New York University.

Clive Robbins, who is one of the world's leaders in Music Therapy and the co-founder of the Nordoff-Robbins Center, said Tuesday that his approach to creative music therapy is based upon the belief that there is an inborn musicality residing in everyone, which can be activated for personal growth and development.

"We work with children that are cut off from life, and help sharpen their awareness to the world around them," Robbins said.

Music Therapy is an often misunderstood treatment that can be effective for all kinds of medical problems ranging from autism to Down Syndrome to stroke to severe mental retardation, he said. "Music is the most basic way to reach handicapped children," Robbins said. "It's something that transcends all human emotion and feeling."

He said that children can become better at communicating, better in their relationships with their families, and create a positive self image.

A lot like playing jazz

The history of the Nordoff-Robbins technique begins in 1958, when a Paul Nordoff, a gifted composer, concert pianist and Juilliard graduate, experienced the musical responses of disabled children. Nordoff was so moved by the power of music as therapy that he gave up his academic career.

Nordoff teamed up with Robbins, a special education teacher from England who was particularly interested in music as a medium of therapy.

"Instead of writing another symphony, he thought he could so something more," said Robbins of his long-time research partner.

Robbins and Nordoff became pioneers in what was a new field, Music Therapy.

The Nordoff-Robbins technique is built on the concept that that there can be an expression of music between the therapist and the child, no matter how handicapped the child might be.

Nordoff, who passed away in 1977, would play different styles and rhythms on the piano in order to elicit participation or a response from the patients. For each session, Robbins was always by his side, guiding children to use musical instruments or find their own voice.

"It's all based on improvisation," Robbins said. "We find a style of music, idiom, or rhythm that engages that child. We find something that lives in the character of the child."

He added that it's a lot like a jazz performance, because they never knew which direction the therapy might go.

"It's exciting because each child is different, so you never know where you are going or where you will end up," Robbins said.

The children take an active role in creating music together with their therapists on a variety of standard and specialized instruments. No prior experience or training in music is required of clients.

Lin's favorite instrument is the drums, but some days he likes to try the piano.

Each session is videotaped and the reviewed by the therapist. They look at which sounds, rhythms, and melodies inspire a response.

Then they look at what the child's responses are. Does the child start singing? Is the child now playing the drum with his left hand, where he didn't before? Is the child smiling?

Robbins said the student is allowed to express anger, sadness, disappointment, happiness and excitement without fear of rejection.

Jonathan's progress

Lin has been in the program for four months, and his mother has already seen advances. "I believe the music therapy has helped improve his language skills, social skills and emotional control," she said Wednesday. "The music therapy is really helping these kids," she said.

She added that autistic individuals typically have problems processing auditory information. One auditory processing problem occurs when a person hears speech sounds but they do not perceive the meaning of the sounds.

She added that the music helps Jonathan process sounds, which has positive trickle-down effect into other aspects of his life. She said that his attention span has improved, he's more able to communicate, both of which have lead to a happier child.

"He really looks forward every week to going to class," said Christine Lin.

Robbins that that music can be an effective tool for not only therapists, but also for parents in the home. "Sing to your child," he said. "Sing about daily activities, make up little songs about putting your shoes on. Young children may not understand what you are saying, but they are immediately sensitive to rhythm and pitch and to the quality of your vocalizations."

See for yourself

Music Therapy is just one of the programs offered at the Hoboken School of Music. The school also provides individual and group instructions in all orchestral instruments and musicianship classes such as ear training, theory and music appreciation.

The classes are taught in the school's studio at the Monroe Center for the Arts, at 720 Monroe St.

The Hoboken School of Music and the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Center will present an improvisation demonstration using the Nordoff-Robbins technique at the Hoboken Library is on Wednesday Aug. 17 and Aug. 24 at 10:30 am. It is open to any child ages 3-6.

By Tom Jennemann
Reporter staff writer
08/07/2005
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14985643&BRD=1291&
amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;
PAG=461&dept_id=523585&rfi=6%20461&dept_id=523585&rfi=6%20


Hearing Aids for the Unimpaired

LONDON -- Hearing aids are not just for deaf people. The much-maligned ear implants also hold the key to a new era in personal audio technology, designers say -- if only they can make them as fashionable as spectacles.

HearWear - The Future of Hearing, a new exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert Museum, shows off trendy deaf-tech prototypes like gadgets that can filter out annoying noises and memory glasses that replay the last few seconds of conversation -- handy for wearers who might have missed someone's name.

It's not just the hard-of-hearing who can benefit from applications inspired by traditional hearing aids. Hearing is the next sense ripe for a technological revolution, according to the exhibition's organizer, Royal National Institute for the Deaf, or RNID.

The exhibit features personal hearing devices, such as aids that enhance conversational speech or filter out ambient noise in a crowded bar. The gadgets illustrate how an effort to redesign conventional deaf assistants might lead to a range of new products for unimpaired consumers increasingly accustomed to wearing iPod earbuds and Bluetooth headsets.

"Social noise has tripled since the 1980s and most people struggle on a regular basis to have conversations in noisy places," said Neil Thomas, RNID's Head of Product Development. "These products demonstrate a massive potential for everyone to control and enhance their hearing."

One of the exhibits, called surround-sound eyewear, uses four microphones built into a pair of glasses to amplify sound depending on which direction the wearer is facing.

"The result is a type of three-dimensional superhuman hearing similar to that found in certain animals such as coyotes," said designer Sam Hecht of London's Industrial Facility. The company harnessed a theory known as "superdirectivity beamforming" to build the specs, projected for release in 2007.

Another concept, the Goldfish, named for its short-term memory, is a set of earphones that would repeat the previous 10 seconds of conversation in case the wearer missed a snippet.

From the same design team, an earphone-linked remote control that can mute sounds coming from whatever it is pointing at could also be just a couple of years away.

Part of the exhibition is dedicated to making hearing aids more attractive. Exhibits include pink plastic flowers and sleek silver surfaces that disguise unsightly implants as elegant jewelry, underlining an effort to turn Europe's underdeveloped $5 billion hearing aid market into a fashion industry.

"The hearing aid industry has been led by engineering rather than design," said design writer and exhibition curator Henrietta Thompson. She has been 70 percent deaf since childhood but was put off from wearing aids because of their stigma until she was 14.

"It's only really recently that personal electronics and gadgets like phones and MP3 players have become mainstream. We think the time is now right for manufacturers to sit up and take notice of a sleeping giant of an industry."

Just 1.4 million of the 6 million hearing-impaired Britons who require a hearing aid actually wear the devices, according to the RNID. Thompson said hearing-impaired people take an average of 10 years to pluck up the courage to wear unattractive implants.
Some of the concepts on display at HearWear, which opened last week and runs until March 5, have already attracted interest from manufacturers, Thompson added.

"Today, every second person seems to be listening to music on an iPod, chatting on a mobile phone or scribbling on a PDA," she said. "What if you could really control and play with the way you hear? There are so many possibilities."

By Robert Andrews
August 8, 2005
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,68419,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_3


Online ‘gizmos’ keep mind in shape for school

Just because you’re on summer vacation doesn’t mean your brain has to rot. Take advantage of the extended break to sharpen your math and science skills with the lessons at the ExploreLearning Web site (www.explore learning.com/index.cfm).

ExploreLearning is used by many schools across the United States for grades six to 12. It emphasizes conceptual learning, understanding the ideas that form the basis of mathematical principles. The interactive exercises found on the site, called “gizmos,” are hands-on and allow you to visually experience abstract mathematical concepts in ways graphic calculators do not.

The gizmos allow you to move at your own pace. For example, with the site’s dividing fractions gizmo, you can use sliders to adjust the numerator and denominator of both a dividend and a divisor. You can click on the ruler option to show an area model of the variables you plugged in (a visual representation), as well as a calculation option to show the process of solving the equation (the mathematical representation).

After you feel comfortable with the concept the gizmo illustrates, you answer a few questions to gauge your understanding of it. Once you submit your answers, a pop-up window appears with the correct responses and detailed instructions on how the problem was solved.

The gizmos are a great learning tool, but they aren’t cheap. A home subscription to ExploreLearning is $149. Before you plunk down your money, however, you can sign up for a 30-day free subscription to test it out.

The site also offers a few gizmos you can browse one time per day for five minutes without signing up for the free trial.

With the influence standardized testing has on education, letting your math skills go to waste over the summer is risky. Investing in ExploreLearning could be money well spent.

ERIC GOODWIN
Knight Ridder Newspapers
August 4, 2005
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/12293811.htm


Jim Donahue and Brooke Lee: Trying to fix special education

ON JAN. 8, 2002, President Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act in response to the report from the Commission on Excellence in Special Education.

In an attempt to heal the wounds of a broken system, this act promised to deliver quality education to every child regardless of race, family background, or disability status.

Three years later, the question remains: Are children with learning disabilities receiving what they need, both academically and socially, to reach their full potential?

There is no doubt that children with learning differences face a tough uphill battle. According to the findings of the commission, a quagmire of bureaucracy and regulations confronts too many children with learning disabilities.

Among its findings:

The current system uses an antiquated model that waits for a child to fail instead of acting as a model based on prevention and intervention.

When a child fails to make progress in special education, parents don't have adequate options and very little recourse.

Children with disabilities require highly qualified teachers. Many educators wish they had better preparation before entering the classroom as well as better tools for identifying needs quickly and accurately.

Here in Rhode Island there's an innovative educational reform movement taking place at the Bradford L. Dunn Institute. Two years before the commission was established, the Dunn Institute had already put into practice many of the report's suggestions and recommendations.

A nonprofit organization, dedicated to providing programs and services that address the needs of those living with learning differences, Dunn is committed to breaking the cycle of academic failure by putting the stepping stones to success in place as early as possible. Originally developed at the Hamilton School at the Wheeler School, in Providence, the Dunn method reaches students with effective, multi-sensory and direct instruction that encompasses a range of learning styles. Dunn also trains teachers, provides on-site consultation for school-wide programs, and develops appropriate curriculum for children with learning differences.

High-quality instruction for addressing learning disabilities is often unavailable to public school children within the regular classroom setting. Most specialized schools for children with learning disabilities cannot meet the demands for their services, nor can poor or even middle-income students get access these programs. Dunn believes that the key to helping children with diverse learning needs lies in giving teachers the tools that they need to work with all types of minds, before the cycle of failure begins. It's time to take our diversity efforts a step further, to recognize and accept different types of learning styles.

Dunn is proving that its theories and practices work at CVS Highlander, a charter school in Providence. As its public-school laboratory, this school is demonstrating that miraculous things can happen for children when educators put forth the time and energy to create innovative programs that speak to each child's uniqueness. At Highlander, children get the help they need, and make remarkable progress.

But CVS Highlander is just one public school. Without significant changes in how we teach, poverty, crime and violence will continue to escalate in direct correlation with children's failure to learn. Studies have shown that people with learning difficulties are far more likely to quit school and subsist at or below poverty level. They are more likely to turn to crime and violence and to abuse drugs and alcohol.

According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, some two-thirds of inmates in the U.S. prison system are less literate than the general adult population. In studies conducted among incarcerated juveniles, learning disabilities have been estimated to occur in up to 55 percent of inmates nationwide. In one single-state study, 70 percent qualified for special education. Today, nearly one out of every four students in public schools has some kind of learning difference.

We are working with Dr. Mel Levine, founder of All Kinds of Minds, a national organization that prepares educators to meet children's diverse learning needs, to change those statistics. Dunn will bring Dr. Levine's Schools Attuned training to Rhode Island. In August, we will train more than 65 classroom teachers to better meet the needs of all students with diverse learning styles. We continue to train teachers in Orton-Gillingham -- a unique approach to teaching dyslexic children how to read. Our goal for summer 2006 is to provide 200 Rhode Island teachers with high-quality professional development so that they will be more effective and successful at teaching kids with learning differences.

The Commission on Excellence for Special Education was on target in its recommendations for reform. But words on paper need to be translated into action. Dunn is committed to action at CVS Highlander and strives to bring its unique approach to other public schools in Rhode Island and the New England region in general.

If we as a society are committed to education, we have an obligation to open our minds to the possibilities of change and to commit wholeheartedly to provide unique educational opportunities that match up with each child's unique talents and abilities. Following the credo of No Child Left Behind, every child deserves access to a sound basic education, but the one-size-fits-all approach is not working.

In the words of Dr. Levine: "To treat everyone the same is to treat them unequally. We are making a plea for understanding of diversity, for greater flexibility in education and parenting, so that every child can find success in his or her own way."

Jim Donahue is director and chief executive of the Bradford L. Dunn Institute and the CVS Highlander Charter School. He may be reached by e-mail at jimdonahue [at] cox.net. Brooke Lee is chairwoman of the board of trustees at the Dunn Institute.

August 5, 2005
http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/projo_20050805_05dona.1cbaab76.html


A conversation with Rudy Crew

FCATS, teachers, overcrowding: These were a few topics raised in a chat between parents and Miami-Dade's schools chief

The following are excerpts from an approximately hourlong conversation that took place last month. Remarks were edited for clarity and brevity.

Matthew Pinzur: I want to welcome you all to WLRN studios and to this roundtable discussion brought to you by WLRN and The Herald with Superintendent Rudy Crew from the Miami-Dade school district and six parents from various parts of Miami-Dade County who are involved in their local schools. My name is Matthew Pinzur. I'm the lead education writer at The Miami Herald. The way I'd like to do this is have it be a very casual, easygoing, free-flowing discussion of some different issues.

I'm sure you're all familiar with Dr. Crew's history. He's been the superintendent here in Miami-Dade County, which is the fourth-largest school system in the country, for just over one year now. He has been superintendent in various districts across the country, most significantly New York City's public schools from 1995 to 1999.

The format we're going to use is I'm going to ask one of you to just throw out an issue, and we'll discuss that among yourselves and with Dr. Crew for about five minutes.

SAFETY IN SCHOOL

Shanel Sylvain: My concern is about my daughters because they've just come from Haiti last year on May 13. They were in Catholic school. When they came here, I enlisted them to go to school in Campbell Drive Middle. The first shock they had was because so many people were in the classroom. At the beginning also, there were other kids bothering them, fighting with them and they were concerned. They did not speak English yet, and they didn't find anybody to help them, to explain to them, to support them. Sometimes they have to go to talk to other children who speak Creole to help.

Naty Diaz: Well, I had an issue in a magnet program. It was an excellent program, the drama school at Northwestern, and I did put my daughter [there] for the first year . . . the bullying and the violence really tarnished the program. We had to actually leave, we stuck it out for one year. It's a shame.

Crew: Well, I mean, I think that those are just realities. It isn't necessarily just Miami. It was in New York, it's in Seattle, it's across the board. What we've really got to do is ultimately begin to take some dramatic steps, really teaching children, first of all, at a very young age, what the limits of their behavior are, whether they're in school or not.

But then secondly, in some ways, I think we've got to take schools back. And that is to say to enforce a code of discipline that frankly doesn't exist. And it doesn't exist for a whole host of reasons, but maybe the most important is that I just don't think that we, as school people, have been forceful enough, have been consistent enough, have been enforcing enough to actually create, where we really need to, safe places, make schools safe homes away from their own home.

By taking them back, I mean things like an anti-bullying program. We do have an anti-bullying, both rule and regulation as well as a curriculum, but I don't think it's consistently employed throughout the system. I think also we've got to actually, in some cases, get rid of kids in school who are doing this.

UNIFORMS, SINGLE-GENDER SCHOOLS

Trici Swalina: I really agree with the uniform policy. I think it makes a huge difference in the way the kids behave when they all look very similar. It creates a positive atmosphere, I think, at the school when everyone is dressed nicely and in uniforms.

Steve Pinna: We've been though three different schools, and we've had some issues. It seems like the uniform thing helps a lot, but I hear from the teachers that it's hard to enforce that and that there's no teeth in the uniform law and that it affects some kids, but not all the kids.

Crew: I completely support the uniform policy and like very much the fact that there are many schools voluntarily moving in that direction. . .

The other thing that I think is really important is that we actually have to talk about gender here. That's all-boy schools versus all-girl schools. In my mind, it's time for us to have that conversation as a community. That I actually believe that in some cases it's actually better to have schools separated by gender. That all boys go to one school and all girls go to the other school. It happened many, many years ago, and obviously there are a number of people who are going to fight that in every court here and there. But I happen to be a believer that we need to create a specific-to-gender school.

Sylvain: I feel that the way that Dr. Crew is going is the right way for everyone. The boys in one school and the girls in one school, that's a real good idea.

RAISING STANDARDS

Roger Jean-Joseph: Miami Edison High School is good for the community. It is good for the Haitian community because the children from Haiti come in and ask, where to go? 'Go to Miami Edison.' . . . I think maybe the School Board can repair [Edison] and put a good program in the school, the magnet program, for the children and give them computers, give them good teachers.

Guadalupe Maldonado: The teacher has to express to the kids, 'The more you try, the better you get. Maybe you will fail today, but tomorrow you will pass that.' Give motivation to the kids so that they say, 'When I go to school, I'm going to try my best.' Not say, 'When I go to school, I don't have to do anything because the teacher says we will amount to nothing.' It gets me real mad when somebody says to a child you will never amount to nothing. If you motivate a child, sooner or later that little flower is going to blossom to something great.

Crew: I couldn't agree more, and you said it very beautifully.

The issue in Miami for me is that we have to stake out a high enough threshold of challenge. We've got to challenge these children at a much higher lever than they're being challenged right now. I think that American public education in Miami is an example of it, but overall I think we've had a good decade's worth of just dumbing down. And, we have allowed it. So what we're trying to do right now is raise the standard for everybody. And with that comes a whole new conversation about expectations. . .

RECRUITING TEACHERS

Swalina: Along those lines of raising the bar, I guess my question to you is how to get those teachers that do instill that positive attitude in the children: What is being done to recruit the very best teachers? Because I know that there are a lot of teachers that are coming into the profession and leaving the career because of poor pay.

Crew: I think you're absolutely right about the need for being able to recruit excellent teachers here. Money is one of the features to that. But it's not just that. Sometimes it's also a matter of giving them enough autonomy and enough support to be able to do the job. I've seen teachers that are paid at a pretty low level at this point in time as new teachers, first-year teachers, second-year teachers and they're very, very good at what they do, but I know over the course of the next four to five years, I will burn them out. The schools will burn them out if we don't give them support, real support and support in my mind means money.

But we've got a salary structure [for teachers] that is broken. And it's broken from years of problems that existed before I got here and probably before you put your children in the system, since they're younger, and we've got to fix that problem. It's a problem where teachers at the earlier years of their career don't get very much of an increment as they go on. They get 150 to 200 bucks or something like that. After they've taught a whole year, then they get another $250, and so on. It's just crazy. So that's got to be fixed.

THE FCAT

Diaz: I'm blessed that I have two gifted daughters and all three have done well on the FCAT. But I feel that they are losing out in core teaching. I asked my young one about social studies: No time to learn social studies -- FCAT, FCAT. Science, she wants to be a doctor. I have to teach her science at home, little topics, because it's not part of the FCAT test. I'm not saying that I'm against FCAT. What I'm against is that the kids are not learning what they used to learn.

Sylvain: I don't want FCAT to replace education. That happened in Haiti. Everybody's working to get to pass the baccalaureate or FCAT. They forget about education. . . [If] everybody's focusing on education, [the] FCAT will be nothing for children to pass it, like the water you're drinking.

Crew: I'm not against testing. But I am against the abuse of testing. I think we can forget about education if all we do is focus on FCAT.

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION

Pinzur: Do you think that yourself and your neighbors would be willing to vote for a tax increase in the sales tax to, over the long term, be building more schools, be doing renovations at existing schools?

Sylvain: I think this is not a problem for the parents to continue to pay taxes to see how the school in the area can be improved.

Swalina: Living in Miami Beach, we pay an awful lot of taxes; our taxes are very high. I think a lot more of our taxes need to be designated to education. I look at people that live in New Jersey, and there's a lot more money per child going toward their education than there is here in Miami Beach or in Miami. I think this is a very wealthy community, and I don't understand why there shouldn't be more money put towards education and the improvement of the schools and making needed changes like increasing teacher salaries.

Crew: The truth of the matter is we are building both new seats and new schools as fast as we possibly can. . . There's not one community that's left off of this five-year capital plan.

But you reference something else about the issue of how many dollars actually go per capita to the children that you pay enough taxes and so on. The truth is that Florida as a state is not New Jersey when it comes to being able to pay per capita for children's public education. We are probably towards the bottom of the nation in terms of per capita expenditures on public school children.

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT

Pinna: I find parents tell me sometimes, 'Oh, they don't really want us at the school.' I think a lot of parents would get involved if they felt welcome. . . If everybody would volunteer one hour, what a difference it would make.

Maldonado: Coming from Little Haiti there's a cultural thing that we have to teach the parents. Here we have the right to [allow] every kid to go to school. When you are in the Caribbean or Central South America, it's a privilege. [There], once you pass fifth or sixth grade, you have to pay for those kids to go to school. People who come from that culture think I only go there [to school] if something is wrong with the child. We have to teach the parents that they have the right to go to school to figure out what's going on with your child.

I go, especially at the beginning of the school year, and meet all of the teachers. I give them my cellphone number, my school phone number, my house phone number. [I tell them] if anything, don't let it go by. If something's wrong, let me know because the earlier you correct something, the less headache you have later on.

Jean-Joseph: Sometimes the parents from the island are scared to come to the meetings because the parents don't speak English. But I want more people to walk in to speak Spanish, speak Creole; [right now] a lot of the parents don't want to come because they don't speak English very well.

Diaz: I'm the PTA president at my school, and I'm also a business owner. I have a very busy schedule, but I find time for the school.

Help. Volunteer. See how you can make a difference. Not just complain, but take action. Get involved.

Herald reporter Matthew Pinzur can be reached at mpinzur@herald.com
August 07, 2005
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/education/12313441.htm


An Innovative Technology for Individuals with
Autism Spectrum Disorders

Parents and teachers commonly encourage children to "pay attention." But what does pay attention mean? What does it physically feel like? When you instruct a child to pay attention, typically their perception is that they are already paying attention! Obviously, attention is an abstract, subjective concept, and one that is incredibly difficult to manage for children with attention problems and autism. Its abstract and subjective nature also makes it difficult to teach. Special needs children would directly benefit from a program that would allow them to control their attention and establish a relationship between attention and behavior.

Years ago a local psychologist hired me to initiate a special program at his office. It was called Play Attention. Play Attention is a feedback-based program that enables individuals to control a series of computerized cognitive tasks by attention alone. Through a sensor loaded helmet, the student can actually control computer screen characters — make them fly, swim, etc. — simply by focusing on them. If the student loses focus because of fidgeting, being off-task, or some other self-distracting behavior, the characters go the wrong direction. This allows the student to actually see a direct correlation between behavior and attention. This program enables the individual to understand the concept of paying attention with concrete visual stimulation as well as understanding the way his/her body is physically feeling and reacting. It shifts attention from an abstract concept to a concrete, controllable reality. It is a tremendously powerful teaching tool.

The producers of Play Attention call its training technique Edufeedback, the combination of feedback with a behavior modification program that enables adults and children to improve attention and decrease their impulsive behaviors. Edufeedback is based on neuroplasticity, defined as the brain’s ability to restructure, reorganize, and rewire when properly challenged and stimulated. Play Attention uses EEG neurofeedback in the background to allow the monitoring of concentration. It couples this with five different cognitive tasks including attention stamina, visual tracking, time on-task, short-term-memory sequencing, and discriminatory processing. Impulsivity is measured as well during the tasks.

I worked with the psychologist for two years and achieved many successes using Play Attention with AD/HD individuals. It increased their increased ability to focus and attend to details and it decreased their levels of impulsivity. Although Play Attention was developed for individuals with attention problems, I have helped many students with varying levels of autism achieve amazing results in an after-school tutoring program. Play Attention is also offered during schools hours to children who are diagnosed Autistic and in the full inclusion program.

Presently, some researchers and experts recognize that there is a correlation between Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) and Autism Spectrum Disorders. Some believe that AD/HD is closely related to Asperger’s Syndrome. Autism Spectrum Disorders and AD/HD are developmental disorders that affect the areas of social skills, behavior, and communication. Sensory oversensitivity is also recognized in both developmental disorders. There are several website links to various articles and information from the Play Attention website that further explain this relationship in detail. Every child with Autism requires different types of strategies and program interventions due to individual behaviors and level of understanding. The following are strategies and results used with different Play Attention clients with Autism and behavior difficulties. These are the findings of a teacher who is presently using the program with clients’ on the Autism Spectrum. I am not a researcher. Therefore, the following should be considered case studies and not controlled studies. The student’s names have been changed to protect their anonymity.

Summary

When combined with special strategies as well as transfer and generalization techniques, Play Attention has produced remarkable results for students with Autism and AD/HD. The core Play Attention system allows the teacher to modify and adjust it curriculum to accommodate the special needs of these children.

I have used the combination of biofeedback and behavior modification, known as edufeedback, as an effective strategy to produce positive results with the performance of people with AD/HD and Autism Spectrum Disorders.

The increased ability to attend, reduced impulsivity, development of cause/effect relationships, expanded communication abilities, social skills, sensory integration, and development of positive behaviors are observable and measurable with each student. Academic skills in reading comprehension and math concepts have improved due to the students’ ability to attend for longer periods of time. Again, these changes are actual and quantifiable. Please see the Case Studies below.

These results have been documented by a special educator who is tutoring her students with Play Attention and not by a research team or an employee of Play Attention.

Linda Creamer
August 1, 2005
URL: http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=165700651
Email: Linda Creamer - successful_minds@bellsouth.net
Peter Freer - freer@playattention.net
Play Attention website - http://www.playattention.com/how-it-helps/


Case Study: An Innovative Technology for Individuals
with Autism Spectrum Disorders

CASE STUDIES:

Charles

“Charles” is a student diagnosed with Autism and is presently in a self-contained classroom for children with Autism. His brother is diagnosed with AD/HD. Charles’ parents were considering Play Attention for his brother and inquired if Charles might benefit from the program. Because of my previous use of Play Attention, I knew it was possible to increase his ability to attend and decrease his impulsive behaviors. While this program had not been used for children or adults with Autism at the time, I was hopeful that there would be beneficial results as Charles was experiencing attention difficulties and behavioral problems. Furthermore, I knew that I would have to develop strategies and particular teaching methods to accommodate Charles’ special needs.

Charles started Play Attention with me. I set goals to assist Charles in controlling or extinguishing particular behaviors as he often displayed aggression toward others and become easily frustrated or angry. He also became extremely loud and was unable to perform the desired skill or task in a variety of settings, including school, home, and in the community. These skills were often simple tasks, such as washing his hands for lunch.

Charles’ favorite activity is a Play Attention game called Tower Builder, which strengthens time on-task. When Charles focuses on a block in the lower left side of the computer screen, he can actually pick it up and move it to the other side of the screen by his mind alone! He can build an entire tower like this. If he falls off-task, the block will move the wrong way. I utilized his success with Tower Builder to generalize physical relaxation and calmness. When he displayed behaviors, such as frustration at being unable to complete a task or anger at not being first, I instructed his teacher and parents to request him to calm down and remember Tower Builder. When given this simple instruction, the adult could literally see Charles’ body calm down. He was then asked to retry the desired task and was able to perform the task at hand. By repeating this process, Charles has reduced his aggressive actions from several times a day to a point where they are rarely observable. We had achieved generalization and transfer through voice prompting. Specifically, a side benefit was to actually increase Charles’ time on-task skills. Initially, Charles was unable to independently attend to tasks for more than a three-minute period. With strategic work emphasizing on-task training, he is now able to attend to school-related academic tasks independently for up to twenty minutes.

Charles also had aggressive competitive issues. He was very competitive in all areas of his life. If he wasn’t first in line for lunch, winner of the game, etc., he became angry and defiant. Helping him to understand how he could compete with his own behaviors and “beat” the computer when performing the games enabled me to assist him in overcoming some of his competitive issues in the classroom and community settings.

Using Tower Builder (time-on-task component), the student must focus to build a tower of different levels in a specified amount of time. When Charles paid attention he could ’beat the computer’ by finishing the task before the allotted time, but when he displayed negative behaviors he was unable to ’win.’ On several occasions Charles would not beat the computer, which in turn would foster inappropriate behaviors. His frustration and inappropriate behaviors would then carry over into the next task. This gave me the opportunity to address the issues of winning and losing and the effects his inappropriate behaviors had on his ability to perform the task. Since control, relaxation, and focus were the only way Charles could ‘beat the computer,’ I was able to guide him to understand the cause/effect relationship between his negative behaviors and his ability to perform simple tasks. I always reassured him that as long as he was in control of his behavior and did his best he would always a winner!

Task completion was also a problem for Charles. When he began Play Attention, he would exhibit frustration and anger when he could not complete an activity. I viewed these times as teachable moments. Charles noticed that the games performed best when he was calm and relaxed. When he deviated from this physiological state by becoming angry or frustrated, I would instruct Charles to calm down and begin to rub his back. Charles would calm down and regain control of the task on the computer. He began to equate relaxation and personal control to success.

To insure transfer and generalization, I related the performance to his brain working and not working; he identified ‘brain working’ to relaxation, control, and calmness. He identified ‘brain not working’ to frustration and anger. In other words, his correlation between the brain working and not working was a concept Charles could comprehend in relation to his ability to successfully complete each task. At this point, I would ask him to feel how his body felt and instruct him to visually notice the changes in his ability to complete the task on the computer. Charles became cognitively aware when his brain was ‘not working’ and when his brain was ‘working.’ When he began to easily settle himself at my prompting, he stated, “Now my brain can work!” We experienced these remarkable behavioral successes in approximately two months (about fifteen sessions). Realistically, we would have to practice this for weeks and perhaps months for Charles to retain his ability to self-regulate.

Play Attention charts impulsivity during game play. Game information is immediately displayed at the conclusion of a game. We related his vast amount of impulsive strikes to his lowered game scores. He began to notice the correlation. When first beginning Play Attention he would have as many as sixty impulsive hits during a five-minute activity. Currently, on many attempts, he has zero impulsive hits. We worked on associating calm control over impulsivity with success. Through discussion and classroom reinforcement, his improvement in impulsivity has generalized into his classroom behaviors. He has diminished loud outbursts, aggression, and inappropriate reactions to various situations to a minimal level in the school setting. Charles is now able to interact in community settings with very little inappropriate outbursts or frustrations, including waiting in line for his food in a restaurant setting.

Play Attention requires visual attention to its games. Through this feature, Charles developed the ability to make limited eye contact. Before beginning Play Attention, Charles was unable to make eye contact or even gaze in the direction of the person he was conversing with. Although he is still unable to maintain eye contact for sustained periods of time, he is now able to attend to the eyes for a short period of time and the speaker’s mouth for the period of the conversation. This has helped to improve his conversational speech. He is now able to comprehend what is being said to him due to his sustained attention and appropriately respond in a proper turn-taking conversation. His ability to respond to questions has progressed from mimicking the question, responding yes or no, to complete sentences in a proper response.

Charles’ reading abilities have progressed as well. During reading instruction when he became frustrated, didn’t focus, or became impulsive, I reminded him about the various tasks on Play Attention and how his brain works. This assisted in his ability to increase focus during reading instruction. The achievement gained in Charles’ reading abilities occurred due to his sustained attention, reduction in impulsivity, and increased positive behaviors. When giving directions to children or adults with AD/HD and Autism, many times they only process or remember the first or last part of the direction. Charles’ impulsivity, negative behaviors, and his lack of ability to focus interfered with his ability to attend to the whole word or read all of simple text in a sentence. He would automatically state a word that he knew started with the first letter or would look at the picture and create his own sentence. With his decreased impulsivity Charles now has the ability to attend and focus for longer periods of time during reading instruction. This enabled me to assist him in examining and processing the whole word and not just the beginning sound. His increased ability to maintain eye-contact to the visual stimulus during the Play Attention games has assisted in visual contact with the individual words and text during reading instruction. Charles is now able to follow the visual stimulus of my pointing to individual words and he is able to point to the words in sequence in simple sentences. Before his ability to attend, focus, and maintain eye contact, Charles was unable to follow the text fluently. The lack of reading fluency affected his ability to comprehend the text. Charles now has the ability to recognize picture and contextual cues, patterns in words or word families, repetition in text, comprehend text, and to make predictions about the events.

Through visual stimulation and relating behaviors to concrete concepts, Charles has demonstrated significant improvement in all areas of his development.

Ned

“Ned” is a student who is diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. He is placed in a seventh grade, full day inclusion program in a heterogeneous environment. He is highly intelligent and scores at 94% and above in all subjects in the regular seventh grade curriculum. Ned is obsessive compulsive, can be both verbally and physically aggressive, and extremely impulsive. The aggression, usually an impulsive response, occurs when he makes a mistake or is misunderstood socially by adults or his peers. When an altercation occurred with his sisters at home, he would usually hit to solve the problem. Socially he has little understanding of cause and effect.

When first beginning Play Attention, Ned would hit the monitor or slam the keyboard down when he made a mistake. I would point out that the screen characters were going the wrong way and that his behavior was making him unsuccessful. Ned could visually recognize that his aggression was interfering with his ability to complete the task at hand. After only five sessions Ned began to accept that making mistakes did not require aggressive responses.

At home Ned had an altercation with his sister and recognized that he only yelled and did not become physically aggressive. He immediately told his mother. He was proud of his accomplishment. The understanding of cause/effect in social situations had begun to develop. Ned stated to his mother that “Play Attention teaches me not to be impulsive.” She praised and reinforced this behavior. Ned now fully understands he must maintain his focus to make the computer complete the tasks at hand which cannot be accomplished if he is reacting in an aggressive manner.

Play Attention games begin with a very controlled, low-stimuli presentation. Gradually, the student is allowed to progress to faster-paced, but more highly stimulating games. I discovered that Ned’s high level of intelligence required him to begin in the faster-paced, highly distracting games. This enabled him to achieve at a higher level of success. The slower paced level of the games resulted in less attention and more frustration. We developed a strategy for Ned that accommodated his needs; he would begin at the faster paced level of the games offering him greater success but still enabling me to address his aggression and impulsivity issues. Now that his aggression is less of an issue, we have returned to the slower-paced level of the games to enable Ned to strengthen his ability to focus and his impulsivity level. Ned is currently able to complete the medium-paced games and his attention and focusing skills have increased to where there is greater success in the completion of the games and less disruptive behaviors. He is currently moving to another state where his mother has already begun to seek assistance to enable Ned to continue Play Attention.

Ryan

“Ryan” is a seven-year-old boy who has been diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), coupled with a recent autism diagnosis, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and AD/HD. He was adopted from an orphanage in Moscow, Russia when he was sixteen months old. He had severe tantrums, including severely aggressive behaviors, running from the classroom, and extreme defiance. He also lacked cause/effect understanding. Ryan was receiving therapy from a cognitive therapist, psychiatrist, speech/language therapist, occupational therapist, and special educator. He has been on a variety of medications. His parents were told by the psychiatrist there was a distinct possibility of institutionalization.

I approached Ryan’s parents offered assistance through Play Attention. Within a three month period Ryan had started to develop cause/effect relationships due to his interaction with Play Attention. His behavioral outbursts still existed, but on a less frequent basis. Ryan’s psychiatrist reassessed his behaviors after three months participation in the Play Attention program. He determined that Ryan had matured two and one-half years in his social development. The only change during this period was his participation in Play Attention.

During periods when Ryan was unable to process and understand concepts or encounters an uncomfortable social situation, he became both verbally and physically aggressive as well as defiant. He would attempt to run away, bite, hit, kick, and head but during these periods of aggression. While coaching Ryan during Play Attention I observed that speaking to him in a soft voice or gently rubbing his back with my palm would enable him to calm down and reduce his aggressions. This observation was also pointed out to Ryan. He developed a correlation between his ability to calm down and rubbing his back. At times when he was not able to process or became upset during the session he would request that I rub his back. Ryan needed to be able to calm himself independently, so I instructed him to rub the back of his hand when he became upset. While coaching during Play Attention sessions Ryan was able to observe the effect that the self-stimulation of rubbing his hand had on his ability to calm down. After sharing this strategy with his regular classroom teacher and her reinforcement of the strategy, Ryan was able to generalize and independently perform this calming technique. This enabled Ryan to calm down, become refocused and appropriately interact in the situation. His defiant behaviors and aggressions both verbally and physically have decreased. It is important to remember when coaching that children with AD/HD and Autism may be hypersensitive to touch. Therefore, rubbing or gentle touch may not be a strategy that will assist in reduction of behaviors, but in fact may increase aggression. It is extremely important that with any behavior modification program that you know what triggers negative behaviors.

Ryan’s expression of compassion, motivation to learn, and desire to comply with classroom, school, and community expectations has developed to a point where institutionalization is no longer a concern.

Play Attention enabled him to understand cause/effect relationships and develop a higher level of problem solving skills. Having the ability to understand cause/effect relationships opens the door for the coach, teachers, and parents to begin to use positive reinforcement and consequences for behaviors. The combination of coaching, visual reinforcement regarding behaviors and task completion assisted Ryan in understanding cause and effect. It has enabled Ryan to develop socially by exploring the relationship between his behaviors and the reaction to these behaviors by his peers in social situations. Now he has developed friendships with some of his peers and is able to participate in community and social events.

Ryan has been continuing Play Attention for one year now, but consistently is progressing in his ability to attend, reduce impulsivity, and more importantly control his behaviors. He is an excellent example of neuroplasticity as he developed new neural pathways through the challenges of his feedback based program, the practice of positive behavior modification techniques, and interactive coaching. This training has produced remarkable changes in Ryan’s behaviors. His current abilities to participate in social events and his ability to effectively communicate clearly reflect this.

Alex

“Alex” is a nine year old boy who was classified as Behaviorally/Emotionally Disabled and Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Before beginning Play Attention, Alex was verbally and physically aggressive, extremely impulsive, defiant, inattentive, and reading below grade level. His aggressive and compulsive behaviors consisted of actions such as hitting or kicking the computer, and hitting, running throughout the classroom and refusal to comply with the Play Attention and tutoring rules to name just a few.

One of the strategies used with Alex was to point out his behaviors as they happened during the different games. At times the games were exited and restarted after discussing various behaviors occurring at the time.

Play Attention requires a baseline to be taken prior to play. It is a critical evaluation of the student’s attentive state at that particular time of day. Initially, Alex had difficulty beginning the baseline and the first game before settling down and attending. Using this as a teachable moment, we discussed strategies on how he should begin a task, remember the instructions required to finish a task, and transfer these skills to use in the regular classroom. This required him to remain calm and focused. Repetition of our strategy brainstorming enabled him to understand particular behaviors that prevented him from being successful in his attempt to complete the tasks. Prior to this training, he was unaware of many of the behaviors that were interfering with his ability to attend.

Play Attention has a behavior shaping program integrated into the system package. As the coach notes particular behaviors, she can enter them into the computer after a game is completed. The computer graphs the number of times the student exhibits a particular behavior. The behavioral graphs in the program were used as immediate positive reinforcers demonstrating to Alex that he could control his behavior as he became aware of it. This enabled him to understand and work towards the desired behaviors.

As we progressed with his training, he improved in his general attention. His ability to attend to his reading improved. His reading comprehension and word attack skills began improving as well. As a result he has begun to complete his homework in less time.

Alex was recently reevaluated and the psychologist found that he no longer met the requirements for classification in the behaviorally/emotionally disabled program, but is AD/HD. He is now placed Other Health Impaired and will begin transitioning into the regular curriculum for part of the day. Recently on his end-of-grade reading test, Alex passed on grade level.

Another commonality between Autism and AD/HD is the students’ reactions to sensory stimulation in the environment. The sensory sensations include touch, taste, auditory, visual, olfactory (smell), vestibular (balance and movement), and proprioceptive (positioning of the body). Children with Autism and AD/HD have difficulty with discriminating and integrating sensory input, contending with over stimulation, and processing the sensory input to effectively motor plan. Learning is developed through processing sensorimotor activities. Sensory integration, as described by Ayers, is “the neurological process that organizes sensations from one’s own body and from the environment and makes it possible to use the body effectively within the environment. The spatial and temporal aspects of inputs from different sensory modalities are interpreted, associated and unified. Sensory integration is information processing.”

How the information is analyzed, processed, and interpreted by the brain determines the extent of learning that transpires. The brain will adjust to the intensity of sensory stimuli, distinguish between different sensory input, and process this information. However, children with these disorders have difficulty with the brain’s ability to adjust to the different sensory input; therefore the integration of sensory input requires a great deal of concentration and effort. The erratic input of sensory stimulation affects the brain’s ability to respond in a meaningful way. Many times the students will react to over stimulation by concentrating so intensely to one task that they have difficulty shifting their attention to another task. This behavior is sometimes interpreted as lack of attention as opposed to the inability to transition from one task to another. Sensory integration dysfunction prevents the student from being able to shift from one sensory modality to another. For example, the student will only process visual input and not be able to shift to auditory input. Play Attention requires for the students to shift from one sensory input to another. This assists the student in developing the ability to transition between the sensory input due to the repetitive practice during assistance by the coach.

Dennis

“Dennis” is a student diagnosed with Autism and is in a self-contained class for children with Autism. He is on Strattera (a medication for his anxiety and attention difficulties) and has severe Sensory Integration Dysfunction. Dennis was included in the regular curriculum for two hours per day for grade appropriate academics, but was unable to handle the sensory input during his inclusion period. He became aggressive and emotional after returning from the regular classroom situation. Dennis has extreme difficulties filtering and distinguishing the necessary sensory input he needs to process the task at hand. He is unable to transition from visual to auditory and vise versa. This was not discovered until he started two months ago on the updated version of Play Attention. Dennis had previously participated in Play Attention when it only required the visual processing of the tasks. When the auditory input was introduced Dennis was unable to process and complete the tasks he could previously complete. He was attending only to the sensory input that was first required on the task. He was able to attend to auditory and visual input independently, but was unable to integrate and process both sensory stimulations within the same game.

It was necessary to teach Dennis to correctly respond to both auditory and visual stimuli. Initially, I began to complete the secondary sensory input for Dennis. For example, he would enter the auditory response and I inputted the visual response. Dennis began to associate the expectations of the task with an increase his awareness to the other sensory stimulation in order to be successful with the task. On a limited basis, Dennis is beginning to successfully integrate the visual and auditory stimulations and processing them to successfully complete the games. In the classroom and at home his anxiety to over stimulation of sensory input has begun to diminish. Previously, Dennis needed direct assistance to complete tasks and still needed to be redirected two to three times per minute. He is now able to attend independently for up to fifteen minutes with limited redirection by his teacher.

Linda Creamer
August 1, 2005
http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=165700658


Park Record: Are immunizations safe?

Local experts share opinions on theories about shots and autism

One of the items on the back to school checklist is immunizations. Both the Park City School District and Summit County Health Department have sent out immunization reminders that students need before going back to school.

"We've eradicated a lot of diseases, so I think immunizations are important," said Gina Agy, Park City School District nurse. "There are definite benefits of immunizations."

But the validity of some vaccinations is under considerable scrutiny this year from national media outlets such as "Meet the Press" and radio/TV personality Don Imus.

Notably, journalist David Kirby's book "Evidence of Harm" asserts that mercury in some vaccines have contributed to an increase in autism rates in the United States.

"I'm extremely cautious" about vaccines, said Park City resident Mark Farkas, who has a local nutraceutical firm, in an earlier interview. "It's not as clean cut as the pharmaceutical industry would like you to believe."

Autism is a psychiatric disorder of childhood, according to answers.com. Symptoms include damaged communication and social interaction, preoccupation with fantasy, language impairment, and abnormal behavior, such as repetitive acts and excessive attachment to certain objects, the website continues. It is usually associated with intellectual impairment.

The controversy surrounds a component in some immunizations called thimerosal, which contains mercury (a known brain toxin), used as a preservative. Drugs without preservatives can lose their efficacy over time, according to Agy.

"There's a lot of bad stuff out there," Farkas said. "The pharmaceutical industry is not necessarily looking out for my or your interest."

Dr. David Jubelirer, with Summit Pediatrics, said, "The body of scientific evidence favors rejection of any relationship between both measles mumps rubella vaccines and thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism. Standard immunization schedules should be supported since the risk of disease complications are far greater concerns."

Thimerosal has not been used in vaccines since 2003, except for flu-virus vaccines, but it is also available in a thimerosal-free form, he said.

The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies conducted an investigation last year about the possible connection between autism and, specifically, the measles mumps rubella (MMR) and other thimerosal-containing vaccines. It rejects the theory of a connection between autism and the shots. (Read the report at http://www.iom.edu/.)

"The overwhelming evidence from several well-designed studies indicates that childhood vaccines are not associated with autism," said committee chair Marie McCormick, Harvard School of Public Health, in a press release.

Farkas wants parents to examine the facts "before deciding whether or not to inject a powerful foreign substance into the body of a child," he said, but noted, "My intent is not to tell anyone whether or not to vaccinate."

If parents have concerns, Farkas suggests that they speak with their physician or find books on vaccines, many of which have been written by licensed doctors, "not whacked-out hillbillies," he said. Farkas recommends "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children's Vaccinations" by Stephanie Cave, M.D.

"If you're kid's perfectly healthy, there's a better chance of survival," Farkas said.
While autism rates have increased, that could be for a number of reasons, such as mercury in the water, Agy said, or "A kid could have different DNA and be more prone to autism."

According to Utah Health Department Data, in the mid-1980s, the state had three or four cases of autism in every 10,000 cases. While there is no current Utah data available, the national rate is two serious and four milder cases per 1,000.

But the definition of autism has been expanded in that time, said the health department's Judy Zimmerman, PhD., while more kids are identified with the disease, it doesn't necessarily mean there are now more autistic kids.

"We're not sure," Zimmerman said.

While students are required to get their shots, technically they don't have to. Families that want exemptions can obtain them from the Summit County Health Department (Richins Building, 6505 Landmark Drive, Park City).

"I have to, as a school nurse, respect all opinions," Agy said. She endorses immunization but respects parents' rights. "They do their home work and if they have an issue, I want them to know I listen."

If there is an outbreak of a disease, such as chicken pox, then exempt children must be kept home, Agy said.

Regardless, Agy says she appreciates the attention to the issue.

"That's what's great about controversy," Agy said. "Controversy brings about positive consequences."

Requirements:
Children entering grades K through 2 must have proof of receiving the following immunizations:

DTP (5 shots, only 4 if given after 4th birthday)
Polio (4 shots, only 3 if given after 4th birthday)
Measles (2 shots)
Mumps (1 shot)
Rubella (1 shot)
Hepatitis B (3 shots)
Varicella (1 shot, or a history of chicken pox)
Hepatitis A (2 shots, second dose must be given a minimum of 6 months later)

Jared Whitley
Of the Record staff
August 10, 2005
http://www.parkrecord.com/Stories/0,1413,122%7E8138%7E3003442,00.html#


The Art of Autism

It is difficult to imagine Mary-Minn Sirag without words.

At 51, she talks incessantly, in a rich, low, singsong voice. Her command of the language is impressive, her vocabulary prodigious - a byproduct, perhaps, of the shelves and stacks of books lining the walls of almost every room of her River Road-area house.

But at 1, 2, even 3 years old, she essentially was silent. Borderline catatonic as an infant, she didn't like to be held or touched. All of her milestones came late. She didn't sit up until she was 18 months old, didn't walk until after 2. As a toddler she would throw epic tantrums, hurling objects across the room. She had peculiar obsessions, such as the contents of women's handbags, and refused to use stairs.

Oddly, although she didn't talk, she flawlessly sang nursery rhymes.

Her doctors didn't know what autism looked like.

"Most of them said I was severely retarded and I wouldn't be toilet trained and I would be a real liability for my parents," Sirag said.

Sirag proved them wrong. Through a combination of early intervention by her grandmother, intense determination, natural intelligence and inherent sociability, Sirag gained the upper hand in her struggle with a formidable developmental disability that impairs communication, social interaction and behavior.

She did well in school, made friends, got through college, supported herself. Married 14 years now to theoretical physicist Saul-Paul Sirag, she has a full and joyous life.

She also has emerged as a leading advocate and role model for Lane County's sizable autism community. Since 2001 she has been president of KindTree Productions Inc., a Eugene support organization that celebrates autistic adults and children through art, education and recreation. Earlier this spring, Sirag was the recipient of the Arc of Oregon's Sarolta Nagy Award, an annual award given to a developmentally disabled person who has made an outstanding contribution to the quality of life for other Oregonians with developmental disabilities. Before that, she nabbed the Arc of Lane County's Self-Determination Award.

That's not to say life has been, or ever will be, easy for Mary-Minn Sirag. Chronically underemployed most of her life, she has been fired from more than a dozen jobs. She can't remember faces or voices, and has an abysmal sense of direction. She seldom maintains eye contact, and she struggles to master the give-and-take of normal social interaction. She often rocks back and forth gently during conversation. Like many autistic people, she suffers from stomach problems - in her case, occasionally debilitating Crohn's disease.

Sirag also has bouts of extreme anxiety, usually set off by losing things, dropping things or attempting to multitask. During occasional severe meltdowns, she staples her arms or cuts herself with scissors.

"The pain is very calming," said Sirag.

Sirag's singular blend of compassion, energy, humor, forthrightness and vulnerability makes her an inspiration to others, say those who know her well.

Here's what TR Kelley, a Swisshome musician who is autistic, wrote about Sirag in one of more than a dozen nomination letters for the Arc award: "Mary-Minn Sirag is someone I instantly felt a powerful kinship with - intelligent, literate, insightful and very unapologetically autistic. Her candor and willingness to share and speculate and advocate serve as a beacon for me as I continue to accept and come to terms with my own lifetime of undiagnosed autism."

Nan Lester, founder of the Eugene-based Asperger Advocacy Coalition, hired Sirag two years ago to be a mentor and companion to her son. Max, now 12, has Asperger syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism. The pair struck an enduring, mutually beneficial bond that has changed both their lives and deepened her own understanding of her son, Lester said.

"Mary-Minn is the single best thing that's happened to us," she said.

Sirag wasn't so unabashed about her autism as recently as five years ago. In fact, she said, at the age of 5, living on her grandmother's Iowa farm, she made up her mind never to be autistic again. Her parents, with four other children, had difficulty coping with her, but welcomed her when she returned home two years later.

"I really wanted to be normal," said Sirag, whose diagnosis is high-functioning autism. "I lived in fear of being locked up."

From that point on, she kept her disability under wraps, with varying degrees of success. Her family relocated from Florida to Beirut, Lebanon, where they lived until Sirag was 15. Kids at school thought she was weird, but she still had friends and excelled in class. After finishing high school in Maryland, she enrolled with a full-ride scholarship at Cornell College in Iowa, graduating in 1972 with a degree in classical languages, French and art. She bounced through a slew of jobs, including waitressing - "the hardest thing an autistic person can do other than being an air traffic controller."

She moved to New York City in 1977, where she completed a summer graduate program in Latin and worked other odd jobs. Her life took a dark turn after getting a boyfriend who dealt drugs, abused her emotionally and, when she tried in vain to end the relationship, stalked her obsessively. She lost touch with her family and moved with him to Oakland, Calif.

There, she kept a well-paying administrative assistant job at a Japanese trading company for six years, escaping the boyfriend in 1984.

She and Saul-Paul, 14 years her senior, began dating a year later. In 1991, they moved to Eugene and bought the house they still live in, a modest, orange-sherbet-colored cottage with a huge, untamed backyard teeming with birds. Every room is jammed with knickknacks and stacks of books, arranged by topic. Whatever wall space is not blocked by books is covered with artwork, some of it by autistic artists.

Since then, Sirag has worked numerous jobs, been a freelance writer and briefly served as editor of the Tri-County News in Junction City.

"It was the most wonderful job I ever had," said Sirag, who lost it when a new publisher made personnel changes.

Five years ago, she heard about KindTree from a massage therapist she'd met while working as a U.S. Census Bureau counter.

"I wasn't about to call them, because what if they thought I wasn't autistic enough?" she said.

KindTree founders Steve Brown and Michelle Jones, both caregivers to autistic people, called her instead. As she began attending gatherings, she found kindred spirits and a sense of belonging she'd always yearned for. For the first time, Sirag embraced and even celebrated her autism. She's never looked back.

"It's a little like, I guess, what people get with religion," she said. "I didn't know there were a whole lot of other people who are `high-functioning' - I really didn't know."

She speaks to caregivers, educators and people in the autism community all over Oregon, and writes a regular column - "Mary-Minn's Stim Page," named for the repetitive body movements that bring relief to many autistic people - in the KindTree newsletter. She attends support group meetings and helps organize special events, such as the annual Summer Autism Camp/Retreat, scheduled this weekend at Camp Baker near Florence.

"I think of her as the centerpiece that the rest of us all revolve around," KindTree secretary Tim Mueller said.

Sirag also sits on the board of Bridgeway House, another Eugene autism support organization. She teaches city-sponsored art classes to people with developmental disabilities, and has been a peer mentor and workshop leader at McKenzie Personnel Systems, Lane Independent Living Alliance and Oregon Vocational Rehabilitation Services.

She's been working on a book - "sort of a user's guide for people with autism on how to negotiate the neuro-normal world," she said - and is trying to start her own business as a book index writer.

Improving the lives of other autistic people is her passion and her mission, she said. She'd love to help establish a community support system that assists autistic people with employment, relationships, shelter and more.

"I see autism as a different culture that coexists along with the neuro-normal culture and, of course, interacts," she said. "I'd like to celebrate that culture, learning how to use our strengths as a community.

"But I proceed slowly, because if I take on too much I'm overwhelmed, and then I'm worse than useless."

PEOPLE
Anne Williams
The Register-Guard
August 15, 2005

MARY-MINN SIRAG
Claim to fame: President of Eugene's KindTree Productions, a support organization for autistic people, and recipient of the 2005 Sarolta Nagy Award from the Arc of Oregon.

First friends: The feral cats on her grandmother's Iowa farm. She credits them with helping her learn social skills.

Best childhood memory: Traveling on ocean liners around Europe with her family. As someone comforted by rocking, there's nothing she loves more than being on a ship in heavy seas.

KINDTREE PRODUCTIONS
To learn more about or to donate to KindTree Productions
visit http://www.blogger.com/www.kindtree.org or call 521-7208.
http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/08/15/b1.cr.maryminn.0815.p1.php?
section=cityregion


A Drug for Autism

A drug used to treat schizophrenia in adults may help autistic kids with aggressive behavior. This is according to an article published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Researchers studied the drug called resperidone in 63 autistic youths ages five to 17. The patients were mostly boys and all exhibited aggressive, disruptive behavior.

All the kids were treated with the drug for eight weeks to make sure they got better. Researchers then gave them the drug for another 16 weeks. Most of the autistic children got even better.

In fact 83 percent were much or very much improved in their behavior. Nine percent improved a bit and only eight percent got worse.

Without the drug, the untreated kids quickly returned to their old ways.

While the drug did help, it also caused some weight gain and it needs to be studied over long time periods.

Still, resperidone may turn out to be a good alternative for autistic kids with aggressive behavior.

By Henry J. Fishman, M.D.
ConsumerAffairs.Com
August 16, 2005
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/fishman/2005/autism_drug.html


20 Technology Skills Every Educator Should Have
By Laura Turner
June 2005 - Web Exclusive

During the last 15 years, we in education have moved at light speed in the area of educational technology. Whether you are involved in higher ed, secondary ed, elementary ed, or special ed, all of us find it difficult to catch up, keep up, and put up with fast-moving computer-based technology. Not since the introduction of the blackboard have we seen a piece of equipment make such a difference in how we teach. Today, not only do we use computers, but we also have laptops, wireless laptops, and tablet PCs. In addition, we have the World Wide Web, scanners, CD burners, USB drives, digital cameras and digital video cameras, PDAs, as well as video and DVD players. And most educators use a variety of tools-including video, e-mail, desktop conferencing, online programs such as WebCT and Blackboard, as well as video conferencing-to teach. Thus, it is no longer acceptable for educators to be technology illiterate.

With that in mind, here is a comprehensive listing of the technology skills that every educator should have. Because as computer and associated technologies continue to change and evolve, educators must continue to strive for excellence in their work. Today that includes continued time and effort to maintain and improve their technology skills (as much as some educators do not want to admit).

Here are 20 basic technology skills that all educators should now have:
1. Word Processing Skills
2. Spreadsheets Skills
3. Database Skills
4. Electronic Presentation Skills
5. Web Navigation Skills
6. Web Site Design Skills
7. E-Mail Management Skills
8. Digital Cameras
9. Computer Network Knowledge Applicable to your School System
10. File Management & Windows Explorer Skills
11. Downloading Software From the Web (Knowledge including eBooks)
12. Installing Computer Software onto a Computer System
13. WebCT or Blackboard Teaching Skills
14. Videoconferencing skills
15. Computer-Related Storage Devices (Knowledge: disks, CDs,
USB drives, zip disks, DVDs, etc.)
16. Scanner Knowledge
17. Knowledge of PDAs
18. Deep Web Knowledge
19. Educational Copyright Knowledge
20. Computer Security Knowledge

1. Word Processing Skills
Educators should be able to use some type of word processing program to complete written tasks in a timely manner. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.

University of Alberta: Online Word Processing Tutorials
www.quasar.ualberta.ca/edpy202/tutorial/wptut/wpweb.htm
This page is a collection of Internet links that provide word processing instruction.

Tutorialfind.com: Word Processing Tutorials
www.tutorialfind.com/tutorials/computerbasics/wordprocessing
This site has a number of word processing tutorials, and is also a portal for a variety of other tutorials.

2Learn.ca Education Society: Word Processing Teacher Tools
www.2learn.ca/teachertools/Wordprocessing/wphow2.html
Word processing tutorials for Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, and Appleworks.

Essential Microsoft Office 2000: Tutorials for Teachers: Word
www.pitt.edu/~poole/Officeindex2.html
Essential Microsoft Office 2000 tutorials from the
University of Pittsburgh's Bernie Poole and Rebecca L. Randall.

2. Spreadsheets Skills
Educators should be able to use some type of spreadsheet program to compile grades and chart data. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials on these skills.

University of Alberta: Online Spreadsheet Tutorials
www.quasar.ualberta.ca/edpy202/tutorial/spreadsheet/spreadsheet.htm
This page is a collection of Internet links that provide instruction on using
spreadsheet programs.

Teachnology: Spreadsheets Teaching Theme
http://teachers.teach-nology.com/themes/comp/spreadsheets
Spreadsheet tutorials from Teachnology, the Web Portal for Educators

Excel in TutorGig Tutorials
www.tutorgig.com/showurls.jsp?group=531&index=0
Spreadsheet tutorials from TutorGig.

Essential Microsoft Office 2000: Tutorials for Teachers: Excel
www.pitt.edu/~poole/Officeindex2.html
Essential Microsoft Office 2000 tutorials from the
University of Pittsburgh's Bernie Poole and Rebecca L. Randall.

Black Hills State University: Technology for Teachers: Spreadsheets
www.bhsu.edu/education/edfaculty/lturner/Technology_for_
Teachers.htm#Spreadsheets
A listing of various Web sites for spreadsheet tutorials and related information.

3. Database Skills
Educators should be able to use some type of database program to create tables, store and retrieve data, and query data. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials on these skills.

University of Alberta: Online Database Tutorials
www.quasar.ualberta.ca/edit202/tutorial/database/database.htm
Database tutorials from the University of Alberta.

Technology and Telecommunications for Teachers: Database Tutorial
www.k12.hi.us/~tethree/01-02/tutorials/db
This tutorial was created by the Advanced Technology Research Branch of the Hawaii Department of Education to provide supplemental productivity tool information to teachers enrolled in the Technology Telecommunication for Teachers (T3) Program.

Microsoft Access Database Tutes
www.rd-robotics.com/accesscommunity/tutes
Microsoft Access database tutorials from R&D Robotics.

Essential Microsoft Office 2000: Tutorials for Teachers: Access
www.pitt.edu/~poole/Officeindex2.html
Essential Microsoft Office 2000 tutorials from the
University of Pittsburgh's Bernie Poole and Rebecca L. Randall.

Black Hills State University: Technology for Teachers: Databases
www.bhsu.edu/education/edfaculty/lturner/Technology_for_
Teachers.htm#Databases
A listing of Web sites for database tutorials, help and related information

4. Electronic Presentation Skills
Educators should be able to use electronic presentation software to create and give electronic presentations. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials on these skills.

PowerPoint in the Classroom
www.electricteacher.com/tutorial3.htm
A list of commonly tasks used while working in PowerPoint, and a step-by-step guide on how to perform them.

University of Victoria: PowerPoint I
www.educ.uvic.ca/compined/Level1/ppoint/ppointI.htm
PowerPoint tutorials and information from the University of Victoria in British Columbia.

Steven Bell's PowerPoint and Presentation Skills Resource Page
http://staff.philau.edu/bells/ppt.html
A list of resources that provide information and technical assistance for developing Power Point slide presentations, as well as information on designing computer-based presentations and mounting PowerPoint files on the Web.

University of California: Presentation/In-Class Software Tutorial & Guides
www.uctltc.org/toolbox/guides/presentation.html
Presentation software tutorials and many other related tutorial categories from the University of California Regents.

University of Alberta: Online PowerPoint Tutorials
www.quasar.ualberta.ca/edpy202/tutorial/PowerPoint/PowerPoint.htm
Online PowerPoint Tutorials from the University of Alberta.

Essential Microsoft Office 2000: Tutorials for Teachers: PowerPoint
www.pitt.edu/~poole/Officeindex2.html
Essential Microsoft Office 2000 tutorials from the University of
Pittsburgh's Bernie Poole and Rebecca L. Randall.

5. World Wide Web Navigation Skills
Educators should be able to navigate the World Wide Web and search effectively for data on the Internet. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials on these skills.

Black Hills State University: Search Engines
www.bhsu.edu/education/edfaculty/lturner/Search%20Engines.htm
An educational Web portal that provides links to search engines
and searching techniques.

Finding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial
www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html
This tutorial presents the substance of the Internet workshops offered by the Teaching Library at the University of California at Berkeley.

Searching the Web in the Yahoo! Directory
http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/
World_Wide_Web/Searching_the_Web
A listing of the top search engines and directories categorized by Yahoo!

Online Writing Lab: Searching the World Wide Web
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_websearch2.html
Purdue University's Online Writing Lab Searching the Internet tutorial

How to be a WebHound
www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/webhound/
The WebHound site shows you how to use various Web search tools.

ICYouSee: T is for Thinking
www.ithaca.edu/library/training/think.html
A guide to critical thinking about what you see on the Web.

6. Web site Design Skills
Educators should be able to design, create, and maintain a faculty/educator Web page/site. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials on these skills.

The WWW Help Page
http://werbach.com/web/wwwhelp.html
Web Page Design Help from Kevin Werback, a portal type help site.

Netscape's Resources for Creating Web sites
http://wp.netscape.com/browsers/createsites/index.html
Resources for Creating Web sites page from Netscape

Teachers.Net Homepage Maker
http://teachers.net/sampler
Teacher Web site creation - interactive from Teachers.net

Web Adventure!
www.webdiner.com/webadv
Web Adventure a beginners design and creation Web site

BUBL Link: Catalogue of Internet Resources
http://bubl.ac.uk/link/w/webpagedesign.htm
Web Page Design portal page.

How Web Pages Work
www.howstuffworks.com/web-page.htm
How Stuff Works page on how Web Pages Work

Creating a Web Page
www.marshall-es.marshall.k12.tn.us/jobe/webpage.html
Web Page Design from Hazel Jobe aMarchal Elementary in Lewisburg TN.

Technology for Teachers
www.bhsu.edu/education/edfaculty/lturner/Technology_for_Teachers.htm
A listing of Web sites for web design, creation help and related information

7. E-Mail Management Skills
Educators should be able to use e-mail to communicate and be able to send attachments and create e-mail folders. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.

Computer Skills Tutorials
http://psychology230.tripod.com/canyons_online/id4.html
E-mail tutorials from Online Learning at the College of the Canyons

Web Site 101: Small Business E-Mail Tutorial
www.Web site101.com/email_e-mail
E-mail tutorials and e-mail basics from Web site101.com

UNITAR's PATIT Training Program: E-Mail Basics
www.un.int/unitar/patit/onlinetutorials/emailbasics.htm
E-mail basics from UNITAR

VisualTutorials.Com
http://visualtutorials.com/email.htm
E-mail tutorials from VisualTutotiral.com

The Animated Internet: How E-Mail Works
www.learnthenet.com/english/section/email.html
E-mail tutorials from Learn the Net.com

8. Digital Cameras Knowledge
Educators should know how to operate a digital camera and understand how digital imagery can be used. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.

Digital Photography Review
www.dpreview.com

Digital Photography Review is an independent resource dedicated to the provision of news, reviews and information about Digital Photography and Digital Imaging published at the Internet address
www.dpreview.com

How Digital Cameras Work
www.howstuffworks.com/digital-camera.htm
How Digital Cameras Work by How Stuff Works.

The Casio Classroom: 1001 Uses for a Digital Camera
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ucfcasio/qvuses.htm
This site is designed as a reference tool putting educators in touch with
creative educational applications for digital cameras in educational settings.

Digital Cameras in Education
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~cumulus/digcam.htm
Web site by Keith Lightbody - ICT Consultant Digital cameras are one of the single most successful Information and Communications Technology purchases you can make in a school. Promote visual literacy - encourage students to use digital cameras!

Technology for Teachers: Digital Cameras
www.bhsu.edu/education/edfaculty/lturner/Technology_for_Teachers.htm
A listing of Web sites about Digital Cameras and related information

9. Network knowledge applicable to your organization.
Educators should know the basics of computer networks and
understand how their school network works.
See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.

Knowledge Network Courses for Teachers
www.knowledgenetwork.co.za/educators/educators.htm
Knowledge Network, established in 1994, specializes in integrated technology solutions for schools, the development of teachers and learners in schools, IT Project Management for Schools and IT skills training and IT skills evaluations for companies.

An Educator's Guide to School Networks
http://fcit.usf.edu/network/default.htm
An Educator's Guide to School Networks

Discovery Schools Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/sci-tech/scicom.html
Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators - Computing and Technology

Kid Source Online
www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/how_can_computer_network.html
Kids SourceOnline - How Can Computer Networking Be Used in the Classroom?

What is a Computer Network
http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/edu/nie/overview/handbook/ch2.1.html
A Guide to Networking a K-12 School District

How to Guide: The Basics of Information Technology
www.enterprise-ireland.com/ebusiness/guides/basics_bht/basics_p2a.htm
Beginners Guide to Networking

10. File Mgmt & Windows Explorer Skills
All educators should be able to manage their computer files and be able to complete the following tasks; create, and delete files and folders, move and copy files and folders using the My Computer window and Windows Explorer. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.

Grant MacEwen College: Online Student Tutorial
http://learn.gmcc.ab.ca/lol/students/tutorial/mod2/2obj2fms.html
Online Student Tutorial - File Management Skills

Oregon State University Extension Service
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/ectu/training/lessons/FileManagement.pdf
File Management from Oregon State University - Extension Computing Technology Unit.

Basic Computer Skills Tutorial
www.umuc.edu/distance/odell/ctla/basic_skills
UMUC Center for Teaching and Learning - Basic Computer Skills tutorial

Alverno College's Basic Computer Skills Tutorials
www.depts.alverno.edu/cil/mod1
Alverno College -Basic Computer Skills Tutorials.

11. Downloading Software from the Web Knowledge -
including e-Books
All educators should be able to download software from the web and
know of the major sites that can be used for this purpose.
See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.

Tucows.com
www.tucows.com

Download.com
www.download.com

Shareware.com
www.shareware.com

FreewareFile.com
www.freewarefiles.com

Computer Tutorials from Carol
http://carolirvin.com/tutorials.htm
Carol Irvin's Free Computers Tutorials

e-Books

Microsoft Reader
www.microsoft.com/reader
Microsoft Reader download site.

Download Adobe Acrobat Reader
www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
Acrobat Reader download site.

E-Book Links
www.bhsu.edu/education/edfaculty/lturner/Ebooks.htm
A listing of download sites for readers and e-books, help and related information.

Adobe eBooks Central
www.adobe.com/epaper/ebooks/main.html
Adobe's e-Book Web site

The eBook Directory
www.ebookdirectory.com
The e-book Directory Web site.

eLibrary- Books and Site Links
www.web-books.com/cool/ebooks/Library.htm
Free eBooks and Best Sites.

Free eBooks.Net
www.free-ebooks.net
Free e-books on the Internet Web site.

eBook.com (Australia)
www.e-book.com.au/freebooks.htm
Free e-books Web site from ebooks.com

12. Installing Computer Software onto a Computer System
Educators should be able to install computer software onto a computer system. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.

Basics of Computing: Installing Software
http://members.aol.com/shobansen3/installing.html
Installing Software Tutorial

Basic Computer Skills for Teachers
www.aps.edu/aps/sw_depart/basicskills/Installing.html
Basic Skills for Teachers - How to Install Software

Regents of the University of Minnesota Master Internet Volunteer Program
www.extension.umn.edu/miv/curriculum/awdinst.html
Downloading and Installing Software Instructions.

Welcome to Computer Training Tutorials
www.ckls.org/~crippel/computerlab/tutorials
Software Installation Problems Tutorial

13. WebCT or Blackboard Teaching Skills
Educators should be aware of these two online teaching tools and know about them and/or know how to use them to teach or take classes. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.

WebCT Web site
www.webct.com

Blackboard Web site
www.blackboard.com

ICON- Iowa Courses Online
http://icon.uiowa.edu/index.shtml
WebCT and Blackboard courses

Comparison of Online Course Delivery Software Products
www.marshall.edu/it/cit/webct/compare/comparison.html
Complete side by side comparison of various online course delivery software products.

14. Video Conferencing skills
Educators should be able to use a video conferencing classroom and
understand the basics of teaching with Video Conferencing.
See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.

JISC Technology Applications Programme
www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~jtb/jtap-037.htm
Practical Guidelines for Teaching with Video Conferencing from JTAP

SBC Knowledge Network Explorer
www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/vidconf/intro.html
An Introduction to Video Conferencing from SCB

Teaching with Technology
www.powertolearn.com/articles/teaching_with_technology/
video_conferencing_for_teaching_and_learning.shtml
Video Conferencing for Teaching & Learning article from Power to Learn

LDTI Case Studies
www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/ltdi/vcstudies
Video Conferencing for Teaching & Learning online articles and information

Conferencing Technology Guidelines
www.gla.ac.uk/lncs/main/video.htm
Video Conferencing Guidelines from the University of Glasgow

Teleconferencing and Teaching
http://coehd.utsa.edu/users/pmcgee/teleconference.htm
Teleconferencing and Teaching from the University of Texas

15. Computer Related Storage Devices Knowledge.
Educators should understand and know how to use the following
data storage devices: disks, CDs, USB drives, zip disks & DVDs.
See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.

Diskettes

Disabled Women's Network Ontario Computer Basics
http://dawn.thot.net/cd/135.html#2
Computer Basics - diskettes

Hardware Basics: Inside the Box
www.cse.psu.edu/~domico/CMPSC101/Lecture-1.htm
Computer Hardware Basics - diskettes

Formatting Diskettes
www.vertical-market.com/gui/W2_1099GUI/Formatting%20Diskettes.htm
Step by step guide to formatting diskettes

How Floppy Disks Work
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/floppy-disk-drive.htm
How Stuff Works explains How Floppy Disks Work

CDs

Cognigen PC Burning Basics
www.cognigen-pc.com/main/coop/default.aspx?Cid=1002
CD Burning Basics

Creating your own CDs
www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/
en-us/creatingyourowncds.mspx
The Microsoft Networks guide to burning CDs

Information on CD-ROM Drives
www.computerhope.com/help/cdrom.htm
Computer Hardware - CD Information

PC Guide's About CD-ROM Drives
www.pcguide.com/ref/cd/index-c.html
CD-ROMs - The PC Guide

Zip CDs User Manual
www.iomega.com/support/manuals/zipcda8x4x32/use_discs.html
Selecting and Using CDs.

Making Data CDs
www.ivytech.edu/madison/hr/Instructions%20for%20Creating%20a%20CD.doc
Making Data CDs Using the Easy CD Creator

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:CDs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_disc
CDs from Wikipedia

USB Drives
(also known as pen drives, flash drives, key chain drives,
portable hard drives)

SearchStorage.Com: Jump Drive
http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid5_gci869057,00.html
Keychain Drive Information

#1 Pen & Flash Drives
www.pen-flash-drives.com
Flash Drive Information

How USB Ports Work
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/usb.htm
How USB Drives Work

USB Floppy Disk Driver FAQs
www.yedata.com/support/floppydrives_faq.shtml
FAQ about USB Drives

USB Hard Drive By Crazy PC
www.cluboverclocker.com/reviews/drives/flash_drives/q_usb_hd
USB Drive Information

The MemoryGuide.com
www.the-memory-guide.com/usb-drive.html
USB Drives - A New Wave in PortableStorage

DVDs

How DVDs Work
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/dvd.htm
How Does a DVD Work? from How Stuff Works

How It Works: DVD
www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,14697,00.asp
How Do DVDs Work? from PC World

Sony DVD FAQs
www.sonyburners.com/faqs
DVDs FAQs

Use DVDs for Archiving and Storage
www.datamind.co.uk/merchant/dvd_for%20storage_backup.htm
Use DVDs for Storage and Archiving from Datamind.co.uk

KarbosGuide.com: DVDs
www.karbosguide.com/hardware/module4c3a.htm
DVD Media

Zip Disks

Iomega's Home Page
www.iomega.com/na/landing.jsp
Zip Drive Information from iomega

Zip Drive FAQs
http://phyweb.lbl.gov/compute/local_zip.html Zip Drive FAQ

Zip: Q&A
www.amigau.com/zipdrives/aFAQ.html Zip Home - FAQ

16. Scanner Knowledge
Educators should know how to use a scanner and what OCR capacity is.
See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.

A Few Scanning Tips
www.scantips.com
Scanning Tips by Wayne Fulton

AARP: How to Use a Scanner
www.aarp.org/computers-howto/Articles/a2002-07-16-scan.html
How to Use a Scanner

How do I Use a Scanner
www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/askbruce/articles/scancam/usescan_1.shtml
How to Use a Scanner by Ask Bruce

Scanners
www.pcworldmalta.com/archive/iss44/scanners.htm
Scanner Information by PC World

Scanning Tips for Beginners (and old pros, too)
http://aroundcny.com/technofile/texts/tec010503.html
Scanning Tips for Beginners

Best Sites for OCR Scanners
www.discount-secrets.com/computer/scanners/ocr-scanner.htm
OCR Scanner Information.

Secrets of…
http://www.blogger.com/www.secretsof.com/content/576
Secrets of Taming Computers - Scanners

17. PDAs Knowledge
Educators should now what a PDA is and who to use one.
See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.

Palm Web site
www.palmone.com/us/?siteRef=p1-xfer

The Source for a Palm Powered World
www.palmgear.com
PalmGear's Web site

Palm News and Information
www.handheldnews.com/category.asp?ObjectID=5421
Palm News for Beginners

Real People Helping People: Palm Computing Devices
www.suite101.com/linkcategory.cfm/4239/5398
General Information on Palm Pilots

Basic PDA Specs Explained
www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003Jan/bpd20030103017997.htm
Basic PDA Information

For PDA Users
http://scilib.ucsd.edu/bml/pda/intro.htm
Introduction for PDAs from UCSD

18. Deep Web Knowledge
Educators should know what the deep web is and how to use it as a resource tool. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.

The Deep Web Directory
www.completeplanet.com
CompletePlanet's Deep Web search engine and site

Internet Tutorial: The Deep Web
http://library.albany.edu/internet/deepweb.html
Deep Web Information from University Library at Albany NY

Your Source for Deep Web Information
www.deepweb.com
The Deep Web Web site.

Searching the Deep Web
www.deepwebtech.com
Deep Web Technologies Web site.

Invisible Web Gets Deeper
www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2162871
Deep Web information from SearchEngineWatch.

Doing it Deeper: The Deep Web
www.bhsu.edu/education/edfaculty/lturner/The%20Deep%20Web%20article1.doc
Article by L Turner from Black Hills State University

19. Educational Copyright Knowledge
Educators should understand the copyright issues related to education including multimedia and Web-based copyright issues. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.

University of Washington Libraries: Copyright Information for Educators
www.lib.washington.edu/help/guides/copyright.html
Copyright Information for Educators.

Internet School Library Media Center
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/copy.htm
Copyright for Educators portal

Adventures of CyberBee
www.cyberbee.com/copyrt.html
Copyright with CyberBee

West Valley College Library: Copyright
www.westvalley.edu/wvc/library/copyright-resources.html
Copyright Information for Educators

University of Maryland University College: Information and Library Services
www.umuc.edu/library/copy.html
Copyright and Fair Use in the Classroom, on the Internet, and the World Wide Web

PBS Teacher's Source
www.pbs.org/teachersource/copyright/copyright_ed_multi.shtm
Educational Multimedia

Black Hills State University: Copyright Guidelines
www.bhsu.edu/education/edfaculty/lturner/Copyright%20Guidelines.htm
Copyright Guidelines portal

20. Computer Security Knowledge
Educators should know about basic computer security issues related to education. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.

Computer World: The Need for Better Security
www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,71714,00.html
Computer security concerns article from ComputerWorld

Security 101: Security
www.secure101.net/security/security.htm
Security 101 A Basic Computer Security Resource for Educators

Educational Cyber Playground: Security
www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/staffdr.html
Computer Security and Related Issues Portal

Cisco Systems: Beginners Guide to Network Security
www.cisco.com/warp/public/cc/so/neso/sqso/beggu_pl.pdf
A Beginners Guide to Network Security

A Beginners Guide to Wireless Security
www.governmentsecurity.org/articles/ABeginnersGuideToWirelessSecurity.php
A beginner's guide from GovernmentSecurity.org

Computer and Network Security Introduction
www.comptechdoc.org/independent/security
An article by the Computer Technology Documentation Project

Science & Technology Resources on the Internet
www.istl.org/02-fall/internet.html

Computer security article by Jane Kinkus, Purdue University
http://thejournal.com/magazine/vault/articleprintversion.cfm?aid=5387
http://thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A5387.cfm