Where to Get Help:

• Ask your doctor
• See a Developmental Pediatrician
• Talk to your child’s school psychologist

Signs of ADHD:

• Be easily distracted, miss details, forget things, and frequently switch from one activity to another
• Have difficulty maintaining focus on one task
• Become bored with a task after only a few minutes, unless doing something enjoyable
• Have difficulty focusing attention on organizing and completing a task or learning something new
• Trouble completing or turning in homework assignments, often losing things (e.g., pencils, toys, assignments) needed to complete tasks or activities
• Not seem to listen when spoken to
• Daydream, become easily confused, and move slowly
• Have difficulty processing information as quickly and accurately as others
• Struggle to follow instructions
• Fidget and squirm in their seats
• Talk nonstop
• Dash around, touching or playing with anything and everything in sight
• Have trouble sitting still during dinner, school, and story time
• Be constantly in motion
• Have difficulty doing quiet tasks or activities
• Seem impatient
• Blurt out inappropriate comments, show their emotions without restraint, and act without regard for consequences
• Have difficulty waiting for things they want or waiting their turns in games

ADHD is:

• A Neurobehavioral Disorder
• Syptoms often present before age seven
• Often Characterized by lack of focus, impulsiveness, and sometimes hyperactivity
• Believed to effect 3-5% of children globally with 2-16% diagnosed
• Diagnosed 2-4 x’s more in boys
• It is normally tested on rating scales

ADHD is NOT:

• Although it can be associated with other disorders, it does not mean your child has one of these disorders
• Mean your child will go down a bad path in life
• A life-long sentence. Only 30-50% of those with it continue having issues with it into adulthood.

Some Things to Help:

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Thank you to all the wonderful teachers who make us realize…

and that we can get there because…

Thank you!!!

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This year alone, 50,000 adolescents with autism will turn 18.

According to a recent NPR article, a natural fit for them is in the tech industry. Why? Because interaction is limited. They can work independently without lots of social interaction, and they can use their great focus to do a great job.

High-tech jobs can be a perfect fit. A neurologist at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, says people on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum often have an amazing ability to hyper-focus on a task.

A Texas based company, which solely looks at reaching this untapped marked and hiring them into a shared success of employee and company says:

“We’ve got this one guy, for example; his productivity is three times as productive as the person doing his job who did not have cognitive disabilities before him. And his error rate is 2 percent. He is 98 percent accurate. He’s a phenomenal worker”

If you need more help finding employment for an individual with autism, here is a great career guide.

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There are many factors to take into account when planning a student transition to adulthood. This transition can be compounded when intellectual disabilities are involved. Here are some things to consider in making the transition to adulthood more student lead:

• Designed within an outcome-oriented process, which promotes movement from school to post-school activities, including post-secondary education, vocational training, integrated employment (included supported employment), continuing and adult education, adult services, independent living, or community participation.

• Based upon the individual student’s needs. The transition plan takes into account the student’s preferences and interests.

• Includes instruction, related services, community experiences, the development of employment and other post-school adult living objectives, and, when appropriate, acquisition of daily living skills and functional vocational evaluation

Other Things to Consider in the Transition…

School-to-Work

What help is available for learning disabled adults seeking jobs?

Self-Advocacy

Self-advocacy refers to:

An individual’s ability to effectively communicate, convey, negotiate or assert his or her own interests, desires, needs, and rights.

It involves making informed decisions and taking responsibility for those decisions.

• The importance of developing self- advocacy skills to access services in the classroom
• Study Skills are necessary for students to become self-advocates

Transition Skills

You are getting ready for some major changes in life.

• What are they and how will you get there?
• What do you need to do to be successful at what you do?

Patience

We all make mistakes.

Support Network

Friends and family to get you back on your feet can truly make a difference of conquering your goals.

Communication

In the workplace, there is a need to know for appropriate response, like:

• What is OK to say
• What is appropriate conversational distance
• What tone is correct for the situation

Good Behavior

• Maintaining attention
• Listening
• Taking turns
• Being polite

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As technology takes over the classroom, it is important to keep it researched based. In order to maximize the students benefits, keep in mind what truly benefits the student. As the info graphic states, in 2011 over 85% of handsets could access the web. With such readily easy access to grand information, students have the power of a grand TI calculator and a massively extensive encyclopedia plus more in one little device. How times have changed. With this potentially grand education that can fit in your pocket, how is it being used? Is it more than just a way for teens to be on the cutting edge in number of texts sent?

As this graphic demonstrates, not only are teens the highest percent of smartphone users, they are also mostly college achieved individuals. With this in mind, at the time of this info graphic iPhone was the best geared toward education. With so many apps out there, the possibility for learning is limitless, but how do you keep kids engaged in learning and not getting into trouble with things like snap chat?

Perhaps as the teacher or parent, it is our job to challenge students within the confines of not only their technology but also their interest. Think about ways in which to apply the students interests into the education instead of the other way around. In other words, technology in the classroom is a possible way toward a successful education if applied to bigger projects and ideas. For example, photography, video recording, GPS, and even social networking could be used toward educational goals through projects and other manipulations of things that already excite the child.

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Reasons of Early Sexual Activity

• Today’s culture promotes early sexual activity with little regard to the consequences
• Students are inundated by the message that early sexual activity is an acceptable decision that will promote popularity and solid relationships
• Lack of communication at home whether about why to be abstinent or protection
• Overall lack of sex education
• Lack of monitoring by responsible adult (either outside of the home or within the home)
• Peer Pressure
• Contradicting messages from family, school, friends, and the media
• Self-doubt
• Lack of education while going through radical physical/hormonal changes
• Low self-esteem

Consequences of Early Sexual Activity:

• Self esteem issues
• Stress of an image or reputation to uphold
• Center of critiques from others, often negative
• Change in attitude towards school and authority
• Difficult time focusing on her school work
• Loss of respect toward adults
• Provocative clothing
• Contracting a disease
• Teen Pregnancy
• Adolescents who have sex early are less likely to use contraception, putting them at greater risk of pregnancy and STDs

Between 2006 and 2008, 14 percent of female adolescents and 25 percent of male adolescents had sex for the first time with someone they had just met or with whom they were “just friends.” -National Center for Health Statistics

How to Help Your Child

• Talk with them openly
• Be supportive
• Encourage positive outlets
• Educate them on sex
• Monitor your child: know where they are at all times
• Watch for warning signs, like sudden withdrawal
• Get them involved in positive activities
• Know your child’s friends and their significant others

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• Let them pick out their own sheets and made a big deal out of it
• Tell them that they aren’t allowed to get out of bed by himself
• A sticker reward chart for each night he stayed in bed or something else to positively reward/enforce good behavior
• Having the bed in their room for a while to help them get used to the idea and talk about what it is there for
• You might need a gate at their door so that they can’t “get out” of the room.
• Plan on them falling asleep on the floor the first few nights
• If it helps, they can sleep on the mattress on the floor to eventually got the hang of sleeping on the bed.
• Make a big deal about them staying in bed, special breakfasts or whatever help them feel like they really are doing great work
• If they get out of bed walk them back and say “it’s bed time” then kiss them said I loved them and walked out. If they get out again say NOTHING and walked them back to their bed and walk out, and if they come out again say NOTHING and walk them back again, until they eventually stay in their bed or in their room
• Keep positive so that they don’t sense your nervousness and your child might just be super excited about it!!

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Autism effects a wide spread demographic. One therapy that is often sought out to help those effected with Autism. ABA refers to Applied Behavior Analysis. It used to be referred to as behavior modification. ABA is based on the theories of behaviorism. It focuses on using consequences to teach now and effectively teach skills for the future. Although ABA is predominately used for those individual’s with Autism Spectrum Disorders, the techniques could be used to teach the general population.

There are different processes to become a certified Applied Behavior Analysis provider. If you as the parent are not certified or would like to learn more, often school directed toward those on the Autism Spectrum Disorder have trained individual’s and can get you more information.

Although ABA is often thought of as an Autism focused therapy, it can be helpful for a wide spectrum of disorders. These include but aren’t limited to: Autism, Asperger Syndrome, PDD, Traumatic Brain Injury, Problem Behaviors, Developmental Disabilities, Tantrums, Non-compliance, Physical Aggression, Dementia, Self-Injurious Behaviors, and Alzheimer’s. Since the whole Applied Behavior Anaylsis approach is based off of creating an individualized plan to reach the individual’s goals, it really can be used on anyone. The amount of time and effort put into the approach can often effect the outcome of improvement seen in the individual. Meaning the more time you spend with quality ABA therapy the better likelihood of good results.

There is a wide range of approaches or types of ABA therapies used to meet a variety of goals. These are some of those included. It is important to use what works best for the child. Many children may need more than one, but with each individual case there are many variables to consider.

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The following infographic is brought to you from…

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This info-graphic on Special Education, shows how the number of students enrolled in special education is growing, while those with specific learning disabilities is declining. These students needs are met in a variety of settings from main-stream (full-inclusion) to pull-out (inclusion) to self-contained. The important part of the IEP and CSE teams are to make sure that the child is in the right environment for them with minimal interference to mainstream as the goal. This is all defined as Least Restrictive Environment. According to this info-graphic, more than 50% of students with disabilities spend 80% of their time in a general education classroom. This is a number that has grown over the years as the idea and technics for mainstreaming have grown more popular. This not only keeps children with their peers but also helps cut costs. According to the U.S. k-12, the general education student ratio is 1:15.5 (something much higher in way too many regions of the US) while the average special education classroom is 1:7 (a ratio lower to meet the kids needs). The U.S. spends 16.5% or $11.5 billion on Special Education. At the bottom, the info-graphic talks about becoming a special education teacher. A job that is constantly needing more people to reach this special population.

USC Rossier Online

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An intellectual disability is defined as

A broad concept encompassing various cognitive deficits, including mental retardation (MR), deficits too mild to properly qualify as MR, various specific conditions (such as specific learning disabilities), and problems acquired later in life through acquired brain injuries or neurodegenerative diseases like dementia. Intellectual disabilities may appear at any age.

Issues surrounding the definition and classification of students with Intellectual Disabilities:

• Look first at the individual
• Although labels are a predominantly a strong social factor, it seems that it not only hurts the children to label them, but also the words ‘mental retardation’ even intellectual disability can be harsh to parents and children
• The word ‘retarded’ is link with so many other negative things in our society making it hard for families to except this label
• Labels are needed to access not only where the child is at but also what is actually the reason for the child’s special services
• A label can help to find ways to better serve the child and better understand their development.

It is really hard to know how to appropriately address a child when you do not know the history of the child including their diagnosis, but at the same time the specific label ‘mental retardation’ seems to be the worst label in our social context because of how else those words are used.

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