Funding

Group, Samantha Linton, Katie Swenson, and Carlie Palmer

Funding is always an important issue in Special Education. In Article 1 it says, 40 percent of the extra costs of the
inclusion of special needs children into regular classrooms would be covered by the
federal Government, this is clearly not being done. This is a very important issue for us future teachers. If you are going to a new school or a school with little funding you are going to be starting from scratch. This can be very difficult. Article 2 With so many students with special needs out there sometimes the money is hard to achieve. There are so many promises out there for money but you have to go find it (like grants). What do you think the government could be doing more of the help with the funding in special education class rooms? And where should this money come from? The state and national government keep passing responsibility back and forth.

Prenatal Surgery: Good or Bad?

Group: Emily Rice, Morgan Fry, Shauna Corry

It’s dangerous enough to perform surgery on an expecting woman; what about operating on her unborn child? Is this even possible? Amazingly, it now is. Pre-natal surgeries have been conducted to help correct Spina Bifida. Article #1

Needless to say, this is a controversial subject. Both pros and cons are well explained in this article. Article #2 Some believe that no operation should be conducted in which the benefits fail to outweigh the possible costs. Operating on a child still in the womb and at a fetal age where it could not survive outside the womb, poses every possible risk to both mother and child. One must take into account whether it is better to face whatever impacts Spina Bifida will bring or to make the gamble of operating and possibly losing the child altogether. As a mother-to-be, one group member says she would be terrified to operate on her completely dependent child and would have to take everything into account before making a decision.

Others feel that it’s worth the risk to potentially help their child live a fuller life. Successful surgeries have occurred which encourages both doctors and parents-to-be. This option and the continued development of surgical procedures ensure that the topic will continue to be followed.

What do you think? If it were your child, how would you react? Would you consider surgery? What things would you be taking into account?

 

The Argument for Confinement

In the article, Court Upholds Involuntary Commitments For People With Disabilities the constitutionality of placing people with disabilities under government-institutionalized care is decided in Nebraska. After being challenged by a person with an IQ of 62 who was recently committed by the state, it was deemed that the state holds the authority to place people with developmental disabilities in mental hospitals if they are “determined to be dangerous.” In the same article, lawyers argue that this law is unconstitutional because it does not require a trial to be held for people with disabilities. On the other side of the argument in the article People With Disabilities Confined Involuntarily For Decades, Suit Alleges discusses three residents of Texas who have intellectual disabilities who have been institutionalized for a total of 130 years without anyone reviewing their placements, and it is feared that they are not alone. These are just two articles that discuss opposing viewpoints dealing with confining people with disabilities, how many others are there? Our questions to you are: 1. What is your opinion regarding both sides of the decisions, 2. What precautions could the state take to prevent people from being placed in care?

Group: Julia, Tiffany, Danielle, Jordan, Kristen

Disabilities in Literature

Group: Shauna Corry, Morgan Fry, and Emily Rice

Have you ever stopped to think about how individuals with disabilities are presented in literature? If not, it is probably because you have not come across it very often. The following two articles focus on this lack and need for more main characters with disabilities: Article #1 and Article #2. After reading these two articles we realized how much of a need there really is for accurate portrayal of disabilities in literature. Children without disabilities have so many role models to look up to in the books that they read, but those with disabilities do not. We believe that is is important that the children that must live day in and day out with hardships due to their disability would benefit from reading about characters with similar disabilities who find their true potential and talents despite the setbacks they may have. In addition, reading books that have main characters with disabilities provides a great teaching opportunity for teachers to discuss differences with their students and how to reach out to those that are different. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was given as an example of inaccurate portrayal of disabilities and these articles point out that several other pieces of literature that have attempted to include individuals with disabilities also portrayed them wrong or placed the individuals as a minor character. However, though there may be several books that do portray disabilities wrong there are some that do a great job in approaching the issue (Tru Confessions, Rules) Our questions to you are: (1) How do you think characters with disabilities should be presented in literature: do you agree or disagree with the points made in the articles, (2) Do you feel there is a need for more literature that focuses on someone with a disability, and (3) What, if any, books have you come across featuring a character with a disability that you appreciated.

Does siet effect children with autism

I remember watching an old episode of Ellen, when Jenny McCarthy was a guest on the show. She spoke about her new book “Louder than Words” that was the record of how she helped her son ‘recover’ from autism. Here: http://www.pr.com/article/1076 is a link to a little about her and about her book. She speaks about how putting her son on a strict diet vastly improved his symptoms. There have been many cases where eliminating Gluten and in fact all forms of yeast has improved symptoms in children with autism. On the other hand studies completed last year did not have an accurate control, group so the results were invalid. Also if a child with autism’s favourite foods needs to be eliminated from their diet, a mother could be looking at endless tantrums and never ending screaming. http://www.autismweb.com/diet.htm has another article with more information on the subject.

My question to you all is what have you heard about the effects of changing diet on children with autism? Do you think it is worth Mothers at least attempting the strict diets?

Technocentric approach - Adequate or not?

In the article Teachers' Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: Curriculum-based Technology Integration Reframed, Harris, Mishra, and Koehlher make a case for why a technocentric (bottom of page 3) approach to technology integration is inadequate. Explain what you think that they mean and whether you agree or disagree and why. In your response you need to state their main argument and why the TPCK framework supports their argument and whether you agree or disagree and why. Your response should be approximately 150 words (give or take. I will not be counting the words but this will give you an idea of how in depth I want your response)

Hyperbaric Chambers and Autism

Last week when my Dad was here he told me that my Uncle and Aunt were thinking about buying a hyperbaric chamber for my cousin Conner. Apparently there has been a lot of research on these chambers with their benefits and treatments for individuals with autism. Even though Conner has cerebral palsy and severe brain damage and not autism, I guess the pressure from hyperbaric chambers would still help him. I had never heard of using hyperbaric chambers being used for the treatment of autism and disabilities before, so I found a couple videos and articles. I found that there are a lot of hyperbaric therapy centers across the United States. There is also a lot of controversy between where the little amount of scientific proof gives enough evidence that they work.  Here is one cite for a treatment center in California.  On ABC news health website, I found an article titled, “Hyperbaric Autism Treatment Show Possible Promise” .  Hyperbaric therapy is a procedure that has little scientific evidence backing it up for a treatment of autism but there are new studies that are ready to prove it has a valid treatment with replicated findings. 

Here is one more article

And a pretty neat video. You should definitely watch it!!

I think that having more research and studies with hyperbaric chambers will be very important for the future of therapy and treatments. Even though there is not a lot of scientific proof that these hyperbaric chambers work, the parents are seeing changes in their children. I do not think that they are not just a waste of time and money. If children with autism are showing even just the smallest amount of progress from these chambers, I think that researchers are on the right track. And if my family ends up getting one for my cousin, I will let you know what happens.

My questions for yall (you all) are if you have ever heard anything about these hyperbaric chambers? And what do you think about them? Do you think it will become the “new thing” for therapy? Do you think these chambers with further research will be able to benefit all children with disabilities? And have you heard of any other new technologies being used for treatments or therapy?