Studying Baby Steps Could Lead To Better Treatments For Cerebral Palsy

By understanding more about walking and balance, researchers hope to develop new treatments for cerebral palsy. Understanding the progression from the stepping reflex to independent walking could help find new therapies for children with cerebral palsy (CP) – a movement disability caused by brain damage before, during or shortly after birth. A baby’s first steps are a magical moment – an early stepping stone towards independent walking. Children usually begin to walk around the time […]

What You Should Know About Coronavirus And People With Disabilities

The COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak has everyone spooked, and hopefully, taking steps to control the outbreak and prepare to get through whatever may come of it. But one group faces additional risks and consequences, as well as anxieties: people with disabilities and or chronic illnesses. Here are five points to keep in mind about how the coronavirus outbreak affects disabled people: 1. The people most often cited as being at serious risk are largely, by some […]

Come for the Coffee, Stay for the Company

Amy Wright started a coffee shop to employ people with intellectual and developmental disabilities – and joined a human rights movement. By Jessica Farthing Who She Is Like every parent, Amy Wright dreamed about her children’s futures – the sports they’d play,  the colleges they’d attend, the careers they’d have. Then Beau, her third child, was born with Down syndrome, a congenital chromosomal condition that results in cognitive delays and an increased risk of certain medical […]

Heads Up for Vets: A collaboration between AKF and the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Epilepsy Centers of Excellence

Many of our brave servicemen and women are returning home from active duty with a new war to wage: a battle to control seizures and epilepsy. They were there for us…now it’s time for us to be there for them. Returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan have been exposed to blasts from IEDs (improvised explosive devices), land mines, rocket-propelled grenades and suicide bombers. Blast exposure has left too many of these troops suffering with Traumatic […]

What is the Newborn Screening Clearinghouse?

Baby’s First Test houses the nation’s newborn screening clearinghouse. The clearinghouse provides current educational and family support and services information, materials, and resources about newborn screening at the local, state, and national levels and serves as the Clearinghouse for newborn screening information. The clearinghouse is supported and funded as a result of the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act passed in 2008. Continued support for the clearinghouse is possible under the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Reauthorization […]