Category: eParent Connect

Symptoms of Down Syndrome in Babies and Children

Down Syndrome, Featured Topics, Parenting 10/12/202010/06/2020 admin

Approximately one in 700 babies is born with Down syndrome, making it the most common chromosomal condition in the United States. “People with Down syndrome have an extra copy of chromosome 21,” says Amy Houtrow, M.D., Ph.D., medical director of Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC’s Rehabilitation Institute and member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) Council on Children with Disabilities. This additional genetic material disrupts typical mental and physical development, and it may […]

A Baby’s Chances Of Having Down Syndrome

Down Syndrome, eParent Connect, Featured Topics 10/06/202010/05/2020 admin

Doctors understand the chromosomal abnormalities behind Down syndrome, but they still can’t pinpoint exactly why it occurs. Here’s what experts know about a baby’s chances of having Down syndrome. Characterized by an array of physical and intellectual symptoms, Down syndrome affects one in 700 babies today, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And though researchers have pinpointed the chromosomal abnormalities that cause Down syndrome, they still don’t know much about why […]

Special Needs Students Requirements Are Much Greater For Back To School

Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, eParent Connect, Epilepsy, Featured Topics, Intellectual Disability, Learning Disabilities 08/27/202008/27/2020 admin

By ERIN ROLL Netania Zagorski’s son is nonverbal and is not toilet-trained, and therefore has many needs that must be addressed if he returns to school in the fall. Her son will be starting first grade at Bradford School, and Zagorski feels that Montclair School District’s plan for special needs students did not appear to have been assembled with any input from special needs families. Her son would be especially vulnerable if he went back […]

Ways to Engage Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities to Stem ‘COVID Slide’ During Online Schooling.

eParent Connect, Featured Topics 08/20/202008/19/2020 admin

By Rumi Agarwal, Ph.D. candidate,  Health Promotion & Disease Prevention,  Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work Ever since schools closed for in-person learning in mid-March, my numerous chat groups on WhatsApp have been buzzing with moms asking each other: “What are the schools planning to do?” “Are you planning to send your child back in the fall?” And expressing concerns such as “I am struggling to keep my child busy, and off the screen.” “I’m […]

Return to school is fraught choice for families with special needs students

eParent Connect, Featured Topics 08/15/202008/18/2020 admin

By Ross Williams Georgia’s public schools are reopening this month even as COVID-19 continues its spread among people of all ages and some special needs families are facing tough choices between their children’s education and their health. Other parents say they haven’t been given any choice at all. Lainey Bogardus of Effingham County is all set to start her freshman year of high school Wednesday. She is a typical teenage girl who loves watching videos, […]