A Few Thoughts about Relationships

by Amy Petulla, Partners in Policymaking® 2001-02 Graduate As parents of children and adults with disabilities, we spend a lot of time dealing with things we consider essential, like education, services, and medical care. The list goes on and on, as do the books, workshops, and materials you can find on those subjects. But there is one important area in anyone’s life that does not get much attention: RELATIONSHIPS. While everyone has to deal with […]

Increase in Developmental Disabilities Among Children in the United States

Pediatrics has published a new study that describes how often developmental disabilities were diagnosed among children in the United States, and trends over time. In this study, scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) found that 17% of children aged 3–17 years had a developmental disability, and importantly, that this percentage increased over the two time periods compared, 2009–2011 and 2015–2017; increases were also […]

Constructing an Ideal Home Environment for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

It is not practical to try to give a single set of instructions for every family in every home with every child with some degree of autism. Not only is each child a unique individual with distinct requirements, but there are also many differences among families, homes and cultures that would make this task impossible. However, it can be helpful to clarify certain principles about the effects of the environment on children with autism, which […]

Two quantitative studies find that black students are under-identified for disabilities at school

Decades of research have documented that students of color, particularly black children, are disproportionately classified by schools as having disabilities. In 2016, 12 percent of black children across the nation received services at school for disabilities ranging from emotional disturbances to physical disabilities to intellectual impairment. Only 8.5 percent of white children received those services. The disability rate for Hispanic students — 9.4 percent nationally — is only slightly higher than for whites and the disparity […]

Intellectual disability, ADHD and autism tied to early maternal anemia

Source: Karolinska Institute The timing of anemia, a common condition in late pregnancy, can make a big difference for the developing fetus, according to research at Karolinska Institutet published in JAMA Psychiatry. The researchers found a link between early anemia and increased risk of autism, ADHD and intellectual disability in children. Anemia discovered toward the end of pregnancy did not have the same correlation. The findings underscore the importance of early screening for iron status […]