Persevere in the Face of Failure

Dyslexia: TUC Guidelines

The TUC has published the third edition of its guide to dealing with dyslexia in the workplace.

Several million working age adults have dyslexia, which can cause problems with performance, organisation of work and time management, with around four per cent of the population seriously affected by the condition.

Workers can face real difficulties at work if their dyslexia is not diagnosed or if appropriate adjustments to their working conditions and environment are not made.

Union reps can play a vital part in supporting work colleagues with dyslexia and negotiating solutions with employers, says the guide.

The new edition of Dyslexia in the Workplace is a major rewrite of the original handbook, taking account of changes in the law and in good practice.

The guide includes an outline of the main issues around dyslexia, how to identify whether an employee is dyslexic, how to undertake proper workplace assessments and how companies can do more to support staff with the condition.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “All too often, workers with dyslexia can find themselves facing disciplinary action over perceived failures, when early awareness of the condition could have led to sensible solutions being identified.

“Our new workplace guidance gives union reps and employees the information they need to support dyslexic work colleagues and sort out any workplace problems.”

• Dyslexia in the Workplace: a TUC Guide by Brian Hagan (3rd edition 2014) is available from TUC publications for £5 (trade unions and union members) or £15 (all others).
• Readers can view a copy of the handbook here 
• The TUC is organising Fair Pay Fortnight from Monday 24 March to Sunday 6 April. It will be a series of events across England and Wales to raise awareness about falling living standards. 
• All TUC press releases can be found here

Mobile devices enable reading in those with dyslexia - Dr. Matthew H. Schneps

Dr. Matthew H. Schneps

The widespread advent of electronic books is beginning to break down barriers that previously restricted access to high-quality content for education, needed to support the economic betterment and well being of peoples worldwide. 

Even as electronic books promise to improve access to text, many will nevertheless be unable to benefit from these advances because of neurological disabilities (e.g., dyslexia) that make reading a struggle.

In this presentation Dr. Matthew H. Schneps describe new research that shows; when handheld mobile devices capable of displaying text (e.g., smartphones) are configured in prescribed ways, many with dyslexia are able to read with less effort and more quickly, with better comprehension, making fewer errors in reading.

Virtually no training is required on the part of the reader to benefit from this effect on mobile devices.

However, for the method to work, text material must be prepared and displayed in specific ways, and this requires an understanding of the relevant parameters at play.

The Smithsonian Institution in the US has initiated an outreach program to help educators learn how to use mobile devices in this way, and are seeking help and guidance from participants of UNESCO Mobile Learning Week 2014 to help disseminate this information outside the US.

Watch the Presentation here - Matthew H. Schneps

Biography
Dr. Matthew H. Schneps is the director of the Laboratory for Visual Learning (LVL) at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).

A founding member of the Science Education Department there, Schneps has been carrying out research and outreach in science education since 1983.

He is well known for his work in educational television media that includes the award-winning programs "A Private Universe", and "Minds of Our Own" broadcast worldwide (famous for scenes of Harvard and MIT graduates struggling with concepts about the seasons).

In recent years he has been conducting research in cognitive psychology to investigate how individual differences in neurology, including those associated with dyslexia, ADHD, and autism spectrum disorders, effects how people learn science.

An outgrowth of this work is the development of an innovative technique for reading for people with dyslexia using mobile devices, research carried out through funding from the National Science Foundation in the US, and other sources.

Schneps was awarded the George E. Burch Fellowship in Theoretic Medicine and Affiliated Sciences in 2010 – 2012.

Schneps has been continuously employed at the CfA since receiving his PhD in physics from MIT in 1979.

AspienGirl: A book series on girls and women with Asperger Syndrome or High Functioning Autism

Tania Marshall, M.Sc. is a psychologist who specializes in Autism Spectrum Conditions.

In particular, Girls and Women with Asperger Syndrome or High Functioning Autism.

Tania is currently undertaking doctoral studies and is excited to be releasing her book series, designed specifically for females on the Autism spectrum and their carers, friends, family members and professionals.

Tania currently spends her professional time divided between private practice, research, and writing and looks forward to releasing the next installment in her AspienGirl™ book series.

Decoding Dyslexia Poster

Easy to remember list of accomodations for students with Dyslexia.

www.facebook.com/DecodingDyslexiaUT/ 

Strategies for teaching common core to teens with autism show promise

Credit: High school classroom in Newark, Delaware, public domain image, courtesy of Wikimedia

Scientists at UNC's Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) report that high school students with autism can learn under Common Core State Standards (CCSS), boosting their prospects for college and employment.

Newly published recommendations from FPG's team also provide strategies for educating adolescents with autism under a CCSS curriculum.

Veronica P. Fleury

"The number of students with autism who enter high school settings continues to grow," said Veronica P. Fleury, lead author and postdoctoral research associate with FPG's Center on Secondary Education for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (CSESA).

"Many educators may find that they're not prepared to adapt their instruction to meet both state standards and the diverse needs of these students."

In 2010, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers released the CCSS for English and mathematics in an effort to better prepare students for college and careers.

According to Fleury, the greater demand for a technologically advanced workforce also makes academic skills now even more essential for high school graduates.

"But the college enrollment of people with autism is among the lowest for all categories of disabilities," Fleury said.

"In addition, less than 40% of the population with autism is employed, and most of those with jobs only work part-time, without benefits."

However, she said that academic performance in high school plays an important role in opportunities for a college education and employment.

Yet, while the CCSS outlines expectations of what educators should teach, it provides no guidance on how to teach these skills to students with or without autism.

Fleury believes the most effective high school instruction requires understanding the complex profile of students with ASD, who possess both strengths and weaknesses.

People with autism have some social deficits and may process language at a slower rate, she said, while many also have enhanced visual processing.

Some may have difficulty learning to make calculations, but others are mathematically gifted.

"It's extremely hard to draw general conclusions about academic performance for these students," Fleury said. "But adolescents with autism often do have difficulties comprehending texts, and many find writing a burdensome task."

Fluery added that work in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math) are replacing manufacturing jobs and may provide viable opportunities for many people with ASD.

She said people with autism often gravitate to these fields in college, highlighting the need to equip them as high school students with skills that will enable them to compete and achieve.

"While the very structure of high school poses challenges for students with autism, being able to anticipate and understand activities, schedules, and expectations can improve their ability to respond to classroom demands," she said. "Establishing routines and creating written schedules also helps."

In a new article in Remedial and Special Education, Fleury and her co-authors recommended several strategies to educate students with ASD effectively, including exposing them to assignments before presenting the work in class.

The researchers also noted a variety of techniques for delivering the highly explicit instruction that teenagers with autism require, such as teaching mnemonic devices for remembering steps in a task.

"High school students with ASD also need ample opportunities to practice skills across settings throughout the school day," she said. "And teaching them to monitor their own behavior can help them to use their skills in a variety of settings."

Fleury added that because there is a strong link between social and academic skills, new research should focus on developing interventions for students with autism that can address both areas of need together.

"We know that when students with autism receive appropriate instruction and support, many of them are capable of learning academic content that is aligned with state standards, AND better academic performance often leads to a more successful outcome after high school." she said.

Autism: Low doses of antianxiety drugs may rebalance the autistic brain

New research in mice suggests that autism is characterized by reduced activity of inhibitory neurons and increased activity of excitatory neurons in the brain, but balance may be restored with low doses of a well-known class of drugs currently used in much higher doses to treat anxiety and epileptic seizures.

The findings, which are reported in the March 19th issue of the Cell Press journal Neuron, point to a new therapeutic approach to managing autism.

William Catterall

"These are very exciting results because they suggest that existing drugs, called benzodiazepines, might be useful in treatment of the core deficits in autism," says senior author Dr. William Catterall of the University of Washington, in Seattle.

In addition to finding that mice with autistic characteristics had an imbalance between the inhibitory and excitatory neurons in their brains, Dr. Catterall and his team found that reducing the effectiveness of inhibitory neurons in normal mice also induced some autism-related deficits in social behaviour.

Classical benzodiazepine drugs had the opposite effect, increasing the activity of inhibitory neurons and diminishing autistic behaviours.

"Our results provide strong evidence that increasing inhibitory neurotransmission is an effective approach to improvement of social interactions, repetitive behaviors, and cognitive deficits in a well-established animal model of autism, having some similar behavioral features as human autism," says Dr. Catterall.

Therapeutic approaches to treat autistic traits in animal studies or in clinical trials have primarily focused on reducing the activity of excitatory neurons, with only modest success to date.

The results reported by Dr. Catterall and his colleagues suggest that augmenting the activity of opposing, inhibitory neurons could be an alternative strategy.

Clinical trials of classical benzodiazepines and next-generation drugs that have a similar mechanism of action are now needed to determine whether the researchers' findings in mice are relevant to humans.

Astra-Zeneca and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have initiated one such trial.

More information: Neuron, Han et al.: "Enhancement of Inhibitory Neurotransmission by GABAA Receptors Having 2,3-Subunits Ameliorates Behavioural Deficits in a Mouse Model of Autism." dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2014.01.016

Parenting: Feeding Issues in childhood

Helping children learn to eat well can sometimes be a challenge. 

Some children happily eat whatever is put in front of them while others seem to eat like birds and exist more on air than food.

A new study by a researcher at the University of Colorado School of Medicine shows that parents influence how much children eat more than they may think.

In this collaborative study between the CU School of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine and University of Alabama Birmingham, researchers observed normal, everyday mealtimes in the homes of 145 parents and their preschoolers recruited from a Head Start program in the Houston area.

They investigated the relationships between how much parents served themselves at mealtime, the amounts of foods they served to their children and how much children ate at dinner time.

The results revealed that parents served children very similar amounts to those they gave themselves and that the amounts children were served strongly predicted the amounts they ate.

For some children, this resulted in the consumption of adult-sized portions.

"The good news," said Susan Johnson, PhD, professor of pediatrics at the CU School of Medicine and a lead investigator for the study, "is that parents influence their children much more than they may feel they do."

"The challenge remains as to how to encourage children to consume a healthy diet and to eat amounts that help them grow appropriately."

"Clearly, family habits and behaviours are both incredibly important in this regard."

Johnson suggests paying attention to the portions offered to children and for parents to ensure that they offer child-sized portions of healthy foods.

Prompting children to eat according to their feelings of hunger and fullness, rather than parents deciding how much is enough, also is an important step towards promoting healthy eating and growth.

This study will be published in the April 2014 issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

More Information: 'Portion sizes for children are predicted by parental characteristics and the amounts parents serve themselves' Susan L Johnson, et al., Am J Clin Nutr April 2014 ajcn.078311 - doi: 10.3945/​ajcn.113.078311

UC PlayScape: Educational and health benefits of specially created outdoor play environments

UC PlayScape

University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers are reporting on the educational and health benefits of specially created outdoor play environments for children.

Victoria Carr, a UC associate professor of education and director of the UC Arlitt Child and Family Research and Education Center, and Eleanor Luken, a former UC research associate for the Arlitt Center and current doctoral student at City University of New York, take a look at this growing trend around the world in an article published this month in the International Journal of Play.

The researchers say nationally, children are spending less time on playgrounds as well as less time in just play.

Victoria Carr

"The advantages of building playscapes over traditional playgrounds are considerable," write the authors.

"Children have opportunities to learn about scientific inquiry, mathematics and other embedded concepts as required by curricular methods."

"Not only does it engage children in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education at an early age, but it also fosters future stewards for a sustainable environment while providing a developmentally appropriate play and learning venue for the 21st century," the authors state in the article.

The article highlights other countries, Sweden, Australia, Scandinavia, Germany and the United Kingdom among the examples, which are making strides in reconnecting children with nature through play venues in natural settings, as well as international research indicating that these environments not only sharpen attention skills but also reduce depression and symptoms of attention deficit disorders.

Eleanor Luken

"They provide a sense of play that also addresses parental concerns about safety, creates pleasant play environments, supports child development and nurtures nature exploration, setting the stage for environmental stewardship."

"In essence, playscapes can sanction play and recess as an academic learning venue while serving as an early educational model for the next wave of environmentalism," write the authors.

"It appeals to a child's sense of being in a special place, promotes curiosity and demonstrates sustainable practices."

 

Published by Routledge, the International Journal of Play is an interdisciplinary publication that focuses on all aspects of play.

The $401,000 signature UC PlayScape is a wheelchair-accessible outdoor play and learning lab.

The concept was developed as part of a partnership with the Cincinnati Nature Center (CNC) to promote children's free play in natural settings.


The UC PlayScape is believed to be the nation's first college campus, architecturally designed outdoor play and learning environment.

UC's PlayScape is open to the public and is also a spot for adults to take in nature. Here are some of the features:

• A tree house to elevate children into the tree canopy and give them a clear view where they play.
• An open lawn for running, rolling and even sledding.
• A controlled water feature for children to drink and use for play and learning.
• A log fort for children to play, hide and look out over the landscape.
• A sensory garden for children to plant, grow and harvest vegetables and herbs.
• A "bird blind," which is a discreet observation area where children can watch birds in action.
• Gathering decks for children to play, draw, do dramatic work or projects, or rest.
• An observation post for education researchers to examine how this natural setting enhances learning for young children.
• A perimeter fence, providing a safe and secure environment for children to explore within the PlayScape.

Intro to website listing Apps for the Visually Impaired

It has been said that technology has made the world smaller, but for the blind or those with poor vision, iDevices are opening up a whole new world. 

Stella's website and particularly her AppList, highlights some of the most innovative and entertaining apps available to the vision impaired. 

Now, with the aid of an iPhone, the blind or visually impaired can virtually see colour, light, paper money and much more. 

See the full list of Apps for the Visually Impaired on Stella's website.

Send questions and suggestions directly to Stella@AppAdvice.com 

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Another website that lists Apple Apps for the Visually Impaired is AppleVis

AppleVis displays iOS Apps that have been developed specifically for the Blind or People with Low Vision