What articles have caught your attention lately? Here are a few that our team has been sharing: Invisible Girls – Why autism is often overlooked in girls. (ASHA Leader) Finding a Voice For a Child – An SLP discovers a calling working with AAC. (ASHA Leader) Who is in special education and who has access to related services? New evidence from the National Survey of Children’s Health – An in-depth look at special education demographics. (Brookings) After a Suicide: A Toolkit for Schools, Second Edition – Resources for middle and high schools to address and prevent suicide. (NASP) What Is Body Dysmorphic Disorder? – BDD goes far beyond vanity and can lead to very serious implications. (Child Mind Institute)

Behavioral and mental health teletherapy has a long research history – over 50 years.  It originally started in the military as a way to provide services to deployed active duty members. Over time, its uses spread to other circumstances for adults and, eventually, children. Inherently, teletherapy makes sense for talk therapy – talking is talking regardless of it being in person, on the phone, or via video conferencing. Recently, teletherapy has been found effective, not only for counseling, but for traditional kinds of group therapies, skill building, and behavioral modification. Even though it seems like more in-depth types of services may not be as straightforward as talk therapy, they are often similar to onsite services.  Games and activities that are typically done onsite can be…

What articles have caught your attention lately? Here are a few that our team has been sharing: Remote Assessments Could Speed Autism Diagnosis – New research shows the feasibility of the remote diagnosis of autism. (Disability Scoop) Why Taking Away Recess Is a Counterproductive Punishment – Recess is an important part of learning. (ADDitude) New research into letter-spacing could help improve children’s reading – Increasing letter spacing can help people to read faster, but not due to visual processing. (Science Daily) Research-Tested Benefits of Breaks – Short breaks throughout the day help kids to focus and be more productive. (Edutopia) Students With Emotional Disabilities: Facts About This Vulnerable Population – Understanding and supporting students with mental health needs. (Education Week) Is technology impacting my child’s social and communications skills? – A look at how screen time…

Just as too much television was once a cause for concern for child development, overuse of technology on smartphones and tablets now worry parents, educators, and researchers. Hearing, vision, speech and language development, social communication skills, sleep, physical activity, and brain development can all be adversely impacted by too much screen time and overuse of earbuds or headphones. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting screen time for children between the ages of two and five to an hour of high-quality programing per day. It also important for children to have set times that are free of devices, such as during dinner or before bedtime, and for parents to model good habits for their kids. Screen time, however, can be an important and engaging part…

A recent CASE survey* found special education leaders lose the most sleep over personnel issues compared to other job stressors. Hiring special education teachers and related services staff can certainly be hard, especially in areas experiencing acute shortages of experienced professionals. So how can you retain the great staff you have? The cost of rehiring and retraining can be a costly cycle, so it’s important to consider what leads people to change jobs, or even leave education altogether. According to ASHA’s Schools Survey Report: SLP Workforce and Work Conditions Trends 2000 – 2016, speech-language pathologists report three main sources of stress: Paperwork High workloads/caseloads Insufficient time to collaborate This information matches PresenceLearning’s own surveys of the factors that make clinical professionals burn out of their…

World Autism Day is Monday, April 2, 2018, which marked the kickoff of an entire month dedicated to spreading awareness about Autism Spectrum Disorder. Autism Society, the nation’s leading grassroots autism organization, launched the observance month to “promote autism awareness, inclusion and self-determination for all, and assure that each person with ASD is provided the opportunity to achieve the highest possible quality of life.” How can you get involved in the movement? Learn more about how the autistic brain works: Leading autism expert Dr. Temple Grandin hosted a webinar with PresenceLearning’s Clay Whitehead to give special educators and administrators a deeper understanding of neurodiversity and how they can help students reach their fullest potential. You can watch a recording of the webinar here, read a summary of…

District is one of 12 winners of PresenceLearning’s annual Awards of Excellence recognizing outstanding leadership and student progress in special education SAN FRANCISCO, March 13 2018 – PresenceLearning, the leading telehealth network of live, online special education related service providers, recently named Norfolk Public Schools in Norfolk, NE as a winner of its 4th annual Awards of Excellence. The awards recognized 12 educational organizations nationwide for their outstanding organizational leadership, teamwork, and improved outcomes in helping students with special needs succeed. Norfolk Public Schools is a Class A school district in northeast Nebraska, serving approximately 4,300 K-12 students. When the district was short an SLP and was unable to fill the position for the 2016-17 school year, Mary Luhr, the district’s Director of Special Services, decided to partner with PresenceLearning to provide online speech-language therapy services. Five online SLPs began working with approximately 55 students from two of Norfolk’s elementary schools that year. “Our students are excited to attend their online therapy sessions,” said Luhr. “We were concerned with students staying on task during sessions, but they are really engaged with the online SLPs.” Now in its second year of the program, the online SLPs conduct live, ongoing direct therapy…

So much to read, so little time! Check out this month’s list of some of the more noteworthy articles we’ve come across. Poor sleep: A powerful — but often ignored — culprit in learning – A look at what both parents and educators can do about a child’s sleep issues, and how they can affect an IEP (Multibriefs) The Gap Between The Science On Kids And Reading, And How It Is Taught – The disconnect between the way children are taught to read, and the way speech and language develops in the brain. (NPR) How to Keep Students with Disabilities Safe in Lockdowns, Evacuations, and Other School Crises – Learn about the Individual Emergency and Lockdown Plan, which is designed to blend seamlessly with a student’s IEP. (Friendship Circle) How to Motivate (Not…

We all know how a poor night’s sleep impacts us the next day: difficulty paying attention, crankiness, and brain fog are just some of the typical reactions we may feel. Children who suffer from sleep deficiency may also misbehave, have trouble reading emotions, and perform poorly in academics. And when a student also has special needs, sleep problems can impede the work of the critical interventions and therapy that helps students to succeed. Therefore, it is important for schools and parents alike to watch for signs of sleep deprivation, address the conditions that lead to poor sleep, and even potentially collaborate with a physician or psychologist to assess medical or psychological components of the problem. In a recent Multibriefs article, Howard Margolis suggests that parents…

Live, online assessments conducted by licensed school psychologists help schools provide timely access to critical student services and evaluations SAN FRANCISCO, February 20, 2018 – PresenceLearning, the leading telehealth network of live, online special education related service providers, is announcing an addition to the research base for the equivalency of remote psychoeducational assessments featuring the Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales, Second Edition (RIAS-2). This research follows a 2016 independently verified study that demonstrated that live, online administration of the Woodcock-Johnson IV cognitive and achievement tests by credentialed school psychologists using our secure platform produces equivalent results to traditional, onsite administration. PresenceLearning is the only company exclusively authorized by both PAR, Inc. and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to administer the RIAS-2 and Woodcock-Johnson IV batteries online. Using PresenceLearning’s live teletherapy environment, psychoeducational assessments are administered via secure, interactive video by remote school psychologists, enabling schools to quickly and effectively conduct initial, re-evaluation, and triennial assessments. The online, remote administration of cognitive and achievement tests by school psychologists enables school districts in states with expanded eligibility requirements to more rapidly qualify students who need mental health services. “It is critical to get timely information for interventions and services so students don’t lose valuable instructional…