New poll: Bogus LD treatment

Here’s a new poll for you summer visitors.

Which of the following treatments for Learning Disabilities do you find the most bogus?

View Results

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Research on chiropractic effects on LD

Somewhere someone who’s read my two earlier entries about chiropracty and Learning Disabilities probably said, “How can he say chiropractic treatment of LD is ‘bogus?’ Hasn’t he read the research?” Well, I actually did read what research I could find.

I looked for studies about the effects of chiropracty and LD. I didn’t find any credible studies demonstrating the benefits of chiropractic treatment for LD or related problems. Indeed, the studies I found used inadequate research methods (unrepresentative samples; weak measures; designs that do not permit causal inferences; etc.). I was pleased to learn that my quick review agreed with a review reported by Yannick Paulli.
Continue reading ‘Research on chiropractic effects on LD’

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NCLD report

The National Center for Learning Disabilities, a US advocacy group, released a report entitled “The State of Learning Disabilities” today. The report presents broad-strokes data about Learning Disabilities (LD) across the life span, including (for example) data about not only school environments, but also work situations.

Highlights from the report include:

  • The identification rate of school-age students with LD has consistently declined for the past 10 years
  • Learning disabilities disproportionately affect people living in poverty
  • People of all races are identified with LD at about the same rate (except people of Asian descent), and,
  • The cost of educating a student with LD is 1.6 times higher than a regular education student (compared with 1.9 for all students with disabilities).

Link to the report.

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LD and chiropracty–NOT

Chiropractors are likely to complain about the treatment that their methods receive in posts on this blog. I’ve posted recently that I find wanting the bases for the the (currently-on-tour, see-’em-in-your-neighborhood-soon) Brain Balance Music program. This post will be even more alarming to supporters of those sorts of treatments for LD.

The fundamental problem with the therapies for Learning Disabilities recommended by some chiropractors is that those therapies are bogus. They may be advocated by people who honestly believe that they’re recommending helpful stuff. The hypothetical relations among the neurological and behavioral factors may sound sensible, but that is, in large part, because we’re listening to the words rather than the facts. The folks may have seen what they believe are legitimate improvements in children’s academic and social behavior after the children received the therapy. Parents may have told them how much better the children seem.

None of that counts as scientific (i.e., objective, generalizable, refutable) evidence of benefits. The advocates may be as seriously misled as they mislead their potential clients. They just don’t have the data. Their explanations are post hoc and untested, at best.

In addition to the probably benign Brain Balance Music methods, consider one of the other chiropractic therapies: Cranio-sacral therapy: The hypothesis is that something about the connection between the child’s head and tail causes learning problems (even mental retardation and autism!) and it can be corrected by chiropractic manipulations.

Continue reading ‘LD and chiropracty–NOT’

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NJCLD on adolescent literacy

The National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD) held a symposium regarding the release of “Adolescent Literacy and Students with Learning Disabilities: Building Effective Programs and Partnerships Adolescent.” Invited guests representing various US agencies, organizations, and interest groups joined delegates from the organizations that are members of NJCLD the afternoon of Friday 5 June 2009 for the session.

Mary Beth Klotz, chair of the NJCLD, introduced the session and individual speakers. Froma Roth, a representative of the American Speach-Language-Hearing Association and one of the writing team that prepared the statement, began the session with a brief recapitulation of its contents. Brett Miller followed Professor Roth with an overview of current research supported by the Reading, Writing, and Related Learning Disabilities of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, US Department of Health and Human Services. Nancy Hennesy, of the Council for Learning Disabilities and also a member of the writing group, described the complex and challenging context for addressing deficits in adolescent literacy.

These are the folks who participated in the panel:

  • Mary Beth Klotz (National Association of School Psychologists);
  • Nancy Hennessy (International Dyslexia Association) ;
  • Amanda Karhuse (National Association of Secondary School Principals);
  • Brett Miller (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development);
  • Barbara J. Moore (Anaheim Union High School District, CA);
  • Patti Ralabate (National Education Association);
  • Froma P. Roth (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association); and
  • Kippi Sutphen (Parent Representative).

Link to the NJCLD Web site (maintained by LD Online). Watch for the slides and other materials from the symposium to be posted there. Meanwhile, download a copy of the NJCLD document.

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BrainBalance Music

In yesterday’s post, I asked what folks thought about a therapy that was described using terms such as “brain,” “balance,” “comprehensive,” “individualized,” “neurobehavioral,” and etc. I promised to explain more about this therapy. Here’s what I know:

What is it?

The descriptors are associated with BrainBalance Music, a product of Dr. Robert Melillo and Lisa Erhard. The main Web site for the product is called “i-waveonline.com,” but there are others.[1] Sometimes the name of the program is written without a space (BrainBalance) and sometimes it has a space (Brain Balance). I’m not sure which way to present it.

The therapy apparently requires that one listen to various audio recordings, sometimes with one earpiece removed and sometimes with the other earpiece removed. The recordings are entitled “Woman Breathing”; “Peaceful”; “The Gargle Guy”; and “Wolves & Whales.” The Web site has samples.
Continue reading ‘BrainBalance Music’

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Is it The Answer?

It’s Open Comments Day! Consider this list of connections for a therapy that helps children with ADHD, dyslexia, Autism, Aspergers, Tourette, Learning Disability, processsing disorders:

  • Brain
  • Balance
  • Music
  • Comprehensive
  • Individualized
  • Chiropractic
  • Neurobehavioral
  • Case study
  • Internationally known
  • Natural
  • Integrated
  • Physical
  • Cognitive
  • Dietary
  • No drugs
  • No medical procedures
  • No psychotherapy

Would the descriptors make you rush to the Internet to learn where you could reserve access to the therapy? Would it, instead, make your skepticals rise? What would you think?

Drop a comment. Tell your view. What do you think of this therapy? Do you recommend it?

Check back tomorrow. I’ll explain everything (excluding the meaning of life) then.

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Myths noted

Sometimes here on LD Blog I’ve posted notes about myths about Learning Disabilities. For example, “LD does not stand for lazy and dumb.” I’m glad to note that an organization called “Specific Learning Disabilities Association of Queensland” has a list of similar myths. Although some of its sibling organizations perpetuate myths (e.g., reversals), it’s nice to see that others are publishing sensible information such as this. Link to the page.

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ADHD meds and academic achievement

Writing in Pediatrics Richard M. Scheffler and colleagues reported that elementary-aged children who took medication for ADHD had higher mathematics and reading scores than their unmedicated peers with ADHD. The research team identified individuals in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Class data set whose parents repeatedly reported that they had been diagnosed with ADHD and compared the achievement data for those children with ADHD whose parents said their child had taken medication to the achievement of those children with ADHD whose parents said their child had not taken medication. The scores of the children who had taken medication were about two or three tenths of a school year higher than those of the children who had not taken medication.

Although these findings extend the scientific understanding of psychopharmacologic treatment of ADHD, it is important to note that they are essentially correlational, not experimental. Although the study is very well done (uses a good data set, sophisitcated statistical analysis, etc.), the children were not randomly assigned to medication and non-medication conditions. It is possible that (a) some other factors explain why some children were or were not medicated, and that other factor may be the cause of the differences in achievement or (b) that children who had higher achievement were simply less likely to be medicated.

Here’s the abstract:
Continue reading ‘ADHD meds and academic achievement’

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ICDR voting ends tomorrow

I received a note from folks associated with the Interagency Committee on Disability Research (ICDR) reminding me about the pending end of the opportunity to vote on priorities for research about disability and rehabilitation. Public voting on the importance of the priorities ends tomorrow (15 May 2009).

The federally mandated Interagency Committee on Disability Research (ICDR) utilized a Web-based approach to collect online disability research comments to assist in developing a federal disability and rehabilitation 2010 research agenda. The comments were submitted from March 27th until April 17th. Additionally, registered participants were invited to review all research related comments submitted and to vote on their top 10 concerns in each topic area from April 22nd through April 29th.

As we indicated previously, the voting was suspended on April 23 to modify the database application due to the overwhelming number of recommendations. If you voted previously, it will be necessary to recast your votes during the new one-week timeframe: May 8-15, 2009. We apologize for this inconvenience and encourage you to return to the site to vote for your research priorities. For more information, please visit www.icdr.us/stakeholders.

Similar content also appears on EBD Blog. Please share the word.

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