Archive for August, 2006

LD in Thailand

Published by JohnL on 16 August 2006 in News, Policy and The Press. 0 Comments

According to an English-language publication called The Nation, students with Learning Disabilities are being identified in Thailand. The article features comments by two academics and a school director. The report on Learning Disabilities does not present new or unusual data or perspectives. I note it because it represents the international understanding of the need for special education services for students with Learning Disabilities.

Many children with average or above-average intelligence struggle at school due to learning disabilities.

At least 5 per cent of school children could have some form of learning disability (LD), and the government is doing little to help, experts say.

“We have found learning disabilities in 5 to 10 per cent of children aged from four to 12 years old,” said Dr Kullaya Korsuwan, head of the Special Education Department at Srinakharinwirot University.

She explained a simple intelligence test could distinguish LD sufferers from slow learners.

LD was generally defined as a significant gap between a person’s intelligence and the skills the person had achieved at each age level.

Link to the article.

IDEA regs examined

Published by JohnL on 15 August 2006 in News, Policy and The Press. 1 Comment

Writing in the Myrtle Beach (SC, US) Sun News, Starita Smith analyzed some of the features of the new regulations for IDEA. Unlike the coverage in the prestigious New York Times, Ms. Smith’s coverage captures some of the controversy in the regs.

On special education, the Bush administration is taking one step forward and one step back. One new policy is making a major move in the right direction. But at the same time, another one could stymie the progress of thousands of children across the nation.

The move in the right direction, according to Ms. Smith, is the adoption of rules regarding use of response-to-instruction (or intervention) in identification of Learning Disabilities. The move in the wrong direction is elimination of short-term goals and objectives.

There are minor problems with the report (e.g., overstatement, for example, of the reason for identification of some students for whom English is not the home language), but the analysis is worth reading. Here’s the link to it.

Ultrasound and dyslexia

Published by JohnL on 14 August 2006 in Dyscalculia, Dyslexia, News, Research and The Press. 0 Comments

Some reports of research showing ultrasound’s effects on neurological development of mice fetuses are generating interest in the popular press. Working in the lab of Pasko Rakic, Eugenius Ang and colleagues found that a “small but statistically significant number of neurons fail to acquire thier proper position” within the cerebral cortex among fetal mice exposed to 30 or more minutes of ultrasound waves during the period of time when these neurons develop.
News reports such as one by Randolph E. Schmid (Associated Press science writer) include a quotation from Dr. Rakic (Yale University) mentioning a possible connection to dyslexia and other disorders.

Rakic’s paper said that while the effects of ultrasound in human brain development are not yet known, there are disorders thought to be the result of misplacement of brain cells during their development.

“These disorders range from mental retardation and childhood epilepsy to developmental dyslexia, autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia,” the researchers said.

The reasons for caution in extrapolating to human fetal development are many. Mr. Schmid also interviewed Joshua Copel, president-elect of the American Institute of Ultrasound Medicine and another professor at the Yale Medical School, getting additional interpretation of the findings.

Copel… did point out that there are large differences between scanning mice and scanning people.

For example, because of their size, the distance between the scanner and the fetus is larger in people than mice, which reduces the intensity of the ultrasound. In addition, he said, the density of the cranial bones in a human baby is more than that of a tiny mouse, which further reduces exposure to the scan.

The paper noted that the developmental period of these brain cells is much longer in humans than in mice, so that exposure would be a smaller percentage of their developmental period.

However, it also pointed out that brain cell development in people is more complex and there are more cells developing, which could increase the chances of some going astray.

Furthermore, previous research directly testing the hypothesis that prenatal exposure to ultrasound increases the risk of dyslexia has provided mixed-but-mostly-null results. According to the abstract of one study, Stark and colleagues found “no biologically significant differences between exposed and unexposed children,” however, some folks (e.g., here and here) say that there was a significant correlation between exposure and dyslexia; I have requested the original article so that I can review it and shall report on it once I’ve read it. Salvesen and colleagues found (1992) “that those [children] whose mothers received diagnostic ultrasound screening while pregnant did just as well on reading, spelling and arithmetic tests as those whose mothers had not” but they reported (1993) that “the odds of non-right handedness were higher among children who had been screened in utero than among control children…. No clear differences were found between the groups with regard to deficits in attention, motor control, and perception or neurological development during the first year of life” but cautioned that the findings were inconsistent.

Link to the abstract of the article by the Rakic team; there are additional links on this page from which one can see supporting material and download a PDF of the full article. Link to Mr. Schmid’s story, as carried by LiveScience. Link to an HTML page for Dr. Rakic’s lab.

  • Ang, E. S. B. C Jr., Gluncic, V., Duque, A., Schafer, M. E., & Rakic, P. (2006). Prenatal exposure to ultrasound waves impacts neuronal migration in mice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 2006 Aug 10 [Epub ahead of print]. Retrieved 14 August 2006 from http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0605294103.
  • Stark, C. R., Orleans, M., Haverkamp, A. D., & Murphy, J. (1984). Short- and long-term risks after exposure to diagnostic ultrasound in utero. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 63, 194-200.
  • K. A. Salvesen, K. A., Bakketeig, L. S., Eik-nes, S. H., Undheim, J. O., & Okland, O. (1992). Routine ultrasonography in utero and school performance at age 8-9 years. The Lancet, 339(8785), 85(5).
  • Salvesen K. A., Vatten L. J., Eik-Nes S. H., Hugdahl K., & Bakketeig, L. S. (1993). Routine ultrasonography in utero and subsequent handedness and neurological development. British Medical Journal, 307(6897), 159-

LD Podcast launched

Published by JohnL on 13 August 2006 in Families and News. 1 Comment

LD Podcast is the Internet child of Whitney Hoffman, along with Cheryl Busch and Melody Ruth. It’s still a baby—only 13 segments old and with a Web page that has been hit ˜800 times, according to a counter (counters can not be trusted but, at ˜800, it’s clear no one’s run that one up or started it at a high number)—and there are some rough spots, but parents may find it valuable. They indicate (see episode 8 on discipline; it may be misnumbered in the archives) that they hope to make evidence-based suggestions and seem to be negotiating the path to doing so. Of course, I applaud Ms. Hoffman and colleagues’ efforts, and I hope they provide reliable information for parents.

Link to the LD Podcast home page. Note that there is also an associated blog that’s different from the Web presence under the domain name. Flash of the electrons to Maria of Special Education Teacher in DC for pointing to LD Podcast (she found it via the Smartbrief of the Council for Exceptional Children; I don’t know why I’m not receiving that these days…time to investigate my spam-screening software?).

LD or not LD

Published by admin on 12 August 2006 in News and Not LD. 1 Comment

Here’s a link from India (I think; the domain name is registered to someone in California) to a medical information aggregation site I’ve been watching. I point to it because (a) it may be useful to some readers and (b) because it uses Learning Disabilities as a generic. I’m trying to decide whether to write to the MDs whose name are associated with it and raise the matter. Suggestions?

Philappines LD alert

Published by JohnL on 12 August 2006 in Families, News and The Press. 0 Comments

Under the title “Detecting LD early” in the Manilla Bulletin Online (Philippines), Blair Agero provided an introduction to Learning Disabilities for parents. Although it includes some misrepresentations (e.g., the ever-popular Einstein-had-LD meme), the article makes many good points (e.g., Learning Disabilities persist through the life time, are not equivalent to mental retardation, and include more than dyslexia). The writing may be a bit rough in spots, but the intention of alerting parents is worthy. Link to Mr. Agero’s article.