Sept 26, 2018, WALB News, Albany, GA: Middle school students create ‘special’ room for children with special needs http://www.walb.com/2018/09/28/middle-school-students-create-special-room-children-with-special-needs/ Two students in South Georgia are taking action in their community and representing the area as national champions for creating a really innovative construction project. It’s a sensory room for children with special needs…. “We built it for the special education students at our school. Our students have autism and can be nonverbal, so when they get distressed or uncomfortable in the situation they can often have different reactions that can lead to distractions in the classroom. So we decided to create a solution to this problem," explained Molly. … We had an active portion of our sensory room where they can take bottles and shake them, and we have our activity board where they can press buttons” said Molly. Like a fidget spinner, or an ADHD cube, the room is supposed to create an outlet for stress, provide sensory stimulation or even soothe symptoms of stress or anxiety. …
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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