Nov 6, 2018, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal: Alliance Middle School adds canine counselors https://www.ohio.com/news/20181106/alliance-middle-school-adds-canine-counselors ALLIANCE — A four-legged assistant is making a big impact in the counseling office at Alliance Middle School. Kamo, a 2 1/2-year-old standard poodle owned by school counselor Katina Parks, has been introduced to the students as a therapy dog this school year after getting his Canine Good Citizen certification. Parks noted therapy dogs provide many benefits, helping children and adults learn compassion, empathy, responsibility, respect and self-discipline, as well as offering comfort and non-judgmental love. She said studies have proven that even a short time with a dog can decrease levels of anxiety and increase emotional security. … Once a week, the pooch comes to work with Parks, spending time in her office, often during one-on-one meetings with students, and other times visiting classrooms, especially those students with behavioral and emotional issues…. Parks said having Kamo help calm the students quicker allows her to see more students. She said it also helps teachers who sometimes request a visit to their classrooms when they need his calming influence. She recalled one time a classroom was in chaos and just a brief walk through made an impact. “By the time we walked out the whole climate had changed. The kids were calmer, they were smiling, they weren’t off the walls and going crazy,” she said. “It just changed and the teacher was like, ‘Wow.’” …
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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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