Oct 30, 2018, West Australian: Sensory room a benefit to students https://thewest.com.au/news/sound-southern-telegraph/sensory-room-a-benefit-to-students-ng-b88999734z St Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School students have been able to enjoy the benefits of a new sensory room at the school. The specially designed room allows students to develop and engage their senses with light, colours, sounds and aromas in a non-threatening space. Special needs co-ordinator Domenica Soroka, who created and designed the room with the assistance of parent donations, said sensory rooms enhanced brain development and the development of fine and gross motor skills."Sensory rooms can also help overactive or upset students regulate their emotions, whilst also helping more disengaged students focus more easily on their work,” she said. “After spending time in the room for a sensory break, they are able to return to their classrooms with improved behaviour and focus.” The school has also begun work on a sensory garden and path outside the room, and Mrs Soroka says the work had drawn the school community together. …
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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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