June 11, 2018, (Australia) ABC: Teacher pays $10K for a companion dog to help her special education needs students http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-11/teacher-pays-10k-for-dog-to-assist-special-needs-students/9850726 A special education needs high school teacher has paid $10,000 out of her own pocket to buy a dog specially-trained to assist her students. Amina Rand bought Hannah, a Saint Bernard trained to work in special education needs classrooms at Broome Senior High School in Western Australia. It's been a long-held dream of Ms Rand's to have a companion dog in the classroom, but the cost has been a major challenge. "In my last school they said no, because they [the dogs] can cost about $25,000. Well, that's the price I was given 10 years ago," Ms Rand said. "So I decided to try to get a dog, and just train her." For $10,000, Ms Rand was able to purchase Hannah at six months of age, with basic training as a companion dog…. "Hannah reduces anxiety and stress, not only with my students, but also with my teaching assistants," Ms Rand said…. A companion dog also helps the special education needs students connect socially with the rest of the school. "A lot of my students don't have many social skills, so at recess and lunch they're lost," Ms Rand said….
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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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