Jan 18, 2019, WBRC, Birmingham, AL Alabama Power volunteers build sensory room at Etowah County elementary school http://www.wbrc.com/2019/01/18/alabama-power-volunteers-build-sensory-room-etowah-county-elementary-school/ ETOWAH COUNTY, AL (WBRC) - An Etowah County elementary school got some help for its special needs students. On Thursday and Friday, volunteers built a sensory room at John Jones Elementary School in Rainbow City. … Alabama Power often provides volunteers and equipment to built sensory rooms in public schools. “Alabama Power has provided all of the sensory items that you’ve seen, the tiles for the floor, the nesting, things that they can sit in, the fidget toys, the weighted blankets, a lot of just different items that they can use in the classroom,” said Tanya Clark, John S. Jones Elementary School Principal. Sensory rooms are designed for special needs students who may need to calm down. Some students use it as needed, and some who may be disturbed by loud cafeterias may use it as a place to eat lunch. … … “They provide a therapeutic environment for children with autism and other special educational needs. Rooms typically have stations with active areas, calming areas, and various types of sensory activities. Rooms often have dim lighting, soothing colors, vestibular swings, and weighted blankets and vests. Some students have designated times which they spend in the sensory rooms, others come to the rooms as needed, and many schools allow children who are overwhelmed by loud cafeterias to eat lunch in the sensory rooms.”
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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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