Nov 21, 2018, Pal-Item.com, Fountain City, IN: Grace the therapy dog: Northeastern's calming effect for students https://www.pal-item.com/story/news/local/2018/11/21/therapy-dog-creates-better-environment-school/2053015002/ Tina Hicks calls her principal “innovative." … Hicks wanted to buy a dog and turn it into a therapy dog for the school. Here we are a year later, and Grace is a best friend to many NMS students. Grace is a year-old yellow Labrador retriever. … Hicks recalls many moments where Grace brightened the day of a student or staffer. One boy asked if he could pet Grace, and ended up spending a couple of minutes with her. When he stood up, he said to Hicks, “Thanks, I really needed that.” “Think about understanding kids’ stories and the baggage they bring. For those kids who don’t want to verbalize what’s going on, Grace calms them,” Sonsini said. “And we know that if kids’ brains are calm, they can learn.” … “She basically gets my mind off what I’m thinking about, and that helps because I don’t have to be anxious,” Blair 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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