Feb 25, 2020. WSBT TV, South Bend, IN: Local school counts on therapy dogs to counter stress, bring sense of calm and happiness https://wsbt.com/news/local/local-school-counts-on-therapy-dogs-to-counter-stress-bring-sense-of-calm-and-happiness Believe it or not, running around with students is important training for the two newest employees at an Indiana school. Meet Hiro and Millie -- they will soon work as therapy dogs at Franklin Community Schools. The district's Mental Health Director says the pups bring a sense of calm and happiness-- to a stressful environment. “Just being in the presence of the dog, just petting the dog, laying down next to the dog, it’s just going to reduce that stress and anxiety,” said Franklin Community Schools Superintendent David Clendening. … The district was able to pay for the two dogs thanks to a referendum. School officials also hired four new social workers.
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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.)
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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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