Aug 3, 2018, Indianapolis, Fox59: Special rooms help students calm down, refocus before acting out https://fox59.com/2018/08/03/special-rooms-help-students-calm-down-refocus-before-acting-out/ Instead of sending students to the principal’s office when they act out, Washington Township Schools have a different idea. Deanna Nibarger, social and emotional behavior coach for the district, created “Amygdala Reset Rooms” where students can calm down and refocus. “The amygdala is the alarm center for the brain. So when students are dysregulated, we’ve gone into our amygdala,” Nibarger said. “In order to regulate, we need to move, we need to breathe. So this is a space where you can go with an adult and then reflect,” she said. FOX59 went inside the reset room at Crooked Creek Elementary, where you’ll find exercise machines, lavender-scented Play-Doh and yoga mats. “Most kids that get mad have a tendency to lash out on their other classmates. So that’s a good place for breathing and movement to get all the anger out,” Nibarger said. Nibarger said she’s working with 40 different school districts around the state and country. … Noblesville Schools will spend more time this year educating staff and students about their current amygdala spaces. The district is launching a similar program this year—just on a smaller scale. “We are piloting the use of a similar ‘calming corner’ idea in some classrooms this year. Same idea but the break to calm is even shorter (90 seconds) and the space is already in the classroom,” Noblesville spokeswoman Marnie Cooke said in a statement. The Noblesville program was already in the works before May’s school shooting. The district plans to focus more on mental health initiatives in the wake of the incident.
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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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