Oct 18, 2018, Newburyport (MA) Daily News: Plan for dyslexia screening awaits Baker's approval—Baker must sign bill OK'd by lawmakers https://www.newburyportnews.com/news/plan-for-dyslexia-screening-awaits-baker-s-approval/article_89340dc1-9c37-5948-9289-d51c74f0e986.html Most public schools in Massachusetts don’t screen for dyslexia despite research suggesting early intervention is the key to treating a learning disability that affects one in five children in the state. That would change under a proposal awaiting Gov. Charlie Baker’s approval, which would require the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to come up with guidelines for screening of students with at least one indicator for dyslexia or another neurological learning disability. … “The reality is that every school should be screening for dyslexia,” said Nancy Duggan, executive director of the Massachusetts chapter of Decoding Dyslexia, a national advocacy group. … Even when diagnosed, children often don’t receive the services they need because there is no statewide framework for dealing with dyslexia, she said. The bill, which combines proposals filed by Sen. Barbara L’Italien, D-Andover, and Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, was approved last week by the House and Senate. … Besides screening, the legislation would require school districts to train teachers on the learning disability, its signs and intervention strategies. … Between 5 percent and 20 percent of the population has a reading disability; of those, as many as 85 percent are believed to have dyslexia. …
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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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