Oct 25, 2018, Shelby (AL) County Reporter: MES receives donation for student sensory paths https://www.shelbycountyreporter.com/2018/10/25/mes-receives-donation-for-student-sensory-paths/ MONTEVALLO – With a gift from state Rep. Matt Fridy, Montevallo Elementary School will be designing and implementing both an indoor and outdoor sensory path in the coming months. These paths will offer students a way to use their bodies and environment by allowing for brain breaks. The paths give the students an opportunity to utilize their muscles, breathing, spatial awareness in order to “reset” their brains. Fridy visited Montevallo Elementary School on Tuesday to deliver a $10,000 check to be used toward the construction of the sensory paths, which are being modeled after similar paths that were designed and implemented by special education teacher Holly Clay at Bramlett Elementary School in Oxford, Mississippi. Campbell said she and Mary Sharman, one of the special education teachers, had been having conversations around the idea of a sensory path and how much it would benefit the students, especially students who might be feeling a little overwhelmed, anxious, or overstimulated in the regular classroom and need a break to be able to calm their emotions and refocus. “…Sometimes our students, all students with varying abilities and needs, just need an opportunity to reset and take a break. These paths will provide an intentional, purposeful avenue for that both inside and outside the building.” … …We are so very appreciative and excited.”
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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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