Sudbury Public Schools in Sudbury, MA now have more stringent visitor sign-in policies. They are also working to obtain enhanced security devices at each school.
Needham Public Schools – Update
Needham Public Schools in Needham, MA has upgraded their security with buzzers, surveillance system, and locked front doors.
Natick Public Schools – Update
Natick Public Schools in Natick, MA has started to lock the front doors of all of their schools. Before the Newtown CT shootings, only 1 out of 8 of Natick’s schools had a camera and buzzer system. Since January, locks and buzzers were installed at all 8 of their schools.
Weston Public Schools – Update
For Weston Public Schools in Weston, MA the previous policy was to have all school doors locked except for the front door. Their new policy is to have all doors locked including the front door. They also have plans to install either buzzers or cameras in the coming weeks.
Newtown CT School Shootings Aftermath
After the Newtown, Connecticut school shootings in which 20 children and 6 adults were killed, several school systems have put new security measures in place. These include locked front doors and tighter visitor sign-in policies. They have also launched reviews of their current safety policies.
Keep Your Child Home From School When Sick
If your child unfortunately does get sick, you must keep them home from school if s/he has:
A fever over 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the past 24 hours (or has taken a fever reducing medication within the past 24 hours).
A cold in the active stages: coughing, running nose, sneezing.
A sore throat and/or swollen neck glands.
An undiagnosed rash or skin eruption.
Vomiting or diarrhea during the past 24 hours.
Head lice that have not been treated.
If you are uncertain if your child might make the other children sick, you should contact the school nurse or your doctor before sending to school. It would be wrong to infect the rest of the students and teachers with your child’s illness.
Preventing Colds and Flu
As you have probably heard, there are a lot of colds and flu around this year. Both respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses have been especially circulating within the schools. This is due to the fact that children tend to spread germs easily and lack of fresh outdoor air. Remember all of these stay healthy tips:
1. Hand washing is one of the best ways to prevent the spread of illness. Wash your hands often — when they are dirty, before eating, after using the restroom, and after sneezing into a tissue.
2. Cough Etiquette. Avoid coughing or sneezing into your hands – use a tissue or your elbow. After sneezing, try and wash your hands as soon as possible. This will ensure that any bacteria or germs from your sneeze don’t remain on your hands all day, preventing you from spreading any germs.
3. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth. Germs spread this way. If you do have to touch these areas, try and clean your hands before and after to ensure no germs are being spread around your body.
4. MOST IMPORTANTLY stay away from people who are sick and stay home when you are sick to avoid spreading the flu around.
Autism Good News
1/3 of children that have once been diagnosed with autism are no longer considered to be on the spectrum by the time they pass adolescence.
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas to all of our Christian members of the Y3K Tutor In Your Home family.
New Autism Treatment – Early Start Denver Model Behavioral Therapy
Intensive early behavioral therapy may normalize the brain activity in children with autism when they look at faces and improve their social skills according to a recent study. This is on top of what was previously known that it could help develop language and thinking skills. Researchers looked at 48 autistic children between 18 and 30 months. Half of the children were treated with a new type of therapy called Early Start Denver Model for 20 hours per week for 2 years. After 2 years, researchers used electroencephalograms to measure the brain activity of the children with autism as well as of children without autism while they watched faces and toys. The majority of autistic children treated with the Early Start Denver Model showed greater brain activation when looking at faces rather than objects (a response common to children without autism). The opposite was found among the kids with autism who received other interventions.
The autistic children with increased brain activity at the sight of faces also had better social and behavioral skills. The study is the first to find underlying changes in brain function along with behavioral changes after early therapy. The full study can be found in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, November 2012.