Y3K Tutor In Your Home

New Autism Treatment – Early Start Denver Model Behavioral Therapy

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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.

Helping Children Cope After a Tramatic News Event

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In response to a traumatic news event (such as a school shooting tragedy), many children may have questions and concerns. Y3K Tutor In Your Home offers the following suggestions to help guide parents and caring adults to best support children who may be grieving, concerned, or troubled by a terrible event:

Be Supportive

Children will benefit greatly from support and caring expressed by the adults in their lives. Create an environment in your home that encourages respect for each other’s feelings and fears, and allows for a supportive, healing environment.

Be Available

Let children know that you are available to talk with them.

Let children ask questions.

It is ok if you do not have answers to all the questions. It is ok to let your child know that you do not have the answer but that you will try and find out.

Be Caring

Let children know about the support being provided to students, friends, and families of the victims.

Be aware of children who may have experienced a previous trauma and may be more vulnerable to experiencing prolonged or intense reactions and will need extra support.

Be Reassuring

Acknowledge the frightening parts of the event.

Explain what happened in words that children understand. Explanations should be appropriate to the child’s age, developmental stage, and language skills.

Reassure children that they are loved and will be taken care of.

Children who have concerns about siblings who are living on a college campus or have concerns about safety at their own school should be reassured and their concerns validated.

Be Thoughtful

Be aware of how you talk about the event and cope with the tragedy.

Children learn about how to react to traumatic situations by watching and listening to parents, peers, and the media.

Reduce or eliminate your child’s exposure to television images and news coverage of the shooting. The frightening images and repetition of the scenes can be disturbing for children. If they do see coverage, be sure to talk with them about what they saw and what they understood about the coverage. Make sure to correct any misunderstanding or misinterpretations.

Maintain your child’s routines as best as possible.

Be Creative

For children who are too young to talk or do not feel comfortable talking about their feelings, expressive techniques such as play, art and music can provide additional ways for children to express their feelings and let you know what may be troubling them.

It might be difficult for them to grasp exactly what the situation is all about, but you should try your best to enable them to understand these things in their own way.

Many behaviors and symptoms of stress are normal for children who have just experienced a trauma. However, if you find that your child is preoccupied with the event, has ongoing sleep or eating disturbances, is experiencing intrusive thoughts or worries, is focused on fears about death, or is having difficulty going to school and leaving parents, your child should be evaluated by a mental health professional. Contact your pediatrician or school counselor if you feel that the symptoms are persisting and are interfering with your child’s daily routines.

The Crucial Role of Recess in School

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The following is a new policy statement regarding the importance of recess for students released in the January 2013 issue of Pediatrics: The Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics

“Recess is at the heart of a vigorous debate over the role of schools in promoting the optimal development of the whole child. A growing trend toward reallocating time in school to accentuate the more academic subjects has put this important facet of a child’s school day at risk. Recess serves as a necessary break from the rigors of concentrated, academic challenges in the classroom. But equally important is the fact that safe and well-supervised recess offers cognitive, social, emotional, and physical benefits that may not be fully appreciated when a decision is made to diminish it. Recess is unique from, and a complement to, physical education—not a substitute for it. The American Academy of Pediatrics believes that recess is a crucial and necessary component of a child’s development and, as such, it should not be withheld for punitive or academic reasons.”

Do you agree or disagree? Why? Let us know.

Doctors Turning Away Unvaccinated Children

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Some doctors will turn away patients that refuse to be vaccinated to protect their other patients. The biggest concern doctors have with people not being vaccinated is that an unvaccinated child could expose other patients, especially newborns and children too young to be vaccinated yet, to potentially deadly diseases.

Vaccinations and Autism

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By now you have probably heard the rumor that childhood vaccines can cause autism. Lets take a closer look at how this idea came about. In 1998 a British gastroenterologist published a paper in a medical journal theorizing a link between the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine and autism. His research was based on interviews with parents based on TWELVE children!! The press ran away with the story that vaccines cause autism.

Since this global panic, a mercury-based preservative thimerosal has been removed from all vaccines. This was to just to be safe just in case the observed autism was in fact mercury poisoning. Throughout the past decade there have been dozens of studies that have collectively drawn on data from millions of children. These studies have consistently found no connection between vaccines and autism. In 2010 the original British medical journal retracted their original 1998 paper and the UK’s General Medical Council revoked the British gastroenterologist’s medical license.

Although we recommend all children get vaccines as scheduled there are still a few parents that swear that it was in fact vaccines that caused their child’s autism. What do you think? Please share your experiences and thoughts with us.

Immunization Schedule Safer Than Delaying Vaccinations?

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Vaccination Myth: “Delaying vaccines is safer than following the standard immunization schedule.”

Some parents worry that giving too many vaccines at once can lead to developmental problems. Recently researchers compared kids who received their shots on time with kids whose parents spread them out. They found that those who followed delayed schedules fared the same or not as well on cognitive tests as those who followed the standard schedule. In addition by delaying vaccines, you are giving potentially serious infections a window of opportunity to take hold. Some diseases like tetanus don’t provide any natural immunity. The only way to protect yourself is to get vaccinated.

Vaccinations Still Necessary?

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Vaccination Myth: “Serious diseases like polio have already been eradicated, so there is no need to vaccinate against them.”

While many diseases have been wiped out for the most part in the United States of America, they have not been eradicated around the world. That means you could still be at risk if you go abroad or come into contact with an infected person from overseas. In fact the increase in non-vaccinated immigrants that enter America and the increase in formerly eradicated diseases is not a coincidence. If your kids are not vaccinated, there is a good chance that they could become exposed to some major diseases and suffer like so many people did years ago.

Concussion Facts

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Concussion Facts

A concussion is a brain injury.

All concussions are serious.

Concussions can occur without loss of consciousness.

Concussions can occur in almost any sport.

Proper treatment of concussions when they first happen can help prevent further injury or death.

Greene’s Field Needham MA – Building Excitement… Again!

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The Greene’s Field Committee of Needham, MA has teamed up with Y3K Tutor In Your Home for fundraising for a brand new Greene’s Field park. During the months of November and December, Y3K Tutor In Your Home will donate 10% of all tutoring receipts from new Needham clients. Y3K Tutor In Your Home educates special ed. and regular ed. students from pre-kindergarten to adult in all subjects including English, writing and math. The united goal is to create a Greene’s Field that becomes a Needham destination that the entire town would enjoy and be proud of. If you are interested in our Needham tutoring or test prep services or for more information log on to http://www.Y3KTutorInYourHome.com, http://www.NeedhamTutor.com or call 781-492-8700

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