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The Challenges of Data Collection...could you imagine asking...

By Dr. Dan Pezzulo, NCSP posted 07-19-2017
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In baby's dirty diapers, the clues to baby's brain development... If you're the parent of an infant, diaper duty probably isn't your favorite part of the day. But you dutifully check the contents of each one because your pediatrician told you that color and consistency of what they leave behind can tell you a lot about their health. But what does a dirty diaper have to do with your baby's brain? According to first-of-their-kind findings from the UNC School of Medicine, the answer may be a lot. Using fecal samples taken from dozens of one-year-olds and cognitive assessments of the same children a year later, researchers in the lab of Rebecca Knickmeyer, ...
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Preparing for life after high school: The characteristics and experiences of youth in special education VOL 2

By Dr. Dan Pezzulo, NCSP posted 03-29-2017
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Preparing-for-Life-After-High-School-VOL
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Preparing for life after high school: The characteristics and experiences of youth in special education VOL 1

By Dr. Dan Pezzulo, NCSP posted 03-29-2017
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Preparing-for-Life-After-High-School-VOL
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Why Am I Talking?

By Dr. Dan Pezzulo, NCSP posted 02-01-2017
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Perhaps this tool should be distributed before every meeting
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You May Be ABLE - but are you ready?

By Dr. Dan Pezzulo, NCSP posted 01-26-2017
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What is an ABLE account? ABLE Accounts , which are tax-advantaged savings accounts for individuals with disabilities and their families, will be created as a result of the passage of the Stephen Beck Jr., Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2014 or better known as the ABLE Act. https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/647/text http://ablenrc.org/about/becoming-able-ready The beneficiary of the account is the account owner, and income earned by the accounts will not be taxed. Contributions to the account made by any person (the account beneficiary, family and friends) will be made using post-taxed dollars and will ...
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Finding a "Fair Way" to grade severely disabled students

By Kathleen Squires, NCSP posted 11-24-2016
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I work n a rural school that is fairly small. We have a total of 1200 k-12 students in one building with about 450 high school students. This is my second year working in the district as school psychologist and special education coordinator. The school has been very slow in addressing the services of students based upon their needs not just their labels. One of the issues that has been brought to my table is how to "grade" students with disabilities. Last year a student with severe disabilities graduated from general education classes (i.e. Economics, government, algebra 2, etc.) with mostly A's and was in the top 10% of his class. On some level, it is ...
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New Blog

By Asra Khan posted 10-25-2016
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H
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The Problem With "p-values"

By Dr. Dan Pezzulo, NCSP posted 10-11-2016
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A very heavy read; but quite important! Settle down with a beverage of your choice and a graduate level stats book - enjoy! https://aeon.co/essays/it-s-time-for-science-to-abandon-the-term-statistically-significant?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=fd9ca5ba57-Daily_Newsletter_11_October_201610_11_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-fd9ca5ba57-6906083
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Measuring Social and Emotional Learning

By Dr. Dan Pezzulo, NCSP posted 07-06-2016
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Teacher comments have long been provided alongside academic grades to recognize the essential role of many abilities and competencies in academic performance and future potential. And we know that academic ability and potential are not always directly related. We have all served on committees with colleagues who are extremely smart but not productive members of the team -- indeed, their actions often impede the collective work. In the world that our students will enter as adults, there can be no either/or of academic or social-emotional and character competencies. Students require both/and . Therefore, feedback about students in schools must incorporate ...
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10 Great Academic Search Engines (Helpful for Consultation)

By Dr. Dan Pezzulo, NCSP posted 07-01-2016
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Below is a collection of some handy academic search engines teachers and educators can use to search for and find a wide variety of academic articles, journals, documents and theses. Some of these search engines are subject focused and others are generic. Here ate the links: Google Scholar ERIC The Virtual LRC Citeulike JURN Microsoft Academic Library of Congress Cite SeerX Refseek Science Dire
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NOT in the Long Run!

By Dr. Dan Pezzulo, NCSP posted 06-23-2016
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Caffeine no longer improves alertness or mental performance after a few nights of sleep restriction ! "The data from this study suggests that the same effective daily dose of caffeine is not sufficient to prevent performance decline over multiple days of restricted sleep," Doty said in an American Academy of Sleep Medicine news release. The study included 48 healthy volunteers whose sleep was limited to five hours a night for five nights. The participants took either 200 milligrams of caffeine or an inactive placebo twice a day. (An average cup of coffee has 95 milligrams.) In addition, the volunteers were given mental skills tests every hour ...
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Gender Ideology Harms Children

By Dr. Dan Pezzulo, NCSP posted 05-19-2016
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Gender Ideology Harms Children Share on LinkedIn on Facebook Share on Twitter The American College of Pediatricians urges educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts – not ideology – determine reality. 1. Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: “XY” and “XX” are genetic markers of health – not genetic markers of a disorder. The norm for human design is to be conceived either male or female. Human sexuality is binary by design with the obvious purpose ...
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Working Memory – A Different Perspective

By Dr. Dan Pezzulo, NCSP posted 03-25-2016
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When you hold in mind a sentence you have just read or a phone number you’re about to dial, you’re engaging a critical brain system known as working memory. For the past several decades, neuroscientists have believed that as information is held in working memory, brain cells associated with that information fire continuously. However, a new study from MIT has upended that theory, instead finding that as information is held in working memory, neurons fire in sporadic, coordinated bursts. These cyclical bursts could help the brain to hold multiple items in working memory at the same time, according to the researchers. “By having these different bursts ...
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"NO BULL"

By Dr. Dan Pezzulo, NCSP posted 11-10-2015
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Just one energy drink can cause potentially harmful spikes in both stress hormone levels and blood pressure in young, healthy adults, a new study shows. After drinking a 16-ounce can of "Rockstar Punched," young adults had a 74 percent increase in blood levels of the "fight-or-flight" hormone norepinephrine , said lead researcher Dr. Anna Svatikova, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. That's more than double an average 30 percent increase in norepinephrine the same participants experienced when they consumed a fake energy drink, Svatikova said. Blood pressure also spiked due to energy drinks. For example, mean blood ...
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Second Impact Syndrome

By Dr. Dan Pezzulo, NCSP posted 10-28-2015
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Zackery doesn’t want others to end up like him. At 22, he walks with a looping gait, leaning heavily on a metal cane. He peers through thick glasses, specially designed to help his peripheral (side) vision. It takes him a moment to gather his thoughts before he speaks in a strained, thick voice. He struggles to remember his schedule day to day, and often relies on his mother to be his short-term memory schedule. Zack’s daily challenges stem from a traumatic brain injury he received while playing football when he was 13. In 2006, Zack nearly died after he got two concussions in a single football game, something called second impact syndrome . ...
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No Child Left Behind: The Oral History

By Dr. Dan Pezzulo, NCSP posted 09-24-2015
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Learning is NOT a Spectator Sport

By Dr. Dan Pezzulo, NCSP posted 09-15-2015
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Free -- or very inexpensive -- online courses have become quite a trend in education. Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) providers currently offer thousands of courses and have enticed millions of students to enroll. The emphasis in MOOCs is often on lecture videos that students watch and learn from. A study published in the Proceedings of the Second (2015) ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale shows that this central approach of MOOCs -- having students watch to learn -- is ineffective. Instead, the emphasis on interactive activities as advocated by Carnegie Mellon University's Simon Initiative helps students ...
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Mental Disorders and Disabilities Among Low-Income Children

By Dr. Dan Pezzulo, NCSP posted 09-10-2015
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This summary contains the major findings and conclusions of the committee. Since there are large number of findings and conclusions, this summary begins with six overarching “Key Conclusions” that are informed by the all the evidence compiled in this report, and summarize the major findings and conclusions of this study. The remainder of the summary includes findings and conclusions specific to each element of the task order, including trends observed in the SSI program for children with mental disorders, clinical characteristics of mental disorders in children, and estimates of the prevalence of mental disorders in children. https://www.scribd.com/doc/279975815/Mental-Disorders-and-Disabilities
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8 Useful Apps for Visually Impaired Students

By Dr. Dan Pezzulo, NCSP posted 08-31-2015
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Here are some of the most useful apps for teachers to use with the blind and the visually impaired. Also included is a list of some useful resources where you can access a wide variety of other apps to use with the blind and the visually impaired. Check them out at the end of this post. 1- ViA- By Braille Institute ‘Braille Institute is proud to introduce ViA (Visually Impaired Apps), a fully accessible app for iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad. ViA has been designed to help identify apps that are useful for adults and children who are blind or have low vision, including those with additional disabilities. Users can easily sort through ...
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"NO, You Cannot Have a NIGHT LIGHT"

By Dr. Dan Pezzulo, NCSP posted 08-27-2015
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Enough light exposure at night can keep anyone from falling asleep as quickly as they otherwise would have. One study found that 96 percent of teens use at least one form of technology in the hour before going to bed. But the new research, published online in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism , finds that the sleep biology of boys and girls aged 9 to 15 who were in the earlier stages of puberty were especially sensitive to light at night compared to older teens. More specifically, an hour of nighttime light exposure suppressed their production of the sleep-timing hormone melatonin significantly more than ...
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