We had a great workshop with our new Director of Student Services in October.  Her PPT should be posted on her website soon.  Parents who ordered 'organization' binders from the SEPAC coffee will receive a hard copy of the Basic Rights presentation.  A few questions were raised and below you will find the links for the answers.

DESE advisory in relation to Technical Assistance for ASD

Team Meetings - Who should be there?

What documents should you leave the Team Meeting with?

How to Train a Baby to Learn Language Faster
From Rutgers University
via Futurity

By Rob Forman
October 2, 2014

Brain scans show that training babies to distinguish language sounds from other sounds can speed up development in parts of the brain that are central to language skills.
VIDEO & READ MORE

Why is Social Thinking™ an important life skill?

A common misconception regarding Social Thinking™ is that it is a social skills curriculum aimed only to support a student’s ability to make friends and engage appropriately with peers. While this is a component of the curriculum, it is also important to point out that if a student presents with a social learning challenges it impacts almost every area of their life.  In fact, students who present with a social cognitive delay have lifelong struggles that impact their lives socially, emotionally, behaviorally, vocationally, and recreationally making it difficult to function independently or successfully as adults.   Developing social cognition skills is one of the strongest predictors for success in adult life.

Who will benefit from Social Thinking™ services?

Our Social Thinking™ programs are designed for individuals with near to above average cognition who struggle with understanding and processing the social world. Students who benefit from our services may:

• Have trouble fitting in with their peers
• Make social errors
• Have difficulty reading social scenarios
• Experience social anxiety
• Be rigid thinkers
• Struggle with written expression and reading comprehension
• Need support with time management and organization
• Not work well in groups
• Need support to regulate their emotions/behavior
• Have low self esteem

Who Are We? Teach Social! PAC is a program of the Pilgrim Area Collaborative Extended Services (PACES).  Teach Social! PAC was developed to specifically serve individuals with social learning challenges in the South Shore area through direct teaching based on the conceptual model and practices of Social Thinking™ developed by Michelle Garcia Winner. 

All programs are developed and overseen by Master’s Level Educators with extensive training in the principles of Social Thinking™, including clinical mentorship training at Michelle Garcia Winner’s clinic in San Jose, California. In addition each instructor has expertise in the areas of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Applied Behavior Analysis and empirically validated and developmentally appropriate treatment and intervention methodologies.

Services offered:
Direct Instruction to student/small group
Parent Workshops
Social Thinking™ Assessment

If you have any questions about our programs or are interested in hosting one of the listed workshops at one of your SEPAC meetings please feel free to contact either Deb Booth @ dbooth@pilgrimac.org or Joanna Silverman

@ jsilverman@pilgrimac.org.

From Great Schools
By Connie Matthiessen
September 21, 2014

Are your children spending too much time inside? Learn the high cost of nature deficit disorder - and how easily you can avoid it by getting your kids outdoors.

You’ve probably had this experience: The kids have been cooped up all morning and now you're heading out to the park, just to get them outside. In the car, they squabble and sulk — the oldest doesn't want to go, the second complains about the third's singing, the third begins to cry — and you’re on the verge of losing it. No one, you're convinced, will make it back from this outing alive.

But when the kids pile out of the car, everything changes. They begin running around, exploring, getting dirty, discovering rocks, and making up games. When it's time to pack up, everyone is cold, muddy, and hungry but miraculously transformed.
READ MORE

From the Division of Insurance:

Over the past year, a number of health-care related issues have arisen and the Division is scheduling a series of informational sessions in order to have conversations with interested parties about the issues that are identified below.  As with other sessions that we have held at the Division of Insurance, these are open to all interested parties; if you are aware of someone who may be interested to participate, please feel free to pass this along to those parties.  The Division of Insurance is holding them to hear thoughts about the noted issues so that they can listen to comments and learn about whether future guidance may be helpful about how to address certain issues.
 
If any interested persons are unable to attend the meetings in person, they can participate in any session by calling in to (424) 203-8075 and using access code 116040# (note: the # key must be pressed after the access code).

Below is a list of the sessions that may be of interest:  

• Wednesday, October 8, 2014 – 10:00-12:00; Room 1-E Neuropsychological Testing Wednesday,
• Monday, October 20, 2014 – 10:00-12:00; Room 1-E Reporting on Behavioral Health Utilizations
• Wednesday, October 22, 2014 – 10:00-12:00; Room 1-E Neuropsychological Testing
• Friday, October 31, 2013 – 10:00-12:00; Room 1-E Reporting on Behavioral Health Utilizations
• Wednesday, November 12, 2014 – 10:00-12:00; Room 1-E Access to Autism Treatment
• Monday, November 17, 2014 – 10:00-12:00; Room 1-E Access to Children’s Behavioral Health Services

For more information, or a complete listing of all sessions, please contact 
Nancy Schwartz at nancy.schwartz@state.ma.us or (617) 521-7323 or Kevin Beagan atkevin.beagan@state.ma.us or at (617) 521-7323.

For more information, or a complete listing of all sessions, please contact 
Nancy Schwartz at nancy.schwartz@state.ma.us<mailto:nancy.schwartz@state.ma.us> or (617) 521-7323 or Kevin Beagan at kevin.beagan@state.ma.us<mailto:kevin.beagan@state.ma.us> or at (617) 521-7323.

“Schools need to provide a way of making sure that children are educated at the level that is appropriate for them.”

Manhattan mom Heather McFadden is grateful that entrance into the prized New York City Gifted and Talented program has worked out for her two kids. Her daughter cleared both hurdles – she scored in the 99th percentile on the test, and ...
READ MORE

By Barbara Green, PhD
Tuesday, September 23rd marked the 4th annual South Shore FACTS: Families, Adolescents, Communities Together against Substances conference. The theme this year was “Creating Positive Community Outcomes.” 

Nearly 200 people attended and were treated to a day full of wisdom shared by multi- disciplinary professionals and panelists, personal stories, and news of ongoing community coalition efforts.

In the afternoon communities gathered and spent time working on goal setting and developing plans for the coming year. By the end of the day, everyone in attendance left with increased knowledge and dedication to fight to help save lives.

Joanne Peterson, founder of Learn to Cope; received the 2014 SS FACTS Summit Award for her determined 10 years of work building a statewide support network for loved ones dealing with opiate addiction. She spoke eloquently on the power of grassroots efforts and belief.

Youth Health Connection (YHC) serves as the regional facilitator for towns to develop individual coalitions with the goal that they develop sustainable, environmentally based strategies and programs to tackle the vexing issue of underage substance use. It is our belief that by coming together we can mutually motivate and assist communities to build strong, broad based coalitions including parents, teens, schools, law enforcement, business, government, medical and mental health, and clergy.

The data speaks loudly: Approximately 8 million adults have co-occurring substance use and mental health issues. Tragically only 6.9 % receive treatment for both conditions. The Health and Risk Behaviors survey for 2013 paints a picture that tells us that 13% of high school students report having their first alcohol drink before age 13. Nearly one fifth reported binge drinking. The research informs us that the earlier the onset of first use the greater the likelihood of dependence or abuse in early adulthood. We know that the adolescent brain is extremely vulnerable to the impact of drugs and alcohol so it is imperative to stop destructive behavior as soon as possible.

Education, prevention and early intervention work can save lives. We are working to create “Cultural Sea Change” that understands and embraces the science, incorporates it into programs and drives the change forward.

For more information contact Kim Noble at kimberly_noble@sshosp.org 

Will You Wear Green?
By Mariah Smith, YHC Intern, Plymouth State University

Oct. 5-11 is Mental Illness Awareness Week. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) sponsors this week to recognize mental health concerns and the impact that they have on millions of Americans’ lives each year.

This year’s theme is “It’s Time to Take Action” and on their website they offer lots of resources and ideas to promote and highlight these issues such as: NAMIWalks,

concerts, candlelight vigils, possible daily tweets/Facebook statuses, graphics/print materials, and a resource toolkit available to download.

Join the Green Light Initiative to show support for mental health by lighting up buildings, wearing, or painting your face green to start a conversation and inspire hope.

Share your stories of hope, participate in the NAMIWalk and wear green next week to show your support in creating awareness and recognition for those who are dealing with mental illnesses around the country! 

For more information visit:
http://bit.ly/1yxXftC 

Back to Basics for Treatment of Lice
by Camille Merian, founder of CloseNitFamily

Lice are a year-round problem, any time children are together, it's an opportunity for lice to spread.

It has been said that kids with close friends get LICE. Schools, fall sports and after school activities provide fantastic learning and memories; however, you can see how easy it would be to share even the peskiest gift of all without knowing it.

People are striving for a healthy lifestyle, eating organically to minimize pesticides yet ironically, at the first sign of lice; parents douse the most porous part of a child’s body (the head) with toxic chemicals that simply don’t work. Over time, lice have built up an immunity to these products and are showing signs of resistance. Lice removal takes a good comb, lots of patience, lots of time and lots of time 
following a strand-by-strand method. Preventative care at home- simple step to take, if your child has long hair, pull it back in a ponytail, then practice “taking a peek once a week,” remember to use a good lice comb.

Finally, if your family has head lice, don’t be embarrassed, be a friend & tell a friend. Spread the word...not the nits. 

To learn more about CloseNitFamily; a LICE Treatment Center and In-Home lice removal company based in Norwell, MA visit: www.closenitfamily.com 

To learn more about lice from the CDC visit: http://bit.ly/cdclice