There may be No Downside—That is Regular
UK: A new school for children with autism has opened in Basingstoke.
By Anne Dachel
Over the past 30 years, a large group of parents has increasingly claimed that their normally developing children were negatively affected by routine child vaccinations, leading to a diagnosis of autism.
Suspicion was quickly met by those who brought these charges and dismissed as “opponents of Vaxx”.
All science was piled against her. Countless studies let vaccines off the hook. The parents had to move on. Autism was just something parents had to learn to accept and live with as best they could.
As for the ever-increasing rate of autism, no increase has ever shown that more children have autism.
A story from October 20th proves my point. Moms.com, a Canadian site, published an article from the UK entitled, The diagnosis of autism has increased by almost 800% over the past 20 years, The point was that autism didn’t really increase; it’s just that more girls and adults have been recognized with the disorder. That explains the skyrocketing numbers.
Another piece Is Autism Overdiagnosed? , published October 12, advocated that “diagnostic criteria and reporting practices be changed” because we believe there is more autism out there.
Recent studies seem to suggest an overdiagnosis of the condition. Not only is autism overdiagnosed, research suggests that the difference between those with autism and those without autism is shrinking
Reports like this seem to allay fears that something truly dire is happening in the number of children diagnosed with autism.
BUT, no matter how many times experts and officials tell us that autism is a normal and acceptable part of childhood, what happens in the real world is evidence that the damage is being done.
My page, Loss of brain confidence, which has recorded the global decline in education over the past four and a half years shows us how sick our children really are today.
Someone should have to explain what is happening to schools here and abroad. I doubt the claims of overdiagnosis and the rise in adults with autism have any relevance when it comes to school districts spending millions on increasing numbers of students who cannot study or behave as children have always expected. Autism is just one aspect of dysfunctional children today.
Here’s another look at a week’s stories. Again the UK dominates the news.
UNITED KINGDOM: The national government approved $ 3.6 billion in special education grants for children in mainstream and special schools.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak will say the money will help back more than 30,000 new places for students to support their learning in mainstream schools and special needs schools….
The move comes as it is rising demand for technical support, as the school-age population is expected to be around 10% higher in 2025 than in 2010.
The Treasury Department says the measure will almost triple the amount of this year’s capital funding for the most disadvantaged young people through specialized education funding.
£ 300 million [$410M] Fund for 2021-2022 was announced in last year’s spending review for new places for students with special educational needs and disabilities. That was almost four times as much as last year….
(It is logical to claim that there will be “increasing demand” due to an expected 10% increase in student numbers between 2010 and 2025.
United Kingdom More coverage of the special budget increase.
Children with special educational needs will receive £ 2.6 billion [$3.6B] Funding boost over the next three years. Another £ 3 billion [$4B] will be spent on improving the skills of those aged 16 and over and £ 560 million on improving arithmetic for adults.
United Kingdom A new report gives cause for serious concern about the lack of funding for special schools. AT THE SAME TIME, the national government granted billions for schools.
97% of school principals expressed concern about the increasing struggle for the necessary support for SEND students and described their funding as “insufficient”, according to a recent survey by the National School Directors Association.
In fact, nearly a third of school principals said they were forced to cut their budgets in 2020-2021, and 35% said they would make further cuts in the coming academic year. More than four in five said they had to buy additional support services previously funded by the local council.
UNITED KINGDOM: Parents report having to wait two and four years for an autism assessment alone.
Sonya Mallin, who has ten-year-old twin girls, has partnered with Warwickshire’s Jess Tomlinson to call on the government to allocate resources to reduce waiting times for autism and ADHD assessments for children and adults.
Jess launched a petition after waiting nearly four years for her son’s assessment, then teamed up with Sonya to launch the Months Not Years campaign to highlight how widespread the problem has become. …
Sonya said, “We waited almost two years for my daughter to go through the exam.
Jess, a mother of three, has been fighting for support for her younger son since 2016 before he was put on the waiting list for an assessment in March last year. Your oldest child, a ten year old boy, has been waiting for almost four years….
“Cutting waiting times is a priority in the NHS long-term plan, and the government’s new five-year autism strategy promises to address this with £ 13 million [$18M] assigned. This is important, but currently only funding the first year of the strategy. The government must meet its obligations to autistic people and families by fully funding the strategy in the upcoming spending review. “For thousands of autistic children, adults and families, progress cannot come fast enough.”
Basingstoke: A new school for children with autism has opened in Basingstoke. The Austen Academy on Shakespeare Road has 128 students, ages 5 to 16.
The headmaster said, ‘We are excited.’
Dorset: The DORSET Council has announced how it is spending £ 37.5 million [$52M] funds to improve the lives of children in additional needs – including the creation of new schools. Funding has been secured to meet the Council’s goal, as set out in its Children’s Plan, to provide the best education for children and young people in Dorset with special educational needs and / or skills (SEND) over the next five years. The council made plans in response to that growing need for more special educational offers….
The roadmap of the council for the implementation of the program includes a plan for the opening of the Dorset Center of Excellence – a new school in Shaftesbury, which on the former St in the following years should reach a total of 280 places. The council is also working to open an additional location for the Beaucroft Special School in Wimborne, which will bring around 75 additional places in 2022/23.
And over: The ANDOVER municipal council supported a building application for a special school for the expansion.
Chapel Hill: Becton School – an Ofsted Outstanding Hospital School for young people with medical and mental health problems – has opened its new location at Chapel House, Hillsborough Barracks. The new website mainly supports young people with mental health problems and the bosses say it makes it possible an increase in the number of places, as part of the city’s response to that growing need…
The US is grappling with its own increasing demand.
Carlisle, PA: A local autism school is expanding its campus due to “greater demand of services. “
Braunschweig, ME: Brunswick Junior High has a service dog to help children with stress.
“There have been a couple of times that we’ve had some students who were really emotionally disregarded, some screamed and yelled, and maybe threw things,” said Prophett. “Desi comes in and it’s pretty instant. Within the first three to five minutes the children are noticeably calmer, you can see their bodies relax, you may ask them to lie down or give her a hug. It’s almost as if she instinctively knows which children in the classroom have a hard time. ”
According to Pawesome Advice, an online resource that collects expert advice and data for pet owners, animals with emotional support have gained “incredible popularity” over the past decade and there are now more than 65,000 of them in the US
Thanks to a special education teacher, the Hollister Early Childhood Center is getting a sensory space for the students.
Sarah Combs, a special education teacher at the Hollister Early Childhood Center, applied for and received a $ 500 grant from the Missouri Retired Teachers Association to create a sensory space for students with sensory needs, according to a Hollister School District press release. …
“On a given day, 50 children could come through the room. There could be over 300 kids in a week, you know, it depends on when the teachers want to bring them and how often their students need time to reorient, ”Combs said. “It started more with the special education mindset, but when we started we realized that all children can benefit from this type of space …”
We are seeing a lot of social and emotional needs, especially from the COVID crisis, ”said Smith. “We know it’s in the headlines every day. It affects the mental health of adults, but also our children. Our children’s brains are not yet fully developed. We have preschool, kindergarten and first grade in this building and they can’t deal with what’s going on. All they know is, ‘I’m frustrated. I am angry. I’m sad.’