Friday, June 19, 2009

In The News....


Why we must all be careful on the big Internet playground. Things are not always what they seem. Even people who write very compelling stories about their child with rare diseases may not be telling the truth…

Blogger Lies About Having Child With Rare Disease


Pediatricians are taking a stand on bullying. We’ve moved past the ‘kids will be kids’ mindset, and real action must be taken. Next month, the American Academy of Pediatrics will publish the new version of an official policy statement on the pediatrician’s role in preventing youth violence. To read more about this very important topic:

Pediatricians Against Bullying


Have you struggled as much as I have trying to get appropriate Braille instruction for your child? Apparently a lot of parents have, and the National Federation of the Blind is doing something about that – at least in Utah. Hopefully the NFB lawsuit will raise awareness and perhaps even help make changes for children across the United States.

National Federation of the Blind Files Suit


This story from my alma mater troubles me. I am quite aware of the fact that parents of children who are deaf have very definite views on whether to let their children have cochlear implants. As I have written many times on this blog, I don’t believe Ashley needs ‘fixing’ with a device implanted in her brain just because she is deaf. However, I respect the rights of other parents to make a different choice for their child.

I am concerned though when doctors and schools appear to make those decisions for families. My school district, for example, embraced an oral deaf program to the exclusion of sign language programs many years ago. As a result, getting sign language support for Ashley has been an ongoing struggle for me.

Is Old Dominion University following the same path as my school district…?

No Middle Ground?

2 comments:

Jess said...

Thanks for the links!

Responding specifically to the last one here...

As a proponent of Total Communication, I have a hard time with the programs that teach only one thing with the exclusion of all other teaching methods: ie ASL only or Oral only programs. I'm more a fan of programs that make both services available and allow the parents to choose one or both methods. I think the issue is that programs like these tend to be more expensive to run. I'm with you that I don't like the school or doctors making such an important life-impacting decision for a child.

~Jess

~Jess

a Tonggu Momma said...

Thank goodness that more people are speaking out against bullying. This topic is very raw for me at the moment because several weeks ago a child in my town was killed after a bullying incident. Rocks were thrown - two hit him, one on his head - he tried to get away on his bicycle, but instead, disoriented, he fell to the ground and died. We need to speak out more and stop bullying before it grows larger!