A study published in the journal Pediatrics indicates that 63 percent of pediatricians follow the American Association of Pediatricians guidelines and conduct developmental screenings of children at 9, 18 and 30 months. This is triple the rate – 21 percent – that a similar study found in 2002. Pediatricians who reported they do not conduct regular screenings were most likely to blame time constraints.
The Feb. 21 deaths in Sussex County of two individuals who were homeless have drawn attention to the difficulty homeless people – 40 percent of whom have disabilities – face in finding affordable housing and jobs. Advocates say support organizations’ lack of funding and volunteers exacerbates the problem.
Alex Mann, a 19-year-old with autism, has visited more than 70 police departments across Pennsylvania to educate officers about people with autism and to show his support of law enforcement. Mann says he wants to help officers understand that sometimes people with disabilities like autism can behave in ways that seem noncompliant or aggressive when that is not actually their intention.
The Down Syndrome Association of Delaware is one of eight Down syndrome associations to win a grant from Global Down Syndrome Foundation enabling them to train and hire self-advocates. The president and CEO of Global says the grant was created because some organizations could not afford to employ self-advocates – despite their work trying to persuade other companies to do just that.
UD speech-language pathology graduate students recently held an improv acting workshop, which they created as a capstone project, for 16- to 21-year-olds with autism. Their goal was to provide a fun, low-stress environment in which participants could develop communication skills like making eye contact and responding to nonverbal cues. A professor in UD’s Communication Sciences and Disorders program says the plan is to offer the workshop again next year.
