Opening Up ...

Today is our first day back in the office after shutting down in mid-March. It's been a surreal few months for us and, we are sure, for most of you.

First of all, we hope that all our patients, colleagues, and their families are well and have been staying safe. We have continued Yellin Center operations remotely during the worst of the pandemic, using technology to conduct consultations, follow-ups, medical management appointments, and attend CSE meetings. Dr. Yellin also stayed in close touch with his medical colleagues at NYU and elsewhere, to remain on top of the latest facts and recommendations, while Dr. Reddy has explored whether and how to conduct aspects of our evaluations using technology.

We've kept our terrific staff on board and they have been in touch with many of the families and students we serve, scheduling virtual meetings and working on the many steps needed to open our offices safely for everyone. We've posted our current policies on our website and will continue to update these as circumstances change.

Over the past couple of weeks, we've reconfigured our spacious office to allow for social distancing during evaluations and stocked up on masks, gloves, sanitizers, and table dividers. We've removed the toys, games, and magazines from our waiting areas and are screening our staff and all visitors before they get to our office -- and taking no-touch temperatures when they arrive. Masks are required to enter our building and in our offices.

We will continue to conduct many aspects of our services via technology, to minimize contact between students, their families, and our staff, but at this time are not offering the core aspects of our assessments remotely.

On a personal note, we've gained a new grandson, born during the height of the pandemic, where a last-minute switch of hospitals enabled his parents to be together during delivery. We've discovered a wonderful new website,  Readeo, that enables us to have our two and a half year old grandson, who does not live nearby, to read a book together with us. But, like so many of you, we also have had friends and family struggle with illness and, sadly, loss.

As we look around at our world, beset by the strains of pandemic and injustice, we hope that our lives and our cities will be like the plants we found when we returned to our offices after weeks at home. They were battered and bent, but we hold out hope that with time and care they will once again be healthy and thriving. We hope the same for you, our city and our country.

Paying for IEEs - Revisited

Parents frequently ask us about having their school district pay for an independent educational evaluation - an IEE - such as those we provide here at The Yellin Center. We wrote about this subject at length in a post from November 2013, but it has become clear to us that it is time to share this discussion again. We have added some additional information, (see the boldface text below) and hope this post helps answer questions that you may have.

 
When Must School Districts Pay for Evaluations?

Parents sometimes ask us if they can have their school district pay for their child's evaluation at The Yellin Center. The simple answer is "maybe, under certain circumstances," and we thought it might be helpful to explain the laws and regulations that govern this area.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) recognizes that an evaluation of a student in all suspected areas of disability is a crucial first step to determining whether that student is eligible for IDEA services and what kind of services will help that student to succeed in school. In fact, the "clock begins to run" with respect to the time limits set forth in the IDEA only once the parent consents to an evaluation of the student. The law anticipates that the school will then conduct an evaluation of the child and share the results with the parents and the IEP team, the committee that creates the student's Individualized Education Program. 

In many situations, this works out well for all concerned. The school district conducts an evaluation at no cost to the family; the findings make sense to the parents; the findings are incorporated into the student's IEP; and nothing more needs to be done. 

However, sometimes families do not agree with the findings of the school district evaluators and feel there may be something more going on with their child. Sometimes parents have had a long history of difficulties with the school and simply do not trust them to do an evaluation. Some parents of children enrolled in a private school do not want to have to work with the local public school district (especially in New York City). And, quite often, parents want the kind of in-depth, multi-disciplinary evaluation done here at The Yellin Center, rather than a more "cookie-cutter" series of tests given by their school's evaluators. In each of these situations, the parents seek an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) such as the ones we conduct here at The Yellin Center.

Before we look at specific rules and scenarios, we need to emphasize one important point. Parents have the absolute right to have their child independently evaluated and federal law requires that the public school district must consider the results of such evaluation. Dr. Yellin and his team frequently attend IEP meetings (via phone or other technology) to discuss the results of our evaluations and have been universally well-received by schools. However, the law does not require that districts follow the recommendations of our reports (or any outside evaluator).

So, when can a parent have a district pay for an IEE? 

1. The parent must disagree with the evaluation conducted by the district or consider it inadequate and notify the district of their intention to obtain an IEE.
2. The district must then either file for a due process hearing with a State Hearing Officer or agree to pay for the IEE.
3. The district can set criteria for the IEE's they will fund -- how much they cost, the geographic location of the evaluator(s), and the specific qualifications of the evaluator(s). However, the U.S. Department of Education notes that, "the district must allow parents the opportunity to demonstrate that unique circumstances justify an IEE that does not fall within the district's criteria. If an IEE that falls outside the district's criteria is justified by the child's unique circumstances, that IEE must be publicly funded." So, even if your district tells you that you are restricted to using the private evaluators on a list they provide, that is not strictly correct and you can and should push back to obtain the services of the evaluator you choose. 
4. An IEE can also be ordered by a State Hearing Officer as part of a due process hearing when aspects of an IEP are in dispute. 

We also encounter situations where a district paid evaluation at The Yellin Center is part of an ongoing discussion between a family and a school district, especially when the district has not been successful in addressing a child's educational needs. And families need to keep in mind that The Yellin Center has always had a sliding scale for families who need assistance in paying for our services. 

There are countless resources available to explain this process to parents and school administrators, but some you might find useful are:

• For New Jersey familes, a memo from the New Jersey Department of Education, with a list of Frequently Asked Questions about IEEs.
• From the U.S. Department of Education, a memo discussing why districts cannot set absolute cost limits on IEEs. 

One subject not addressed in our original post on this topic is the rights of parents when a district refuses to evaluate, either because they do not believe that the child has a disability, or without even providing a reason. The IDEA only addresses the situation where a family disagrees with an evaluation that has been already conducted. To the frustration of many families, if the school district declines to evaluate a student, the only remedy of the family is to file a complaint with a State Hearing Officer to challenge this decision. In addition, as noted above, parents always have the right to go ahead on their own to seek an IEE. 

Demystifying Young Students

Here at The Yellin Center, we've gotten much feedback over the years that our process of "demystification" -- sharing our preliminary findings, with a focus on areas of strengths before we address any challenges -- helps even young children better understand how they think and learn and how to integrate their learning profile into their evolving self-image. With this understanding, they become more comfortable using the learning strategies and supports they need to succeed.

Over the years, we've heard from many parents how children find this process empowering. For example, one young elementary school student brought his "demystification sheet", which listed his areas of strength and challenge in simple language, to school. When his classmates teased him about using a laptop in class, he pulled out the sheet of paper and pointed to it. "Dr. Yellin says I have something called dysgraphia, " he told his classmates. "That means I have trouble writing. So I need to use a laptop to write. You got a problem with that?" We were told that this put the teasing to rest.

sample Yellin Center demystification sheet

Yesterday, we heard from another parent, this time from the dad of a third grader (let's call him "Henry") who attends a terrific school which describes itself as a place where "children learn to think about their thinking" and which helps "them become aware of how their minds work and how they learn best." During a classroom discussion about learning, the teacher reported that Henry made the following comments, which his dad shared with us:

"Our brain is divided into two main things: your strengths and your challenges. Each person’s strengths and challenges are different. You also have long-term memory and short-term memory. Most people think of short-term memory as 'I only remember things for a little bit,' but short-term memory is…things you know off the top of your head. Then long-term memory is down there and you have to look for it. You have to think about those things…[It’s] like a closet. The things you were just using you can just grab out at the top. The things you haven’t worn in like a month are super deep in there."

Clearly, Henry was listening when he sat around the table with The Yellin Center team after his assessment. We're delighted that he brought his insights to share with his class. Thanks, Henry!

Increasing Our Commitment to Mental Health

We are pleased to share with you that we will be significantly increasing our commitment and capacity for meeting the mental health needs of our patients and participating nationally in addressing the broader problem of providing diagnosis and treatment of children’s mental health issues.

Back in 2011, Dr. Yellin participated in a mini-fellowship given by the REACH Institute, a national nonprofit led by leaders in child psychiatry, psychology, and pediatrics. The fellowship was intended to equip pediatricians with the knowledge and skill needed to address more of their patient’s mental health needs, consistent with the best evidence-based therapies, to improve the mental health of children and adolescents. The fellowship was delivered in collaboration with CAP-PC NY (Child and Adolescent Psychiatry for Primary Care) and had three primary goals:

1. to train pediatricians and other primary care providers to correctly identify and differentiate among pediatric behavioral health problems such as anxiety, depression, ADHD, aggression, mood disorders, and psychosis; 
2. To provide the fellowship participants with training in effectively managing psychopharmacology: selecting medications, initiating and tapering dosages, monitoring improvements, and identifying and minimizing medication side effects; and  
3. To provide the participants with ongoing real-time consultation and mentorship by child psychiatrists at five university-based Departments of Psychiatry at the University at Buffalo; University of Rochester; Columbia University Medical Center/New York State Psychiatric Institute; SUNY Upstate; and Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine. 

After Dr. Yellin completed the mini-fellowship, we were able to expand our capacity here at The Yellin Center for meeting more of our patients' mental health needs, including psychopharmacology. This is an important aspect of the support we provide to families, especially in light of the continuing shortage of pediatric psychiatrists.

Recently, Dr. Yellin applied and was accepted to become a member of the Faculty of the REACH Institute. This weekend he began that journey by participating in the REACH Institute’s two day Train the Trainer Program: Patient-Centered Mental Health in Pediatric Primary Care. Over the next six months, as Faculty-In-Training, Dr. Yellin will be participating in various activities to complete his training, more fully contribute to this important initiative, and continue to build his clinical expertise to better serve our families.

A Treasure Trove of Resources

What if you could find the best educational resources, vetted by experts, and based on the latest research -- all free, in one place, and focused on the needs of students and families like yours? You can, right on our own Yellin Center website.

We've always offered a website section with links to Resources, but over the past few months, our team of learning specialists has spent some time expanding and updating our hundreds of listings and we want to shine a light on what we think is an excellent starting place for families seeking information.

Our offerings include educational games, reading, and fourteen other categories, with dozens of links in each. The best way to get a sense of the links and listings -- each of which has a brief review or description -- is to scroll through them. We think you'll find them helpful. And we hope you will let us know if you do.

The Numbers Game: Standardized Testing and Student Ability

Unless you happen to be particularly interested in educational policy in the state of Texas, it's likely that you missed news of a legislative hearing that took place in Austin in June 2012. The Texas House Public Education Committee had met to interview experts about the relationship between learning and standardized testing. Although Texas had injected new rigor into its state-wide tests, student achievement wasn't improving and the committee wanted to know why.

Dr. Walter Stroup, a tenured professor at the University of Texas, was one of those experts. When his turn came, he spoke about what standardized tests do and what they don't do. His research, he said, indicated that tests don't measure what the test-taker has learned. They measure how good the test-taker is at taking tests.

This was a controversial statement (particularly to an organization that had invested tens of millions of dollars on the tests in question), and Stroup's testimony launched a complicated series of events. A recent, lengthy article in the Texas Observer provides detailed information about the fallout, which is ongoing. But regardless of how things continue to play out in Texas, Stroup's perspective on testing reflects, in many ways, our perspective on assessment at the Yellin Center.

Assessments are the cornerstone of our work, and assessments include numbers. But, as each of the students and families with whom we work has no doubt heard Dr. Yellin say, "We're not big numbers people." This perspective is evident in our reports. We don't put the tables of scores front and center; instead, they appear in the back of the report. This format is deliberate. We don't present scores first because our reports are written to capture our authentic, three-dimensional impressions of a student and her mind, and numbers often fail to tell the whole story.

In fact, sometimes numbers tell a story that can be misleading. This can happen for myriad reasons, but here is one example: If a student has an expressive language disability, she'll have difficulty expressing her ideas. She is unlikely to be able to communicate the complexity of her thoughts and cognitive processes using language. But if she is given a full-scale IQ measure, she'll have to use words and sentences to respond to much of the test content. Her overall score is likely to be low because even if she is able to think of the right answers, she may not be able to articulate them. Her oral and written output will not reflect the intricacy of her mind. Simply reporting a low IQ score obtained with such measures for this student without putting this score in the context of her expressive language difficulties would do her an injustice.

We see this kind of scenario frequently at the Yellin Center. Parents will bring us their student and explain that the standardized test scores they've seen just don't fit the child they know. And so, we set to work. It's true that many of the measures a student completes during an assessment at the Yellin Center are standardized. But our clinicians are equally, if not more, interested in the qualitative information that can be gleaned than in the scores the measure yields. We analyze errors to find patterns, and we ask questions that many assessors may not, so that we can figure out how students attained the right answers and which aspects of tasks gave them difficulty. This approach allows us to view scores as just one piece of the puzzle as we work to determine an accurate, actionable cognitive profile for each student.

As Dr. Stroup suggests, standardized tests serve a purpose, but they shouldn't be used as standalone measures. It's pretty nice when a renowned expert affirms something you've been saying all along.

When Must School Districts Pay for Evaluations?

Parents sometimes ask us if they can have their school district pay for their child's evaluation at The Yellin Center. The simple answer is "maybe, under certain circumstances," and we thought it might be helpful to explain the laws and regulations that govern this area.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) recognizes that an evaluation of a student in all suspected areas of disability is a crucial first step to determining whether that student is eligible for IDEA services and what kind of services will help that student to succeed in school. In fact, the "clock begins to run" with respect to the time limits set forth in the IDEA only once the parent consents to an evaluation of the student. The law anticipates that the school will then conduct an evaluation of the child and share the results with the parents and the IEP team, the committee that creates the student's Individualized Education Program. 

It's Our City

In many situations, this works out well for all concerned. The school district conducts an evaluation at no cost to the family; the findings make sense to the parents; the findings are incorporated into the student's IEP; and nothing more needs to be done. 

However, sometimes families do not agree with the findings of the school district evaluators and feel there may be something more going on with their child. Sometimes parents have had a long history of difficulties with the school and simply do not trust them to do an evaluation. Some parents of children enrolled in a private school do not want to have to work with the local public school district (especially in New York City). And, quite often, parents want the kind of in-depth, multi-disciplinary kind of evaluation done here at The Yellin Center, rather than a more "cookie-cutter" series of tests given by their school's evaluators. In each of these situations, the parents seek an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) such as the ones we conduct here at The Yellin Center.

Before we look at specific rules and scenarios, we need to emphasize one important point. Parents have the absolute right to have their child independently evaluated and federal law requires that the public school district must consider the results of such evaluation. Dr. Yellin and his team frequently attend IEP meetings (via phone or other technology) to discuss the results of our evaluations and have been universally well-received by schools. However, the law does not require that districts follow the recommendations of our reports (or any outside evaluator).

So, when can a parent have a district pay for an IEE? 

1. The parent must disagree with the evaluation conducted by the district or consider it inadequate and notify the district of their intention to obtain an IEE.
2. The district must then either file for a due process hearing with a State Hearing Officer or agree to pay for the IEE.
3. The district can set criteria for the IEE's they will fund -- how much they cost, the geographic location of the evaluator(s), and the specific qualifications of the evaluator(s). However, the U.S. Department of Education notes that, "the district must allow parents the opportunity to demonstrate that unique circumstances justify an IEE that does not fall within the district's criteria. If an IEE that falls outside the district's criteria is justified by the child's unique circumstances, that IEE must be publicly funded." So, even if your district tells you that you are restricted to using the private evaluators on a list they provide, that is not strictly correct and you can and should push back to obtain the services of the evaluator you choose. 
4. An IEE can also be ordered by a State Hearing Officer as part of a due process hearing when aspects of an IEP are in dispute. 

We also encounter situations where a district paid evaluation at The Yellin Center is part of an ongoing discussion between a family and a school district, especially when the district has not been successful in addressing a child's educational needs. And families need to keep in mind that The Yellin Center has always had a sliding scale for families who need assistance in paying for our services. 

There are countless resources available to explain this process to parents and school administrators, but some you might find useful are:

• For New Jersey familes, a memo from the New Jersey Department of Education, with a list of Frequently Asked Questions about IEEs.
• From the U.S. Department of Education, a memo discussing why districts cannot set absolute cost limits on IEEs and a link to a number of other memos discussing other aspects of the IEE funding process.
• For a review of court cases that have dealt with the IEE issue, a law review survey of cases by Perry Zirkel.

Free Back-to-School Workshops for Parents and Educators

The Yellin Center for Mind, Brain, and Education will present a series of free back-to-school workshops for parents and educators at our Center on West 29th Street in Manhattan in the coming weeks.

Jeremy Koren

First up: on Tuesday, September 24, Paul B. Yellin, MD, FAAP,, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at New York University School of Medicine and Director of The Yellin Center will discuss ADHD, Attention, and Learning. Special emphasis will be placed on the topics of common symptoms, the process of diagnosis (and what labels like "ADHD" really mean), some recommended treatments, and how to deploy individualized strategies to best support weak attention and executive-function controls in learners at every grade level, from elementary school through college.

On the following evening,Wednesday, September 25, Susan Yellin, Esq. will present College 101: What Students with Learning Issues (and Their Parents) Should Know. Mrs. Yellin will focus on matters of import to students and parents who are in various stages of the process of transitioning from high school to the more independent setting associated with colleges and universities, including admissions, student support services, choosing a school, SAT/ACT testing issues, disability disclosure considerations, and more. Parents of students from middle school through 12th grade should find this presentation highly informative.

Finally, on Thursday, October 17, Dr. Yellin will present a special discussion on Memory and Learning. In this conversation, Dr. Yellin will aim to provide parents with a new understanding of how variation in the brain functions which control memory can impact a student's performance in school.

All of these events are free, but advance registration is required and space will be limited. Doors open at 4:30 p.m.. Events will begin promptly at 5 p.m. and conclude by 6 p.m. each night.

Register online here, or call The Yellin Center at (646) 775-6646. Please tell a friend to join you! We hope to see you there.

Download printable fliers for the events here and tack them up on your local community or school bulletin board.


-Jeremy Koren

When Children Influence Their Parent's Career Path

Within the last few days, we had several reminders that the difficulties faced by a child can help shape the path of a parent's work.

First, a friend called to report the good progress her son was making in his new program -- the next step for him as a young adult with significant learning and other difficulties. "You know," she said, "now that I have him settled, I'm thinking of a new career as an advocate for other parents. Do you have any ideas as to how I can begin this process?"

Almost the very next day, our colleagues at Wrightslaw sent out their Summer Newsletter, So You Want To Be An Advocate? Summer School 2013: Session 1 . It contains lots of helpful advice about how to begin to learn about special education and special education advocacy. We sent the link along to our friend, along with our suggestion that she also consider becoming a member of COPAA, the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, which has helpful listservs for lay advocates as well as attorneys, a website full of information, and which runs a terrific national conference each year (March, 2014 in Baltimore) which is a wonderful way to learn about advocacy and meet other advocates and experts.

A day or two later, we received a copy of Bostonia magazine, which contained the compelling story of Ed Damiano, an associate professor of bio-medical engineering at Boston University who is racing to develop a bionic pancreas to treat his son David's type 1 diabetes. Prototypes of an iPhone assisted device are in clinical trials and he hopes the device will be available for son to use in a few years, when he heads to college. Watch a video about the Damiano's experience below.

Finally, as many of our readers know, a number of years ago Dr. Paul Yellin served as Chief Medical Officer of a New York City hospital (and, before that, Director of Neonatal Clinical Services at a major teaching hospital) before his own child's learning issues led him to his present work and the founding of The Yellin Center.

Photo: Glyn Lowe

MoMath, the New Math Museum in Manhattan

Here at The Yellin Center, we've got math on our minds. While it seems that a great deal is known about what happens in the brain when people process language, comparatively little information exists about the way the brain conceptualizes numbers and amounts. So we've been reading new studies about the brain and numbers with great interest and are expanding our knowledge about what “number sense” actually is, how automaticity in number recognition impacts math performance, and the very real problem of math anxiety.

With all this background, we were especially excited to visit Museum of Mathematics, or MoMath, which is just a few blocks away from our learning center! Mo Math is the brainchild of Glen Whitney, a former math professor who now serves as the museum’s president. The museum, which focuses on abstract concepts without much emphasis on numbers, is the only math museum in the country according to the New York Times. It opened its doors for the first time on December 15, 2012, and has received rave reviews from visitors ranging from preschoolers to Ph. D. candidates.

According to its mission statement, the museum “illuminates the patterns that abound in our world.” Its exhibits are dynamic and are intended to spark visitors’ curiosity, inspire them to ask questions, and reveal the fascinating side of a subject many people find dull, obtuse, or downright scary. Whitney hopes to dispel myths that math is hard or boring with beautiful, exciting exhibits that may inspire some visitors to take a second look a at subject they thought they had pegged.

If our observations there were any indication, Whitney has met his goal and then some. “On a scale of one to ten,” we heard a father asking his family as they exited the museum, “what would you rate this place?” “Ten!” called out a boy who looked to be about eight. “Twelve!!” his older brother yelled. Everywhere we looked, children and adults alike were intent on riding square-wheeled tricycles (that actually work!), creating patterns with tessellation tiles, solving wooden puzzles by detecting patterns, jumping around on a dance floor-like space that lights up, and adjusting lengths of track to make a toy car race along it as quickly as possible. One of our favorite exhibits was a calculator that was two stories high and made of string; we enjoyed figuring out how it worked (but we won’t give away the secret!). Who’d have thought this level of engagement would exist at a museum? About math?

We thought we detected a caveat for a while; the museum was seriously lacking in meaty, mathematical explanations for the phenomena we were observing. Touch screens are available near many exhibits with explanations, and we could choose how detailed we wanted the explanation to be. But even the most in-depth explanations were pretty abstract, and this caused lots of fervent discussion within our group about the cold, hard data that would explain what we were actually seeing. Suddenly, it seemed that perhaps sparking this kind of discussion was the whole point. And the children around us were too busy having fun with rolling shapes and scattering light waves to miss the numbers.

To sum it up, you should visit the National Museum of Mathematics. It’s located at 11 E. 26th Street in Manhattan and is open seven days a week, from 10:00 A.M to 5:00 P.M.


*Chang, Kenneth. “One Math Museum, Many Variables.”The New York Times. June 27, 2011.

Photos: Beth Guadagni

Free Professional Development Event for Educators March 6 in NYC

The Yellin Center's acclaimed (and complimentary) Professional Development Series for Educators continues Wednesday, March 6 at 4:30 p.m. at our offices in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. Dr. Yellin will discuss Struggling Readers. Some seats remain available as of press time!

Who should attend?

• Teachers
• School Administrators
• School Learning Specialists
• School Psychologists
• Other Related Professionals

The event is free - however, advance registration is required and restricted to professional educators and related professionals only (Parents, fret not! New parent-focused presentations will be announced in the coming days!).

You may register for the presentation online here, or by calling The Yellin Center at (646) 775-6646. Don't miss out!

Visit our Events Calendar for more information on upcoming events at The Yellin Center and beyond.

Interested in having Dr. Yellin speak at your school or organization? Contact us to learn more.

Photo: CC by Karin Dalziel

Happy Holidays from The Yellin Center

It’s the day before Christmas

And each year at this time
We have a tradition
Of blogging in rhyme

It’s also the last blog
We’re writing this year
As we take some time off
For holiday cheer

But before we adjourn
Until January 2
We want to say “thank you”
To each one of you

To our loyal blog audience
That seeks news and ideas
We’re grateful you followed us
All through the year

A thank you to teachers
Who have worked with our team
Supporting their students
Helping them reach their dream

We also appreciate
The dozens of schools
Who sought out The Yellin Center
For training and tools

To the families who see us
For evaluation and support
We’re thankful you let us
Assess and report

We promise to continue
To be there for you
With strategies, guidance, and
Advocacy too

So thanks to you all
For a wonderful year
And we wish you a holiday
Full of good cheer!

Photo: CC by Bob Jagendorf

500 Posts and Still Going Strong!

Today marks our 500th Yellin Center blog post and we thought you might like to know something about the folks who write our blogs and who have helped us to reach out to you with news, information, and the latest research findings and educational tools since we first began blogging in August 2009.

Most of our posts in the past year or two about reading, books, and teaching strategies have been the work of Beth Guadagni, a Yellin Center Learning Specialist. Beth earned her bachelor's degree at Vanderbilt University, double majoring in English and secondary education, and her master’s degree in literacy from Columbia University's Teachers College.She is a New York State certified reading specialist who taught English at both the high school and middle school levels before joining the Yellin Center staff.

Our blogs about special education laws, schools, and the latest research findings have generally been the work of Susan Yellin, Esq., our Director of Advocacy and Transition Services. Susan has been an attorney for over 25 years and brings to the blog the perspective of a parent of three sons, one of whom has learning difficulties. She is also the author of an award winning book, Life After High School: A Guide for Students with Disabilities and Their Families (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2010). Here at The Yellin Center she works with families seeking help to  understand the world of special education and to guide them as they make school decisions. She also works with college bound students with learning and attention difficulties as they move on from high school to post-secondary education.

Jeremy Koren, the Director of Communications at the Yellin Center gives our blog its "bells and whistles" and every so often will write a post on technology. Jeremy has been with the Yellin Center since its inception and, in addition to handling all of the technological aspects of our blog, especially the illustrations and video, is also the Yellin Center webmaster, responsible for our newly revamped website, our newsletter, and our Twitter feed. In addition to his many roles here at the Yellin Center, Jeremy will be adding a new one some time in the next few weeks as he and his wife Meghan, a former Yellin Center Learning Specialist, become parents for the first time.

Last, but certainly not least, is Dr. Paul Yellin, who contributes blogs on conferences and meetings he has attended, research that he has read, and issues of medical importance whenever his hectic schedule permits. 

We welcome guest bloggers and comments on our blog posts, and encourage you to sign up for our Twitter or RSS feeds to stay up to date. When you visit our offices, take a look at the bound volumes of past years' blogs in our reception area. It has been a privilege writing for you and we look forward to keeping at it for many years to come.

Photo: CC by minivan1411

Newsday Webinar on "Selecting the Right College"

Susan Yellin, Esq., the Director of Advocacy and Transition Services at The Yellin Center for Mind, Brain, and Education (and frequent contributor to this blog) has been invited to serve as a panelist for a free webinar on "Selecting the Right College."

The Newsday College PrepTalk webinar will take place on Monday, October 22, at 8:00 PM (Eastern).

Topics that will be discussed include: Student Life, Academic Reputation, Campus Size and Faculty, Special Circumstances, and Students with Disabilities.

The free event is sponsored by Hofstra University.

Register for the event here.


***

For more information about upcoming Yellin Center events, please visit our Events page.

Upcoming Event: What Educators Should Know About Executive Function

The Yellin Center is kicking off our new Professional Development Series with a special presentation for educators called What Educators Should Know About Executive Function. The presentation was originally planned for October 11, but due to high demand (the October 11 event is now completely booked!), we've added a second date for an encore presentation on October 25, at The Yellin Center in Manhattan, from 4:30 p.m. until 6:00 p.m.

In the presentation, Paul B. Yellin, MD, and friend of The Yellin Center, executive function specialist Terry Edelstein, Ph.D. will provide a detailed explanation of what is meant when we talk about "Executive Function," along with practical recommendations for educators to implement immediately with their students. Teachers, school administrators, school learning specialists, school psychologists, and related service providers are all welcome to attend.

The event is totally free for educators (unfortunately, we won't have room for parents or other interested parties at this presentation, but we do have a few talks in the works for parents, so stay tuned to our blog for details). Registration is required and space is limited.

To register, send an email to info@yellincenter.com with "October 25" in the subject, and be sure to include your name, title, and school affiliation.

Still Blogging After All These Posts...

This entry marks our 400th post to The Yellin Center Blog. We thought it would be a good time to remind our readers how to search for specific information or topics of interest that have appeared in past postings. There are several different ways to do this.

First, you can use the "search this blog" feature on the right-hand side of the page and enter the subject you are seeking.

You can also search by the date on which a posting appeared; recent postings are listed on the right hand side of the page under the heading "Blog Archive" and older ones are available by clicking on a particular month or year.

Finally, towards the bottom of the page is a list of tags. Each time we post a blog entry, we label it with descriptive tags to help our readers find it when they are seeking information about a specific topic.

So why after all this time do we still continue to blog? Haven't we said all there is to say? Honestly, we haven't. New information, research, news, and legal issues come at us from all sorts of sources and we learn an enormous amount as we digest this information and pass it along to our readers. It really is our privilege to have you take a moment several times each week to see what we are up to and to know that you are reading what we have written. We look forward to continuing to do just that.

Life After High School in Newsday

A special section in yesterday's edition of Long Island, NY newspaper Newsday included an informative article about planning the transition to college for students with learning difficulties, with content informed by Susan Yellin's book (co-authored with Christina Bertsch) Life After High School: A Guide for Students with Disabilities and Their Families. Part two of this useful series is planned for next week.

Susan Yellin, Esq. provides advocacy and college transition planning services at The Yellin Center.

Special Events For Your 2012 Calendar

It’s time to start adding events to our 2012 calendars, and we have some programs that you might want to take note of for the new year.

For the NYC child who has everything -- and a love of adventure -- an amazing holiday gift could be an overnight visit to the Museum of Natural History. Reservations for these sleep-overs for 6 - 13 year olds are limited and sell out quickly. Check out the schedule, details, and available dates by calling 212-769-5200.

Resources for Children with Special Needs will be holding its annual Camp Fair on Saturday, January 28, 2012 from 11 AM to 3 PM at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, (entrance on Columbus Ave./W. 60th St.) in Manhattan. Admission is free and attendees get a copy of the extensive Camp Directory. The Fair will feature day camp programs in New York City and sleep-away camps throughout the NY, NJ, and CT area. Presenters include travel programs and remedial education programs for children with a broad range of learning and other issues.

Kids Night on Broadway takes place February 5th- 9th, 2012. This annual event offers free tickets to many Broadway and Off-Broadway shows for children from 6-18 when accompanied by a full-paying adult. The event also offers free dining for kids at participating restaurants and includes parallel events in other cities. Early curtain times make these evenings even more kid-friendly.

Subway Sleuths is a program for kids on the autism spectrum (primarily in grades 3-5, but they are flexible) that uses content about the New York City subway to practice and promote social engagement, collaboration, and problem solving. The ten session program begins in February, but there is a required 45-minute observation and orientation tomorrow, December 17th (and another one in January).

The Yellin Center will be presenting a number of special events throughout the year. For starters, Dr. Yellin will give a free presentation sponsored by CHADD of New York on January 9 in Manhattan. Stay tuned to our special events calendar for more information.

AAP Updates Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of ADHD

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released new guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). These are intended to update and integrate two separate sets of guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of attention difficulties which date to 2000 and 2001, respectively.

The new guidelines still rely upon the definition of ADHD that appears in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association. We have not been big fans of relying solely on this approach to diagnosis, which involves counting symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity and then looking to see if these symptoms have been present for a number of months in more than one setting (such as both in school and at home). While this approach can be very helpful, we don't think it goes far enough towards truly understanding how attention impacts behavior and learning.

We have always preferred to look at attention from a different, more functional perspective, which considers three primary areas -- mental energy controls, processing controls, and production controls. Within each functional area, we break down areas of strength and weakness, so that we consider a broad array of skills and competencies.

When we look at mental energy controls, we consider not just attentional consistency, but also alertness, mental work stamina, and sleep/arousal balance. We sometimes discuss these factors in terms of whether an individual has sufficient cognitive "fuel" to power their tasks.

When we look at the processing controls of attention, we examine such areas as saliency determination, processing depth, focus on detail, cognitive activation, focal maintenance, and satisfaction levels. These considerations can be viewed as the camera lens that a student will bring to his or her work. Does it focus at the right depth for the task at hand?

We examine production controls by reviewing an array of skills which include previewing, facilitation, pacing, self-monitoring, and inhibition. These are the "output" skills that impact academic performance and classroom behavior.

As a practical matter, we believe that looking at functions is a more helpful approach than just counting symptoms, and the new AAP guidelines do seem to move in that direction. For example, they urge that physicians look at other causes for the symptoms commonly attributed to ADHD, such as learning, emotional, and physical conditions. They also note that special consideration needs to be given to both young children and teens, and they expand the age range in which attention problems should be considered to ages 4-18 (from ages 6-11). The new guidelines also acknowledge advances in medication for attention problems and offer guidelines for physicians as to the best initial approaches for children of varying age groups.

Estimation Skills and Dyscalculia

Just about everyone is familiar with dyslexia, a learning disability that can make reading a difficult process because of an inherent difficulty in connecting sounds to symbols like letters. Fewer people, however, have heard of dyscalculia, a learning disability specific to mathematics. Like dyslexia, true dyscalculia affects only a small portion of the population (estimates range from 5-8%), yet it poses a tremendous difficulty to those affected by it.

Studies indicate that children who demonstrate difficulty differentiating between different sounds during their early years of life are at risk for dyslexia. Similarly, preschool-aged children who demonstrate difficulty with estimation tasks may be showing early signs of dyscalculia. Several recent studies have found that young children’s innate estimation capabilities are predictive of their later performance in math. Kennedy Krieger Institute research scientist Michele Mazzocco, Ph.D. says that children with dyscalculia lack “number sense,” an instinct for quantity that cannot be simply memorized.

Emerging research in this field was considered as we redesigned some of the assessment tools we use at The Yellin Center to evaluate children’s math capabilities. For students who demonstrate difficulty in math, we now administer a brief, proprietary dot estimation task in which children are given brief exposures to cards with varying numbers of dots, then directed to complete different estimation tasks. The results are often illuminating, and we appreciate the increased insight we can gain by better assessing our young students' estimation skills.

Image used under Creative Commons by Shawn Campbell