September 11th - A Personal Story

Tomorrow is the ninth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, an event that has become associated with many things since that horrific day -- courage, loss, terror, war, and retribution -- just to name a few. Whatever your thoughts may be about the words and deeds that have followed in the years since the attack, we suspect you have no trouble remembering where you were when you first heard the terrible news. We were all touched by this event. But for those of us in New York, Washington and  Pennsylvania, and especially for those whose loved ones were lost  in the towers or on the ill-fated planes, there was, and still is, a particularly personal resonance to the events of that day.

Some of you may have seen a hard-hat sitting on a shelf in Dr. Yellin's office. On September 11, 2001 Dr. Yellin was the Chief Medical Officer of  NYU Downtown Hospital, located just 3 blocks from the World Trade Center. He was attending a meeting in mid-town Manhattan, about 3 miles north, when his Chief of Nursing called his cell phone to report a fire at the World Trade Center. He promptly left his meeting and took a subway train downtown to the hospital, knowing that the hospital emergency response team would be moving into action, but completely unaware of the scope of the disaster. He emerged from the subway into streets of chaos, and got inside the hospital building just as the first of the towers fell. It was pitch black in the daytime, with a thick cloud covering the glass walled lobby. The hospital staff was geared up to deal with injuries and survivors, but there were only a handful of survivors in those first, awful hours. As the scope of what had happened became clear, teams of doctors, nurses, and support personnel  went to the remains of the towers to see what they could do. Dr. Yellin joined them for a time and was handed a hard-hat by a Con Edison worker; debris was everywhere.

Time became irrelevant. The mission to save survivors became one, instead, of serving the recovery teams and the local residents, who had no electricity or other services in what was, for many months, a disaster zone. Three days later, when Dr. Yellin made it home by train in a pair of dusty scrubs, people kept shaking his hand and thanking him. He knew that there had been far too little for him and his team to do on that fateful day.

Whatever your experiences or thoughts about the events of September 11th, you may want to explore how we can all help our children to live in our complex era. A series of talks at the Resurrection Episcopal Day School in Manhattan, to be kicked off by Dr. Yellin in early October, and entitled, "Educating Our Children To Be Responsible and Respectful Global Citizens: Celebrating Diverse Learners, Educators, and Families" is aimed at helping parents help their children with these issues. We'll let you know when the final dates and speakers are set. We think it will provide some thoughtful insights into our complex world.

Photo: SMU University Libraries

 

On Science and Good Study Habits

Benedict Carey’s September 6 New York Times article, “Forget What You Know about Good Study Habits,” discusses one of our favorite topics – the practical application of the latest scientific findings about how the mind works to educational strategies. Carey examines recent research in the emerging field of Mind, Brain, and Education and highlights some important and useful conclusions. 

As we learn more about how we store and access information in our minds, we are identifying more and more effective strategies for learning and studying. Recently, a parent told us their son takes a “Drill and Kill” approach to studying. What he meant was that his son repeatedly re-read and re-wrote the same material over and over again. As the Times’ article points out, rather than relying on rote memory, learning is most effective when we use active study strategies, such as those identified in this article: studying in more than one place, studying a range of related material at once, spacing study sessions, and including self-testing as a study strategy. Rather than treating our minds like a suitcase, into which we stuff as much material as we can, we need to be strategic in how and what we store, so we can find it when we need it. 


(Photo by Sue Clark)

Do You Hear What I Hear?

A new study appearing in JAMA - The Journal of the American Medical Association confirms the importance of checking the hearing of all young people.

Josef Shargorodsky, MD, MPH and his colleagues at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston compared two sets of data on hearing loss from different periods of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, from the periods 1988-1994 and 2005-2006. Although much of the hearing loss they identified was mild, the level of increase was significant. In the earlier study some 14.9% of the target age group had some hearing loss. In the later study, this increased to 19.5%. Another finding of concern was that hearing loss was greater in young people whose families lived below the poverty level.  The authors concluded "The prevalence of hearing loss among a sample of U.S. adolescents aged 12 to 19 years was greater in 2005-2006 compared with 1988-1994. Further studies are needed to determine reasons for this increase and to identify potential modifiable risk factors to prevent the development of hearing loss." 


Screening for vision and hearing problems has always been a part of our comprehensive educational assessments here at the Yellin Center. Students need to be able to see and hear clearly to fully participate in the learning experience in their classrooms. When our screening suggests there may be a problem in either of these areas we suggest that the student be seen by an appropriate professional who can determine whether there is, indeed, a problem and offer appropriate remediation if necessary. 


So what can parents do? There is a good discussion of how to prevent hearing loss in children Noise-Induced Hearing Loss in Children: What Educators Need to Know on the commercial site www.speechandlanguage.com. You may find the link in the article to http://www.noisyplanet.nidcd.nih.gov/ particularly helpful.

A Rave Review for a New Book

Life After High School: A Guide for Students with Disabilities and Their Families has been "highly recommended" by Library Journal, “the oldest and most respected publication covering the library field."

The enthusiastic review of this new book from our own Susan Yellin, Esq., Director of Advocacy and Transition Services here at the Yellin Center, and Christina Cacioppo Bertsch, former head of Disability Services at Fordham University, speaks for itself:

Yellin, Susan & Christina Cacioppo Bertsch. Life After High School: A Guide for Students with Disabilities and Their Families. Jessica Kingsley. Sept. 2010. C.272p. index. ISBN 9781849058285. pap. $19.95. ED


There are myriad accommodations that colleges and, to a lesser extent, work sites are required to make for people with disabilities, yet navigating the process can be daunting. Here, Yellin, attorney and founder of the nonprofit Center for Learning Differences, and Bertsch (former director, disability svcs., Fordham Univ.) provide students with disabilities and their parents an outstanding and highly readable guide to preparing for and transitioning to life after high school. They start by examining the legal landscape and cover defining a disability and creating a paper trail to document the disability and previous accommodations. They move on to college-entrance exams, how to select a college, and the admissions process, and then discuss the transition to full-time work. There is also a chapter devoted to dealing with medical issues without mom. The book ends with a useful list of resources, organized by topic, for further information. VERDICT An excellent resource for students with disabilities and their families; at this price, within reach for most people and libraries. Highly recommended.—Mark Bay, Univ. of the Cumberlands Lib., Williamsburg, KY

Library Journal, "considered to be the 'bible' of the library world," is in its 133rd year of publication and is presently published in both print and online versions. The review of this newly published book will appear in both versions and be available to "over 100,000 library directors, administrators, and staff in public, academic, and special libraries" reached by Library Journal.

Cornerstone Literacy

Cornerstone Literacy is an exciting national initiative that works in partnership with school districts to provide "a combination of research-based practices, direct in-school supports and intensive year-round training."  They are currently working in 50 schools, 25 in Muscogee County, Georgia and 25 in Springfield, Massachusetts. 

Originally a program of the New York Institute for Special Education, whose Board of Directors includes Dr. Paul Yellin, Cornerstone is in the process of becoming an independent non-profit under the dynamic direction of its President, Victor Young. Its staff includes former teachers and principals, all of whom are grounded in the Cornerstone Literacy model, which works with six "cueing systems" or "avenues" to access texts. Some members of the Yellin Center team got to meet these dedicated professionals when Dr. Yellin was invited to speak at a Cornerstone Literacy retreat in July of this year.

What has us particularly excited about Cornerstone's important work is that for the next year it will be headquartered right here -- Cornerstone Literacy has become our new neighbor! While the organization finishes the process of "spinning off" from the New York Institute and seeks a permanent home here in Manhattan (it was formerly headquartered in Philadelphia, although its teams do much of their work on-site in the schools it serves), Cornerstone is utilizing temporary space in our building. 

We welcome our new neighbors, with whom we hope to find opportunities to collaborate, and are delighted that they have found a temporary home while they settle down here in New York City! 

Walking to School

Researchers at the State University of Buffalo in New York have released the results of a study confirming what parents have always suspected -- that walking to school is good for kids. James Roemmich, MD, PhD and his research team looked at 40 children in good health who were not presently walking to school on a regular basis. They had half of their subjects walk on a treadmill for just under a mile, carrying a backpack that was about 10% of their body weight. The other subjects sat in a chair. Both groups looked at screens that showed a pleasant view of sites one would see while walking to school.

As reported in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the short term results were clear; cardiac stress was less in those students who walked, as compared to those who sat, measured by blood pressure, perceived stress, and heart and pulse reactivity.

What is less certain is how long the stress reduction will last during the school day and what the long term effects into adulthood will be for students who regularly walk to school. But in the meantime, while researchers follow up on these preliminary results, parents might do well to forgo the car pool where walking to school is practical. And, as with many things, you can always tell your child, "It's for your own good..."

Photo credit: flickr.com

Experiential Learning

A walk along Boston's Freedom Trail recently reminded us of the importance of learning by experience. This is something that can benefit young people -- and their parents -- in a number of ways. Walking through Independence Hall in Philadelphia on a hot summer's day can help a history student imagine what the Founding Fathers must have felt like when the heat of their debates was matched by the heat of their meeting place.

Have you ever visited a science museum where they helped children extract their own DNA from a cheek swab, using a test tube and chemicals? As the DNA comes together to form a distinctive form within the tube, the concept of this individual building block becomes very real. Looking inside an early space capsule at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. gives a real sense of how the first astronauts must have felt in their tiny home in space.

But it's not just museums and historical sites that allow young people to enjoy experiential learning. Travel to any new place -- or a deeper exploration of a familiar location -- can bring ideas to life. Even a trip to a supermarket, equipped with a list and a budget, can give children experiences in fields ranging from mathematics to nutrition to reading.

Some schools have already opened for the year. Others will open in the next several weeks. But as we leave behind the slower pace of summer, perhaps your family can still find the time for short trips, or more local experiences, that can bring learning to life in very practical ways. And, if you are on the Freedom Trial, do try the pastries at Mike's in Boston's North End!