New research is offering stronger proof that a blood test may be able to accurately predict whether or not a child has autism.

A study published in the June edition of the journal Bioengineering & Translational Medicine is offering further evidence that an algorithm assessing metabolites in blood can distinguish kids with autism.

The method first showed promising results in a paper published last year. In that study of 83 children with autism and 76 neurotypical children, researchers said they were able to correctly determine in 97.6 percent of cases which blood samples came from those on the spectrum.

The latest study relied on a separate sample in an effort to validate the initial findings.

Researchers used a set of existing data from 154 children with autism that was collected for studies at the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute. The data set included information on 22 of the 24 metabolites that were involved in the original algorithm.

Ultimately, the approach was able to predict autism with 88 percent accuracy, the study found.

“This is extremely promising,” said Juergen Hahn of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. who led the research.

Currently, autism is diagnosed through clinical assessments. Though the developmental disorder can be flagged in children as young as age 2, government data indicates that most kids are not diagnosed until after age 4.

If researchers are able to identify a biomarker in blood or otherwise, the hope is that children could be identified at earlier ages when treatment is considered to be most effective.

definition of autism into its regular tracking of autism prevalence.

Continued

The Hamburg Center is entering the final stages of a closing after serving people with intellectual disabilities for 58 years, officials said Monday at a quarterly board of trustees meeting.

While the facility will not meet its projected June 30 closing, acting director Jerry Goessel estimated that five to seven clients would remain by July 11, 18 months after the state Department of Human Services announced its closing.

When originally announced, the department estimated closing would take from 18 to 24 months.

Goessel gave no final date for closing the 278-acre campus that contains 39 buildings, but indicated arrangements are underway to place the remaining clients in group homes or other state centers.

Currently, 24 of the initial 80 clients remain at the center. Efforts are underway to place those remaining 24, whose families have chosen community-based care.

Of the other 56 clients, 29 have been placed in group homes, nine went to the state's Selinsgrove Center, seven to the White Haven Center and two

hroughout 2017, the budgetary decisions made by the Montana Legislature left healthcare providers and their clients wondering what would happen next, and how they would get the services they need.

The population we’re talking about here is about 2,500 people over the age of 16, who are living with a developmental disability in Montana.

For about 25 years, four organizations had contracts to provide targeted case management to this population. This service allows them to have access to employment and live in their own home and maintain a good quality of life. The alternative for many of these people is an assisted living center or some other type of institution.

Then, the 2017 Legislature slashed more than

On June 12, Barbara Govoni and Patty Garrity took their case to Beacon Hill for passage of H. 4541, a bill that would ensure that developmentally disabled individuals get work opportunities in their community-based day programs.Also testifying at the June 12 public hearing of the Legislature’s Children, Families, and Persons with Disabilities Committee in support of the bill was Robin Frechette, a legislative aide to Representative Brian Ashe, who had filed the bill on Govoni’s behalf.

Time is running out in the current legislative session to pass this critically important bill. And many legislators appear to have misconceptions about the legislation.

Govoni, Garrity, and Frechette all pointed out that H. 4541 is needed to fill a gap in work activities for the developmentally disabled — a gap that opened up after all sheltered workshops were closed in Massachusetts in 2016. We too submitted testimony, and I spoke on behalf of COFAR to the four legislators present on the panel — Senator Joan Lovely, Senate co-chair of the committee; Representative Kay Khan, House co-chair; and Representatives Carolyn Dykema and Shaunna O’Connell.

“I would not be here had there been a realistic decision to incorporate a community-based support program (when the sheltered workshops were closed),” Govoni testified. That program, she said, should have included a work activity option at day program facilities across the state.

Frechette testified that not all developmentally disabled persons are able to work successfully in mainstream work environments. Garrity pointed

Future employment opportunities for persons with disabilities are being discussed at a series of meetings taking place throughout the state between now and the end of the year.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) of 1938 was the first mandate passed by the United States government to regulate the amount American workers were to be paid per hour for employment in the private and commercial sectors. At that time, the minimum wage was set at 25 cents an hour. Taking into account inflation and the value of the dollar, that equals roughly $4.10 per hour by 2018 standards.

In October 1938, after a long battle in the House and the Senate, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill into law. The law was the first effort by the government to regulate and police what American citizens earned as wages and also made illegal hiring practices of the past that exploited children.

In 1986, the FSLA was amended to include a mandatory lower rate for individuals whose handicaps prevented them from being able to compete with non-disabled workers. Essentially, it provided disabled workers a right to work and still earn an hourly wage, despite their challenges.

Developmental Services, Incorporated, is a Columbus based 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization that provides services for adults and children with mental, physical and emotional disabilities. Among the many services DSI offers

It’s 8:30 a.m., and the work day is well underway for the employees in the long, one-story building housing Lancaster’s Occupational Development Center.

Dozens of workers are doing a variety of jobs in several large rooms: putting together educational kits in plastic sleeves, sorting and packing screws, putting labels on envelopes and cleaning grease from industrial work-order folders.

Some of the employees sit by themselves, listening to music through headphones. Others work at group tables, occasionally chatting and laughing with co-workers as they concentrate on the tasks at hand.

Decades ago, these hard-working employees, who happen to have intellectual disabilities, might have been sitting at home, or in an institution, instead of working.

But because of the efforts of two visionary women in 1948, they’re earning a paycheck and expanding their skills.

The Occupational Development Center, 640 Martha Ave., is celebrating its 70th anniversary this fall, and also is shifting the approach to its mission of helping adults with intellectual disabilities train for and gain paid employment.

It’s easy to see why there’s a shortage of direct-support professionals. They’re paid so little they can do better financially working at a fast-food chain

Senate President Steve Sweeney is determined to find at least $20 million more to pay healthcare workers who provide critical daily assistance to disabled individuals in New Jersey as part of the ongoing budget negotiations between the state Legislature and the Murphy administration.

Sweeney (D-Gloucester) told NJ Spotlight that increasing the Medicaid reimbursement for these nonclinical direct-support professionals, or DSPs, is a priority for him and other lawmakers, given the important work they do in homes, schools, and workplaces for some of the state’s most vulnerable residents. Pay for these jobs starts at $10.50 an hour; New Jersey’s minimum wage is $8.60.

The Senate president led the fight during last year’s budget battle to include $20 million in the current state spending plan, which functioned as aone-time bonus. He said he would “fight to make sure” it is also included in the budget for the coming fiscal year, which must be adopted by the

The commercial lasts less than a minute. Time enough, Ben Young hopes, for viewers to see what he needs and to imagine what he can give.“Come change my life,” Young says in a computer-generated voice. “I promise it will change yours forever. Help me help myself.”

The pitch, from a bright and determined young man who can neither feed nor dress himself, or even speak clearly without aid of technology, is part of a statewide campaign to recruit the workers known as “direct support professionals.” The well-being of Young and tens of thousands of other Ohioans with developmental disabilities turns on the availability of competent and reliable support providers.

But the pool has gone frighteningly shallow.

Companies and nonprofit agencies that offer care and support to people with disabilities say they are struggling more than ever to attract workers, forcing some to terminate services and decline new clients. Parents go without sleep and take leave from their jobs to fill in. Adults and children with disabilities become frustrated, confused or upset at the churn of names and faces and routines.

“We have a workforce crisis on our hands that is of mammoth proportions,” said Mark Davis,

As a nonverbal student in Manatee County, 5-year-old Anabelle Hunting could only scream as another student pulled her hair and slapped her face during a bus ride on April 19.

Her mother, Lauren Lardieri, said officials at Robert H. Prine Elementary School failed to notify her of the incident until April 30, more than a week later. Her family paid the district about $60 for a redacted copy of video taken by a camera on the bus. Lardieri provided a copy of the video to the Bradenton Herald on Thursday.

"I just feel like I have to be the voice for my daughter because she can't express herself the way she wants to," Lardieri said.

She said her daughter has developmental delays, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, epilepsy and mixed receptive-expressive language disorder.

The bus attendant, 20-year-old D'Mari Martin, had no experience working on a bus. She started the job about two weeks before the district served her a letter of termination on April 20, a day after the incident. In an email on Thursday, district attorney Mitchell Teitelbaum acknowledged a delay in contacting the mother.

"Regrettably, there was late communication between the school and the parent of the student, based upon miscommunication and the belief that the parent had been informed of the incident," he said. "Once that miscommunication came to light, the parent was immediately notified."