Rise in Diagnosed Developmental Delays Shows Need for More Support

Research released last week that showed 1 in 6 children are now diagnosed with developmental delays continues to raise questions about what this increase means for schools and families.

The spike in diagnoses will place more demands on schools, University of Washington?s chairman of special education Ilene Schwartz points out. Schools will be asked to do more with less, she adds, since education funding is being cut.

Professor Schwartz raises a series of other important questions about what the findings in last week?s Pediatrics article mean in the real world.

?I also find it alarming because schools continue to be the primary service provider to many children with disabilities and as a society we really need to step up (and) help these children and families in schools, homes and in the community.?Without appropriate services that can wrap around the child and family, many families will continue to struggle,? Schwartz, who also is director of the UW?s Haring Center for Applied Research and Training in Education, wrote in an email. ?But, what I found most alarming and disturbing about this article is that is points out the glaring disparities that exist in identification and classification based on class and ethnicity.?

One other quick follow up. The Pediatrics article (the abstract?available here) says the 17 percent increase in diagnosed developmental delays was caused largely by increases in reported cases of autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Debate Over When to Start Kindergarten Fundamentally Flawed: The media has been full of stories lately about when children should start kindergarten, such as The New York Times story ?Too Young for Kindergarten? Tide Turning Against 4-Year-Olds.?

But, early education researcher Ellen Galinsky writes the argument is based on the wrong ideas, including that all children that are the same age are in fact the same and that one curriculum can fit all?K students.

So maybe it is the adults who really need help with learning. This includes policy makers who frame the debate as if the issue of cutoff dates for kindergarten is going to solve the problem of the achievement gap. And this includes educators who teach as if children were (or at least should be) all the same. ?The Kindergarten Cutoff Debate -- Maybe It's Adults Who Need Help with Learning.? Huffington Post. 5/31/11

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Source: http://birthtothrive.thrivebyfivewa.org/post/2011/06/01/Rise-in-Diagnosed-Developmental-Delays-Shows-Need-for-More-Support.aspx

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