Pro Parents Calendar of May Workshops

5/06/2008
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
PRO-Parents Overview
Sponsored by: The Epilepsy Foundation
Greenville Memorial Hospital
Conference Center, Room 5
701 Grove Road
Greenville, SC

5/08/2008 10:00 am
Transitioning Into Special Education Workshop
Transitioning In Workshop
Williamsburg DDSN
61 Greenlee Street
Kingstree, SC 29556

5/08/2008 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Individualized Education Program (IEP) Workshop
Sponsored by: Dorchester County DSS
Knightsville United Methodist Church
Summerville, SC

5/09/2008 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Individualized Education Program (IEP) Workshop
C.R. Neal Dream Center
2430 Atlas Road
Columbia, SC

5/12/2008 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Transitioning Out of Special Education Workshop
Bluffton High School
12 North East McCracklin Circle
Bluffton, SC

5/13/2008 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Transitioning Out of Special Education Workshop
Special Service Building
305 Burroughs Avenue
Beaufort, SC

5/13/2008 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Communication Workshop
Hope Center
901 North Main Street
Sumter, SC

5/13/2008 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Is Your Child A Target of Bullying? Workshop
Union County YMCA
106 Lakeside Drive
Union, SC 29379

5/15/2008 6:00 pm
Individualized Education Program (IEP) and Section 504 Overview Workshop
Tabernacle Baptist Church
(Fellowship Hall) 3076 Dexter Street
Blackville, SC 29817

5/19/2008 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Communication Workshop
Marlboro Foster Parent Association
DSS Office
713 South Parsonage Road
Bennettsville, SC 29512

5/20/2008 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
ADD / ADHD Workshop
Darlington County Foster Parent Association
Wesley United Methodist Church
Hartsville, SC

5/22/2008 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Communication Workshop
3 South Church Street
Clarendon County DSS
Manning, SC

5/27/2008 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Transitioning Out of Special Education Workshop
Growing Homes
Aston Mfg
1310 North Jefferies Blvd.
Walterboro, SC 29488

5/27/2008 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Transitioning Into Special Education Workshop
Sponsored by: Marion School District 2
Palmetto Education Center
(Parenting Center)
200 Broad Street
Mullins, SC 29574

5/28/2008 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Transitioning Out of Special Education Workshop
Growing Homes
6650 Rivers Avenue
North Charleston, SC

5/29/2008 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Transitioning Out of Special Education Workshop
Growing Homes
Teen Center
Boys & Girls Club
1211 Harrington Street
Beaufort, SC 29902

For more information and to register, please click the title above.

SCATP Seeking Web Testers

The SC Assistive Technology Advisory Committee of the Office of the Chief Information Officer of the SC Budget and Control Board, is beginning a pilot program to train people who use assistive technology to evaluate state agency web pages for accessibility and usability.

We're looking for people who are proficient in using assistive technology to access the Internet. We need people who have the ability to learn the basics of accessibility and usability (with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act as a guide), and apply these principles to evaluate web pages using a testing matrix or evaluation tool that we'll develop specifically for this program.

If you or someone you know is interested in learning about this program, contact Janet Jendron at the South Carolina Assistive Technology Program at jjendron@usit.net.

Reflection Obscured: A Portrait of Autism

Tonight at the Crayton Lecture Hall, Reflection Obscured: A Portrait of Autism will be the opening act for the play Lion and Mouse Tales.

Written by Christopher Cook, instructor of theatre at Crayton Middle School and a father of a child recently diagnosed with autism, Reflection Obscured is a 10 minute one-act play about a little girl with autism and how autism affects the entire family unit.

It was entered in the Ensemble Category at the South Carolina Speech and Theatre Association's annual festival. Out of 8 entries, it won 2nd Place!

The play will be presented at 6:30 at Crayton Lecture Hall.

For more information, please click the title above.

Strides for Autism!

Midland residents will walk in support of families affected by autism and the South Carolina Autism Society (SCAS) on Saturday morning, May 10th in Columbia.

Strides for Autism is SCAS's signature fund raising and awareness event. The non-profit agency is launching its campaign in a walk in Columbia on May 10th and just finished a successful walk in Greenville on April 12th at Greenville Tech.

The Columbia walk is scheduled for Finlay Park in downtown Columbia with registration starting at 8 a.m. and the walk starting at 9 a.m.

Registration and other information, along with information about autism and SCAS, is available on the agency's Web site, www.scautism.org, and the walk Web site, www.stridesforautism.org, or by calling the Columbia SCAS office at 1-800-438-4790 or (803) 750-6988.

For more information, please click the title above.

What's going on this week at Family Connection!

Monday, April 21 6pm
Autism Connection Family Potluck!

It's Autism Awareness Month!
Bring a warm or cool dinner dish to share and join us at the Family Connection Office in Columbia and let's celebrate our blessings and joys of knowing one another!
Drinks and paper products will be supplied!
No dishes with PEANUTS, please!
2712 Middleburg Drive 103-B
Contact Susan Haney for childcare at 252-0914

Wednesday, April 23 9 am
Mom's Morning Coffee
Lizard's Thicket
10170 Two Notch Road
Columbia

Thursday, April 24 6pm
Single Parent Connection
Contact Susan Haney at 252-0914 for childcare!
Come learn money saving tips and feel free to share your own tips.

Friday, April 25 8pm
BandKamp (an 80's / 90's rock band that is compiled of doctors) is playing at Delaney's in Five Points
***NOTE: This is NOT a Family Connection sponsored event but one of the band members, Dr Chris Hutchinson, is a father of 2 children with Autism and the band whole-heartedly supports Family Connection and it's efforts! Parents and Friends, come out and play, dance, and socialize!

Saturday, April 26 6 pm
Scrapbooking
"Pages from the Heart" The Scrapbooking Store
3250 Forest Drive
$2 per person. Bring your own supplies or buy them there!

Sunday, April 27 6pm
Family Connection Annual Benefit Auction at The Millstone at Adam's Pond
***Honorary Hosts: The Ryan's Law Grassroot Gang
Call Debby Jernigan for more information at 803-252-0914

Monday, April 28 6 pm
Up on Downs: Down Syndrome Support Group
Come learn about Music Makers of the Midlands

U.S. Teams Aim to Grow Ears, Skin for War Wounded

"By Kristin Roberts - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Teams of university scientists backed by U.S. government funds hope to grow new skin, ears, muscles and other body tissue for troops injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Defense Department said on Thursday. The $250 million effort aims to address the Pentagon's unprecedented challenge of caring for troops returning from the war zones with multiple traumatic injuries, many of which would have been fatal years ago."

To view this entire article, please click the title above.

Stem Cells From Skin Treat Brain Disease in Rats

"By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Skin cells reprogrammed to act like embryonic stem cells eased symptoms of Parkinson's disease in rats, researchers reported on Monday in a first step toward tailored treatments for people that bypass concerns about using human embryos.

The experiment suggests it may be possible to take a small sample of skin and turn it into a transplant perfectly matched to patients with Parkinson's and other diseases, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

To view this entire article, please click the title above.

Knockout Head Injuries Found to Cause Loss of Brain Tissue

"By Julie Steenhuysen - CHICAGO (Reuters) - A blow to the head that knocks a person unconscious can result in widespread loss of brain tissue, Canadian researchers said on Monday, explaining why some people who suffer head injuries are never quite the same. The more severe the injury, the more brain tissue is lost, they said."

To view this entire article, please click the title above.

Brain Fitness Seen as Hot Industry of the Future

"By Toni Clarke-BOSTON (Reuters Life!) - When her son Alex was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder at the age of 10, Karen George was reluctant to put him on medication. Instead, she enrolled him in a clinical trial designed to test the efficacy of a brain stimulation program made by Cogmed, a private company that uses computer programs to exercise parts of the brain responsible for short-term memory.

The five-week program required Alex to spend up to an hour a day on a computer, pitting his wits against a robot. Among other exercises, the robot blinked out sequences of flashing lights that Alex was required to replicate."

To view this entire article, please click the title above.

Brain Study May Lead to Improved Epilepsy Treatments

ScienceDaily (Apr. 16, 2008) — Using a rodent model of epilepsy, researchers found one of the body's own neurotransmitters released during seizures, glutamate, turns on a signaling pathway in the brain that increases production of a protein that could reduce medication entry into the brain. Researchers say this may explain why approximately 30 percent of patients with epilepsy do not respond to antiepileptic medications.

The study was conducted by researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy and Medical School, in collaboration with Heidrun Potschka's laboratory at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany.

"Our work identifies the mechanism by which seizures increase production of a drug transport protein in the blood brain barrier, known as P-glycoprotein, and suggests new therapeutic targets that could reduce resistance," said David Miller, Ph.D., a principal investigator in the NIEHS Laboratory of Pharmacology and co-author on the paper.

To view this entire article, please click the title above.

Boom in camps for chronically ill kids

WASHINGTON - Summer camps just for kids with chronic diseases are booming — places to learn about epilepsy or finally meet someone else with Tourette's tics or slice open a cow's heart to see what's wrong with their own.

Now fledgling research suggests such special camps may offer more than a rite of passage these children otherwise would miss: They just might have a lasting therapeutic value.

It's work that helps explain why children's hospitals increasingly are sponsoring disease-specific summer camps. One in the nation's capital actually integrated the camps into the neurology department.

"How do you live well with a chronic condition? I believe in part, the power of being amongst your peers normalizes the experience," explains Sandra Cushner-Weinstein, a social worker at Children's National Medical Center who founded the hospital's weeklong camps for five illnesses, and is studying the impact on campers

To view this entire article, please click the title above.

Family Fest 2008!

When: Saturday, May 3
Time: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Where: Graham’s Turnout, Denmark, S.C.

Family Fest is an outdoor experience for youth and adults with disabilities.

Activities include: fishing, archery, target shooting (BB guns only), hunting and fishing simulators, arts and crafts, and entertainment. Adaptive equipment so you can participate regardless of a disability.

Lunch with be served from 12:00 to 2:00 pm. Hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, ice cream, cookies, and a variety of drinks will be served!

The entire event is free of charge, but registration is required.

To register, please call (803) 584-4225 or visit www.owlfamilyfest.net for more information.

For more information, please click the title above.

EdVenture Parenting Class

EdVenture will hold a Parenting 101 class on Thursday, April 24th at 7:00pm at EdVenture in their theater.

It starts with an energizer warm up by Taquina Billups from the YMCA in uptown Columbia. She will show ways to incorporate physical activity while doing activities of daily living and makes it fun for parents and children.

Then at 7:30 Dr. Jennifer Baker, a pharmacist from the SC Pharmacy Association, will talk about our children’s medications, prescription and over the counter. It will be over by 8:30 and there will be a time for questions too. There is no charge, but we do not have child care. Children are welcome to attend with their parents, but the museum will not be opened and the program is designed for parents.

For more information, please click the title above.