Downsyndrome.com

SYDNEY (AFP) — Pregnant women will be able to insure their unborn babies against birth defects and death under a new policy, a report said Sunday.

The insurance company ING has devised a baby policy for women aged 16 to 40 which will deliver payouts of up to 50,000 dollars (46,640 US) for babies born with Down’s syndrome, spina bifida or a cleft palate, the Sun-Herald said.

A stillborn baby could get a 10,000-dollar payout while women who suffered complications during pregnancy or birth could also be awarded a pay-out, it said.

ING spokesman Mark Vilo said the new policy allowed the company to match up with “social trends and advances in medical technology,” the paper said.

“Every woman in the process of having a child knows the risks,” he said.

“We don’t make people undergo genetic testing to find out things they …

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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Master of Ceremonies Bryan Cranston ("Malcolm in the Middle" & "Breaking Bad") will present honors for community service and volunteerism at the 2008 Spring Luncheon of the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles and the National Down Syndrome Society.

Where:    <
The Beverly Hills Hotel, 9641 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA
When:     <
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 11:00 AM Reception, 12:30 Lunch
Tickets:  <
$150 each
What:     <
Lunch, Awards, Silent Auction
Who:      <
Bryan Cranston, Nancy O'Dell, John C. McGinley

Honorees:

The Vision Award honors individuals or programs for supporting individuals with Down syndrome helping them to share their voices with the community. This year’s honorees will include Nancy O’Dell ("Access Hollywood") for her support of the Best Buddies organization, John C. McGinley ("Scrubs") for his continued support of individuals with Down syndrome through their annual Buddy Walks, and the ARC and Adults English Hand Bell and Chime Choirs for their community service.

Additional Vision Awards will be presented to the fourteen past presidents of the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles’ Board of Directors; representing over 30 years of public service.

Sandra Thlick, Deborah Bogen, Marlyse de Laat, Nancy Hall, Michele Shaw, Susan Rackerby and Theodore Feit, M.D., Kathryn Heukrodt, Joseph Hart, Sandra Finch, Stephanny Freeman, Ph.D. and Michael Muchin, Darryl Mikuni and Tom Von Der Ahe, Jr.

The Voices Awards honor individuals with Down syndrome who have shared their voice with the community through personal accomplishments. In 2008 the awards are being given to individuals who have contributed through public service and volunteerism. The DSALA will be awarding 6 Voices Awards.

Jasmine Banayan of Encino Hills

Peter Blumenthal of Santa Monica

Richard "Danny" De La Rosa of La Verne

David Feit of Simi Valley

Nicholas Heukrodt of Calabasas

Susie Schallert of North Hollywood

Over the past 30 years the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles has provided services to over 2,000 families in Greater Los Angeles from all walks of life, that include individuals with Down syndrome.

315 Arden Ave. Suite 25

Glendale, CA 91203

www.dsala.org

COPYRIGHT 2008 Business Wire
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

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I have to admit that we were a little suspicious at first. Parker, our seven-year-old daughter, rushed back home announcing she had got the lead role in the school play. We were suspicious because, three years ago, she told us she was playing Mary in the Nativity play. We’d got very excited until we found out she was actually playing a shepherd but had simply refused to accept the fact. I put it down to her having my “performing” streak in the blood.

The thing is, even if she’s awful, we’ll tell her how wonderful she is - that’s part of being a parent. My mum is not quite so tactful. I’m wavering over whether to invite her to the performance, as she seems to have developed a bit of a “truth drug” syndrome as she gets older. I wouldn’t put it past her to say something like: “It was quite amateurish and she was totally off-key … but I enjoyed it … sort of.” If she does come, she’ll be under strict instructions to behave.

I’m not so lucky. My new show goes out tomorrow night and I have to brave the wrath of the TV critics. I’d forgotten how nerve- racking that is. It’s not that you ever agree with them … unless they love you. It’s just that you’ve put your heart into something for up to a year and then some armchair cowboy makes a sweeping comment about it and you feel like giving up. I always try to remember Kenneth Tynan’s bon mot: “A critic is a man who knows the way but can’t drive.” I actually re-phrase it, sometimes: “A critic is a man who THINKS he knows the way but can’t drive.”

I’ve only read one review so far - in ‘Time Out’, always a big mistake. It said that “if you’re a fan of Joly’s puerile humour, then this one’s for you”. I was actually rather thrilled with that, as ‘Time Out’ is an organ of intense self-reverence and not really my bag.

I was trying to imagine what would happen if they came and reviewed Parker’s play. “The performers seemed to lack any semblance of adult awareness and at times appeared awkward and unfocused. The whole piece resembled nothing so much as an amateur school production and was intensely childish.” We’d hide the piece from Parker and lavish her with praise until she happened to pick up the phone and have it read to her by my mother.

That’s the problem with bad press - someone always tells you about it. Nobody ever rings to tell you about a good piece, but the bad always filters through. I remember Jonathan Ross telling me years ago that the best thing to do was never to read any reviews. I pooh-poohed him at the time (mostly because I was getting rave reviews for ‘Trigger Happy’) and told him that that was how you ended up living in a sycophantic bubble, unaware of what the real world thinks of your work. I’ll bet he wishes that he listened to me now with his paltry 18m BBC contract …

The secret, of course, is to have total control over your project. If the show you put out is exactly what you wanted to make, then you can take any criticism square on, as you’ve done your best. The most difficult thing to take is someone blaming failings in your show when they are criticisms that you totally agree with but are way beyond your control. Comedy should never be made by committee.

For now, Parker is basking in the limelight and I’m so proud of her and know she’ll do a brilliant job. But when it comes to career paths, I might suggest that she become a critic. The job seems a lot easier.

Dom Joly’s new show, ‘The Complainers’, goes out tomorrow at 10pm on Five

Copyright c 2008 Independent Newspapers UK Limited. All rights
owned or operated by The Independent.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

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Golf (1:30 p.m., Ch. 2): Third round of The Masters.

48 Hours Special: The Lord’s Boot Camp (7 p.m., Ch. 2): Teenagers train to be Christian missionaries.

D-league basketball (7 p.m., Ch. 14): Los Angeles D-Fenders at Utah Flash

College volleyball (7 p.m., Ch. 11): Southern Cal at BYU

NBA (7 p.m., FSN): Nuggets at Jazz

Memory Keeper’s Daughter (7 p.m., Lifetime): In 1964, a young husband (Dermot Mulroney) delivers his wife’s (Gretchen Mol) babies - - but decides to give away the daughter, who has Down syndrome. That decision has massive repercussions in the ensuing decades as this better-than-average TV movie unfolds. (Repeats Sunday and Monday)

Saturday Night Live (10:30 p.m., Ch. 30): Ashton Kutcher hosts.

Copyright C 2008 Deseret News Publishing Co.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

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Down Syndrome Education International has now made 80 more reader-friendly articles on Down syndrome freely available for online as part of its new Free Access publishing initiative. Reader-friendly articles written…

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Jump the shark? No way.
“
American Idol
”
is still the No. 1 show on TV. CW handicaps the race.

David Archuleta DOWN - Cute kid, but who’s picking his songs? Probably not next “Idol.” Could be next Sanjaya.

Michael Johns SIDEWAYS - Aussie hits high note with “We Are the Champions.” But hasn’t lived up to his hype.

Brooke White UP - Wholesome singer is …

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Aberdeen Asset Management’s Peter Hames talks to Jim Robinson about taking a common sense, team approach. Jim Robinson

The extensive team behind the GBP153.9m Aberdeen Asia Pacific and Japan fund pride themselves on a collegiate, commonsense approach to investment. As such, there is no single manager of the fund.

The bulk of the team is based in Singapore, with Peter Hames heading up the day-to-day running of Aberdeen Asset Management’s various Asian funds and Hugh Young acting as managing director.

But there are more than a dozen other analysts and managers based in …

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

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When the Nultons’ fifth child, Charley, born with Down syndrome, was six months old, they feared he would not be able to go to school with his siblings because their parochial school lacked special education resources.

Maura and Carnie Nulton set about to change that reality. They and other parents of children with special needs started getting together on a regular basis to "brainstorm" about what they could do. They realized that the basic necessity was money, Maura Nulton told NCR.

Now, some 11 years later, the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese has an active Foundation for Inclusive Religious Education (F.I.R.E.) that provides grants to seven parochial grade schools and one high school serving children with special needs. Three of the first group of children to be served have gone from kindergarten through eighth grade with their peers and are more than halfway through their first year at Archbishop O’Hara High School, one of four diocesan high schools (along with four private Catholic high schools) in the diocese.

While money was the fuel, the parents provided the engine in researching and promoting the program and creating the fundraising structure. Nulton was quick to point out the key roles also played by parish priests and educators, including Benedictine Sr. Anne Shepard, then-superintendent of schools for the diocese, and the support of Bishop Raymond J. Boland, now retired, and his successor, Bishop Robert Finn.

Inquiries about the program, said Mary Beth Compton, recently appointed executive director of the foundation, have come from the archdioceses of Newark, N.J.; Omaha, Neb.; Minneapolis-St. Paul; and Galveston-Houston, as well as from the dioceses of Buffalo, N.Y., and Tulsa, Okla. Tulsa has launched a program called Religious Inclusive Student Education (R.I.S.E.), based on the Kansas City-St. Joseph model, and has its first special-needs students attending Marquette Catholic School operated by Christ the King Parish.

When F.I.R.E. first started, Compton said, "six families were doing it all." The program started in two contiguous large parishes–the Nultons’ home parish of St. Peter and in Visitation Parish. The motivating goal of the program was to enable special-needs children to attend Catholic schools rather than a public school, said Sister of St. Joseph Patricia Clune, associate school superintendent, but the unexpected gains have been transformational.

"All the kids have benefited," said Clune, who until March was interim diocesan superintendent of schools. "It has created a richer environment in our schools. Having children with special needs in our schools has been an education in itself."

Schools in the diocese have long had the rule of "No putdowns." But the presence of children with special needs brought that lesson home in a way that no amount of teaching or correction could do. Students have become aware that they are role models for their special-needs peers, who tend to imitate their behavior.

Said one sixth-grader at Nativity of Mary Parish School, "It makes you think before you say anything."

"They’re fun to hang out with," said another.

"You learn not to judge a book by its cover," said a third.

Liz Baker, principal at the school, said that a sixth-grader who had had some discipline problems became friendly with Brett Hughes, one of two special-needs students there thanks to the F.I.R.E. program.

"This year," Baker said, "he is taking responsibility for both Brett and himself." Brett and Nathan Hoppman, an autistic child who specializes in drawing heavily populated depictions of animals surrounding Noah’s Ark, say the Pledge of Allegiance together every morning over the school’s intercom.

Nativity’s program and the program at Archbishop O’Hara High School are new this school year.

"It’s been good for our faculty and the student body," Baker said. "When you welcome special-needs children they give you more than you give them. We are Catholic, and we are supposed to welcome everyone. That’s what our church teaches us."

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Teachers there and in the other schools in the program have signed up for training in dealing with special-needs students, which helps them in their overall proficiency in modifying the curriculum and accommodating students’ individual needs, said Baker.

Her school was not expecting Nathan, whose family moved to Kansas City from Iowa as school was starting.

"They cane and asked me if we would take him in. Our teachers were willing to try it. They are learning about autism and how to teach Nathan. Also, we were fortunate to find the right person to be his paraprofessional."

Each special-needs child in all of the elementary schools in the program has a paraprofessional, partially funded by F.I.R.E. The paraeducators work under the supervision of an accredited special needs teacher.

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Antioxidant or folate supplementation does not improve the development of infants with Down syndrome, according to a UK study.

Down syndrome is the most common genetic cause of learning disability in the UK, affecting around one in 1000 babies. Previous studies have investigated the possibility that giving folate, antioxidants or both might improve the effects of the syndrome–particularly with regard to language and psychomotor development.

Researchers from the Institute of Child Health and others randomised 156 babies under seven months-old with Down syndrome over an 18-month period with daily supplementation of antioxidants (selenium, zinc and vitamins A, C and E), folate, both or placebo.

After 18 months, neither antioxidants nor folate showed significant effects on any of the outcomes measured, including psychomotor and language development. This study provides no evidence to support the use of antioxidant or folinic acid supplements in children with Down syndrome, conclude the authors. They add that parents who choose to give supplements to their children need to weigh their hope of unproved benefits against potential adverse effects from high-dose and prolonged supplementation.

Ellis JM, Tan HK, Gilbert RE, Muller DP, Henley W, Moy R, Pumphrey R, Ani C, Davies S, Edwards V, Green H, Salt A, Logan S. Supplementation with antioxidants and folinic acid for children with Down’s syndrome: randomised controlled trial. British Medical Journal 2008; doi:10.1136/bmj.39465.544028.AE (21 February 2008).

COPYRIGHT 2008 Ten Alps Publishing
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

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Anew surgical approach enables men with Klinefelter syndrome to father healthy children approximately 40% of the time, according to a December 19, 2007, news release from New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York. Approximately one in every 500 to 650 baby boys is born with an extra X chromosome–a condition whose classic symptoms are known as Klinefelter syndrome. As recently as 10 years ago, this variation in genetic code was thought to result in infertility in all cases. The new surgical approach combines testicular sperm extraction and in vitro fertilization.

Unlike other genetic syndromes, such as Down’s syndrome or fragile X syndrome, comparatively little is known about X and Y chromosome variations. Additional research is being conducted to examine the mechanism by which an additional X chromosome affects sperm production and testosterone synthesis. A solid understanding of the underlying pathophysiology could result in improved treatment and management recommendations for patients of all ages.

Physician-scientists seek solutions to reproductive problems related to chromosomal variations [news release]. New York, NY: New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center; December 29, 2007.

COPYRIGHT 2008 Association of Operating Room Nurses, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

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