Parents often bring children into my office when they are already failing several subjects in school. These students are dejected, frustrated, and often depressed. They believe that because of their past performance, they will never succeed in school. It is not strange that constant effort and subsequent failure have taught them to believe that failure is the only option.

Recent advances in the way that educators assess learning disabilities can prevent this pervading sense of futility many children who struggle with school feel. This new initiative, called “Response to Intervention” (RTI) is helping educators recognize learning disabilities before the children have a chance to struggle.

Professor Lynn Fuchs, a special education professor at Vanderbilt University, explains that that the traditional way to find out which children need help is to test those who are failing. She continues, “But research shows that failure can lead to depression, and that can make improvement in school very difficult.” To combat this problem, some educators and schools are implementing RTI which helps parents and teachers identify problems much earlier.

Perhaps the most important element of RTI is universal screening, which means everyone gets tested regardless of their scores or perceived aptitude. This allows educators to catch potential struggles without forcing the child to fail first.

Response To Intervention

Screen: the first step in RTI is the screening process. In other words, RTI involves administering a series of short, comprehensive tests that have no bearing on the standard curriculum. Rather, these tests are used to determine whether a child might have difficulty responding to the core curriculum as traditionally delivered in the regular classroom. These tests determine children who are academically “at risk” or who might have undiagnosed learning disabilities. The downside of these tests is that they may produce many false positives for “at risk” children.

Teach. The next step is ensuring that the regular classroom teaching is research-based and field-tested. Trained and qualified teachers should administer this curriculum.

Intervene. In addition to the regular curriculum, children who are determined to be “at risk” during the screening process should be provided enhanced opportunities to learn, including, additional time with the core curriculum, small group lessons, and other supplementary instruction.

Probe. Given that children who are identified as at-risk are provided with extra instruction, their progress in essential skills must be monitored to ensure that this instruction is sufficient and effective. Short, frequent assessments that test specific skills help teachers understand the usefulness (or lack thereof) of the instruction provided.

Chart. Based on the probes above, a specialist should create a chart that provides a visual record of the rate of gain in specific skill areas that lead to a specified goal. Because the goal of intervention is to help the child improve his skills, this chart helps indicate whether the intervention is working.

Adjust. After several sessions and charts, the educator should evaluate in what ways the intervention is successful and in what ways the intervention is failing. Adjustments should be made in both directions, pumping up the successful methods and skills and reworking the unsuccessful ones.

Potential Learning Disabilities Aided Through RTI

Visual Processing Disorder: A visual processing (or perceptual) disorder refers to an inability to make sense of information absorbed through the eyes. This does not mean that the child has trouble with sight and needs glasses; rather it involves difficulty processing the visual information in the brain. Reading and math are two areas that can be severely affected by visual processing disorder because these subjects rely heavily on symbols (letter, numbers, signs). Some indications of visual processing disorders are:

Spatial Relation: Spatial relation involves distinguishing the positions of objects in space. For reading, confusion of similarly shaped letters such as “b” and “d“ or “p” and “q” can be attributed to a problem with spatial relation. In addition, for many math problems, the only cues are the spacing and order between the symbols. For instance, for the problem “13 + 6,” the child must be able to recognize that 13 is one number rather than two distinct numbers (1 and 3) and recognize that the “+” is between the 13 and the 6. While this is automatic for many people, these activities presuppose an ability and understanding of spatial relationships.

A spokesman for German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said his office is working on an outline for new legislation that will permit circumcision of minor males after a controversial court decision in the summer that criminalized the rite.

The new law will allow circumcision with some provisos, including that it be carried out with the “most effective pain relief possible,” the spokesman said, according to AFP. Parents must also receive a full explanation about the procedure, which may not be carried out in cases where the child is ill or suffers from hemophilia.

The outline also states that, as a rule, circumcisions are to be conducted by doctors but can also be done on babies younger than six months by someone chosen for their religious credentials. That person must be as skilled at circumcision as a doctor, according to the new bill.

“Circumcision remains permitted in Germany,” the spokesman said, referring to the outlines for the new law.

Chairman of the Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora, MK Danny Danon, sent a message to German ambassador to Israel Andreas Michaelis, saying: “Germany’s commitment to the Jewish people and the State of Israel has been tested – and I’m glad that Germany passed successfully.”

Ayşe Demir, deputy director of the Turkish community in Germany, also welcomed the new bill. “If circumcision is banned, the practice will go underground and prompt circumcision tourism,” she said in a statement. “We approve of the proposal,” she added.

The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dieter Graumann, said that the draft met many of the expectations of the Jewish community, Deutsche Welle reported. “For this the justice ministry deserves respect,” he said.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine said the ministry had sought submissions of reactions from interest groups by Oct. 1, ahead of a parliamentary debate.

A scheduled meeting of prominent American Jews with Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) was cancelled under heavy pressure from Israel’s Prime Minister’s office. Both American and Israeli sources confirmed the report in Maariv.

A private meeting was scheduled in New York on Monday between Abu Mazen, who had come to attend United Nations deliberations, and several influential members of the American Jewish community. The meeting had been arranged by Jewish media tycoon Mort Zuckerman, who is considered close to Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Also invited were VP of the Conference of Presidents Malcolm Honlin and Abe Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League.

When the prime minister became aware of the pending meeting, he informed Zuckerman that it was unacceptable for the Jewish community will meet the Palestinian Authority chairman as long as he refuses, in policy, to meet with the Israeli leader.

As a result, the meeting was cancelled. A Jewish source in New York told: “In light of Abu Mazen’s actions and his refusal to meet the prime minister, this was the necessary conclusion.” The Prime Minister’s office refused to comment.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apologized to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for publicizing details of a conversation between the two regarding the Ban’s visit to Tehran in August.

According to a report by Haaretz, Netanyahu called to apologize for making Ban’s participation in a conference of the Non-Aligned movement in Tehran public information, and for letting his office “leak” to the media that he had participated in a phone conversation with Ban in which he urged the leader not to go to Iran for the mid-August meeting.

A senior Israeli official told Haaretz that Netanyahu called Ban several days later to apologize, saying that while he was against Ban’s visit, he did not intend to embarrass the secretary-general.

During the conversation, Netanyahu told Ban he had heard and appreciated Ban’s condemnation of Iranian Holocaust denial and threats to destroy Israel.

Protesters attacked the US Embassy in Yemen on Thursday. The protesters breached the gates, took down and burnt the US flag, smashed windows, and burned down they security office at the entrance.

They did not manage to enter the main office building, and security guards opened fire on the protesters.

For the first time, Israel will participate in the qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic.

That’s the good news.

The bad news concerns the dates they’ll be playing in Florida. Earlier in the year it was thought the early rounds would start in other countries before moving to Florida in November. Assuming Israel would still be in the WBC games, the Florida site would be Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter.

That would have been great for me, as my winter dugout in West Palm Beach’s Century Village, near the Aitz Chaim shul, is not too far of a drive from the Jupiter ballpark. But September replaced November and the dates don’t make it easy for us even though the site is the same.

Team Israel makes its debut on the day after Rosh Hashanah, Wednesday, September 19. If Israel beats South Africa it moves on to the winner of the France/Spain game on Friday (Yom Kippur is the following Tuesday evening). So the schedule wasn’t made for us.

To qualify for a spot on the team, a player just has to have one Jewish grandparent. Three former Jewish major league players, Brad Ausmus (Jewish mother), Shawn Green and Gabe Kapler will be wearing the Israel uniform. (None of the trio chose Jewish spouses.) Green and Kapler will serve as player/coaches while Ausmus will manage the team.

After the regular major league season and postseason games, Ausmus hopes to lure big league stars such as Ryan Braun and Ian Kinsler (Jewish fathers) to Team Israel. If T.I. survives the November rounds in Taiwan and Panama, it would get a shot at the big March series in the World Baseball Classic at Miami’s new retractable dome home of the Marlins.

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I’ve been hearing from many citizens of Red Sox Nation. All liked the mega-trade with the Dodgers and the brooming of close to a hundred million a year in salaries.

Boston can rebuild quickly, Jewish Press readers say, if they sign the right free agents this winter with the freed-up money while prospects received from the Dodgers get more minor league seasoning. It should be a very interesting off-season for Boston fans.

But the question remains: Will Bobby Valentine be back to manage the new-look BoSox next season?

Another question: Why did the Dodgers add all that payroll due Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett and the injured Carl Crawford? Answer: The name recognition of the additional stars will help fill seats and drive up the price the Dodgers can command as they negotiate a new multi-year cable contract for the left coast.

Speaking of new cable contracts, ESPN’s contract with Major League Baseball doubles the amount the sports cable network will be paying over the next five years. The good news for fans is that there will no longer be blackouts in cities when the home team plays. Those of us who live in areas with good teams that pop up often on ESPN games couldn’t see them play, and we were fed other programming.

But how is ESPN going to pay for it? The bad news is that we can expect cable rates to go up.

Irwin Cohen headed a national baseball publication for five years before moving to a big league front office position where he earned a World Series ring. The author, columnist, lecturer and shul president, may be reached in his dugout at irdav@sbcglobal.net. His column appears the second week of each month.

National Union MK Michael Ben Ari sent an urgent letter to Internal Security Minister Yizhak Aharonivich, following the publication of pictures showing a police Special Patrol Force officer ordering his subordinates to kill a group of youths who had climbed a rooftop in Ramat Migron during its evacuation earlier this week, and were refusing to be transferred.

During the segment, the cops repeat threats like: “You are dead!” as the boys are trying to grab their ladder to prevent them from climbing up to the rooftop. The death threats repeat time and again. It’s clear that the phrases are being used more to mean severe bodily harm than actual death, but the abundant use of death and killing as threats is quite jarring, especially when they are expressed at teenagers.

MK Ben Ari wrote: “I’m writing you in regard to severe images that reached my office which document the removal of youths on Sept. 2, 2012, who refused to be removed. May I point your attention to [the] video in which an officer is heard giving the clear order to his subordinates to bring them down and to kill them.

“Moments later the special force police are seen leaping at the rooftop and the sounds of crying and weeping are heard from the youths, out of camera range.”

According to MK Ben Ari, “An officer who gives a command to kill demonstrators, even if they annoy him very severely, does not belong in Israel’s police force, and I believe you will do well to relieve him of duty and keep him away from contact with civilians even before any legal steps are taken.”

The confrontation segment begins at minute 12:06