The announcement of Sarah Palin as John McCain´s running mate in the 2008 Presidential election brought her infant son with Down syndrome into the spotlight in the USA and around the world.

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy teaches useful strategies and effective skills to parents whose children have aggressive, rebellious or otherwise challenging behaviors, to help children in difficult situations establish or rebuild relationships, and to bring some peace and comfort to the family.

Book Review: Spirit, Courage, and Resolve - A Special Olympic Athlete´s Road to Gold, by Tom Lambke, and I Just Am, by Bryan Lambke

Challenging behavior was cited as a primary reason that students with IEPs had been blocked from inclusive classrooms in their neighborhood schools until 1997 amendments to IDEA established PBIS as the recommended form of behavioral intervention. PBIS is now embraced as a strategy for all students.

The light-weight, Amazon Kindle Wireless Reader offers many features to families spending long hours in waiting rooms while children are occupied in early intervention, therapy, medical treatment or other procedures. The Amazon Kindle 2 will be available late in February 2009 and is worth the wait.

Disability activists have called for a boycott of the 2008 summer blockbuster movie and DVD due to demeaning language, storylines and repulsive catch phrases coined for the satire that are expected to further pollute common language. I now believe everyone in my community should see Tropic Thunder.

Ben Stiller´s movie, Tropic Thunder, offers a humiliating portrayal of a developmentally disabled character, hate language, and a ´movie within a movie´ that increases risks for individuals with intellectual disabilities who attend movies, work at theaters, or enjoy participation in community life.

Teens and young adults with developmental disabilities or other special needs may show signs of reading readiness and be highly motivated to learn to read long after they are given opportunities in the classroom, community or at home. Reluctant readers can find books with age appropriate characters.

Children with type one diabetes who are scheduled for surgery have special needs before hosptial admittance, during surgery, recovery, and in aftercare that have been thoughtfully predicted by pediatric endocrinologists, surgeons and anesthesiologists at many children´s hospitals and medical centers

Making Self-Employment Work for People with Disabilities, by Cary Griffin and David Hammis, is a timely resource for families, counselors, job coaches, transition specialists, and individuals with developmental disabilities, physical challenges, chronic health conditions or other special needs.