Auditions are Friday, June 21, 6-9 p.m. and Saturday, June 22, 9 a.m. – Noon in the Children’s Care Gymnasium, 2501 W. 26^th Street, Sioux Falls. 

Actors and dancers of all ages and abilities are invited to audition for VITA, written and directed by Heather Pickering and choreographed by Andrea Schaefer – the national award-winning team from Flutter Productions. Flutter Productions creates original pieces of movement-based theatre that allow all performers the opportunity to soar. VITA will feature a combination of 30 dancers and actors of all ages and abilities. This fantastical and mythical tale is based off of the ancient myths of Ferentina and Romulus, beginning in the ancient Roman Countryside and traveling through time to the 1930s.

No prepared audition is required. Please come dressed and prepared for basic movement. VITA will feature performers with and without disabilities – challenging the perception of what people are capable of achieving in this world. Flutter Productions brings together artists from different experiences to work with a new creative community in order to create beautiful, heartfelt, and inspirational productions.

Rehearsals begin on Monday, June 24 and run Monday through Friday from 6-9 p.m.

Performances are on Friday, July 19 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, July 20 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. in the Edith Mortenson Theatre at Augustana College.

Volunteers are also needed to work backstage and on production crews. If interested, please contact Jamie Richardson at 605-444-9764 or by email at Jamie.Richardson@cchs.org. 
For additional details and updates, please visit www.cchs.org.

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As a 4-year-old boy with cerebral palsy, Trevor was very bright and his family knew that if they could just find the right help, he would be able to communicate and learn. Evaluations by professionals at our Outpatient Center confirmed this and eventually led them to Children’s Care’s residential program.

Because they lived three hours away, moving to Children’s Care was a hard transition for Trevor and his family. Living in the residential area meant that Trevor would only see his family on weekends, school breaks, and holidays, but knowing that Trevor was getting the education and care he needed made it easier.

“Having staff he knew and liked so that he wanted to come back to Children’s Care made it easier for us,” explains his mother, Laurel. Now as a teenager, she says, “He wants to know the plan.” Laurel says the angriest she’s ever seen Trevor was when they showed up to get him and he had already had his own plans.

Instead of making decisions for him, his family offers Trevor choices of coming home for a weekend or participating in parties and activities he enjoys at Children’s Care. This year, Trevor chose to be Grand Marshall of the annual Mall Walk instead of celebrating his birthday at home.

“Everything is in one place at Children’s Care,” Laurel continues. “Trevor lives there, gets his education, and they take care of all his medical needs. Even when we can’t be there in person, we can talk to his staff and doctors through a teleconference system. He’s in a secure environment. He has his own goals.”

Through the commitment of Children’s Care staff, Trevor and children like him are given much more than education, therapy, and medical care, they are given the gift of independence. Now Trevor can drive his power chair and communicate with people through his communication device as he navigates the halls of Children’s Care on his own. His confidence is wonderful to see. The little boy that came to Children’s Care has grown into an engaging young man with a great smile, and a love for telling jokes and playing tricks on people.

His teacher, Karin Wiese says that Trevor’s great work ethic and enthusiasm have allowed him to be successful in his school work. “If he gets something wrong, he keeps working on it, until he gets it right,” she says. He is learning to work with computers, and thanks to the generosity of donors, has access to a school iPad lab that was funded this past fall.

If you ask Trevor what he likes best about Children’s Care, he’ll tell you the staff members that support him are terrific and he has lots of friends. He enjoys listening to music and working on his own laptop. He loves to shop at the mall.

For children like Trevor, dedicated staff members at Children’s Care, loving and supportive families, and generous individuals who support Children’s Care with their gifts are making wishes come true. Because of his accomplishments at Children’s Care, Trevor has dreams for the future. Someday he wants to live in an apartment, shop at the mall, and spend time with his friends.

Classroom Suite is especially helpful for creating exercises to teach both regular and alternate content standards. When you create your own activities, you can add your own text, graphics, videos, sounds and animations. There are also pre-made activities that use a system of “model, practice and apply” to allow increased repetition of educational objectives. Attendees will use Classroom Suite 4 as a talking word processor, math activity generator, or multimedia authoring program. All functions created with this product can be accessed with a regular keyboard and mouse, IntelliKeys keyboard, or single switch.

This workshop will also cover training on the IntelliKeys keyboard. Please bring a flash drive in order to take home activities created during the workshop. In addition, we will be discussing how to access the IntelliTools Activity Exchange on the Internet. This web site contains free Classroom Suite 4 activities that others across the nation have submitted for download. Please check to make sure you are using version 4 of Classroom Suite. We will only be training version 4 in this workshop.  Instructor is Tina Miller MA, computer teacher at Children’s Care for 26 years.  Click on www.cchs.org/services/university to register for this class.

In a new study, a team of scientists at Johns Hopkins and Tel Aviv University in Israel looked at genetic variations in DNA sequence in the ion transporter NHE9. They found that autism-associated variants in NHE9 result in a profound loss of transporter function.

“Altering levels of this transporter at the synapse may modulate critical proteins on the cell surface that bring in nutrients or neurotransmitters such as glutamate,” said Rajini Rao, Ph.D., of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. “Elevated glutamate levels are known
to trigger seizures, possibly explaining why autistic patients with mutations in these ion transporters also have seizures.”

The research was novel as the team exploited decades of basic research done in bacteria and yeast to study this complex human neurological disorder. First, the group at Tel Aviv University, led by Dr. Nir Ben-Tal, built structural models of NHE9 using a bacterial relative as a template, allowing the Rao laboratory at Johns Hopkins to use the simple baker’s yeast for screening the mutations.

Experts say as genomic information becomes readily available for everyone, researchers will use easy, inexpensive, and rapid screening methods to evaluate rare genetic variants in autism and other disorders. Rao and her team are optimistic about the potential benef its of their latest findings.

“Although the research is still at an early stage, drugs that target the cellular pathways regulated by NHE9 could compensate for its loss of function and lead to potential therapy in the future,” Rao said. “These findings add a new candidate for genetic screening of at-risk patients that may lead to better diagnosis or treatment of autism.”

Nauert PhD, R. (2013). New Insights into Autism Spectrum Disorders. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 4,
2013, f rom http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/02/04/new-insights-into-autism-spectrumdisorders/
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The Autism Society continues to mourn the lives lost on Friday in Newtown, Conn. We join the nation as we keep our collective attention focused on those directly impacted by this tragedy.

In the nation’s rush to understand the reasoning for such an awful occurrence, the conversation evolved to include the alleged shooter’s possible autism diagnosis. The Autism Society feels it is imperative to remove autism from this tragic story. Race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation are seldom, if ever, linked to the actions of an individual in a causal relationship. It is imperative that developmental disorders and disabilities be treated in the same vein.

Further, the Autism Society is committed to informing, educating and securing appropriate services by providing reliable and unbiased information. To that end, we are compelled to dispel any myths about individuals with autism:

No evidence exists to link autism and premeditated violence. Suggesting otherwise is wrong and harmful to the more than 1.5 million individuals living with autism in the United States.1

Individuals with autism and those with other disabilities are more likely to be victims of violence than the perpetrators.2

Many of individuals with Asperger’s syndrome who have committed crimes had co-existing psychiatric disorders.3

Individuals with autism who act aggressively typically do so because they are reacting to a situation.

Please do not judge any individual with autism based on the discourse surrounding Friday’s tragic event. Instead, please strive to educate and inform your communities. Help the Autism Society ensure that individuals with autism are not marginalized due to a misunderstanding of a complicated disorder.

1. Gunasekaran, S., & Chaplin, E. (2012). Autism spectrum disorders and offending. Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, 6, 308-313.
2. Hughes, K., Bellis, M. A., Jones, L., Wood, S., Bates, G., Eckley, L., … & Officer, A. (2012). Prevalence and risk of violence against adults with disabilities: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. The Lancet. 379, 1621-1629.
3. Newman SS, Ghaziuddin M: Violent crime in Asperger syndrome: the role of psychiatric comorbidity. J Autism Dev Disord 39:1949-52, 2008.

Jessica was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at the age of four. She had no way to communicate and was disconnected from the world around her. She became confused, frustrated, and angry because she couldn’t understand others, and in turn, her parents were at wits’ end because they couldn’t fulfill her needs.

As Jessica struggled to make sense of her world, she acted out with inappropriate behavior, making it difficult for her family to take her with them anywhere. She wouldn’t sit or attend to anything for more than a few seconds.

Wanting to offer Jessica a chance for a better life, her parents turned to Children’s Care. Jessica’s mother, Denise, describes their decision to send Jessica to live five hours away as a leap of faith. While it was difficult for them to do, she was not improving with local schooling and they saw it as an opportunity for her to get the 24-hour care she needed to grow, learn, and become more independent.

“Jessica made more progress in the first 90 days at Children’s Care than she did in all the previous years combined,” says her mother, Denise.

With the help of her team (occupational therapist, physical therapist, speech language pathologist, case manager, educational specialist, behavioral specialist, direct support professionals and others) and the use of a communication device, she quickly learned and blossomed. Jessica was finally able to tell people what she wanted through pictures and symbols.

Jessica’s parents have appreciated knowing that the whole Children’s Care team is working towards her goals and that staff members make themselves readily accessible in person and by phone and email for questions and concerns.

Today Jessica is still unable to talk, but her communication device acts as her voice when she interacts with teachers, therapists, and friends. She laughs and engages with friends and says “I love you” to the people she is closest to. She attends day school, works on skills like cooking and baking, has become an avid swimmer, and goes to the mall and to other places teenagers enjoy.

Staff members at Children’s Care are her family-away-from-home, and those near her age have become her closest friends. “She’s made an amazing connection with some of them – especially Amber and Ashley. They expect more out of her and treat her like anyone else her age,” Denise says.

Thanks to the nurturing friendships she has made, Jessica today is more relaxed, calm, engaging, and social. She has great eye contact and uses her communication device much like other teenagers use their phone to text.

Jessica will turn 20 in January, and while she has traveled home to Rapid City numerous times throughout the years, she will soon be there for good. Her parents and step-parents have worked very hard to create a transition plan that best fits Jessica’s needs, and she has a whole extended family to love and support her back home in Rapid City.

With the help of Black Hills Works, Black Hills Special Services Coop, the Rapid City School district, and the Spearfish school district, Jessica will continue to grow, learn, and develop vocational skills that will take her into adulthood.

While her family knows she will miss her Children’s Care family, they are excited and ready to make sure that void is filled in her new home.

Through the dedication of staff at Children’s Care, the love and support of a caring family, and the generosity of individuals who support Children’s Care with their gifts, Jessica is well on her way to achieving her goals. Her inspirational story offers hope that all children can thrive, learn, and live a better life.

While we care for typically developing children who may be recovering from illness, accident, or surgery, we specialize in caring for children with special needs who also need rehabilitation or more intensive medical care for a period of time.  Here’s a story about a recent patient who came from out of state to get the help she needed at Children’s Care:

Kylee’s Story

Eleven-year-old patient Kylee came to the Children’s Care specialty hospital program after having extensive surgery on both feet to correct a condition that was making it increasingly painful for her to walk. Her lack of mobility was causing her to gain too much weight. She was walking less and less, and in danger of losing ambulation altogether. Because of her diagnosis of autism, she is non-verbal and has challenging behaviors, which increased with the level of pain and frustration she was experiencing. No post-acute facility in her home-state of Minnesota would take Kylee for post-surgical and rehabilitative care—they didn’t feel they had the staff who could work with her developmental disabilities. Without post-surgical care, Kylee couldn’t have the surgery, and faced a future of pain, inactivity, and isolation. The surgical hospital contacted Children’s Care, and we assured them that caring for Kylee was no problem.

She was admitted to the Children’s Care Medically Complex Program on the Fisher Coon Unit (named for founding nurse Irene Fisher Coon) soon after her surgery. She received 24-hour care from the pediatric nursing staff, and after a few weeks was able to put weight on her feet. Physical and occupational therapists experienced in working with children with co-occurring diagnoses started preparing her well ahead of time for the rehabilitation phase. “Kylee progressed very quickly in her active rehabilitation treatment program. Her progress was much faster than anyone imagined it would be,” says Julie Johnson, Medical Director for Rehabilitation Programs. Kylee’s mother was grateful and impressed with her daughter’s care.  “The staff were totally open to taking my suggestions on how to best serve Kylee. That was everyone’s main focus–’How do we best serve Kylee?’”

Kylee was discharged after three weeks in the Rehabilitation Program, and is walking normally for the first time in years. “At Children’s Care, they find a way,” says Kelly. “It’s not ‘We can’t,’ it’s ‘How can we make this work?’ The people here are great!”