Special Education Today newsletter 5(10)
Are you interested in knowing what happened last week at SET?
Greetings and salutations, Dear Readers.1 Welcome to yet another edition of the newsletter for Special Education Toady. It’s covers the week that began 1 September 2025, is the ~210th newsletter, and is the ~1408th published post for SET.
For those who have suffered through nearly all of those posts, now might be a good moment to put a cold compress on your forehead. You’ll also know what to expect next.2
Photo
When we visited the river this past week, the water level was low (subjective data analysis).
How low was it? One would have had to walk and tow her canoe along behind her for most of a trip on the river. The grasses were above the surface on islands, whereas they are usually submerged. The geese were wading in such shallow waters that they seemed to be goose bumps (that’s what someone said as I took this photo).
Regardless of how deep and rapidly flowing rivers are, looking at rivers fascinates me. You might have guessed that, given how many times I’ve posted pictures of this and other rivers.
Interactions
Thanks to all those readers who interacted with SET this week.
Welcome to Julie B.! As a paid subscriber, she’s joined the likes of Mike N., Isabelle G., Clay K., Jeanette B/. Nancy C-W., Bev J., Tina C., Jen W., Bob P., Ed M., Michael K., Debbie R., Marilyn F., Vicki W., Callie O., Bear A., Angelique W., Anna O., Pam S., Jane N., Amanda H., Nancy S., Candace S., Jean S., Nancy M., and Paige P.—that’s a list of folks who are doing a lot for kids with disabilities, their parents, and their teachers. Wow!
Subscribers who joined this past week include Seda S., Tim B., Barten N., Ashley, Kushi S., and anyone whom I missed. It’s great to have y’all joining our little corner of special education here on Earth.
Speaking of Earth, let me just note that subscriptions to SET come from 51 countries other than the USA. These countries include Australia, the UK, Morocco, Canada, Taiwan, Chile, Turkey, India, and Portugal—and that’s not the full list.
Some comments3 by Dear Readers this past week warmed the cold, cold cockles of my (behavioristics) heart. Thanks to Sally B. for her sage comment about testing and teaching, thanks to Dan H. who let me know that he found the post about AI informative,4 and thanks to Judy V. who said “hey” about the post regarding art submissions for the covers of the Journal of Learning Disabilities, with which she’s been associated for decades,
SpedBits
This past week there were only six posts. That’s within the range that readers (those few who responded!) said was good. Four of them went to all readers; two went directly the paying subscribers. Here is a list of them (with added notes about the authors and the audience):
Special Education Today Newsletter 5(9): Interested in some notes about SET and a list of the posts for the previous week? [JWL]
Testing < == > teaching: How about a quick observation regarding the relationship between teaching and testing? [paying subscribers; JWL]
The "teaching myths" manuscript: Reviewer X: What if an editor had invited us to a review a now-published manuscript when it was being considered for publication? [JWL & JER]
Using AI to help brains do things: Does this click-bait headline lead to anything worthwhile? [paying subscribers; [JWL]
JLD cover art redux: Do you know a child who should submit art to the Journal of Learning Disabilities? [JWL]
LD Strategies Summit: What about this meeting? [JWL]
I encourage readers to subscribe at the paid level so that they can get everything immediately.
Notes and comments
There is a lot of “stuff” going down in the sphere of special education. Public health, for example, has been in the news frequently and that news has been chock-a-block with “facts,” some of which deserve careful examination (if not debunking). Those facts sometimes misrepresent our kids, misinterpret evidence, and may lead to detrimental policies that will mis-serve our kids, or are simply “not even wrong.”5 Take, for examples the flaps over (a) vaccines and (b) the causes of autism.
Even though we ought to be beyond the fallacious arguments about vaccinations causing developmental disorders, we still see “experts” who advocated such ideas assuming positions of authority in the US government. And, even though careful epidemiological searches for some broad-scale environmental pathogens (water? air? food? plastics?) causing neurodevelopmental problems have found nothing, more searchers seem to be the direction of the US health services these days.
At the same time that there has been misinformation flying up, down, left, right, in, and out, there have been some damn impressive scientific reports of topics like causes of autism. For example, Aviya Litman (2025) znd colleagues reported in Nature Genetics about their study that examined phenotypic and genetic data from a large cohort of individuals. They carefully analyzed those data to identify the overlap between (a) types of genetic causes of autism and (b) observed behavioral types of autism. The result: There are biologically distinct subtypes of autism and they match up with levels and clusters of the behaviors of individuals with autism. These are very scientifically grounded analyses. We should hear more about this research (stay tuned).
We can expect to hear about other matters (e.g., taking acetaminophen during pregnancy is likely to come back on the radar screen as a cause of autism) instead. Sadly, some of these alternative proposals for the causes of neruodevelopmental disorders are predicated on what looks to me to be shape-shifting and skimpy evidence. The press releases on such “causes” of autism, ADHD, and etc. will deserve careful scrutiny
So, this is a plea, dear readers, to put on your Skepticaps and pay careful attention to the news we see. I fear se are in for a ride around the circus ring where we will encounter a lot of pony poop. We need to be alert and cautious. Maybe SET can post articles that fit this bill.
Meanwhile, please remember that we have duties to take care of ourselves and each other (seatbelts, etc.!). We need to ensure that we are available to teach our children well.
Love,
JohnL
John Wills Lloyd, Ph.D.
Founder & Editor, Special Education Today
Reference
Litman, A., Sauerwald, N., Snyder, L. G., Foss-Feig, J., Park, C. Y., Hao, Y., Dinstein, I., Theesfeld, C. L., & Troyanskaya, O. G. (2025). Decomposition of phenotypic heterogeneity in autism reveals underlying genetic programs. Nature Genetics. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-025-02224-z
Footnote
I vaguely remember a cartoon character (maybe a feline with a speech disorder?) who used to say “greetings and salutations.” I didn’t find anything in a cursory search while I was writing this issue of the newsletter. If one of you Dear Readers knows what I’m saying, please let me know.
Hahahah?
For readers who don’t know, only subscribers who have contributed to SET can comment on posts. I set the system that way because I think that those who are paying subscribers (a) deserve recognition for their contributions and (b) are less likely to post ill-thought and otherwise inappropriate comments. I note that this latter point is predicated on hard experience: In the 1990s I hosted a discussion called “spedtalk”; it grew to nearly 2000 subscribers, but it also grew into a forum where people posted ad hominem, illogical, and disrespectful opinions. I want SET to be a place where commenters post thoughtful and responsible comments.
Those of us who know Dan H,—and there are probably 100s of 1000s of people who have read books he’s written about special education and exceptional children—know that praise from him comes from a very well-informed and discerning authority. Even though he’s fit and slender, when he jumps into the water, there are big waves.
I’m thinking that assertions about special education and disabilities that are “not even wrong” deserve to be a regular feature of SET. Actually, John Romig and I have discussed the possibility of a series of SET posts that might examine the rationale for common practices, rationales that are not even wrong.
My recollection is that "Greetings and salutations" is what Charlotte the spider says when she first meets Wilbur the pig in E. B. White's Charlotte's Web.