Once a child is diagnosed with autism

As the prevalence of autism has increased astronomically in recent years, so has the number of available treatments and education options. Parents must sift through the many interventions and decide which is best for the education of their child. More and more parents are educating themselves; the treatment options are exciting and give hope to parents of children with autism. But the task of determining which treatments and education paths are best for each child is a great responsibility.

Once a child is diagnosed with autism, families have many questions and concerns. One of the major dilemmas is determining how a child with autism will be educated. Each child is different with unique qualities; the education of each child with autism is determined by their needs and strengths.

Autism is considered to be a spectrum disorder. It is a disorder characterized by symptoms that include repetitive behaviors or interests, deficits in social interaction and deficits in verbal and nonverbal communication. Furthermore, children with autism often have unusual responses to sensory stimulation. Children with autism may also display symptoms that include an inability to form relationships, delay in the development of speech, lack of imagination, repeated patterns of activities, extreme aloofness and insistence on consistency in routines and isolated areas of strong ability.

The Coverdell Education Savings Account

The third biggest financial goal for a family is saving for a college education. Buying a house and retirement are the first two goals. With the cost of higher education on the rise, parents are beginning to try and set aside money for education as soon as a child is born. There are two popular federal and state sponsored plans that make saving for college easy: the Coverdell and the 529 plan.

The Coverdell Education Savings Account

The Coverdell is a federally sponsored plan that helps you to set aside money for higher education expenses. These expenses include tuition, fees, books and supplies, and even room and board.

The annual contributions are not tax deductible, making the withdrawals tax-free as long as they are used to pay for eligible education costs. There are limits to the amount of annual contributions that can be made each year.

The Coverdell is established as a custodial account, set up by the parent or another adult to pay for the education expenses of a designated beneficiary. The child must be under the age of 18 to establish an account. All balances must be spent within 30 days of the child's 30th birthday.

Any financial institution that handles IRAs can assist you in setting up a Coverdell, including banks, investment companies and brokerages. The Coverdell is like an IRA in that it is an account. You can put your account funds into any investment you want - stocks, bonds, mutual funds and certificates of deposit are just a few options.

You can establish as many Coverdell accounts as you want to for a child. For example, you could have one account at your local bank and one at a brokerage. Some plans have many fees associated with them. Make sure that the management fees for the multiple accounts don't cancel out your overall return.

If your child decides not to go to college, he or she will lose a great deal of money. When he turns 30, he must withdraw the balance of the account within 30 days. Any money withdrawn that isn't used for educationally eligible expenses is taxed and charged a 10 % IRS penalty.

If your child decides not to go to college, that doesn't mean that his or her child won't. The child can roll the full balance into another Coverdell plan for another family member, including siblings, nieces and nephews and sons and daughters.

529 College Savings Plans

These state sponsored 529 plans are named after the federal tax code section that provides for their use. All 50 states and the District of Columbia offer 529 plans. The contributions to the plan are not tax deductible, but your withdrawals are tax-free when you use the money for a qualified educational expense.

529 plans fall under two categories: prepaid tuition and savings/investment plans.

The prepaid tuition plan allows you to purchase units of tuition for any state college or university under today's price. You are buying a semester of attendance for a child. What you buy today will be good for any future date, no matter how tuition rates rise. With private and out-of-state colleges, the child's prepaid tuition does not include the rise in tuition costs. For example, if you buy two years of college tuition for an out-of-state tuition, you may only receive a single semester in ten years.

Either the beneficiary or the contributor must reside in the state that the 529 is formed in.

With savings plans, an account is opened and investments are chosen within the account. If you start the plan when a child is young, you can choose some aggressive investments for long term growth. As the child ages, you can move your investments into more conservative options.

The withdrawals are tax-free if they are used to pay for college expenses. These expenses can include tuition, books and room and board. An easy way to think about a 529 savings plan is as a 401(k) dedicated to educational expenses. As with a 401(k), there are many different investment choices. Many states programs are open to nonresidents, so look around for the best plans.

If your child decides not to go to college you have three options. You can hang on to the savings plan in case your child decides to attend college at a later date. The account can be transferred to another family member for college expenses. You could also cash out the account and just take the loss. Most states will charge a penalty of 10% of the earnings for any withdrawal not used for education. On top of this, a federal penalty of 10% will be charged also. There is no penalty for withdrawals due to death or disabled status.

Distance Learning Education Online Needs a Dictator

Distance Learning Education Online Needs a Dictator

Education Online: I know that it is politically incorrect to suggest that you should work to pass your exams because it discriminates against lazy layabouts. But...

Conventional Education for the Lazy
If you are at a politically incorrect school the teachers will be the dictators. They'll lay down the rules about what homework you must do and when it must be presented. They'll keep an eye out for any learning difficulties that you have and try to help you.

You will be spoon-fed. If you are very clever you will sit in the classroom and learn without any effort, just because there is nothing else to do so you might as well listen to the teacher. The teachers won't let you wander away to do something more interesting. They are dictators!

My son couldn't understand why his school reports always said "could do better" when he was top of the class. He never did any work, so his success was really the success of his dictatorial teachers.

My Distance Learning Home Schooling
My father set aside a room in the house for our distance learning. There was all I needed there for study and no distractions. I had to sit in that room till the job was done.

Boredom is many times worse for me than work, even though I am very lazy, so I read all the textbooks from cover to cover and invented a good way to memorise vocabulary that allowed me to learn languages with very little effort. I was an ideal candidate for home schooling and distance learning.

That was my whole aim in life - to do as little work as possible with as little boredom as possible. Because my father was a dictator I got into the way of doing everything as soon as possible, so that my father would let me have time to myself when I had finished.

In other words I became my own dictator forbidding myself to procrastinate. Without a dictator your home schooling, distance learning, education online - call it what you will, will fail because you never get around to it.

Education Online Needs Dictators
Someone is going to have to be a dictator. If you are a parent with children homeschooling online you will have to be the dictator. If you are a student using distance learning guess what...there isn't anybody else to be the dictator so you'll have to be your own strict disciplinarian.

You'll have to rule yourself with a rod of iron.

Keep Yourself Motivated for Education Online
Fine - if you don't have a dictator what is to prevent you failing to put in your projects on time? Nothing. So find the fun in the work. There is always enough fun in any job for some misguided individuals to do it as a hobby.

There is a forum associated with most online education. Become the "answers person". Whenever another student has a problem you answer the question before the lecturer gets round to it.

Oh yes, it does mean that you're going to have to work hard to get the answer before anybody else does, but remember that the others will probably be procrastinating, and the teachers will have finished their 9 to 5 day and won't reply till tomorrow, so you won't have much competition. I revel in the thanks that come my way when I help another student's education online.

Some studies will still need you to be your own dictator. I used to do one hour a day practicing the harmonium and one hour each day practicing the violin.

I was fortunate because my Father was a dictator. If I hadn't done my practice towards the end of the day he would interrupt whatever I was doing and order me off to do my practice. This politically incorrect procedure made me determined not to be caught out again. So I completed my practice before I started doing what I really wanted to do. Later on I had got so much into the habit of doing my practice as early as possible that I could be my own dictator.

What if there isn't a dictator?
Then don't consider education online. You will fail if you keep putting off your study. You need a dictator to keep you going even if you are your own dictator. There must be no compromise or distractions.

My boss once congratulated me because I was continuing to write a computer program while the partitions in the office were being torn down and new wiring and equipment installed. The noise was horrendous and people had to keep going round me and my computer. My experience with distance education had taught me to keep at the job ignoring all distractions. You'll have to do the same to benefit from education online.

The Sweetener to Education Online
If you are your own dictator you can do the projects with the related study in a fraction of the time that a conventional course would take. So you can enjoy yourself for the rest of the time, or if you are a real glutton for punishment, you can take two distance learning courses at once and get twice the satisfaction when you succeed.

Someone invented a tape recorder that would record a lecturer speaking at 50 words per minute and play it back at 500 words per minute without sounding high and squeaky. They found that our brains can handle the 500 words per minute better because our thoughts don't wander off after distractions. So if you can read at 500 words per minute perhaps you can do ten home schooling courses at once?! I feel tired just thinking about it.

importance of a higher degree

The importance of a higher degree cannot be understated. In this information age, the best and the highest paying jobs are offered only to a privileged few, who are experts in their chosen fields. A superlative educational degree is an essential prerequisite to gain confidence of the employers and ascend the ladders of success in the fiercely competitive corporate world. The skyrocketing costs of higher degree and the associated maintenance expenditures look prohibitive at first glance, but an education loan comes as a panacea for the commoner who dares to dream big.

<a href=”http://www.chanceforloans.co.uk/education.html”>Education loans</a> are available in the UK to persons, just starting their university education or to those already enrolled in a course. The lending agencies encourage people to improve their skills by pursuing higher education. While undergoing his chosen course, a person might be bothered by the living costs during that period, to relieve the applicant from this burden; education loans in UK not only provide for the tuition fees and the cost of the university education but also fund the student’s maintenance expenditures.

A full-time course is sometimes beyond the reach of many students. They could be preoccupied by their family obligations or a part-time employment, which provides some extra income. Such students can also receive the much-needed financial assistance from the loan agencies in UK. If, for any reason, a student has to extend the duration of his course, the lending agencies step in to fulfill the student’s requirement.

Before reaching on any decision, the lending agencies give a thorough consideration to the applicant’s monthly income, his monthly household expenses and the place of his residence during the course. An applicant who wants to pursue a course from a university situated in London will be entitled to a greater amount of education loan than the one who attends a university in a relatively smaller city. In the case of an independent adult learner, his income is the main consideration while deciding on the amount of education loan. The amount of education loan given to an applicant, who is living on his family’s support, is based on the incomes of his parents or guardians. The lending agencies also check how much value, the professional or university degree will add to the professional competence of the applicant.

To get an education loan in UK, a person has to apply to his Local Education Authority. This process is also available via Internet. Many lenders facilitate online application for the education loans and that too with minimum documentation. The entire process might take a few weeks to complete. It will be appropriate if the person applies to the concerned lender well in advance. The applicant should also take into account the deadlines of applying for the courses and try to synchronize the loan application process with it.

Education loans are the most cost-effective and convenient way of funding any higher education. The interest rate on education loan is equal to the prevailing rate of inflation. The repayment of an education loan does not start immediately. A student can repay the education loan after he has completed his education. The installments have to be sent directly to the lender. The repayment terms for an education loan are quite lenient, and if a person is not able to find employment or his salary is below £10,000, his repayment is suspended until he gets a job and starts earning a higher salary. With an education loan under his belt a person has every chance in this world to achieve the pinnacle of success.

Education loan

The strength of the United States is not the gold at Fort Knox or the weapons of mass destruction that we have, but the sum total of the education and the character of our people - Claiborne Pell

Education loan is perhaps the most noble loans of all considering that the loan is going to create and grow a student into a responsible future citizen who can contribute to the society in a big way.

American college graduates have earned $1million more than high school graduates during their entire career. This simple statistic is enough to underline the significance of education. What one must not forget, in the brouhaha of course, is that college education is quite an investment in ones future even after considering the huge expenses involved.

Where and How of Education Loan in America
The Federal Government has various student aid and loan programs, to help pay for both undergraduate and graduate education, which it helps get at low rate of interests. Here are some of them.
1. Federal Perkins Loan: This is a low interest loan (5%) and the school is the lender to which you payback. Maximum amount you can draw as an undergraduate is $4000 per year and $6000 per graduate student per year. The total amounts in each case being $20,000 and $40,000 respectively. Barring late charges there are no other charges.
2. William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program: An FSA program for after high school students where Department of Education is the lender. You have 2 programs, Stafford- for students and PLUS- parents. PLUS loans offered through FFEL have banks and private lenders to provide.
3. Consolidation loans: Direct loans can be consolidated for reduced and easy monthly repayment through this loan.
4. All private banks: Banks have countless schemes which are more or less similar to Federal schemes.

How Much Loan Should I Borrow
Here students and parents should sit and plan the amount to be borrowed. You can calculate loan amount in two ways. One: using an online calculator; the other way is compiling it yourself. Compiling the loan amount is not difficult with certain amount of homework. Some tips here.
1. Decide on the course and college. Public colleges charge about 1/4th of private colleges in tuition fees for 4 years degree and half of it for 2 years degree.
2. There is additional Out-of-District State Charges in case of 4 year public colleges which run into about $7000.
3. There are sundry expenses including board, books etc which run into $10,000 in both the cases.

Once you are through with calculation, visit the lender or its website for information on documentation and application.