More than half of the 5.1 million children enrolled in California’s health care program for low-income residents did not receive dental care last year, and some counties may lack the providers to meet patients’ dental needs, according to a Bureau of State Audits review released Thursday.

Five counties with at least 2,000 children in the program, including Amador County, may not have had any active dental providers, and none of the providers was willing to accept new Medi-Cal patients in 11 counties in 2013, the audit found. What’s more, the number of dentists accepting new patients appeared “insufficient” in 16 counties. Read more.

If you have a story about access to dental care, the State Council would like to hear. Compete this form Access to Dental Services and let our legislators know.

Madeline Smyres did not think her daughter Nina would live past 6. In the early 1960s, doctors told her that even if Nina outlived their prediction, her scoliosis, an affliction of the joints, and excess fluid around her brain would turn the child into a “vegetable.”

Today, Nina is 50 years old, constrained by her disability but alive and alert. She’s taken trips to Lakers and Dodgers games, shopped at her favorite store, Macy’s, and traveled to bowling meets with the Special Olympics.

“When she turned 50, it finally hit me that she’s not going [to die] before me,” Smyres, 70, said. “She’s lived a whole, amazing life.” Read more.

Toymakers at Hasbro don’t want Mr. Potato Head to end up at the bottom of toy boxes, simply because children with developmental disabilities don’t know how to play with him.
Hasbro Inc. has partnered with The Autism Project, a group of parents and professionals that help people with autism to create instructional videos and tools to help children with developmental disabilities learn how to play with their toys.
The Pawtucket, Rhode Island-based toy company will launch the “ToyBox Tools” initiative on Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio at a national conference on autism and disabilities, OCALICON 2014. Read more.

The travel experience can be overwhelming and anxiety-producing for even the most seasoned traveler. But for the child with sensory integration needs, the travel experience that often proves to be full of crowds, waiting and noise, is heightened because of their system’s sensitivity to this stimuli; for these children it is almost unbearable. So as the holidays quickly approach and airplane travel hits record rates, what can a family do when they want to travel but one member has a tough time on an airplane? Read More.