Lost in Translation

Generational differences have been on my mind lately because in my job, I deal with it all the time. The classic scenario is a parent or teacher of the Baby Boom or Gen X parent or teacher being frustrated with the Generation-Y kid’s behavior. The kid always text messages in class, or they spend all their time on the computer or X-box instead of doing homework, and the list goes on. Most parents are pretty computer literate now, but I once worked with a family whose kid was a computer genius and the mom didn’t understand that a mouse is used with your hand. She had put it on the floor like a sewing pedal. I’m serious. Now that’s a generation gap. But chances are, if you are reading a blog, you’re pretty tech savvy already.

In fact, this may be you:



Now the reality is, you don’t have to know all the fancy tech talk to relate to your kid, and your kids would actually be horrified if you used it in your daily vernacular. Remember when your mom caught on to a popular phrase and then it was ruined because it was no longer cool now, because your mom was using it? But it’s great if you have some awareness of what your kids are talking about. And there’s the fine line. There is a big difference between knowing about My Space and have the talk about online safety and scouring the Internet for your kid’s My Space to see what s/he is doing and feeling 24-7 (the 21st century equivalent of reading your kid’s diary every day).

Here are some of the top fears parents have told me regarding online use and social networking sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, Youtube and Xanga:

My child will be exposed to cyber bullying I admit, after looking at YouTube and MySpace and all that, I’M SO GLAD THE INTERNET WASN’T AROUND WHEN I WAS IN SCHOOL. I’ve been called into many a meeting in which a fight at school originated with MySpace content. One of my colleagues even had to deal with a teenager who photo-shopped another girl’s face on a pornographic photo (looked totally real, by the way). The other girl found out and got her older cousin to cut the other girl’s shirt in the hallway so it would fall off. *insert curmudgeon voice here* In MY day, we just wrote notes about which girl we didn’t like. It wasn’t as publicly humiliating. My advice is to treat cyber bullying the same way you would any other type of bullying.*

Inappropriate Postings I have Googled people’s names to get contact information and found the most interesting things—their personal blog detailing their *ahem* extracurricular activities, articles they wrote 10 years ago, an online budget from a school detailing how much money they make, and so on. A friend of mine once typed in someone’s name to find a wedding registry and found an article about how this person’s husband-to-be was arrested in another state with all the details. Parents (rightfully so) are worried about the long-term consequences of their children posting personal information for all to read.

The message is to have the conversation about how MySpace is everyone’s space, including future employers and colleges. Inform your child that you will respect their privacy while on the computer, however that their safety is most important and that you will intervene if you feel it is necessary. The good thing about the online issue is it is a great jumping off point for discussing ethics of downloading music, how to evaluate the reliability of online information, strategies for handling online harassment, or getting emails from strangers. It’s the 21st century equivalent of our parents telling us not to give out personal information or take candy from strangers.

What you do not want is to be hovering over your child’s shoulder while they are on the computer or go on and on that the Internet is full of sexual predators and danger. Be inquisitive and knowledgeable, but not intrusive. The message you want to send is that you are open and available for conversation about online safety. Chances are, your kid probably already knows how to hide his/her profile from others who s/he doesn’t know or isn’t in their friend network. But you have presented that you are available if something comes up.

They spend too much time online: This one is a biggie. Without fail, every meeting about lack of homework completion leads to a discussion about how the kid is spending their time online instead. And just what are they doing? Well, a recent survey showed that most online teens are using social networking sites to stay in touch with close and distant friends and to make new friends. It’s the 21st century mall.

To continue the theme of building rapport with your teen about online activity, discuss an “Acceptable use policy” with them. It’s not about laying down the law, it’s about allowing appropriate use unless there is a decline in grades, severe change in emotions, or physical symptoms such as back pain. Remember that computer use can be good too. There are many sites that can be helpful for finishing homework, learning how to do new things, engaging youth in the political process, learning new languages, and friendship building.

Ok, TTYL8R. I’ve spent far too long on this newfangled Internet today.

*I will definitely have a follow-up post on bullying and relational aggression with tips for parents and educators. So you have a nice context, in the meantime, go ahead and rent Mean Girls unless you simply cannot stand to see Lindsey Lohan’s face one more time.

Portions of the content for this blog came from a recent Bay Area Parent magazine article by Jennifer Shaw-Hurd. See, I’m modeling how not to plagiarize.

Psychologist vs. Puppy

We got a puppy. You know what’s a lot of work? Puppies.

My fiancé and I have been following this puppy around, armed with my behaviorist training, treat bag, and training clicker. When we see something we like, we mark it with a click, and reward it. Here is my life right now:

Sit. click Yes! treat
Down. click Yes! treat
Drop it (dustpan, sock, shoe, pillow, etc.) click Yes! treat
Look at me! click Yes! treat

We go to “Demure Dog” class every Saturday to reinforce everything. Our instructor says the dog has ADD. All puppies do. It’s exhausting. Now I know you all think I’m going to draw a parallel between my experience with my dog and human behavior. And yes, I am.* Hey, if Pavlov can do it, so can I.

As a joke, my fiancé and I started using the clicker with each other. He puts away the dishes, and I click and say, “Yes!” I say we can watch baseball instead of watching my show, he clicks and says “Yes!” We are in the House of Positive Reinforcement. All! Positive! All! The! Time!

At first, the clicking at each other was funny. Now I’m actually getting some insights into what my fiancé appreciates that I never knew. He apparently DOES notice and appreciate when I wipe down the counters, put away the laundry, or pick him up from the train station. Who knew? And I never really noticed before that he always takes out the recycling before it turns into tower of abstract trash-art. The point is, we often take for granted the nice things people do for us, and the same goes for our children’s behavior.*

I have had more than one parent say, “Why should I reward my kid for doing what he’s supposed to be doing anyway? That’s just bribing him.” And I ask them this, “Do you like it when your boss notices you are doing a good job instead of always telling you what you are doing wrong?” or “If your boss gave you a cash bonus for a good job, would you give it back because you were supposed to be doing your job anyway?” People like positive feedback and rewards, and kids eat it up.

I worked with this 7th grade student once who was such a “tough guy.” Every positive thing I said to him, he brushed off like he didn’t care. He was in a counseling group I ran for 7th grade boys with oppositional behavior and ADHD (in retrospect, I have no idea how I survived). The group had agreed that each member would get a “Caught You Being Good” ticket for every time they attended group and followed the rules. These tickets were a part of a school-wide positive behavior plan, and got you in a raffle for a $5 prize and your name read on the announcements. Every time I gave this student a CYBG ticket, he shrugged, said “whatever” and shoved it in his pocket. I thought my plan wasn’t working with this kid, but stayed the course.

At the end of the school year, his mom came in to the group celebration and told me that her son had put up every single ticket on his mirror at home in an arch design and couldn’t wait until the next group so he could cover the whole mirror. So even your “too cool for school” kid may also like when you notice good things. Try it out in your classroom, with your husband, co-worker, or your kid and see what happens. It might just be contagious and someone will finally acknowledge your world-famous pot roast dinner or how you always come to staff meetings on time.

And thanks for reading today. click Yes!

*People are not dogs and dogs are not people. Seriously, it’s just a metaphor.

Teacher Vs. Student

Aha. After many painful hours of searching YouTube for awful teacher-student interactions, I found a clip to illustrate how I might do an observation and consult with the teacher. This is a clip from a mockumentary (fake documentary) in England of a teacher-student interaction gone awry. It isn’t that far off from some teacher-student interactions I’ve observed. And if you are reading my blog from work or around small children, you may want to turn down the volume! I apologize in advance for the cursing. But it’s not that uncommon in these interactions, so it stays.



What would you do if you were the teacher? What would you do if you were the school psychologist?

Of course, in reality, I would collect information from the kid’s cumulative folder to see if this behavior is historical or new, observe him in other classes, interview his teacher to get a sense of the frequency, intensity, and duration of these types of incidents, and obtain information from the family if there are any recent stressors in the student’s life or ongoing disabilities that may be triggering his reaction. For the purpose of this post, let’s assume this is a brand new problem that only occurs with this teacher and there are no other external factors causing the behavior. It’s never that simple, but let’s pretend. It’s fun.

Now here’s what I observed. My framework is a Functional Behavior Analysis—basically that every student’s behavior serves some function. If you look at the reason a student may be acting out, it’s usually to get something or escape something. The way you figure out the function is to observe the sequence of events—the Antecedent (what happens before), the Behavior (what the student does) and the Consequence (what happens? What does the student get or get out of?). It’s often called the A-B-C model among school psychologists.

1) Antecedent: Jonah asks the teacher for help.
Behavior: Teacher tells him to be quiet.
Consequence: Jonah continues to talk by requesting help two more times in a less polite fashion (gets teacher attention)

2) A: Teacher comes over to help Jonah
B: Accuses teacher of farting
C: Class laughs (gets peer attention) and he gets a time out (escapes work)

3) A: Teacher gives command to take cap off and he will get it at the end of the day
B: Jonah argues, gives hat to teacher, then makes another comment
C: Teacher ignores (still escaping work)

4) A: Jonah sneezes loudly
B: Teacher yells, “Jonah, Please!” and he continues to argue with her
C: Class laughs (gets peer attention, escapes work)

Okay, so one hypothesis is that Jonah doesn’t know how to do the work and is being disruptive to get out of doing the work and/or avoid looking dumb (‘Tis better to look bad than dumb, basically).

The other thing I notice is the desire for peer attention. His misbehavior and subsequent time out actually rewarded him by him gaining further peer attention. Actually, in a later episode, Jonah states to the “camera crew” that when he acts up, it’s providing a service to his classmates—“That’s not disruptive, that’s entertainment!”

So what did work and what can make the teacher-student interaction better? Research on oppositional and defiant behavior provides the following suggestions:

1) Respond to requests for help or redirect him to ask his classmate. One teacher I work with has an “Ask 3 before you ask me” rule to build independence. Responding to the request may not be enough, but it would at least prevent some of the problem.

2) Jonah’s noncompliant behavior may be related to wanting to “save face” when he finds tasks too difficult. Have a private conversation about the task difficulty level and encourage him to seek help when he is struggling, rather than making off-task remarks.

3) Ignore minor infractions. It’s the “Ye Olde Pick Your Battles” concept. This worked when Jonah grabbed his classmates’ heads and she ignored it. He stopped doing it. This one is tricky because as teachers have told me, it is difficult to ignore such rudeness. But figure out which things are non-negotiable and which things can slide. It will make things easier in the long run.

4) Avoid staying in the interaction too long. It is tempting to try and reason or plead with a student who is being oppositional, but as you can see, you will not win. You can’t reason with an oppositional kid, believe me, I’ve tried. You can say the sky is blue and s/he will disagree. This teacher especially wasn’t going to win this battle having the interaction in front of peers. He likes that. Have a private discussion. Reflect back his complaint and tell him what you expect him to do. Be brief and direct. Instead of “shoosh!” she may have tried “Jonah, I see you need some help getting started. Write the topic sentence and I’ll be back to check in on how it’s going in 5 minutes.”

5) If that doesn’t work, try the “Houdini” technique: Deliver the command and walk away. Model calmness. Use a business-like tone with an oppositional student (vs. sarcastic or angry). State what you expect him to do and walk away. Give a moment for the student to comply, too. This worked for the teacher when she asked him to give her the hat and he would get it back at the end of the day. Then she took the hat and walked away, ignoring the other hat comment.

6) If that command doesn’t work, avoid the power struggles by providing the directive again with fixed choices and/or predetermined consequences. This must be brief and direct and not in a threatening manner. “Jonah, I expect you to start your work now. When you finish, you can have some free time. If you choose to talk with your friends or make comments, then (predetermined consequence).

The importance of the predetermined consequence is that it is agree upon before the interaction so it is not a public threat (e.g. “If you don’t start your work, I’m going to call your mom!”). The problem with this is the student usually needs to save face at this point and may say, “fine, do it!” and then there you are in class with your idle threat you can’t follow through on.

If the consequence is predetermined, it’s just a follow through of the agreement. For some reason, students are more accepting of “it’s the rule/agreement” because it feels less like a personal attack (It’s not me, it’s the rule!). Some example predetermined consequences I’ve seen are: negative progress report, detention, classroom service, calls to parent, etc. She may have tried: “Remember our agreement that if you talked with friends in class instead of working, we would call your mom? I’d like to see a positive report instead. It's your choice."

7) Channel Jonah’s energy for good, not evil. Do more group work so he can get what he needs (peer attention) in an appropriate way. I’ve also seen teachers do the “fake task” when they see an antecedent that usually creates a power struggle and they intervene early in the chain of behavio. For example, a bouncy kid with ADHD may be asked to deliver a note/stapler/whatever to the secretary to get some of the energy out. Jonah’s a tricky one, because he may not enjoy positive adult attention, but it’s worth a try to get him in a helping role.

As I type, I am again struck by how difficult of a job teaching is, especially when you have a Jonah in your class. It is my hope that some of these strategies can be experimented with in your particular situation. And teachers…you all get a Purple Heart of Courage for showing up every day to work!

Observations

One of the jobs of a school psychologist is to go into the classroom and observe students who are having difficulties. It is one of my favorite parts of my job. Working with a student one-on-one is a whole different world than seeing the kid in action in class.

I have apparently had an affinity for observation since long before I became a school psychologist. Last summer, I went home for a visit and my parents dragged out boxes of my papers from elementary through high school. My folks were moving and wanted me to condense my childhood to one box. (Fair enough—I don’t need my high school essay on The Great Gatsby anymore). I came across a small blue notebook from 4th grade that made me laugh. It was like a little detective’s notebook filled with the times and actions of my classmates:

10:42: Mary goes to snack table. Takes more than her porshun! [sic]
10:44: Nick tries to sit next to Mary at snack table. She says the seat is taken.
10:45: Nick tells on Mary.
11:28: Michaela tries to be friends with Erin but Erin is best friends with Desiree
1:15: Back from P.E. Nick was being a sweat hog

Of course, since 4th grade, I have developed some modicum of professionalism in my write-ups of my observations—I try to remain objective and state just the facts of what transpired. And “sweat hog” is no longer in my vocabulary, thank god. But sometimes I still feel like a detective in my job, trying to piece together the constellation of information from many different people’s perspectives.

Observations are an essential "clue" in the detective/psychologist's assessment. I have been in many classrooms and seen many illuminating things. One kid who was an absolute joy to work with turned into an argumentative bully in P.E., another kid who was painted as the "wolf" aggressor by everyone was actually more of a "sheep" in class, getting picked on relentlessly. Turns out the aggressive behavior was the reaction to the bullying; He wasn't the instigator after all.

I have seen a lot of classrooms over the years, but I have never seen anything like what is secretly taped from kids’ cell phones and put on YouTube. It’s really quite shocking. There are a number of angry teacher moments captured on film that make me cringe. I cringe for the students experiencing the angry teacher and I cringe for the teacher that has to cope with months and months of students acting up in their classes. And we wonder why there’s a teacher shortage. But how does it get to this point? How can a teacher-student relationship go so awry to warrant yelling at a student in front of the class? And what can be done before it gets to this point?

I will search YouTube and find a good clip we can analyze together. Stay tuned. And fellow colleagues, don’t worry about me observing and documenting your snack-taking behavior in the teacher's lounge. I’m really not watching anymore, I promise. Unless you go for the last piece of cake. Then it’s on.

Danger! Fun Ahead!

My friend emailed me this article from the SF Chronicle yesterday about the “Wussification of America’s Children.” It basically says that we worry too much about our children. It contends that the overprotection of children can even hurt their development.

This is a phenomenon that I have seen in popular media, but not necessarily in the research. I have heard the term “Helicopter Parenting” to describe this idea—the parent hovers over the child and at the first sign of distress swoops in to rescue him or her. Then the child does not learn how to cope for him or herself and gets the message that the world is a dangerous place.

I have worked with a few parents over the years that have some of these characteristics. One parent I worked with (and her advocate and lawyer) demanded that the school write in the IEP (Special Education Contract) that the child’s classroom be kept at 68 degrees. This is the same student who refused to come see me for testing without her mother (she was in 10th grade, by the way). Common sense dictates that this girl would not be working toward any sort of independence. But what does the research say?

The developmental psychology research on parenting is as big as the Internet search for “parenting” (25,700,000). It’s expansive, conflicting, and confusing. One article will say that parents need to do X and then the next will say that X is the worst possible thing to do, you must do Y. One of the longest-standing theories of parenting and related outcomes is the work by Diana Baumrind (of my alma matter, UC Berkeley).* Baumrind proposed back in 1966 three parenting styles that to date, still permeate the research on parenting: the Authoritarian Parenting Style (low warmth, high control), Permissive Parenting Style (high warmth, low control) and Authoritative Parenting Style (high warmth, moderate control).

Study after study uses these parenting styles to predict any number of outcomes, but mostly academic success and social skills. The Authoritative Parenting Style usually comes out on top. I wonder where Helicopter Parenting fits in to this dynamic. It’s sort of room temperature—not exactly warm, not exactly cold. The control is variable too—it can be permissive, authoritarian or authoritative, depending on the parent.

What I do know is that life is not room temperature. We need to teach our children the coping skills to “weather the storm” of life. I grew up in Colorado where in one day it would be 90 degrees and the next day it would snow. If my parents had only let me experience the 68-degree days, I would have missed out on swimming at the pool, early entrepreneurship with lemonade stands, making snowmen with my sister (and snow-women, we were egalitarian), and skiing in the mountains with hot cocoa breaks to warm our frozen noses. And those are some of my fondest childhood memories.

*Sidebar: Diana Baumrind worked out at my gym and she is unstoppable in Spin class. There’s a metaphor in there somewhere but I haven’t had my coffee yet.

The Uglist Girl in School

When I was a junior in high school, I would pick up my friend along the way to school so we could ride together. She was not a morning person (still isn’t, btw). One morning, I got there a little early so instead of my usual honk, I came in for a minute. She looked the opposite of ready. She was near tears because she had a cowlick (I didn’t know what this was, but apparently it’s portion of your hair that always goes the wrong way) and it wasn’t cooperating. She exclaimed that she couldn’t go with me because she was “The Ugliest Girl in School.” And as a good best friend, I believe we scrambled around for a baseball hat or some gel or something because I totally understood. I had had a similar encounter the week before in which she had dyed my hair “Ash Blonde” and it turned out gray.* I was certain that this event would prohibit all boys from asking me to prom and ran to the store across town in a disguise to get some new hair dye right away.

We both thought the whole school was going to take note of our hair. Reality is, our classmates were probably thinking of their own new zit or how they were under or over developed, not our hair.**

What is it about adolescence that creates such sensitivity to what others think? Why did we feel like we were under a microscope by our peers? How did our peers influence our self-perceptions?

Research on Peer Influence

The debate about if peers or parents are more influential is still ongoing. There tends to be less polarity in the field, with the general consensus that it’s both. The question is how peers and parents are influential and how they interact.

It is true that adolescence is a time when peers play an increasingly important role in the lives of youth. This role can be positive or negative, but developing friendships is an important process that helps adolescents construct their identities. Identities are basically the stories adolescents tell about themselves, and sometimes come with identifying labels, such as “jock,” “troublemaker,” “nerd,” “popular,” or “ugliest girl in school.”


But research also suggests that parent relationships are not necessarily undermined by peer relationships. And while it seems that teens are influenced by their peers, parents clearly continue to be influential in their lives. Friends come and go, but parents are there to stay. Also, teens tend to choose those who are similar to them in values, so if a parent and teen have a healthy relationship, then they will likely seek out healthy relationships with peers.

The problem with the notion of peer pressure/affiliation with negative peers “causing” misbehavior is the relationship is correlational, and not necessarily causal. A recent meta-analysis of the literature suggests that peer influence on drug use is overestimated. Basically, if your kid already values doing drugs, they will select similar drug-using friends, and therein lies the correlation. Why that may be valued is complex. I know of not one behavior that is directly caused by only one event or person. Child development is far too complex for that. Certainly no one was pressuring us to wear our hair in certain ways. This is why the term “peer pressure" is misleading. It can be misleading for a number of reasons.

1) We never referred to other students as “peers” so the term “peer pressure” was somewhat lost on us. To this day, I have never heard a child or adolescent say the word “peer” in reference to a classmate.

2) The term “peer pressure” evoked an image of random unknown classmate emerging from the dark shadows of the locker room to sell us drugs. That never happened.

3) We in fact mocked lessons on how to combat “peer pressure” by well meaning adults. My mom, bless her heart, bought this book for parenting teens when I was in high school called “Get out of my life! But first can you drive me and Cheryl to the mall?” or “Teen Talk!” or something like that. My best friend and I got our hands on it and have never laughed so hard. This is a sample script the parent was supposed to teach the teen to resist peer pressure for drugs.

Pressuring Teen: Hey man, want to smoke some grass?
Pressured Teen: I don’t smoke grass, I mow it!
Pressuring Teen: Ok, man!

So. Off. The. Mark. On so many levels. It just doesn’t happen that way.

As long as there are teenagers, there will be a debate about how influential peers and parents are during this developmental period. When we figure this out, we may also be able to answer important questions about fashion, hair, and other adolescent fads. I, for one, am dying to know how an entire generation of my peers convinced each other that tight jeans, leg warmers, fluorescent tops, and giant bangs were a good fashion idea. We know the parents weren’t responsible for that.



* *Shudder* I still get chills remembering looking in the mirror and seeing my 16 year old self look exactly like my grandmother.

**Maybe. I still contend, to this day, that it would have been obvious if I showed up with gray hair. My friend, to this day, says it wasn’t that bad.

Caught in the Middle: Part III

Social Factors

The following is a confabulated* transcript based on a conversation with one of my 6th grade middle school students. He was referred to me for special education testing because he was suspected of having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. He reported hating his English teacher and was constantly being kicked out of class for getting out of his seat without permission and talking out. None of the other data supported a diagnosis of ADHD. He was attentive in his other classes and previous report cards from his cumulative folder never mentioned inattention or hyperactivity. But there was still the issue that he was disruptive in class and hated school.

Dr. Bell: Let’s play a game called ‘I start a sentence and you finish it’
Middle School Boy: Ok.
DB: I like to…
MSB: Play video games.
DB: My favorite part of school is…
MSB: Recess.
DB: If I were president, I would…
MSB: Cancel school forever!

(Interjection: Great, I have uncovered that he doesn’t like school. Not exactly new info)

DB: Teachers are…
MSB: Mean. My teacher is always mad.
DB: What makes her mad?
MSB: I get out of my seat to sharpen my pencil. I was allowed to in 5th grade!
DB: What else makes her mad?
MSB: When I ask my friends what they got for answers.
DB: What does she say?
MSB: That I’m cheating! But we always worked in groups in my elementary school so I thought it was ok.

This confabulated* transcript highlights what studies have shown about the difficulties that students have in making the transition to middle school. It has been shown that student motivation and attitudes toward school tend to decline during this transition. The theory goes that there is a poor fit between the developmental needs of preadolescents and the social environment of middle school (Eccles et al.).

Stage-environment Fit

Essentially, the theory goes, middle school aged students are beginning to want more autonomy, peer groups are becoming more important, and many middle schools are not set up to support these developmental needs. Beginning in middle school, there is more academic tracking, increasing competition, and fewer opportunities for decision-making. This is what was going on for the kid I was working with. His developmental need for independent learning and collaborating with his classmates was mismatched with the teacher’s style. Now there is value in him learning how to adapt to a mismatched teacher, so we had a consultation meeting and the two began to understand each other better.

Also remember that our friends with the developing prefrontal cortexes now have several classes and teachers and new procedures for each. We should not expect our middle school children to wake up for 6th grade with all the knowledge on how to navigate such a new environment and successfully organize all their materials for each class. There are some students who do have these skills already, but don’t assume. We didn’t expect our 4 year olds to wake up and know how to tie their shoes—we had to teach them.

Some tips for middle school parents (and educators) on how to help your middle school student if they are having difficulties adjusting can be found at a great website by the National Middle School Association.

Peers

I would be remiss if I didn’t discuss peers in a post about the social factors that contribute to adolescence. Unfortunately, this would take 6, maybe 7,000 hours and I have to go to work. Stay tuned for a snippet about peers for tomorrow’s post (It will be post 1 of a 7,000 part series). I will leave you with a teaser:

Ugliest Girl in School.


*I have always wanted to use the word confabulated. Thank you for the opportunity.

Caught in the Middle: Part II

Psychological Factors

Let’s get back to our middle school friends. One of the psychological factors that helps to explain middle school students is Identity Development.

Have any of you seen that scene in Zoolander in which Ben Stiller looks into a puddle, sees his reflection, and says “Who am I?” only to be splashed in the face by the puddle by an oncoming car? That’s basically what’s going on in early adolescence.

I am reminded of a situation that happened at one of my schools. A teacher came to me perplexed because one of his 8th grade students was acting up in class. He had taught him in 7th grade and he was a delightful student—did his homework, was respectful, helped him out after school with cleaning up the classroom—a model student. Now the student is in 8th grade and is defiant, rude, and hasn’t turned in a thing all year. He disrespects the teacher all the time, publicly. It had the flavor of a typical “Class Clown” situation. The teacher was fed up that day because the student told the class he thought that his teacher was the star of the movie, “The 40-Year Old Virgin.” Okay, that’s kind of funny, I admit (because it wasn’t directed at me!). But there is a time and place for being funny, and it’s not during a math lesson.

So what happened? How did Sweetie McStudent turn into Class Clown? Is there any hope for getting Sweetie McStudent back?

Let’s take this on using one of my favorite theorists for explaining adolescence. Erik Erikson would say you can get Sweetie back if he can resolve his “identity crisis.” Erikson’s theory of development basically says that there are certain “stages” and developmental tasks that people must go through in their life to have a healthy identity. They must accept and work through these conflicts in order to develop virtues, such as fidelity and competence.

The stage Erikson describes for adolescence is called “Identity vs. Role Confusion.” This means that adolescents are trying on different roles and seeing how they fit. This student had tried out the “Sweetie McStudent” role and now was going to try on “Class Clown” role for a bit and see what that gets him in life. Sweetie McStudent gets the respect of your teacher and probably parents, while Class Clown gets you the respect of your peers. It’s a trade-off, and perhaps he was confused about what type of adolescent he wanted to be. This role confusion and trying on of identities in adolescence is normal, according to Erikson.

Fortunately for you, I have the (partial) epilogue to this story because I was friends with the school psychologist at the student’s high school the next year. He made the freshman baseball team in 9th grade, which was a turnaround for him, because he needed good grades to be on the team. So he began integrating his identity by being both a Sweetie McStudent and a Sporty McSportsalot. Maybe one day he'll even integrate his Class Clown skills into his identity and he'll end up being a comedian too. The kid was funny.

Caught in the Middle: Part I

Biological Factors
It’s super daunting to distil the gigantic field of biological psychology into a post. But here goes. There are two schools of thought on this: 1) there are anatomical differences in the “teen brain” that drives behavior. 2) The “teen brain” is a myth. Experiences create changes in the teen’s brain. Both camps do agree that there are anatomical differences in the brain that are occurring from childhood to adolescence and on to adulthood. What is the hotly debated issue is if these anatomical changes in the brain result in more risk-taking behavior.*

Anatomical Changes in the Teen Brain
Remember the process of executive functioning? Recent studies indicate that the prefrontal cortex—which is responsible for executive functioning--may be one of the most important distinctions between the teenage and adult brain. Recent fMRI studies show that from childhood (ages 8-13) through adolescence (14-17) and adulthood (18-30), the prefrontal cortex is used more during complex tasks. Additional regions of the brain (usually higher-order thinking skills) are also used more as the child ages.

Anatomically, the brain is undergoing synaptic pruning (eliminating unnecessary connections between the neurons) and increasing myelin (essentially insulation) around the axons that send signals from neuron to neuron. As a result, how the prefrontal cortex “communicates” with other areas of the brain is more efficient.

The general idea is that as you get older, your brain can distribute the workload of the decision making to many different areas of the brain. This is especially useful under stressful conditions, because one can recruit more areas than just the prefrontal cortex to take over.

So it’s conceivable that my tough guy student impulsively got in a fight because under stress, could not efficiently use his prefrontal cortex and other regions that help to inhibit behavior or evaluate long-term consequences.

Does the difference in the teen’s brain really cause his/her behavior?

Herein lies the controversy. There is a group of researchers who believe that the risk taking, novelty seeking, and impulsivity that are characteristic of adolescents may be hardwired in the brain. Remember that the pruning of grey matter in the brain does not reach the forebrain until adulthood, and the forebrain is where the planning, reasoning, and impulse control occur (remember, pruning is good, it increases efficiency). The brain-behavior connection is drawn based on subsequent studies of adolescents’ risk assessments, which are thought to require these areas of the brain.

A recent study showed that for adolescents, the perceived benefits of an action tend to outweigh and offset the risk. So basically the payoff of having your friends think you are the best coke drinker in the school outweighed the cost of puking. Likewise, the benefits of fighting a peer at lunch and keeping your “tough guy” image outweighs the cost of having to see the school psychologist and potential suspension.

And, because nothing is every that simple when dealing with adolescents, another group of researchers believes that the “Teen Brain” is a myth. The argument goes something like this: Snapshots of brain activity and their associated behaviors do not necessarily mean that the brain causes the problems encountered by teens. Considerable research shows that a person’s emotions and behaviors continuously change brain anatomy and physiology (e.g. stress, enriched environments, nutrition, exercise, and even meditation). So did the brain cause the behavior, or did the behavior alter the brain?

Further, anthropological research reveals that teens in many cultures do not experience these “teen problems” (at least not until Western schooling, movies, and television were introduced), making the “hardwiring” of the teen brain not universal. So in the case of my tough guy, the stress about his fight perhaps created hypersensitivity in dopamine-producing neurons, which altered his brain chemistry. And my happily chanting girls somehow escaped the teen problems because of their nurturing, healthy, and stress-free experiences.

I don’t know about you all, but it seems to me that this biological psychology lesson is a bit mind boggling.** Now pretend you’re 13 years old trying to figure it all out! Middle school kids are amazing.


*For more detail on the debate, refer to Scientific American Reports: Special Edition on Child Development © 2007. They lay it out quite well and include more detailed information on all the studies.

**Pun intended.

Stuck in the Middle

I have always chosen to work in middle schools. I request them on purpose. I love the “tween” age group of 11-14 (“tween”=between children and teens). I love the drama of it all. I love when the students blow my expectations out of the water. I love how they secretly still want to play. I love seeing the incredible cognitive and social development that happens in 3 short years. And when I tell people this, they look at me as if I am an alien. Middle schoolers get a bad rep.

My first experience with middle school (other than my own, of course) was when I was doing my first practicum in grad school. My assignment was to “get a sense of the culture of a middle school” by interviewing students and staff. My first day, I noticed boy culture right away. A 7th grade boy at lunch somehow obtained a 2-liter bottle of coke and was showing all his friends how quickly he could drink it all, while they all cheered on. He then showed all his friends his vomit. Awesome.

Girl culture is just as interesting. Just the other day at my school I heard three girls in the hallway chanting a rhyme of some sort. I can’t remember it all, but it was along the lines of “OH. MY. GOD. I think I need a manicure. The sun, the sun, is bleaching out my hair!” There was an accompanying interpretive dance. Awesome.

This is all the fodder for an anthropological study of middle school culture. I am the Margaret Mead of Middle School.

Somehow, the happy, well-adjusted students are somehow never referred to the school psychologist. But there is a happy, well-adjusted student in every kid that comes into my office. A few years ago, a giant, sulky, angry 8th grade boy was “delivered” to my office by the principal following a fight at lunch. The principal whispered to me, “This kid’s a ‘frequent flyer’ in my office for fights. Good luck.” His arms were crossed. He was scowling. He was wearing an army jacket with his hood on. His backpack claimed “Thug Life.” And he was clearly NOT going to talk to ME.

I started with acknowledging that he didn’t want to be there (didn’t need my Ph.D. for that one). Then to break the ice, I asked him what he liked to do when he wasn’t at school. And do you know what he said? Poetry. I did not see that coming.

So what is going on with middle school aged students???

The answer is: it depends on your theoretical orientation. Personally, I subscribe to the biopsychosocial explanation. This means that the middle school student’s behavior is not the result of one thing, but rather a complex interaction between biology, personality and learning factors, and social factors (including family, previous experiences, culture, peers, etc.). But if you want to sound fancy, next time use “biopsychosocial.”

Biological Factors will be the first of the “Three Part Series” attempting to explain our middle school friends. I’ll take each factor separately, even though the interaction among them is the good part.

Writing Development

I got a booklet of papers in the mail today from my mother. Attached to the papers was a sticky note that read:“One finds some very interesting things when cleaning up basements.” It was some of my writing from elementary school. Given my recent post on writing, I thought I’d share some of my early work to show how writing develops.

Apparently, I was a “journalist” for the school paper back in the early 80s. Two thoughts came to mind as I read this: 1) I can’t believe this was published this for others to read, and 2) I may have missed my calling as a hard-nosed reporter.

Interview with Barbie
By Rebecca Bell, Reporter

Barbie: “You know, I’ve never been interviewed before.”
Rebecca: “Barbie, I would like to ask you a few questions.” *
Barbie: “Oh, sure. Ask me anything.”
Rebecca: “Barbie, do you like Ken?”
Barbie: I used to, but now I like Mr. T.”
Rebecca: “I see, but how does Ken feel?”**
Barbie: “He doesn’t care and besides, he likes Skipper now.”
Rebecca: “Are you going to be doing a movie with Mr. T.?”
Barbie: “Yes, it’s called ‘Strut’.”***
Rebecca: “Thank you very much, Barbie. It was nice interviewing you.”

*See, I get right to the point, like a hard-nosed journalist
**Note early therapeutic penchant for asking about feelings
***I really wish this were a real movie. It would have been awesome.

Writer's Block

I usually compose my daily blog entry in my head on the way home from work. I reflect upon my experiences of the day and decide what topic sticks out as a “good” one for the blogging community. My criterion is that the topic should (hopefully) be research-based, at least quasi-interesting, and has a nice anecdote that illustrates the theory in action. In grad school at UC Berkeley, they liked to call it a “scientist-practitioner” model. What I like about this model is it brings research into action and the ivory tower concepts to real-life practical solutions. One would be surprised how little research is used in the decision making for our nation’s schools, but that is another post.

So this afternoon I was sitting in the usual traffic reflecting on the day. And I came up with a few decent topics, but none that met my criterion. And then I decided to use the non-idea as an idea and write about writer’s block.

Writer’s block is a common phenomenon that arises when one gets stuck in a part of the writing process, whether it be coming up with a topic, deciding the structure of the writing, organization, what to write about next, and the sometimes painful re-writing/revising process (Anyone who has done a dissertation is reading this having painful flashbacks). Sidebar: I bought this book while I was writing my dissertation when I had writer’s block called “How to Write Your Dissertation in 15 minutes a Day!” I was desperate. I wanted to throw the first 116 pages of my dissertation and the reams of statistical output out the window going 75 miles an hour down Highway 101 headed to Mexico, yelling “Adios, Berkeley! I quit!” Thankfully, I did not. I sought help.

So what do you do when you have writer’s block (besides fantasize about life without the writing project)?

The answer depends on where you are stuck. For some students, picking a topic is the first roadblock. Actually, picking a topic is easy. Picking a “good” topic is what people with writer’s block worry about. In keeping with the theme of the post, let’s start with the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start, after all. Most of these suggestions are for older students in middle and high school, but some can be adapted to elementary level with some creativity.

1) Brainstorming/Free Association

This is a commonly cited strategy. Basically, you write down whatever occurs to you and not judge it. You may even carry a little book around with you and jot down random thoughts that relate to your writing assignment. I have had mixed success with brainstorming depending on the student. For a student who is anxious about coming up with a “good” idea, this can be a difficult strategy because they are constantly judging themselves and don’t want to write down “silly ideas.” My advice is to ask the student treat it as an “experiment” and try to make it fun.

Some ways I’ve done brainstorming in a fun way is by drawing. Have the student draw a key word related to the topic in the middle of a poster board or large piece of paper. Circle it. Then write down and draw a line to anything that you think of related to the word. You can also draw a picture representing the word. So if your topic is “Writer’s Block” you might draw a line to a new word “Adaptation” which is a movie about writer’s block. Maybe you draw a mini-Nicholas Cage by it. You never know what random thought may trigger a good topic.

Brainstorming is best done with a buddy. I know in writing my dissertation, the input of my peers was invaluable when I got stuck. Students benefit from this as well. You can have one student pretend to be a journalist and ask the other student the “who, what, where, when, why, and how” of his/her topic. Who? Me and Nicolas Cage. What? We both have writer’s block. And so on. If you don’t have a study-buddy handy, try you’re good friend, Mr. Google. Type in “writer’s block” and see what you get. Of course, don’t plagiarize! Use the Internet to generate ideas for your own topic.

2) Graphic Organizers

There are numerous examples of graphic organizers to help with various writing genres. I call them “Plug and Chug”—you plug in your ideas in a template for that genre (e.g. expository writing, personal narratives, compare/contrast essay) and chug out your organizational plan. Let’s use the genre of story telling as an example. A story plan is a diagram of the important parts of a story. For young students, this can be as simple as folding a piece of paper into thirds and drawing a beginning, middle, and end as a prompt for writing their story. For older students, have the students fill in information in boxes such as:

Who am I writing for?
Have I looked at a good example of this type of writing?
What is the purpose of the story?
Who are the main characters?
Who are the minor characters?
What are the big events?
How should I organize the events (chronological, flash-back, by theme)?

Another graphic organizer that is common is the outline. Pretty standard. This works well for linear thinkers. For students who have executive functioning difficulties and/or writing disabilities, the outline will need to be explicitly taught as it pertains to the writing genre.

3) Dictation

Some students with visual-motor processing deficits think of writing as torture. It is actually physically difficult to write. Try writing with your non-dominant hand for one day. That’s what it’s like. This can understandably thwart the writing process. Sometimes these students appear “unmotivated.” But remember for many of these students, it is far better to look unmotivated or unwilling than appear dumb.

Teaching typing skills is a good start for these students. But there will not always be a laptop handy when you have to write, unfortunately. As a classroom modification, have the student dictate their initial writing ideas to a peer or a classroom aide, if available. This modification will have to depend on the comfort-level of the student with “announcing” his/her difficulties. Use your judgment based on the student. Even better, propose the idea to the student and see what s/he thinks. Frame it like this: “I know you have a lot of great writing ideas, and I want to make sure we get them all down on paper. Sometimes students like to have someone write down their ideas first. Would you like to try that?” I’m all for empowering the student to choose his/her own accommodations that help the writing process. Then they can have a repertoire of ideas with which to advocate for their learning needs down the road.

Okay, let’s assume now you’ve got something written down and it needs revision. Now what?

1)Change the Modality
Sometimes you can get bogged down and hit a block when you think only in words. My “15 minutes a Day!” book said to draw out your concept instead of writing it. I was resistant at first to make a cartoon of my life’s work, but I gave it a shot.

My topic was a cross-cultural analysis of parenting and adolescent motivation for school. I had come to the daunting “Conclusion” section of the dissertation and was stuck on how to conclude 2 years worth of data. So I drew out my research model with little stick Mexican-American and White adolescent figures entering little school houses from their respective little parents’ houses nearby and the teacher was giving the itty bitty report cards and so forth. Then I drew other concepts such as “perceived caring” with little hearts and “family composition” with one parent, two-parents, or mixed parent constellations (e.g. grandma and uncle). I was surprised at how much clearer my conclusion was in cartoon form and it gave me a new way to explain the complex interconnection among my research variables.

2) Challenge the Worry Thoughts

I have heard many students shoot down their own writing as “not good enough.” They may even hesitate to get started at all because they have already decided they aren’t good writers. I’ve even had students write entire essays and never turn them in because they don’t like them. Remember that for some students, writing is exposing one’s self to being critiqued, and that’s anxiety-provoking. Normalize the anxiety. But remember that even best-selling authors get bad reviews and they live through it.

Sometimes I explain it by playing darts. I tell the student that the bulls-eye represents the perfect writing piece. It’s basically the Pulitzer Prize Bulls-eye. The first outer circle is a “Pretty Good” piece of writing. This piece of writing will get you through the writing assignment and it’s acceptable quality for the teacher. The outer circle is an “OK” piece of writing that gets you by with a passing grade. It’s not the best thing you’ve ever written, but you did it anyway and you pass. Then we play the game. It becomes clear that it is very difficult to get the Pulitzer Prize Bulls-eye but you can still accumulate quite a few points with “Pretty Good” and “OK” pieces of writing. Have a discussion about how expecting yourself to hit the bulls-eye every time doesn’t allow much room for “success.”

Wow. For someone with writer’s block, I sure had a lot to say today. There’s another strategy for you: just write and see what comes out. It’s the Nike strategy, I guess. Just do it. Even if it’s just 15 minutes a day.

Executive Functioning

Executive Functioning. Ahem. *insert professor voice here*

Executive functioning involves the components of inhibiting actions, restraining and delaying responses, attending selectively, selecting goals, planning, organizing, as well as maintaining and shifting set. Deficits in executive functioning have been associated with the impairments in students with Attention Deficit Disorder.

What???

Sadly, that phrase came straight from one of my own psychoeducational assessment reports. Clear as mud, right? Let’s just say that “Executive Functioning” is a phrase that would be a good one to include in "Educational Jargon Bingo". It is a term that is extensively in the neuropsychology research and is trickling down to use in the schools, as it becomes inextricable from the symptoms associated with Attention Deficit Disorder and Nonverbal Learning Disabilities.*

So what is “Executive Functioning” ?

A good reference I found to explain Executive Functioning comes from Philip David Zelazo, Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He has a good three-part series on " Executive Functioning." Have a look.

The way I explain it is through metaphor (I’m big on metaphors, in case you hadn’t noticed). The one I’ve heard that I like is the “CEO in your head.”

Imagine there is a “Li’l Chief Executive Officer” in your head. Basically, your boss is hanging out in your pre-frontal cortex. (Scary thought, I know). But pretend s/he is sort of an authoritarian type boss. S/he tells you what to do, when to do it, when to change your focus, what not to do, to foresee how you will tackle a long-term project at work, and regulate how you feel about all that.

Meanwhile, s/he also controls aspects of your personal life. (Sheesh, s/he is bossy!) So s/he is also telling you that you can’t hang out with your co-worker during lunch because you have to finish a project, you can’t listen to music during work because it distracts you, and you will have to put off all fun tasks until you finish a dull task. She also stops you from telling her what your really think about her in no uncertain words.

In essence, s/he is telling you how to plan, organize, put off (inhibit), and execute tasks. S/he is Executive Functioning.


***
*I have 1892748927589347 ideas for posts about ADHD and Nonverbal Learning Disorders. I am open to suggestions to tailor it to my audience (I’m referring to the ones of tens of you who have found my blog thus far! Speak up!)

BINGO!

When I worked as a graduate student researcher at UC Berkeley, I had this game I secretly played with my co-worker during staff meetings. It was called “Educational Jargon Bingo.” Before the meetings, we wrote down all the educational terms that researchers throw around and placed them on a bingo chart in random order. The key was to find a word that everyone uses repeatedly but no one really knows what it means in real life. Some classics that usually guaranteed a win:

Authentic Learning
Milieu
Developmentally Appropriate
Accountability
Rubric

The reason I bring this up is much to my chagrin, NOW I’M ONE OF THEM! I realized this yesterday when I had a discussion with a special education teacher. Here is an actual transcript:

Dr. Bell: Hi Teacher, did you get my note about the IEP tomorrow?
Teacher: The IEP for the LD kid?
DB: Yeah, the LD/ADHD kid we wanted to recommend for RSP instead of SDC.
T: Why RSP?
DB: Because we need the LRE, especially since he bypassed the SST process.
T: Do we need to bring the paperwork for AB3632?
DB: No, we need to SB1895 first.
T: Ok, and are the parents ok with RSP instead of the SDC-LD class?
DB: Yeah, because the SDC we have on site is an SDC-ED not an SDC-LD class.
T: Make sense.

Average reader: ????
Anyone else in the field of special education: Got it. See you at the IEP.

So today I will translate some commonly used terms in special education that we throw around like everyone knows what we’re talking about. Feel free to use as a cheat sheet.

IEP: Individualized Education Plan. The IEP refers to both the meeting held to discuss a student in special education’s learning needs as well as the actual document created. IEP documents are created following an assessment by a school professional (e.g. speech pathologist, school psychologist) and a meeting is held every year thereafter to see how it’s going. Think of it as a plan for a student with a disability. Only it’s 24789247598475 pages long and full of legal jargon. Perhaps a future post can clarify the document.

LD: Learning Disability. In the school setting, it’s when a student’s cognitive potential (read: IQ or something similar) is at least average, there is a processing deficit (read: one way the student has difficulty learning), and there is a statistically significant discrepancy between the cognitive abilities and one area of achievement (the student’s reading, math, or writing is below what you’d expect of a kid with average intelligence). The problems with learning have to be due to the processing deficit, not to situational factors like poor attendance, poor instruction, not speaking English, etc. More on LD later...it’s a big topic.

LD/ADHD: Learning Disability/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. This means the student I was referring to has both a Learning Disability and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. For the purpose of clarity, the IEP team (everyone who goes to the meeting) has to decide which is impacting the kid’s education more and check that box. But it doesn’t mean the kid only has one disability. More on ADHD later too. Huge topic. Huge.

RSP: Resource Specialist Program. Only open to students with an IEP. The Program is run by a Resource Specialist (it is incorrect, but the teacher is also referred to as the RSP. I have also heard the teacher called the “RS” or Resource Specialist). What’s important is this person has a credential to work with students with disabilities. The Resource Specialist Program usually looks like one of two options:
1) The RSP (special education teacher) will consult with the general education teacher about how to best teach the student and case manage the IEP meetings.

2) The RSP will pull out the student every so often to directly instruct him or her in whichever area of academics they have difficulty in. They will also consult with the teacher and parents and case manage.

SDC: Special Day Class. Also open only to students with an IEP. This is a class of students who all have disabilities, usually of the same kind or severity. It has a smaller class size, usually 10-15 students. The majority of the student’s day is spent in this class with a special education teacher and usually an assistant (sometimes called a “para” short for paraprofessional). Depending on the severity of the disabilities, the only time the students interact with non-disabled peers is lunch and possibly electives such as art and PE. If a kid can handle it, they can take other classes with the general education students as well. It’s case-by-case.

SDC-LD: Special Day Class for students with Learning Disabilities

SDC-ED: Special Day Class for students with an “Emotional Disturbance,” meaning the main reason these students have difficulty learning is because of a psychological or psychiatric disorder (e.g. anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, psychotic disorder).

LRE: Least Restrictive Environment. This means that the child should be educated with non-disabled peers as much as the disability allows. The hierarchy from least restrictive to most restrictive is basically 1) No special education at all 2) Resource Specialist Program and 3) Special Day Class. There are more restrictive (read: all special education students) environments too. They are usually hospitals or special schools for severely impaired students who absolutely cannot make it in public school, despite trying all the special education supports on-site.

SST: Student Success Team or sometimes called Student Study Team. This is basically a parent-teacher conference with more people there, depending on the issue (usually can include other support staff like the principal, school psychologist, social worker, speech pathologist, and/or school nurse). This is a meeting usually held when there is a concern about a student, and a plan is made. Sometimes, the plan is to move forward with testing for special education, though it is generally agreed-upon to try other interventions first before labeling a child as “disabled.” This team can be disguised as many other names: Care Team, Coordinated Service Team, Student Assistance Program. It’s tricky like that. But it is most commonly called an SST.

AB3632: This is a California-specific law (Assembly Bill #3632) that basically says that if you are a student in special education and you need mental health support (counseling) to succeed in school, then you can get it free of cost, usually at an outside clinic. It’s usually for students with Emotional Disturbance, but can be accessed by other students with other disabilities if it’s determined by the AB3632 assessor (a psychologist or similar who comes to the school to see how severe the needs are) that the student’s emotional and behavioral problems are getting in the way of learning.

SB1895: Another California-specific law (Senate Bill #1895) that basically says before you refer for AB3632 (outside mental health services, like a clinic) you should try school- based services (on-site counselors). This law is new and how school districts are interpreting it varies widely. I couldn’t begin to explain it yet. Stay tuned.

And that is your educational jargon lesson for the day. Next time someone rattles off the alphabet soup of special education, you can say, Bingo!

Study Skills

I recently went to a conference that purported to inform us about “Good Instruction for Teaching Study Skills.” Ironically, it was the most boring conference I have ever attended. The keynote speaker lectured in a monotone for an hour and a half straight, with smudgy, unreadable overheads, and there were no opportunities for participation, reflection, or personalizing the material. I was reminded of that scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off when the teacher is droning on about Voodoo Economics. Anyone? Something d-o-o economics? Anyone? Anyone? Class?


So how do you teach study skills in an interesting way?

The answer depends on the age group and the context in which you are teaching the skill. Luckily for me, I attended a great break-out session with a dynamic presenter with practical ideas.* The following suggestions were utilized in a whole group approach in a 5th grade classroom, but can likely be adapted to younger or older students and possibly taught individually as well.

1) Know that students with effective study habits:
• Use a variety of techniques
• Can articulate their reasons for choosing a particular tactic
• Monitor success of learning
• Monitor success of tactic
• Self-monitor success and change methods according to effectiveness
• Do not use every method in repertoire
• Change strategies according to subject, teacher expectations, task demands, and their own learning style.

2) Laying the Groundwork for Teaching Study Skills

• Help student assess their study goals through visualization. Ask student to visualize the very best student in the world and asked what do they think that student does to learn. Then ask what is holding the student back from being the best student in the world (e.g. What’s one behavior that’s keeping you from being the best student in the world, What’s one thing you don’t do enough of in school?).

• Normalize negative emotions (e.g. You may feel like you don’t want to do it, but you have to do it anyway. Many kids feel that way,” tell the student to say the rhyme “I don’t feel like doing it today, but I’m going to do it anyway”)

3) The Study Pie Technique

• Make a “Study Pie” of all the strategies the student knows and ones you or the teacher will teach. This will assist students in
understanding that there are many strategies to “study” and encourages him/her to practice ones they have not tried yet. At first, they may only have one or two strategies to choose from. Increase their repertoire through direct instruction or class-wide lessons.

• Examples of “slices” in Study Pie: Doing homework, discuss topic with someone, make a list, chunking, pre-reading captions, headlines, look at pictures in the text first, write practice test questions, make flashcards, re-read the material, link to something personal, make a concept map, practice over time (not all in one night) use visual imagery, review notes, summarize in own words.

• Evaluate with student which strategies they used for a particular assignment or test and use information constructively so the student can keep or modify the strategies.

4) Teach a “Study Skill Of The Week”

• Here’s a good example of an activity to teach one of the study pie slices of “re-reading.” Many students have the idea that if you read it once, you’re done “studying.” To illustrate the value in re-reading, have the students in the class read a short passage, maybe one or two pages long. Then, instruct them to read it again and stand up when they come across something they didn’t remember reading the first time. When the whole class is standing up, have a class discussion about how the study technique of re-reading.

• Another fun way to practice memorizing facts or key terms is the Fly Swatter Game. Get two fly swatters and put up the answers to your questions on the board. Then have the students line up in two lines. Explain that the rules are that if there is arguing about who swatted the answer first, the game ends. (Usually it is clear who hit it first, but it’s good to set the stage in this way). Read out the first question and have the first two students in line run to swat the correct answer. Then they return to the end of the line and the next two students go. This game is fun because it gets the students up and moving and is a fun way to drill information.


***
*The one useful presenter was a woman named Louise Chickie-Wolfe. Great name. Great presenter. The study techniques can be found in her book with Virginia Smith called “Fostering Independent Learning.” I wish I could take credit for the Study Pie, it’s a great idea to expand student’s studying repertoire.

Text Anxiety

I had a dream the other night that I was back in high school. It's the day of a big math test. And in my dream, I am not prepared. In fact, I didn't even know there was a test! Worse yet, I can't find the classroom because I've forgotten to go to the math class all year long. Somewhere in my subconscious, lies residual high school math performance anxiety.

What is Performance Anxiety?

Even though high school is long gone, I'm sure many of us can recall that pit-of-the-stomach feeling that we are unprepared for a big test. Test Anxiety, which is sometimes referred to in the literature as "Performance Anxiety," usually arises when we are called upon to demonstrate what we know and be evaluated by others. For students, this usually takes the form of pencil-paper tests, oral presentations, projects, and sometimes even classroom participation. Performance anxiety in the workplace may arise arise before a big presentation at work, a report, or certification tests. Symptoms can include rapid heart rate, sweating palms, stomach pains, and intrusive thoughts (e.g. I'm going to bomb this! I didn't study enough. My teacher will think I'm dumb, I'm going to forget my speech).

So, how do you help students deal with it?

BEFORE THE TEST

1. Let the student know that having some anxiety before a test is normal, and in some cases can be beneficial.
Low levels of anxiety can motivate you to study, to work harder, and to seek out help. It is when the anxiety reaches a critical mass that it becomes debilitating. Think for example of drinking coffee. A little bit can perk you up and enhance focus, but a lot can make you jittery, scattered, and full of intrusive thoughts.

2. Help the student assess his/her knowledge or skills. Is the student anxious because s/he hasn't studied well? In this case, the intervention is to stop reading the blog and get to work. Start with 10-minute intervals and allow a break. Make a study schedule and stick to it. Be sure to include a small reward here and there, even if it is just verbal. Once beginning the study session, you may find the student reporting that s/he isn't sure how to study or what to study. This can lead to avoiding studying altogether. In this case, the intervention is to seek more information about the test from notes, a classmate, or the teacher. When this is not possible, the next best thing is to study anyway. Some information is better than none at all.

3. Avoid cramming. I know, we've all done it, but at the last minute, it can fuel your anxiety as you become aware of how much information you don't know yet. The research is clear: distributed practice (a little at a time) is better than massed practice (all at once).

4. Avoid excessive reassurance that the test will be “fine” or is “not a big deal” . For a child who worries, it is a big deal and they don’t feel fine. Acknowledge and normalize the worry, discourage avoidance, and encourage the student to access his/her coping skills. For example, ask the student how they have handled tests in the past and what worked well.

5. Use metaphors to explain the process of habituation . We have all heard the "face your fear!" advice. There is some truth to this, when it comes to test taking. Habituation is the process by which we "get used to" anxiety. Each time we are exposed to the anxiety provoking situation and we live through it, the next time is a little bit easier. With children and adolescents, I sometimes use a mountain climbing metaphor. Maybe it's because I grew up at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. If you are from California, you might want to use a surfing metaphor, like “ride it out”! Use a metaphor that the student can relate too.

Here’s my mountain metaphor: At first, when you are at the base of the mountain, you look up and it is very tall and scary. You wonder if you can get up the mountain and how you are going to do it. You may say to yourself "I'm not in good enough shape to climb that!" or "what if I fall down?" But then you climb. It can be difficult, but you get through it. And the next time you climb, you're in a little better shape, and you know a little bit more what to expect, and have a little more confidence. Each time, it gets easier. And you may have a new mountain to climb that looks a little different, but you have some experience already you can use. It's the same with test-taking. It gets less scary each time because you know what to do.

DURING THE TEST
1. Encourage calming self-talk. I tell my students “Your brain believes what you tell it.” If the student is telling his or herself that they can’t remember anything, the intrusive thought can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Worry shuts down problem-solving in several ways. Worrying strengthens the perception that one is incompetent (e.g. “I am going to draw a blank and forget everything I studied”) and can fuel catastrophic thinking (“If I don’t pass this test, I’m going to fail all of 8th grade and never get into a good high school”). Encourage the student to use some of the following self-talk statements:

-I’m nervous, but I can handle it.
-I’m having some trouble with some questions but I’m doing well on others
-It’s okay to make a mistake because that’s how you learn
-This feeling will pass if I allow it to
-I have taken tests before, I can do it now

2. Encourage the student to use deep breathing when the worry thoughts become intrusive. Try out the “candle exercise.” Picture a cake with 10 candles on it. Imagine yourself blowing out each candle one by one using your breathing. This quick exercise can stop the worry thoughts. When I first tried this one out in a therapy session with an anxious teen, I thought it was kind of hokey. But she loved it. Each student will have his or her own relaxation technique that works. Try a few different ones and see which ones help.



AFTER THE TEST

1. Receiving the test results back can also be an anxiety provoking experience. If the student gets a grade back that he or she is dissatisfied with, it is important to reframe the test as information about what they know and need to learn. Learning is a process, not an outcome. Let the student know that a mixture of success and failure allows for learning.

2. Encourage reflection about the test-taking process. What worked? What didn’t work? What can be learned about test-taking skills for the next test? Praise the student for any coping strategies s/he used in the process.

3. Understand that reducing performance anxiety is a process. Be patient with the student as s/he tries things in a new way. Progress in anxiety reduction is rarely linear—there will inevitably be some good test days and bad test days. Just think of a habit you have tried to change—stopping smoking, going to the gym more—and recall the ebb and flow of your own motivation to change. Praise small steps in the right direction. You would want people to recognize that you went to the gym 3 times this week, not that you didn’t go 4 times this week!


The interesting thing about my math dream is that I was quite good at math in high school, though it wasn't my favorite subject. Now I enjoy math, thanks to graduate school training in research methodology and statistics (math for a reason!). I use it every day in my work. I guess I need to let my subconscious know that I have already climbed that math anxiety mountain and am happily coasting down the other side.

***
Portions of the information in this article were obtained from research by Aureen Pinto Wagner, Ph.D., of the University of Rochester and Robert D. Freidberg., Ph.D., Wright State University.

Psych 101

What is a School Psychologist anyway? Personally, I don't recall any school psychologists in the schools I attended growing up. Perhaps I wasn't the type to be referred to said psychologist as I LOVED SCHOOL. I do seem to recall there being counselors who helped you pick your schedule, but I was certainly unaware there was such a field as "School Psychology".

I stumbled upon school psychology as a profession in Reno, from a Gypsy. I'm not crazy, read on.

I come from a family of 158,439,753 teachers (including my mom) and one engineer (sorry, dad, you're outnumbered). Education was the clear choice as I always loved working with children. This decision was further solidified by my one summer in high school clerking with my father's engineering company as a "traffic engineer" cross checking how many pipes were needed in Uzbekistan for a gold mine…zzzzzz. I complained to my father that the only exciting thing that happened all day was the small social interaction I got when the Airborne Express delivery boy came. Also once I saw a memo that someone was trying to sneak gold out of the mine in a thermos. That day was pretty exciting.

It was clear I needed to work with people, not paper.

Initially, I went to college to be a teacher. I quickly ruled it out as the first class one had to take was public speaking. I was not shy, but it sounded horrible. So I loaded up on courses in child psychology and anointed myself the prestigious title "Psych Major" with the aim of being a child psychologist.

My junior year I conducted a research study for my psychology class that tackled the ubiquitous burning research question: "Do members of the Greek system cheat?" Deep stuff. Remarkably, this study was accepted for a presentation at a psychological conference in Reno, NV. So off I went, alone, to this conference. I was only 19 at the time and therefore could not partake in the delightful world that is Reno's nightlife, other than going out to dinner. I went to the nearest restaurant that advertised "European Style" seating, which turns out, is code for "share that table over there with that stranger." I sat next to a woman who was also attending the conference--a woman named Gypsy, who was a school psychologist. As we shared our Euro meal together, it became abundantly clear that school psychology was the career for me. As she spoke about how school psychology blended the fields of education, teaching, child development, and counseling, I found myself getting excited. It seemed to me that if a teacher and a child psychologist had a baby, it would be a school psychologist. And it would be perfect.

Plus you have summers off.