Dr. Craig Pohlman, author of the acclaimed book How Can My Kid Succeed in School? will be speaking this Thursday night, October 22, at Joseph-Beth Booksellers beside Southpark Mall in Charlotte.
The presentation starts at 7pm and will include a presentation, a chance to ask questions, and the opportunity to get your book signed. It's a practical book that is must reading for parents or teachers of any child who is struggling with school.
Many of the Southeast Psych staff will be there, as well. It should be a good night and we hope to see as many of you as possible there.
Editor's Note: The following is an updated version of one of our most popular posts ever.
In 1955, the U.S. Senate blasted comic books, deploring their depiction of every horrible thing from murder to cannibalism. The lawmakers heard from a prominent psychiatrist who singled out the Superman comic books as especially "injurious to the ethical development of children" because they "arouse phantasies [sic] of sadistic joy" in our youth. Another witness testified that children had been jumping off high places in attempts to fly like their hero. Shame on that Superman. He ruined the lives of so many children!
Half a century later, violent video games are the comic books of our day. Testimony before our state Senate included descriptions of horrific-sounding games. One witness described a game where the player scans in faces of classmates and teachers and then shoots them. He also referenced another game called Postal that gives points for watching innocent people beg for mercy before you kill them. The only problem is that we've never met one kid - or any person of any age, for that matter - who has even heard of these games. They are straw man arguments.
One frequently cited research article criticizing violent video games includes several studies. One of these studies was a "correlational study" from which the authors concluded, "Playing violent video games often may well cause increases in delinquent behaviors, both aggressive and non-aggressive." However, in a remarkable moment of self-contradiction, they later said that making such causative statements with a correlational study is "risky, at best." Why is it risky? Because correlations are just relationships between two variables; you can never say one causes the other. We could say that during the season when ice cream sales increase, shark attacks also increase. But we could not say the more ice cream you sell, the more you cause shark attacks.
Why would a couple of child psychologists come to the defense of violent video games? Because some legislative initiatives and public opinions across the country are based on fallacious assumptions, personal biases, political posturing and weak science. One recent systematic analysis of the research literature found "insufficient, contradictory and methodologically flawed evidence on the association between television viewing and video game playing and aggression in children and young people with behavioral and emotional difficulties. If public health advice is to be evidence-based, good quality research is needed," (Mitrofan, Paul, Spencer, 2009). Another extensive study found "no support for the hypothesis that violent video game playing is associated with higher aggression," (Ferguson, 2007). In fact, that same study found some positive benefits of playing violent video games, particularly improvements in visual-spatial thinking.While there are studies that find people who play violent video games may have a brief increase in violent thoughts and feelings, newer research finds that these thoughts and feelings typically last less than four minutes (Barlett, Branch, Rodeheffer, & Harris, 2009). And remember, having a violent thought is a whole lot different than actually committing violence.
Common sense tells you that you don't let an elementary school kid or an older child with a history of aggressive behavior play Grand Theft Auto. But that same common sense tells you that if 90 percent of households have owned or rented a video game every year - while the juvenile crime rate has been going down for more than a decade - then a little Halo 3 ODST never hurt anybody...
Frank Gaskill is a child psychologist with Southeast Psych who specializes in technology issues and Asperger's Disorder. He has pioneered the E-Parent curriculum to help parents better understand the tech world of their teenagers. He is also co-author of the forthcoming Max Gamer graphic novel.
Dave Verhaagen is a child and adolescent psychologist with Southeast Psych who works mostly with older adolescents and young adults. He is the author or co-author of six books, including Parenting the Millennial Generation and the forthcoming Therapy with Young Men.
Both have Ph.D.'s in psychology from UNC-Chapel Hill (Go Tar Heels!).
References:
Barlett, C., Branch, O., Rodeheffer, C., & Harris, R. (2009). How long do the short-term violent video game effects last? Aggressive Behavior. Vol 35(3), May-Jun 2009, 225-236.
Mitrofan, O., Paul, M., & Spencer, N. (2009). Is aggression in children with behavioural and emotional difficulties associated with television viewing and video game playing? A systematic review. Child: Care, Health and Development. Vol 35(1), Jan 2009, 5-15.
Ferguson, C. J. (2007). The good, the bad and the ugly: A meta-analytic review of positive and negative effects of violent video games. Psychiatric Quarterly. Vol 78(4), Dec 2007, 309-316.
It is estimated that in the United States approximately five million children experience some form of trauma each year.Car accidents, natural disasters, abuse, sudden deaths of loved ones, and exposure to community violence are examples of events that can impact children.Trauma does not just happen to one person; it touches family members, friends, and others involved in children’s lives.When something traumatic has happened to your child, there are things you can do to help facilitate recovery.
Guidelines for helping a child who has experienced a trauma:
Do not be afraid to talk about the traumatic event. When a child brings up the topic of what happened, don’t avoid it.Listen, provide support and nurturance, and answer questions honestly and to the best of your ability.It’s okay to say that you don’t know something (such as why the tornado hit your house, where people go when they die, etc.).Follow the child’s lead in discussing the event; stick to answering his or her specific questions and don’t address the topic unless your child is the one to initiate it.Be aware of your own reaction to the trauma and do not over react or appear out of control with your own emotions in front of your child.Verbalizing your own feelings of sadness, hurt, and anger is appropriate.
Create predictability and safety in your child’s daily routines. Imposing structure and patterns increases a child’s sense of safety and control throughout the day.Keep consistent times for regular activities such as meals, homework, play, and bedtime.If there are changes in the routine, give explanations for them.Keep promises you make to your child during a crisis time so he or she knows he can count on you.
Notify other adults in the child’s life about what has happened.It will be important that adults who interact with children on a regular basis (e.g., teachers, coaches, other parents, etc.) are aware of what your child has experienced.This helps others have more awareness and sensitivity and may allow greater tolerance of trauma-related behaviors that might otherwise wear on one’s patience.
Discuss your expectations for behavior.Make sure your child knows the rules at home and the consequences for breaking them.Be consistent in your discipline and focus on reinforcing positive behaviors.While it is good to be flexible at times, make sure you provide a clear rationale for any changes you make to consequences.It may be tempting to refrain from enforcing rules when your child has been through something traumatic, however, following through on consequences provides predictability, consistency, and the sense that you as the parent are in control; all three provide emotional comfort and safety.
Keep your child safe.Physical safety is one piece of this and emotional safety is another.Try to limit exposure to activities, events, and other reminders of the trauma, especially if you see your child’s symptoms increase during such activities.It’s okay to stop an activity if you see it is upsetting or retraumatizing your child.
Recognize the impact that the trauma has had on you.Sometimes parents experience the same traumatic event as their children, and in other cases parents feel the vicarious effects of trauma that has happened to their child.Feelings of helplessness, guilt, and sadness are common reactions of parents of traumatized children.Seek help from friends, family member, and/or professionals to cope with the painful emotions you have.Do not expect your child to take care of you as you deal with your own emotions.For example, do not keep your child home with you to assuage your own fear of separation from him or her.It is important to take care of yourself in order to be able to best help your child.
Know when to ask for help.Following a trauma, it is normal for children to show signs of distress.You may notice signs of disorganization, such as poor concentration and confusion.Some children begin to display behaviors that are characteristic of younger children, such as clinginess, loss of toileting, and general fearfulness.A child may reenact an event or themes relating to the event through play and artwork.Physical complaints are also common.Symptoms will usually become less severe after a few weeks, however, if the severity persists, consider consulting a mental health professional.
Dr. Jessica Bloomfield is a psychologist at Southeast Psych who specializes in treating trauma, as well as depression, anxiety, and a range of other issues.
Southeast Psych's own Dr. Craig Pohlman's latest book, How Can My Kid Succeed in School? is now in bookstores and, of course, you can order it online at amazon.com. What you will find is a highly practical book for both parents and teachers who want to help a child who is struggling with school.
The book helps adults understand their child's unique strengths and struggles, explains how to gather clues for understanding the child's learning profile, and gives practical strategies for helping each child.
Dr. Pohlman in an internationally-known, well-respected neurodevelopmental psychologist who has conducted or supervised thousands of assessments with struggling learners. This terrific book is a tremendous resource for parents and educators and should be on their must-read list.
You can see Dr. Pohlman in person on Thursday, Oct. 22 at 7pm at Joseph Beth Booksellers at Southpark Mall in Charlotte. He'll be giving a presentation and signing copies of the book. Come out and meet him.
Editor's note: This is the fourth of a four part series from Dr. Pohlman's new book, How Can My Kid Succeed in School? which is now available at amazon.com and will be in bookstores next week. Today, he shares ideas for parents who want too improve their child's listening skills.
Receptive language is the capacity to understand word sounds, word parts, whole words, sentences, and large chunks such as stories and lectures. It is not the same as reading comprehension. We use receptive language to understand when listening as well as when reading. The act of reading involves a lot of skills related to decoding text, making it a more complex activity than listening. On the other hand, listening is more closely aligned with receptive language in many ways.
If your child has limited receptive language, providing practice with listening skills may be necessary. Since listening doesn’t also require decoding printed text (which may also be problematic for your child), it provides more targeted practice with comprehending word meanings, sentence structures, and extended descriptions and arguments. You can provide listening comprehension practice for your child in a lot of ways, the most obvious being to read to him. You may need to pause after every paragraph or so to pose questions about what you just read, make predictions about what will come next, or contemplate how the material connects to other things (personal experience, other books read, movies, and so on). Audio books also provide great listening experiences; you (or somebody) should know enough about the content to converse with your child about it.
Television is a fact of life for most families, and fortunately it does provide a lot of educational programming about a range of topics. Also, high-quality entertainment shows, sports, and news can challenge your child’s receptive language (much of this content can also be accessed via DVDs or downloaded from the Internet). Many Web sites convey information via audio, but often with visual supports such as photos and diagrams which can help your child make connections (obviously supervision is necessary when kids are online).
Regardless of the form listening practice takes, here are some pointers for getting the most out of audio media for your child:
• Push the edge of the envelope in terms of difficulty. You don’t want to overwhelm your child with material that is too advanced, but you do want to make it a little challenging.
• If possible, leverage your child’s interests. If your child is into sports, suggest watching one of the many shows devoted to analysis of games and player profiles.
• Talk with your child about the material (before, during, and after). Stretch your child’s receptive language by asking questions (you might have to act naïve about the subject), modeling the forming of connections (“You know, this reminds me of . . .”), and asking for a summary (“So what were the main reasons they thought this happened?”).
• Expand expressive language at the same time. Take advantage of opportunities for your child to improve things such as summarizing, describing, explaining, and supporting an opinion.
• Be transparent about what you’re doing. You want your child to better understand his mind, and discussing the rationale behind the tactics you’re using will promote that understanding.
Dr. Pohlman conducts and supervises learning assessments for Southeast Psych and is available to present on learning issues. Feel free to contact him at 704-552-0116 or speakersbureau@southeastpsych.com. His new book is due out in stores Sept. 28th and can be ordered online now. Watch out for a special announcement about Dr. Pohlman's upcoming appearance at Joseph Beth Books in Charlotte.
Editor's note: This is the third of a four part series from Dr. Pohlman's new book, How Can My Kid Succeed in School? which arrives in bookstores in two weeks. Today he talks about two kinds of questions kids ask when learning that may give parents insight into what might be going on with their child.
How-to Questions
Kids often fire some other kinds of questions at parents when doing their homework, and each can provide clues about their learning. Two such question categories are how-to and what’s up? How-to questions relate to the various procedures and rules that kids need to access when doing their homework. Asking these questions is a tip-off that long-term memory isn’t working well, especially if the student can readily use the procedure or rule once prompted (which suggests he understands it). Examples include the following:
• How do I borrow a number? • How do you spell summary when there’s more than one summary? • Do you put the period before or after the quotation mark at the end of the sentence? • How would I solve for n in this problem?
Sometimes, however, how-to questions result from something other than memory problems, such as how well the student can reason through a problem. Applied reasoning refers to the use of logic to solve problems and tackle challenging situations. A student who asks a lot of deep how-to questions, such as, “How would I figure out the amount of water in this canister if this cube is submerged in it?" or “How could I show that climate change is affecting this habitat?” likely has shaky reasoning.
What’s-up Questions
These often reveal shaky understanding of the material and of important concepts. They are often accompanied by complaints such as “I don’t get it!” or pleas such as “Explain this to me.” What’s-up questions take many forms, but they all boil down to a less-than-firm grasp of a concept. A concept is a set of critical features of a group of ideas or objects that define that group, determine group membership, and connect it to other groups. Some of the many concepts taught in school are freedom of speech, integers, and symbiosis. Here are some example questions that relate to concepts:
• What’s the difference between a cold-blooded animal and a warm-blooded animal? • What does extremism mean? • Can I just add the tops and bottoms of these two fractions? • Aren’t a phrase and a clause pretty much the same thing?
Dr. Pohlman conducts and supervises learning assessments for Southeast Psych and is available to present on learning issues. Feel free to contact him at 704-552-0116 or speakersbureau@southeastpsych.com. His new book is due out in stores Sept. 28th and can be pre-ordered online now.
On the 8th anniversary of September 11th, we are once again reminded of the events that took place on that beautiful Fall day. Most of us can still recall exactly where we were when we heard the news of the unthinkable—terrorist attacks on our home front. We remember that moment when the safety and security we knew so well were whipped out from underneath us, and we could no longer go about our everyday lives thinking of terrorism and tragedy as things that happen far away to other people. The World Trade Center, Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania became epicenters of hurt, suffering, and pain. Like an earthquake, the effects are felt intensely at the center, and have ripple effects that are far reaching, marked by aftershocks, destruction, and devastation; and life is never quite the same.
Thus is the nature of trauma.
Trauma comes in many forms, affects people near and far, forever changes lives, and leaves some people unscathed. Physical scars are left as well as emotional ones—and some hurts never seem to fully heal, leaving the bearer forever changed in both good and bad ways.
What constitutes a trauma? A trauma is an event which happens outside the realm of “normal” experiences. It overwhelms a person’s regular coping abilities. Trauma comes in many different forms. Wars, hurricanes, school shootings, rapes, abuse, sudden deaths, and car accidents are only a few examples. Trauma can affect a person emotionally, biologically, and socially. It impacts survivors as well as family members, friends, and acquaintances.
Emotional reactions to trauma vary widely and there is no right or wrong way to feel after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. Two people could experience a terrible car accident together and may respond in very different ways or even recall the event differently. Genetics, personal history, feelings about control over the event, gender, and physiological reactions are some of the factors that affect whether or not a person will experience psychological difficulties following a traumatic event. Approximately 60% of people living in the U.S. will be exposed to at least one traumatic event during their lifetime.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a clinical diagnosis for people who have experienced a trauma and experience specific distressing symptoms afterwards. It is estimated that 9 to 15 percent of the general population in the U.S. have PTSD, although that number rises to 50% for women who have been raped. While less than a quarter of people who experience a trauma develop full-blown PTSD, there are many who still suffer from posttraumatic stress symptoms, which can greatly affect their lives.
It can be difficult to recognize the impact of trauma, and feelings of shame, anger, powerlessness, depression, and anxiety are common. Some people believe they should not feel the way they do following a trauma; some believe they could have prevented what happened, or that having difficulties means they are weak. Some feel as if they are going crazy. It is important to know that posttraumatic stress symptoms are normal reactions to abnormal situations.
So, on the anniversary of an event that was traumatic for our nation, it is good to take a moment to recognize the effects it had on us individually and as a culture and to be aware of the impact such events can have on our lives. Anniversaries can be very hard for those touched by trauma and some of the following activities may be helpful during such times:
• Writing down thoughts in a journal or blog
• Sharing memories
• Spending time with loved ones
• Connecting with spiritual or religious organizations
• Beginning the process of healing old wounds with the help of a professional
Dr. Jessica Bloomfield is a psychologist at Southeast Psych who specializes in treating trauma, as well as depression, anxiety, and a range of other issues.
References:
Busuttil, W. (2007). Psychological trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. In N. Mervat, K. Baistow, and Treasure, J. (Eds.) The Female Body in Mind: The Interface Between the Female Body and Mental Health (pp. 41-56). New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Foa, E. B., Hembree, E. A., & Rothbaum, B. O. (2007). Prolonged Exposure Therapy for PTSD: Emotional Processing of Traumatic Experiences. New York: Oxford University Press.
Herman, J. (1997). Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence—from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror. New York: Basic Books.
Treadwell, K. & Foa, E. (2004). Assessment of post-traumatic stress disorder. In W. T. O’Donohue & E. R. Levensky (Eds.) Handbook of forensic psychology: Resource for mental health and legal professionals. (pp. 347-366). New York: Elsevier Science.
Van der Kolk, B. A., McFarlane, A. C. (1996). The Black Hole of Trauma. In B. A. van der Kolk, A. C. McFarlane, & L. Weisaeth (Eds.) Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society (pp. 3-23). New York: Guilford Press.
