Are your students having difficulties in learning new skills and remembering facts? Is the student having a hard time memorizing lessons and focusing attention in classroom discussions and activities?

During school years, persistent patterns of learning difficulties are experienced by children and are carried over to adolescence. These difficulties and other co-occurring characteristics which affect the learning and daily functioning of children are potential manifestations of a learning disability (LD).

What is LD?

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a U.S federal law amended in 2004, defines learning disability in general as a “disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia”.

Learning Disabilities, which may be caused by hereditary, teratogenic, medical, and environmental factors, vary from one person to another. Some common types of LD are dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, and visual and auditory processing disorders.

How can LD be identified?

Not all students who are slow in learning have learning disabilities but students with LD must be given immediate specialized teaching strategies to help them overcome such learning difficulties. Early identification and intervention are vital in helping students with LD succeed academically and socially.

The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) in U.S. provides a Learning Disabilities Checklist to help teachers and parents observe and identify students’ learning problems and risk for learning disabilities. Click here to view the NCLD Learning Disabilities Checklist.

Teaching Strategies for Students with LD

Since learning disability is a neurological disorder which affects the brain’s ability to receive, process, store, and respond to information, students with LD bear a distinct gap between their expected level of achievement and what they actually achieve. Thus, specialized teaching strategies must be used to address the needs of students with LD.

However, some educators believe that students’ learning difficulties could be addressed without having to resort to special education services. In the Response-To-Intervention (RTI) approach, students can receive special education in general education classrooms. Each student’s progress is monitored and is used as a determining factor whether the student can continue with general education instruction or should be referred for special education services.

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Self-injury, sometimes referred to as self-harm (SH), self-inflicted violence (SIV) or self-injurious behavior (SIB), refers to a spectrum of behaviors where demonstrable injury is self-inflicted. The term self-mutilation is also sometimes used, although this phrase evokes connotations that some find worrisome, inaccurate, or offensive.

A broader definition of self-injury might also include those who inflict harm on their bodies by means of eating disorder, as well as tattooing or body piercing that goes beyond the limits of culturally accepted body modification.

A common belief regarding self-injury is that it is an attention-seeking behavior; however, in most cases, this is untrue. Most self-injurers are very self-conscious of both their wounds and scars, and go to great lengths to conceal their behavior from others. They may offer alternative explanations for their injuries, or conceal their scars with clothing. Self-injury in such individuals is not associated with suicidal or para-suicidal behavior.

The person who self-injures is not usually seeking to end his or her own life; it has been suggested instead that he or she is using self-injury as a coping mechanism to relieve emotional pain or discomfort. However, studies of individuals with developmental disabilities (such as mental retardation) have shown self-injury being dependent on environmental factors such as obtaining attention or escape from demands.

Methods of Injury

A common form of self-injury involves making cuts in the skin of the arms, legs, abdomen, inner thighs, etc. This is colloquially referred to as “cutting”; a person who routinely does this may be colloquially called a “cutter”.

The number of self-injury methods are only limited to an individual’s creativity. The bodily locations of self-injury are often areas that are easily hidden and concealed from the detection of others.

Examples of self-injury other than cutting include:

* Punching, hitting and scratching
* Choking, constricting of the airway
* Self-biting of hands, limbs, tongue, lips, or arms
* Picking at or re-opening wounds (dermatillomania), ulceration, or sutures
* Hair-pulling (trichotillomania)
* Burning, including cigarette burns, and self-incendiarism (as well as eraser burns, chemical burns [example; salt and ice burns])
* Stabbing self with wire, pins, needles, nails, staples, pens, or hair accessories
* Pinching or clamping, as with clothes pins, paper clips, etc.
* Ingesting corrosive chemicals, batteries, or pins
* Self-poisoning; for example by over-dosing on medication and/or alcohol, without suicidal intent
* Self-injury among individuals with developmental disabilites often involves relatively simple actions, such as banging one’s head against a hard surface, punching hard surfaces, biting oneself (usually hands or arms), or picking wounds. It may also include pica, the swallowing of nonfood items, which can be extremely dangerous and sometimes fatal.

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Youth violence is a powerful mover of hate crimes. In order for you to prevent the sprout of such behavior, read on and learn some tips.

Plan Ahead

1. Work with your school administration to establish a plan for responding promptly to hate incidents and hate crimes.
2. Educate school staff on how to recognize hate-motivated incidents and hate crimes.
3. Establish procedures for reporting hate-motivated incidents/crimes.
4. Establish school policies which clearly indicate that hate-motivated behavior will not be tolerated.

Response Strategies

1. Respond promptly to incidents.
2. Conduct a complete investigation of the incident, including the questioning of victim(s), witness/es and perpetrators. Report hate-motivated crimes to law enforcement. If there is physical damage – defacing, spray-pointing, etc. – take photographs. As soon as law enforcement personnel have viewed the damage and photographs have been token, have the damage repaired. If hate literature has been distributed, collect the literature for evidence.
3. Train school counselors to assist hate-motivated crime victims and/or provide referral sources to community agencies. Reassure the victim and or her family that the incident will be treated seriously.
4. Determine proper disciplinary action according to school protocols.
5. If your district has a reporting policy, submit a hate-motivated crime/incident report to the appropriate district offices.
6. Determine whether or not additional follow-up activities are necessary, e.g., staff and student awareness activities, responses to the media, etc.

For the full article and resource, click here.

from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Statistics on eating disorders and teen body image:

• 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner (Collins, 1991).
• 81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat (Mellin et al., 1991).
• The average American woman is 5’4″ tall and weighs 140 pounds. The average American model is 5’11″ tall and weighs 117 pounds.
• Most fashion models are thinner than 98% of American women (Smolak, 1996).
• 51% of 9 and 10 year-old girls feel better about themselves if they are on a diet (Mellin et al., 1991).
• 46% of 9-11 year-olds are “sometimes” or “very often” on diets, and
• 82% of their families are “sometimes” or “very often” on diets (Gustafson-Larson & Terry, 1992).
• 91% of women recently surveyed on a college campus had attempted to control their weight through dieting, 22% dieted “often” or “always” (Kurth et al., 1995).
• 95% of all dieters will regain their lost weight in 1-5 years (Grodstein, 1996).
• 35% of “normal dieters” progress to pathological dieting. Of those, 20-25% progress to partial or full-syndrome eating disorders (Shisslak & Crago, 1995).
• 25% of American men and 45% of American women are on a diet on any given day (Smolak, 1996).
• Americans spend over $40 billion on dieting and diet-related products each year (Smolak, 1996).

Wilderness therapy is an experiential program that takes place in a wilderness or remote outdoor setting. Programs provide counseling, therapy, education, leadership training and primitive living challenges that foster community and group interdependence as well as individual honesty, awareness, openness, responsibility and accountability. The terms wilderness therapy, wilderness program and outdoor behavioral health program are commonly used to mean the same thing.

Wilderness therapy, in the purest form, is a positive growth experience where teens face natural challenges and adversities that are designed to be therapeutic in nature. Children are not merely thrown into the wilderness and made to suffer hardships. They are removed from their environment, encouraged, challenged and given every opportunity to succeed. The activities in these programs include:

• primitive living
• outdoor education
• structured daily activities
• team building
• experiential therapy
• counseling
• individual therapy
• group therapy
• exploration
• expeditions
• natural consequences for actions taken

Credits:

Michael Conner, Psy.D
Mentor Research Institute
June 25, 2007

Sourced From:

Wilderness Therapy Treatment- A non-profit consumer protection information, health, safety, referral & education site.

The Juvenile Justice System was instituted during the Progressive Era, a period of social reform in the U.S. It was initially designed to assist vagrant youth that were being dealt with within the adult system. Since that time it has been effected by numerous policy and philosophy changes. The landmark policy that established the system we currently operate under was the 1974 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.

The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act called for a “deinstitutionalization” of juvenile delinquents. It required that states holding youth within adult prisons for status offenses remove them within a span of two years (this timeframe was adjusted over time). The act also provided program grants to states, based on their youth populations, and created the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).

Through reauthorization amendments, additional programs have been added to the original Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. The following list highlights a few of these additions:

• 1977 – Programs were developed to assist learning disabled children that entered the juvenile justice system.
• 1984 – A new missing and exploited children program was added.
• 1984 – Strong support was given to programs that strengthened families.
• 1988 – Studies on prison conditions within the Indian justice system were called for.
• 1990 – The OJJDP began funding child abuse training programs to instruct judicial personnel and prosecutors.
• 1992 – A juvenile boot camp program was designed to introduce delinquent youth to a lifestyle of structure and discipline.
• 1992 – A community prevention grants program gave start-up money to communities for local juvenile crime prevention plans.

Source.

Here’s a list of resources you can visit for parenting help:

Raising Kids: If it’s about raising kids, it’s here.
Parenting Help: Free Tips, Advice, Resources & Guidance
Family Education
Company Dedicated Exclusively to Connecting Women: iVillage
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Teen and Family Counseling Center (TFCC), a non profit agency, is dedicated to helping adults, families, and children feel better, interact better, and develop healthier skills for a better life.

As a leading provider of mental health services for over 22 years, our agency integrates community-based resources with our unique expertise to help ensure the highest quality of therapeutic service.

Our highly trained and supervised staff of Marriage and Family Therapist Interns provide confidential, professional counseling services to individuals, couples, children and families, as well as group counseling, workshops, classes and seminars on a variety of issues throughout the year.

TFCC always strives to offer affordable, exceptional counseling services and programs designed to support and improve the health, relationships, and lives of all Bay Area families and residents.

Visit their official website here.

An article worth sharing: “A Cut Above, The Practice of Self-Mutilation” by Carma Haley Shoemaker

A disturbing situation has emerged among teens: the practice of self-mutilation. Teenagers who self-mutilate – overwhelmingly girls – are inflicting pain and injuries on their own bodies. While it’s estimated that only one percent of the American population self-mutilates, the emotional issues that drive them – and the physical fall-out from such practices as cutting and burning – make self-mutilation a serious problem.

Types of Self-Mutilation
Cutting is but one of the self-mutilating behaviors adolescents may exhibit. Other common practices of self-mutilating behaviors include burning, bruising, breaking of bones (especially digits), picking at the skin or “wound interference” (the practice of producing a wound and not allowing it to heal).

What Causes Self-Mutilation?
There is no stereotypical person who will choose to mutilate his or her own body, but experts say it’s a process that stems from the inability to deal with stress or intense emotions.

“Self-mutilation is a desperate attempt to have some control over unbearable feelings of aloneness, loneliness and helplessness,” says Dr. Margaret Paul, therapist and co-author of Healing Your Aloneness, a book that examines self-mutilation. “When a teen or young adult has not learned healthy ways of managing these intense feelings, they turn to physical pain as a way to blot out the emotional pain or gain a sense of control over the pain they feel. In a strange way, they are really not trying to hurt themselves – they are trying to protect themselves from something even more painful than the physical pain.”
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Anxiety disorders can take many forms. You may experience free-floating anxiety without knowing exactly why you’re feeling that way. You may suffer from sudden, intense panic attacks that strike without warning. Your anxiety may come in the form of extreme social inhibition or in unwanted obsessions and compulsions. Or you may have a phobia of an object or situation that doesn’t seem to bother other people.

Despite their different forms, all anxiety disorders share one thing in common: persistent—and often overwhelming—fear or worry. The frequency and intensity of these fears can be immobilizing, distressing, and disruptive. Characteristics of an anxiety disorder include:

• Anxiety which is constant, unrelenting, and all-consuming
• Anxiety which causes self-imposed isolation or emotional withdrawal
• Anxiety which interferes with normal activities like going outside or interacting with other people

The toll an anxiety disorder takes on your life can lead to other problems as well, such as low self-esteem, depression, and alcoholism. Anxiety can also negatively impact your work and your personal relationships. But the good news is that anxiety disorders are highly treatable. With the help of a qualified mental health professional, you can get relief from your worries and lead the life that you want.

credits.