News, commentary, resources, and more about Emotional and Behavioral Disorders.
Over on LD Blog I have a couple of posts about biological studies firming up possible neuropsychological linkages for maternal smoking and disorders such as ADHD. There are brief stories about two studies presented at Neuroscience 2010:
I was moving some materials from one office to another when I came across this photo of some friends. Believe it or not, I took this with a film camera. Yes, it is from the 1990s, even before 1997 or so, I think.
I suspect it was at one of the annual meetings in Tempe (AZ, US) of the Teacher Educators of Children with Behavior Disorders, as these are some of the usual suspects who attended those meetings. A casual search on any of these folks’ names will reveal that they are prominent contributors to the literature about improving the lives of children and youths with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, the families of those children and youths, other students who do and do not have disabilities, their teachers and administrators, and on and on. Students who studied just these people’s writing in detail would get quite a valuable education.
Sphere: Related ContentI’m asking readers of EBD Blog to help me identify important research questions about interventions for students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. As I noted in a parallel post on LD Blog, these need to be BIG IDEA questions. What do teachers and parents need to know about how to help students with EBD?
Examples (just for provoking discussion): Continue reading ‘What do educators need to know?’
Sphere: Related ContentAST Online’s most recent newsletter (as of this date) provides lots of helpful information. Check it!
In the November 2009 issue of Pediatrics, Tanya Froehlich and colleagues reported that maternal smoking during pregnancy and children’s exposure to lead were associated with diagnoses of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Each factor alone was linked to ADHD, and the two in combination had an even greater association ADHD.
Sphere: Related ContentOBJECTIVE: The study objective was to determine the independent and joint associations of prenatal tobacco and childhood lead exposures with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as defined by current diagnostic criteria, in a national sample of US children.
Continue reading ‘ADHD and smoking and lead’
Children and youths with ADHD and their families ought to know about systems of care. Systems of care are networks of services that are coordinated across different agencies and groups within the community. A system of care focuses on the needs of individuals and should be designed so that it takes advantage of that person’s strengths (i.e., is “strengths based”) and unique characteristics (e.g., ethnic background and native language).
Systems of care have been studied extensively in the disciplines focused on Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. They are not just for kids “lost to the streets.” The coordination of services can be beneficial for individuals with ADHD, too.
Learn more about ADHD and systems of care from the SAMHSA, the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Download a PDF.
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Summer in the US finds children and youths out of school and, perhaps, less vulnerable to some of the problems that are associated with the social and academic demands that are part of schooling. As a result, perhaps fewer of the familiar problems illustrated in this poster are apparent during summer.
If summer seems like a relief from such problems, though, that could be an important indicator that those very problems need to be addressed. A few weeks away from school probably will not cure them. Those same difficulties may still be occurring, just less obviously, and they are likely to recur soon.
Individuals or the families of children who experience the kinds of problems noted in the poster should consult the resources available from the US government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. One will not find easy cures there, but by carefully perusing the resources available one can learn what signs to monitor and where to go to get help.
The image is hot. Click it to get to a good starting place.
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Even though many schools in the US have closed for the summer or are about to do so, I want to remind folks that this is not a good time to take a break from considering the mental health needs of children and youth. Although they are likely to wax and wane over time, mental health problems don’t take many vacations.
Learn more about US resources for individual children and youths who have emotional and behavioral disorders by surfing the rich resources assembled by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services. Although some of the materials may be a tad out of date (e.g., prevalence figures have been updated for some disorders such as Autism), there are still plenty of valuable materials available from SAMHSA.
Go there! Compare what you see learn there with what’s available at other trustworthy sites. Learn what to do and from whom help is available.
Sphere: Related ContentIn “Failing Sam,” Jessica Shyu—who taught special education for two years at an American Indian reservation school in New Mexico—makes an important point about what we provide educationally for students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. Teachers may become lulled by having a quiet, disruption-free classroom and overlook the need to provide beneficial instruction. She recalls a particularly challenging student named “Sam.”
His reputation preceded him. A week before he even arrived at school, the teachers were eagerly sharing horror stories they’d heard about the 12-year-old. It was a mix of rumor and truth. They told me about his alcohol problem. They told me about how he doused his cousin with gasoline and lit her on fire. They told me I would be lucky to get him to sit down and not hurt anyone.
Continue reading ‘Teaching them matters’
Sphere: Related ContentAs exploring readers will know, I long ago doubted that food components (especially sugar and dyes and flavorings) were causes of hyperactive behavior in children. There are good reasons for my doubt. Meta-analyses of studies that tested additive-free diets revealed essentially no benefits of the diets. Other studies showed that suspected factors—especially sugar—were not culpable in hyperactive behavior. Indeed, other analyses have provided plausible explanations for why we are misled by apparent causal connections.
But, the idea persists and is even getting renewed coverage in the popular media. Melinda Fulmer provided an article to the Los Angeles (CA, US) Times describing recent examinations of the effects of additives on child behavior. Here’s her lead:
Almost every parent has a story about their [sic] kid bouncing off the walls after downing a package of jelly beans or eating a neon blue-frosted cupcake at school. Most blame the sugar.
But some new research suggests that the rainbow of artificial colors may have a bigger effect on children’s behavior. And in other parts of the world, some organizations are starting to take action on these ingredients.
I guess it’s time to revisit this topic. Do I have time to do so? No, but if I presented a mistaken perspective earlier, I should correct it.
More importantly, if Ms. Fulmer and the LA Times are promulgating untrustworthy information, they need to correct it.
Link to Ms. Fulmer’s story. Link to learn more about Ms. Fulmer’s reporting. Link to my previous (AKA “ancient history”) observations about the food additives research.
Sphere: Related ContentOver on Kenny Handleman’s ADDADHDBlog I learned of a product recall for Daytrana.
Do you or your child take the Daytrana patch for ADD/ADHD? If you do you need to know that the company that manufactures this drug, Noven Pharmaceuticals, is recalling two lot numbers.
Fortunately, the recall is for problems with the packaging. Parents still probably should learn about this product recall. Here’s link to Dr. Handleman’s blog entry.
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