Psyched About School

We know that the energy levels in our schools tend to skyrocket this time of year - for better or for worse.  Adults and children alike are getting excited about the upcoming Winter Break. It's important for all of our educators to take care of themselves during these extra-busy days, which is why I wanted to pass along this entertaining article from www.weareteachers.com. Happy Holidays, everyone!

One of our three goals in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools - in addition to 3rd grade reading proficiency and closing the achievement gap - is to achieve a graduation rate of 90%.  As a psychologist who works with high school students, I often see the challenges students face in attempting to reach that goal of high school graduation.  After reading  this article  describing a connection between adolescent depression and dropout rates, I wanted to share it with others who are also working towards that goal of increasing our graduation rate. In a study of almost 7,000 students researchers found that "almost a quarter of the 183 adolescents who dropped out of school had clinically significant depression in the few months before quitting."  While the lead author of the study "emphasized that no cause-and-effect conclusions can be drawn from her research," the data do suggest a connection between mental health and academic success. The researchers in this st...

As a School Psychologist who works with middle and high school children, it's hard to miss the impact of cell phones.  In the hallways at my high school, it's incredibly rare to pass a student who doesn't have a phone in hand.  When I walk past the cafeteria during lunch, students are sometimes interacting with one another, but are more frequently interacting with their phones. This  article  from Psych Central's website caught my attention because I often see firsthand how connected our students are to their phones.  The article documents new research from San Diego State University. By surveying 500,000 teenagers from across the country and studying suicide statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), researchers saw some worrisome trends: the suicide rate for girls aged 13-18 increased by 65 percent between 2010 and 2015, and the number of female teens reporting symptoms of severe depression increased by 58 percent.  That's an alarming i...

Non-suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) is defined as the deliberate destruction of bodily tissue without conscious suicidal intent (Nock & Favazza, 2009). This behavior is rather complicated mental health phenomenon for people to understand because it's hard to grasp how a person could harm themselves without intent to kill. It's further complicated by the fact that we all have stereotypical images of what non-suicidal self-injury looks like. Below I will provide a brief summary of a important information that I feel all administrators, educators and mental health professionals should know about non-suicidal self-injury. A workshop called "Demystifying Non-suicidal Self-Injury" is being offered by Student Services this Fall and possibility this Spring which will go into more details concerning this behavior, prevention and intervention. Non-suicidal self-injury is becoming increasing prevalent among school-aged youth, particularly those at the secondary level. Rese...

Members of the Psychological Services Department have been working  to improve awareness and understanding about Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs).  We're always interested in new findings that can help us learn more about these potentially complicated injuries, so that we can work towards better student outcomes. Dr. Miriam Beauchamp, professor of psychology at the University of Montreal and senior author of the study  Concussions in Preschoolers , reported that, “The young brain is particularly vulnerable to injury because the skull is still thin and malleable. In the months following the injury, one of the first visible signs of social difficulties in young children is a decline in their relationship with their parents.” Knowing that good parent-child relationships yield better social skills later in life, the researchers stressed the importance for parents to monitor behavior changes in their child following a head injury. While this was a small study, the researche...

One of the many duties that we undertake as School Psychologists is supporting our schools in times of crisis.  While we always dread getting THAT phone call, informing us that one of our schools has experienced a death, we do have supports in place to assist students, teachers and families at these difficult times.  Unfortunately, members of our crisis teams - consisting of psychologists, counselors and social workers - have already been busy this year. When you work with students from Kindergarten through 12th grade, as many of us do, it's important to have an understanding of how children grieve at various developmental stages, so that we can respond appropriately in times of crisis.  We wanted to share with you  this chart  from the website of  The Sharing Place , a grief support group in Utah.  Not only does this chart provide information on how children at different ages may respond to grief, it also provides "Signs of Distress" and "Possible I...