Psyched About School

We love this graphic from the Brain Injury Association and wanted to pass this helpful information along to our readers:

Mindfulness isn't just a buzzword; it is actually a powerful tool for both adults and children to reduce stress and help with emotional regulation.  Although the techniques can be very effective, they can be difficult to explain to children.  This article from Offspring shows us how to teach mindfulness to children using everyday objects, such as stuffed animals, an ice cube, an apple, and even a Hershey's Kiss. The activities come from Susan Kaiser Greenland who wrote The Mindful Child .   Visit  Offspring.lifehacker.com  to learn more about these techniques and see videos that demonstrate the activities.

If you are not sure what a Concussion Contact is, much less who your Concussion Contact is, don’t be alarmed – you are not alone.  This term comes from the 2015 North Carolina Return to Learn After Concussion Policy, which took effect during the 2016-2017 school.  The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction created this Implementation Guide to help school districts meet the learning, emotional, and behavioral needs of all students, following a concussion.  They also produced this Parent Information Brochure  (also available in Spanish ) to provide information for families. The Return to Learn (RtL) Policy was intended to broaden the existing 2011 Gfeller Waller Concussion Awareness Act (GWCA), which addressed concussion management for public school sports injuries.  The GWCA provided guidance for managing concussion symptoms of middle and high school students, including return-to-play guidelines.  However, the GWCA did not address student concu...

Last school year, School Psychologists Abby Flynn and Ginger Calhoun initiated a Focus Group for the members of our Psychological Services Department who are certified by the Department of Public Instruction as Approved Providers for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).  Although we were sad to see Ginger retire at the end of last year, we are still fortunate to have 7 psychologists who completed the additional training and supervision needed to conduct TBI evaluations.  Mandy McCoy stepped up to fill the role of co-leader after Ginger retired. The goal of this year's Brain Injury Awareness Campaign (recognized during the month of March) is "Change Your Mind About Brain Injuries" and that slogan aligns perfectly with the goals of our TBI  Focus Group. The Focus Group was developed to provide case consultation to our W-S/FCS colleagues, establish relationships with community agencies to improve student outcomes, gain new knowledge and skills in the field of TBI, and increase ov...

·         North Carolina is moving towards implementation of  a multi tiered  system of support (MTSS) where students who have academic difficulty are required to go through targeted intervention before being referred to special education. MTSS as a framework is designed to provide students with high-quality instruction and intervention that match their needs. MTSS considers several factors that may impact a student's ability to learn in order to ensure that we are not inappropriately  referring students to special education.         Referring a child to special education services without proper investigation of environmental factors is not an effective solution. Special education is not mutually beneficial and misclassification could lead to expectations that are not consistent with the learner's true ability (Flannagan, IASP 2015: Sheperd, 1975). In other words, telling a child and their family that they h...

Continuing with our theme of sharing information about head injuries during the month of March, which is Brain Injury Awareness Month, we wanted to share with you this exciting research from Penn State Medical Center.  Although the research sample was small - a total of 52 patients between the ages of 7 and 21 - the findings were impressive.  The patients who had experienced a head trauma were asked to do a saliva test - simply spitting into a cup - that was analyzed for biomarkers of concussion.  The patients also completed the Standardized Concussion Assessment Tool 3, a questionnaire used to help make a diagnosis of mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI).  The researchers discovered that the saliva biomarkers were more accurate than the questionnaire in identifying concussion. School Psychologists are often asked to work with students returning to the learning environment following a concussion.  One of the toughest challenges in this work is the uncertainty...

Last year, we posted about the high rate of bullying in school age children with food allergies.  Studies have shown that in many of these cases the children were bullied with the allergic food, often by the bullies waving it in front of the children or forcing them to touch it.  You can read more about  Food Allergy in the School Setting  here.  In the new "Peter Rabbit" movie, one scene hits painfully close to home for these families.  It highlights this type of bullying in a way that many parents and caretakers of children with life-threatening allergies feel is insensitive, irresponsible, and even dangerous. You can read more about their concerns  Here  and learn why they have decided to boycott the movie  What do you think about this controversy?  We would love you to weigh in on this topic.

As part of our continuing focus on Traumatic Brain Injuries during the month of March, we wanted to share additional information with you about this important topic.  On October 13. 2017, medical experts and NFL players testified to members of Congress on the latest research regarding CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) and their experiences and decline in their health from the constant jostling of the brain. The message to Congress was clear that more regulations and information need to be enforced especially with our youth involved in sports. The evidence provided included a 15 year old suffering from CTE, as he was involved in youth football from a young age. The research and players stories are fascinating. This link  will allow you to view the hearing, or CSPAN continues to air this important and vital information on TV.  Please take a look, as the impact to our youth is evident.

As you may already know, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools' Psychological Services Department has a group of 7 psychologists that are NC DPI Approved Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) providers. We're in the business of identifying and supporting brain injuries, as well as raising awareness.  March is Brain Injury Awareness Month and we hope to provide continued information on this topic throughout the month. Chronic Trauma Encephalopathy, also known as CTE, has become more widely studied and discussed in the sports world recently. In this article  from CNN, a study by Dr. Lee Goldstein found that CTE is not actually the result of concussions, but is instead trauma resulting from exposure to  multiple head impacts over time.  Not all hits to the head result in concussions and it seems that people only pay attention when a concussion has actually been sustained.  However, Dr. Goldstein's study revealed that characteristics associated with CTE could be seen...