Overview

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Haliburton Student Support Leadership Initiative
N0v 12 2008
Jean M Clinton B.Mus MD FRCP(C)
McMaster University and Childrens
Hospital Offord Centre for Child Studies
www.offordcentre.com Council for Early Child
Development
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Disclaimer
My sponsorship
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MASAI GREETING

• Are the Children Well?

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Canada

• Material Well Being
• Health and Safety
• Educational Well being
• Family and Peer Relationships
• Behaviours and Risks
• Subjective well being
• Overall

• 6 SWEDEN 1
• 13 SWEDEN 1
• 2 BELGIUM 1
• 18 ITALY 1
• 17 SWEDEN 1
• 15 NETHERLANDS 1
• 12/21

Unicef Innocenti Report 2007
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Reaching For the Top Report.

• We are doing poorly compared to other OECD
  countries(29 total)
• 21st in child well being, including mental health
• 22nd in PREVENTABLE childhood injury and deaths
• 27th in childhood obesity

National Advisor Report March 2008
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Opening the door to collaborative practice

• Service systems are designed to improve outcomes
  for children and youth, their families, and their
  communities.

Teacher Education Quarterly,  Fall 1999  by
Karasoff, Patricia
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04-212
Sound Vision Smell
Touch Proprioception Taste
Neal Halfon
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Time Magazine from the MEHRI Neuroscience lab
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The Brain Matters

• The human brain is the organ responsible for
  everything we do. It allows us to laugh, walk,
  love, talk.
• For each of us, our brain is a reflection of our
  experiences.
• The brain is an environmental organ. It reflects
  our environment.

Adapted from Bruce Perry
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Why do we care about brain?YOU ARE YOUR BRAIN.

• BUT- Your brain is not just produced by your
  genes
• Your brain is sculpted by a lifetime of
  experiences.
• The most important time in brain development is
  the first few years of life.

Dr Robin Gibb U of Lethbridge
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03-078
Experience and Brain Development
Stimuli in early life switch on genetic pathways
that differentiate neuron function sensitive
periods
Stimuli affect the formation of
the connections (synapses)
among the billions of neurons
From studies in humans, monkeys and rats
Founders Network
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But, not done until at least age 20 years
Dr Robin Gibb U of Lethbridge
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The nerve cell, or neuron resembles a miniature
tree (p. 21)
Diamond Hopson, 1998
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SYNAPSE
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02-002
Estimated Culmulative Difference in Language
Experiences by 4 Years of Age
Million
50
Professional
40
Working-class
30
Estimated cumulative words
addressed to child
20
10
Welfare
0
0
12
24
36
48
Age of child in months
From Hart and Risley
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02-001
Vocabulary Growth First 3 Years
Vocabulary
1200
Professional (YACKY)
Working Class
600
Welfare (Quiet)
0
12
16
20
24
28
32
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Age - Months
B. Hart T. Risley, Meaningful Differences in
Everyday Experiences of Young American Children,
1995
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USE IT OR LOSE IT !

• The more a system, or set of brain cells is
  activated, the more that system changes in
  response. The stronger the repetitions the
  stronger the memory.

Bruce Perry MD
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What Kind of Tree?
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Matthews Principle What makes a difference for
kids?

• Early intervention is key

Development

• The more time that elapses, the further behind
  the child that faces developmental challenges
  falls

Typically developing
Challenges
Time
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03-074
Rates of Return to Human Development Investment
Across all Ages
8
6
Pre-school Programs
Return Per Invested
School
4
R
Job Training
2
Pre- School
School
Post School
0
6
18
Age
Carneiro, Heckman, Human Capital Policy, 2003
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Adolescents Why DO they do the things they do?
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Kids Today

• "The children now love luxury they have bad
  manners, contempt for authority they show
  disrespect for elders and love chatter in
  placeof exercise. Children are now tyrants, not
  the servants of their households. They no longer
  rise when elders enter the room. Theycontradict
  their parents, chatter before company, gobble up
  dainties at the table, cross their legs, and
  tyrannize their teachers."

PLATO
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Key Messages

• UNDER CONSTRUCTION
• Teens need MORE of our time, not less.
• What we THINK, affects how we FEEL, affects how
  we ACT (TAFFY)
• The majority of adolescents do well YET

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03-013
THE BRAIN FAIRY
The Hostage Brain
, Bruce S. McEwen and Harold M. Schmeck, Jr.,
1994.
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Key Messages

• UNDER CONSTRUCTION
• (MUC to some)
• which explains much of the challenge!!

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The Frontal Lobes

• Executive Functions
• Governing emotions
• Judgment
• Planning
• Organization
• Problem Solving
• Impulse Inhibition
• Abstraction
• Analysis/synthesis
• Self-awareness
• Self-concept
• Identity
• and
• Spirituality

Self- everything
Williamsgroup, 2003 Please credit Protecting
You/Protecting Me (PY/PM)
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AREAS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

• Prefrontal Cortex
• Responsible for planning , strategies (cognitive
  flexibility).
• Allows one to solve problems.
• DEVELOPED frontal cortex allows one to regulate
  emotions, solve problems effectively and plan
  behaviour.

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Frontal Lobes for Behavioral Control, Birth - 21
Age
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The Fear Response Fight or Flight and Stress
Visual Thalamus
Visual Cortex
Amygdala
Scientific American
The Hidden Mind, 2002, Volume 12, Number 1
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Hippocampus
Amygdala
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Anterior Cingulate Cortex
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03-002
Emotional Stimulus
Amygdala
Hippocampus
-

-

Hypothalamus PVN
Cortisol
Cortisol
CRF
PIT
ACTH
Adrenal Cortex
LeDoux, Synaptic Self
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Amygdala and Hippocampus
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00-058
Cortisol can be bad for the brain
Hippocampus
high sterol levels cause loss of dendrites
and cell death
Frontal brain
attention deficits
Founders Network
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Limbic System for Birth - 21
Years
Age
Dr Jim Steiben MEHRI
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What emotion do you see?
Yurgelun-Todd
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WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET!
Fear
Contempt
Surprise
Anger
Disgust
Sadness
Happiness
Yurgelun-Todd
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• Adolescents use the Amydala (fight or flight
  response) rather than the Frontal Cortex (used by
  older adults) to read emotions

Deborah Yurgelun Todd McLean Hospital Belmont,
Mass (2004)
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Communication Gap

• Teens are more likely to misinterpret facial
  expressions of emotion
• See anger when there isnt anger
• Process in the amygdala
• May react quickly

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Emotional Brain Development

• Emotional brain dominates
• Prefrontal cortex is not ready to take charge
• Emotional brain seeks pleasure, in the form of
  novelty, excitement, and risk

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What Does This Mean in terms of Behavior?

• Impulsiveness
• Mood changes
• Inadequate emotional control
• Seeks out risks

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ACC The Oops Centre
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The Problem
Frontal Lobe Development
Average age of first sexual encounter in Canada
Autonomy
drivers license
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The Cognitive Affective Balance
Early Adolescence
Early Adulthood
Ideally!
KEY Not the overall balance that matters, it is
the flexibility to shift when needed
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• Remember
• the emotional brain
• is often in charge
• in teens.

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08-022
Levels of Literacy A Reflection of ECD
Level 1
indicates persons with very poor skills.
Level 2
people can deal with material that is simple.
Level 3
is considered a suitable minimum for coping with
the demands of everyday life.
Level 4
people who demonstrate command of higher-order
processing skills.
Level 5
competence in sophisticated reading tasks,
managing information and critical thinking skills.
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02-061
Document Literacy
1994 1998, Ages 16 to 65
Level 1 and 2 Level 4 and 5

Sweden
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34.0
Canada
42
23.0
Australia
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17.0
United States
48
18.0
Chile
85
3.0
Mexico
84
1.7
OECD
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The Prevalence of Children with Difficulties by
Family Income
The Founders Network
QUARTILE
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Vision and Mission of Search Institute

• Create a world where all children are valued and
  thrive.
• To provide leadership, knowledge and resources to
  promote healthy children, youth and communities.

Search Institute
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Two Shifts
Search Institute
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The Categories of Developmental Assets

• External Assets
• Support
• Empowerment
• Boundaries and Expectations
• Constructive Use of Time

• Internal Assets
• Commitment to Learning
• Positive Values
• Social Competencies
• Positive Identity

Search Institute
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Search Institute
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SCENARIOS

• What we THINK.
• Affects what we FEEL
• Affects how we ACT.

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From Deficit to Resiliency

• The Deficit/Risk Model
• Historically, the social and behavioural sciences
  have followed a problem-focused approach to
  studying human and social development.
• As a result, the helping community has been
  preoccupied with the deficit or at-risk paradigm
  for understanding and serving children in trouble
  and their families.

Wayne Hammond Resiliency Canada 2006
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Deficit Thinking

• Specialty Diagnosis Reaction
• Education Disruptive Reprimand, suspend, expel
• Social Work Dysfunctional Intake, manage,
  discharge
• Corrections Delinquent Adjudicate, punish,
  incarcerate
• Behaviourism Disordered Assess,
  conditioning, time out
• Medicine Diseased Diagnose, drug, hospitalize
• Psychopathology Disturbed Test, treat, restrain

Wayne Hammond Resiliency Canada 2006
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• To see all individuals as at promise rather
  than at risk is a fundamental shift that means
  facilitating rather than fixing, pointing to
  health rather than dysfunction, turning away from
  limiting labels and diagnosis to wholeness and
  well-being.

Wayne Hammond Resiliency Canada 2006
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• If we think we are fragile and broken, we will
  live a fragile, broken life. If we believe we
  are strong and wise, we will live with enthusiasm
  and courage. The way we name ourselves colors
  the way we live. Who we are is in our own eyes.
  We must be careful how we name ourselves.
• Wayne Muller

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What is Resilience? Anne Masten

• Positive patterns of adaptation in the context of
  past or present adversity
• Doing OK despite risk or adversity
• Positive outcomes from high risk context
• Recovery from Trauma
• Overcoming adversity to succeed in life
• Unexpectedly positive development

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MASTEN
Anne Masten
Anne Masten
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MASTEN
Anne Masten
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MASTEN
Anne Masten
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MASTEN
Anne Masten
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Anne Masten
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The Short list

• Effective Parenting
• Connections to other caring and competent adults
• Problem solving skills
• Self-regulation skills
• ve self perception

• Life has meaning and hopefulness
• Spirituality
• Talents valued by self or society
• Socioeconomic advantage
• Community effectiveness and safety
• Connections with prosocial and competent peers

Adapted from Anne Masten
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Anne Masten
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Anne Masten
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Anne Masten
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Anne Masten
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Successful INitiatives

• Characterized by a service system that strives to
  be
• flexible,
• prevention-oriented,
• family- and child centered
• , comprehensive, and
• holistic
• (Melaville Blank, 1991 Schorr, 1989 Ad Hoc
  Working Group on Integrated Services, 1994).

Teacher Education Quarterly,  Fall 1999  by
Karasoff, Patricia
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• Craft new responses to increasingly complex
  problems with fewer resources. They must change
  the status quo and acknowledge the shortcomings
  of the past in order to design systems that are
  integrated and collaborative.

Teacher Education Quarterly,  Fall 1999  by
Karasoff, Patricia
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Paradigm Shift

• Moving from a
• crisis orientation to a preventive one,
• from a specialist to a team approach,
• from a deficit orientation to a strength-based
  approach-
• All these approaches require a paradigm shift.
  This shift takes time and, like all change, can
  be a difficult process.

Teacher Education Quarterly,  Fall 1999  by
Karasoff, Patricia
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The Turf-Wars

• The work that occurs across agency and
  disciplinary lines is new and often difficult due
  to long-standing differences in agency culture,
• education,
• philosophy, and
• professional "turf."
• This situation creates a gap for most
  professionals between the training received and
  the skills necessary to work in these
  collaborative service systems.

Teacher Education Quarterly,  Fall 1999  by
Karasoff, Patricia
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Opening the Door to Collaborative Practice

• Gardner et al. contend that
• "there is a growing need for a different kind of
  professional-or a different kind of professional
  competence in addition to specialized skills in a
  profession or discipline...."

Teacher Education Quarterly,  Fall 1999  by
Karasoff, Patricia
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• The sites used a variety of strategies to
  integrate services, including collaborative
  governance structures, interagency agreements,
  innovative financing, case management,
  interdisciplinary teams, single point of contact,
  and co-location of services.

Teacher Education Quarterly,  Fall 1999  by
Karasoff, Patricia
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• These learning partnerships were based on two
  mutual goals improving outcomes for vulnerable
  children and youth with and without disabilities
  and their families and enhancing the knowledge
  and capacity of professionals working in
  integrated and collaborative service settings.

Teacher Education Quarterly,  Fall 1999  by
Karasoff, Patricia
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Best Practises Competencies

• seven best practice areas
• collaborative group process
• teamwork
• advocacy
• collaborative case management
• interagency program planning
• leadership
• and public relations.

Teacher Education Quarterly,  Fall 1999  by
Karasoff, Patricia
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Who was there for you ?
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The Power of Schools

• A school can create a coherent environment, a
  climate more potent than any single
  influence-teachers, class, family, neighbourhood,
  so potent that for at least six hours a day it
  can override almost everything else in the lives
  of children.
• Ron Edmonds 1986

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Relational trust

• Promotes Academic Achievement
• Schools with high trust levels are 3X more likely
  to report gains in reading and math scores
• Schools in top quartile in standardized tests had
  higher levels of trust
• This is about NOT forgetting the people
• Anthony Bryk and Barbara
  Schneider 2002

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• Research on adolescents finds that students in
  this age group define caring teachers as those
  who communicate directly and regularly with them
  about their academic progress and make sure they
  understand what has been taught.
• (Wentzel 2002)

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Caring Relationships

• Being there
• Loving support
• Showing interest in
• Getting to know
• Compassion
• Listening
• Patience
• Basic trust/safety

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High expectations

• Belief in youth resilience
• Respect
• Challenge and support
• Firm guidance
• Structure/rituals
• Strengths-focussed
• Teachers personal resilience
• reframing

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How do you know an adult cares

• Say hello and know my name
• Ask how Im doing-not just school
• Good listener and set high standards encouraged

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How do you know someone believes in you

• Adult offers encouragement making clear can
  success
• Support student and maintain high expectations
• What are their dreams connect schools to personal
  goals

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EFFORT

• Learning requires effort, and one of the best
  predictors of students effort and engagement in
  school is the relationship they have with their
  teachers.
• (Osterman 2000)
• To promote high academic standards, teachers need
  to create supportive social contexts and develop
  positive relationships with students

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• When students have a secure relationship with
  their teachers, they are more comfortable taking
  risks that enhance learning-tackling challenging
  tasks, persisting when they run into difficulty,
  or asking questions when they are confused.

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• Being a caring and supportive teacher does not
  mean coddling rather it means holding students
  accountable while providing the support they need
  to succeed

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Effort-Based Ability Crucial Messages

• This is Important.
• You can do it
• I wont give up on you
• Saphier 2006

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3 General Strategies for Promoting Asset Building

• Build RELATIONSHIPS with children and youth
• Create positive and supportive ENVIRONMENTS
• Connect asset building with programs and practices

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Scenarios

• What we Think.
• Affects how we feel.
• Affects how we act

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School Leavers Say

• Be More Understanding
• Be More Flexible
• Be More Proactive
• They tell other kids to stay in school

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Provide Guidance and Opportunities

• Teens need to use their thinking brains for
  planning, analyzing, organizing, problem solving,
  and making decisions

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Keep Communicating

• Listen
• Encourage
• Support

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What Youth Say

• Give me a voice.
• Be a role model.
• Teach acceptance and respect and we wont
• have to learn tolerance.
• Be open to the possibilities of people.
• Offer lots of fun things to do after school.
• Celebrate my uniqueness.

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ASSET BUILDERS
Allison Clinton helped me realize that there is
not only sports in school. There is also
educationIts overwhelming to think that she
would go out of her way to help me like that.
Olympic high jumper Mark Boswell remembers how
his principal put together a team of teachers to
make sure his academic performance would open the
door to a track scholarship.
Toronto Star Unesco World Teachers Day
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THRIVE

• The Canadian Centre for Positive Youth
  Development
• 1-800-265 2680
• www.thrivecanada.ca
• The Search Institute
• www.search-institute.org

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Books and Resources

• The Primal Teen What the new discoveries about
  the teenage brain tell us about our kids. Barbara
  Strauch New York Anchor Books 2003
• Why do they act that way. A Survival Guide to
  the Adolescent Brain for you and Your Teen .
  David Walsh PhD New York Free Press 2004
• Teen Brain, Teen Mind. What Parents Need to Know
  to Survive the Adolescent Years . Dr Ron Clavier
  Toronto Key Porter Books 2005
• PBS Frontline (2003). Inside the Teenage Brain.
  www.pbs.org
• Giedd, J. (1999). Brain development during
  childhood and adolescence A longitudinal MRI
  study. Nature Neuroscience, 2(10), 861-63
• Carskadon, M. (2000). Adolescent sleep needs and
  patterns Research report and resource guide.
  Washington, DC National Sleep Foundation.
  www.sleepfoundation.org

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Mother Teresa

• In this life we cannot do great things.
• We can only do small things with great love

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Thank you

• Thrive!
• The Canadian Centre for
• Positive Youth Development
• 800-265-2680
• www.thrivecanada.ca

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Principles of Resilience

• Belonging need to engage and build trust
• Building Capacity recognize strengths and
  passion
• Independence promote ability to creatively
  draw upon internal and external
  resources
• Purpose nurture belief that my life has
  meaning

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A Resilience Approach
what is

• The core of strength-based resilient prevention
  is paying attention to what works and identifying
  strengths rather than deficits in the youth.
• It focuses on what is important and not just what
  is urgent
• It takes a whole community practicing a
  strength-based philosophy when working with youth
  at all levels of implementation of preventative
  interventions

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A Resilience Approach

• Needs to be process and relationship oriented
  with less dependency on techniques and
  professionals.
• Strength-based practice is about partnering in
  order to help youth identify and use their own
  strengths and resources to overcome obstacles and
  live empowered lives.

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Characteristics of Resilience-Based Practice

• A focus on language Language is not innocent
  (Anderson, 1996)
• A focus on story Stories of self guide how
  people act, think, feel, and make sense of their
  past and present lives
• A focus on strengths, abilities, and resources
  a firm and committed belief that all people of
  all ages, and all families possess ability,
  competence, and other special qualities
  regardless of their life experience or current
  situation

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Resilience-Based Practice

• 4. A focus on collaboration acknowledging that
  people have a view of their current situation,
  its potential solutions and ideas about how the
  change process should unfold
• 5. A focus on relationship walking with as
  opposed to dictating

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Critical Components of Change

• An analysis of 40 years of research found the
  best predictor of successful change are two
  factors
• 1) engagement in meaningful relationships
• 2) engagement in meaningful activities
• 83 of change involves these two factors
• 17 is a result of technique

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• Change does not come from special powers from
  professionals
• Change happens when a person uses their inherent
  strengths and resources and are supported by
  relationships that take your innate goodness as a
  given
• Change happens when you create a plan that is
  tailored to the persons ideas and therefore
  inspires the hope necessary for action

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Effective, Strategic, Prevention

• Intervene early in cascade to prevent snowballing
  or co-morbidity
• Promote competence and regulatory capacity, both
  self and social regulatory
• Decrease trauma exposure and increase protection
  for youth in at risk environments
• Strengthen scaffolds during periods of change for
  adolescents
• Provide opportunities, mentors and second
  chances

MASTEN
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The Relational Landscape is Changing. Children
have fewer social, cognitive and emotional
interactions, with fewer people. The impact of
modern life on the developing child has yet to
be fully understood
Dr Bruce Perry www.childtrauma.org
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Poverty of Relationships

• The compartmentalization of our culture has
  resulted has resulted in material wealth yet
  poverty of social and emotional opportunity

Dr Bruce Perry www.childtrauma.org
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Slides will be available at www.ascy.ca www.offor
dcentre.com