Mental Health | ESE Education

How To Become a School Counselor

April 30, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

The job of a school counselor is not an easy task. You should have the honest desire to help children and inspire confidence along with trust and respect. As a counselor you will work with a lot of diverse individuals and families. Children with handicaps or special needs, families with abuse, or children whose family has multiple needs are just a few examples of how you will help. You will provide students with life skills that will enable them to deal with problems before they get worse. You need to be physically and emotionally able to handle yourself.

Every state has different requirements for becoming a school counselor. However, you will need a master’s degree in order to gain employment in this field. Some states even require you to hold not only a counseling certificate but a teaching certificate as well. You will be required to get a license to practice. Individual schools may require you to have interned or had clinical experience before hiring you. And some schools may give ongoing training to a school counselor.

You can bet on having at least 60 course hours to gain a degree in counseling. And depending on what your field of study may be will determine what classes you need to take. Some will group the core subjects together. Examples of this would be elementary and secondary counseling, marriage and family counseling, and addictions counseling. Once you have received your master’s, you may be required to participate in ongoing studies to maintain your license.

Filed Under: Parents Tagged With: Family, Mental Health, School counselor

Using Cognitive Group Therapy for Troubled Adolescents

April 24, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

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In the US, adolescence means a period of adjustments. Behavior problems crop up for the first time during these years, because some teens resist change, while others fear it.

Even adolescents that grew up with open-minded parents who discussed in length about the birds and the bees and about changes brought on by puberty, there are still those adolescents who have trouble adjusting to these dramatic changes.

Child psychologists consider using cognitive therapy when faced with a troubled teen. Cognitive therapy deals with the way a teen thinks, and not with what the teen is feeling. They work on ways to change their way of thinking.

For example, during adolescence, appearance is probably most important to them, and it is not just their physical appearance. They worry about the manner in which they carry themselves outwardly, whether confident, shy, outgoing, introverted, and so on.

Because of the changes that occur during adolescence, some teens may receive mixed messages, and can be in a constant state of panic and worry, regarding their friends and peers. They will constantly seek approval and acceptance. They think they must be at the top of their game in everything. These grandiose ideas have an impact on their social life and cause problems in school.

Using cognitive group therapy, psychologists allow teens to listen to others who think the same way as they do about specific problems. Sharing their troubles with others going through the same thing, is the right step on the road to recovery for most. Parents of a troubled teen should coax them into discussing what they are thinking, and provide positive reinforcements when possible.

Filed Under: Parents, Students Tagged With: Adolescence, Cognitive therapy, Mental Health

Learning Disorders Are Not the End of the World

December 23, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

When a child is first told that the reason they are having problems in school is because they have one learning disorder or another some families feel as though this might be the worst news they have ever gotten. What family members and the children need to realize is that while being diagnosed with a learning disorder is not actually good news it does meant that help is just around the corner and that the studentâ€™s struggles are not because he is somehow less than other students.

Once the diagnosis has been made, treatment can begin and the child can begin to actually beginning to learn in a way they had a problem before. As long as the family can approach the diagnosis as a sign of real hope because they finally have an answer to the problems their child was experiencing then being diagnoses with Dyslexia can be something they can all build a future upon.

Living with Dyslexia is also something that has become much more manageable over the last few decades as more and more information has become known about the disorder. With the latest developments in treatments with learning disabilities like Dyslexia the disorder is something that can be overcome with just a modicum of effort and understanding by the child and their family. Of course having a teacher on the childâ€™s side will also mean the difference between overcoming the disorder and succumbing to it. A teacher who understands that while the child will need a little bit of extra rope when they have first been diagnosed, that extra level of patience will pay off in the long run both with the child and the kind of work he is doing in the classroom. When teachers and family members band together to help the child overcome something like Dyslexia, there is a much better chance of the diagnosis being less of a problem.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: Child, Dyslexia, Education, Health, Learning Disabilities, Learning disability, Mental Health, Special education

Coping With Auditory Processing Disorder

December 19, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

For about five percent of the school age children and affliction that does not allow their brain to process information they hear correctly can affect the way they learn in the classroom. Auditory Processing Disorder is a learning disability that can actually make a child feel as though they are not hearing the same type of info that the rest of the class is, otherwise surely they wouldnâ€™t be having the problems understanding that they are. When afflicted with APD, something in the brain literally interferes with the connections between it and the ears, making it harder to understand different sounds including speech.

The usual outcome of APD is that children who have the disorder cannot distinguish between certain sounds, even if they are spoken at levels when most people can hear them. Since a great deal of learning, especially at the grade school level is done through audible learning, APD gets in the way of these kidsâ€™ educations.

One of the problems when talking about APD is that detecting the disorder can be very difficult. Children can generally hear well enough that they can carry on a conversation and decide what someone is telling them to the point that they can follow a conversation. It is only when they are actually trying to absorb new information that they have problems. This becomes a problem because if the APD is not detected early enough it becomes harder and harder for the children to adapt later on in life.

If your child has been diagnosed with APD, the single best way to help your child is to reduce the background noise whenever they are trying to absorb new information. APD sufferers can learn if they donâ€™t have to try and decipher one sound from many. Keep the background noise down and the APD sufferer stands a much better chance.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: Auditory processing disorder, Background noise, Child and Adolescent, disorder, Health, Learning, Learning Disabilities, Mental Health

Dealing With ADD and ADHD

December 12, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

Imagine you are sitting in your fourth grade class every day, all day and you feel as though there is a tidal force pulling you away from what you are supposed to be focused on. Imagine that the harder you struggle to focus the stronger this pull becomes. You don’t want to be the kid in the class who is constantly being told to be quiet; you don’t want to be the kid in the class that the rest of the students give a wide berth because you are impinging on their education as well. But you cannot help yourself.

This is the problem that children with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have to deal with every day of their lives. These are not kids who suddenly decided they want to be the problem in the classroom. These are not kids who simply one day woke up and decided they had no interest in learning the same things the other kids in their class was learning. What teachers and parents and school administrators have a hard time understanding is that this isnâ€™t a matter of choice any more than being an alcoholic chooses to hurt themselves with booze. This is a disorder they cannot control and need real help to gain any semblance of freedom from the symptoms.

There is treatment out there, there are drugs that can be dispense if the right licensed professional feels that is the way to go, there are also treatments that deals with the way the child feels inside that can at least allow them to tamp down the urges to fidget and squirm and lose focus. This is not a matter of a child suddenly wanting nothing to do with school it is a matter of a child who has a disease that can be treated if properly diagnosed.

Filed Under: Education, ESE Classrooms Tagged With: ADD and ADHD, Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Child, Child and Adolescent, Disorders, Health, Mental Health, Neurodevelopmental

Coping With A Learning Disability

December 3, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

When a student is first diagnosed with a learning disability there are two ways the reaction can usually go. The first is complete and total shock by the family (this is usually couple with denial), and the second is relief and complete acceptance. How the family reacts may seem to be a way to tell just how involved a certain family group is but that is not always the case either. Some families are just better equipped to handle the news that their child has a learning disability than others. Sometimes this is because of the fact that the child may not have been as adversely affected as others and therefore was able to still turn in good grades and modulate his outward behavior enough that no one was really onto him or her. There are of course instances where the learning disability was totally obvious and the family knew there had to be something more wrong than a simple bad attitude.

Once the news of a learning disability has settled in and is no longer brand new the next step is to decide what to do about it. For most families it is helpful to realize that children, to a large degree are incredibly resilient. This means that children, even more than adults are built to overcome challenges like this. Resiliency is the top trait to have if the child truly wants to deal with and overcome the problem. There are treatments out there for almost any type of learning disability but the only way any of the treatments will work is if the child and its parents practice resiliency. There is no quick, automatic fix to this particular set of problems but with hard work and a keen focus there is a long term solution to the problem.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Child, Disability, Disorders, Family, Health, Learning disability, Mental Health

Learning Disabilities And Early Warnings

December 2, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

Part of the thing that makes diagnosing a learning disability such a complicated task is that from time to time, every child is going to have some problems learning a new subject and controlling their behavior. When a child is having problems learning on a consistent basis or is constantly acting out, that is when it is time to take a closer look and make sure the behavior isnâ€™t something else.

Thanks in large part to an organization called the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) there is a checklist that can be used to help parents decide if their child might have a learning disorder. Of course the thing to keep in mind even using a checklist like this is that this list is not the end all and the be all for determining the problem. Because learning disabilities are neurological in nature there is rarely one set of criteria that must be met in order to be diagnosed. A good rule of thumb when trying to diagnose this yourself is to be completely fair and honest when using the criteria such as â€œhas trouble evaluating personal social strengths and challengesâ€ and trying to realize how often that is really true.

The bottom line is that most of the criteria that are on the checklist can be symptoms of something much less severe than a learning disability and even if you feel as though you have found the source of your child’s problem you should have them see a professional therapist or evaluator. Seeing a professional will not only set your mind at ease as far as knowing for sure one way or the other, but it also provides an impartial judge on the situation. Frequently loses place while readingâ€ is just vague enough that your child could either be flighty, or could have a disorder. A professional will better be able to tell the difference.

Filed Under: Education, Specialty Schools Tagged With: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Child, Child and Adolescent, Disorders, Health, Learning Disabilities, Learning disability, Mental Health

What Is A Learning Disability?

December 1, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

While some people may believe that learning disabilities is really just a fancy word for a student who either does not want to be in school or just do not really want to spend any time learning. While this has been proven to simply not be the case the assertions are still often thrown around whenever a student is having problems with a class or with many classes. Of course part of the problem is that learning disabilities can be self defeating.

These are not disabilities that pop up like some other disease. You donâ€™t suddenly develop a rash or hives when you are dyslexic. You do not come down with a wracking cough if you have Attention Deficit Disorder. These types of problems only really manifest when the student is in the right setting and that setting is more often than not when they are in the classroom. The students themselves have no idea why all of the sudden they arenâ€™t understanding the subject as well as the rest of the class does and because of this they tend to get either dejected or angry. Anger can lead to acting out and acting out can lead to teachers and school administrators thinking the child has no interest in learning.

But a learning disability is not a lack of interest. Learning disabilities are neurological disorders that affect a portion of the brain and do so absolutely without the consent of those affected. A learning disorder can affect each student in a slightly different way as it can manifest in the way a student hears something, reads something, writes something and some learning disabilities are so harmful that it literally changes the way a child processes speech. Because of this a child can literally have no idea they are having the kinds of problems they are. Having a parent or teacher get mad at them for it only makes the problem worse.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Disability, Disorders, Health, Learning Disabilities, Learning disability, Mental Health, Student