Transcript The adolescent brain: Prefrontal cortex

PARENTS AS PARTNERS:
“HELPING YOUR CHILD”
OCTOBER 14, 2014 7:00PM
BROOKSIDE SCHOOL AUDITORIUM
Tonight’s “Parents as Partners” workshop, “Helping your Child”, will
focus on these four topics:
o Understanding the Prefrontal Cortex of the Brain
o Increasing compliance in the home
o Help with homework
o Fostering positive communication with your child
TONIGHT’S PRESENTERS:
Barbara Bogdanski – Learning Disabilities Teacher Consultant
Valerie Gancarz – District Behaviorist/Social Worker
Thea (Tedi) Link – Guidance Counselor – Brookside School
Kristina Vassallo – Guidance Counselor/Social Worker
THE PREFRONTAL CORTEX
AND YOUR ADOLESCENT
TEDI LINK
SCHOOL COUNSELOR
BROOKSIDE SCHOOL
THE PART OF YOUR ADOLESCENT’S BRAIN THAT’S PLAYING A
MAJOR ROLE RIGHT NOW IS THE PRE-FRONTAL CORTEX:
The last part of the brain to develop is the pre-frontal
cortex, located behind the forehead. This is the part
of the brain responsible for Executive Functioning
Skills such as:
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Time management
Organization
Short-term memory
Goal setting
Initiation
Self-restraint
Self-monitoring, problem solving, and decision making are
also part of the pre-frontal cortex
KEEP IN MIND...
Because the pre-frontal cortex is still developing, adolescents
might rely on a part of the brain called the amygdala (uh-mig-doluh) to make decisions and solve problems more than adults. The
amygdala is associated with:
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Emotions
Impulses
Aggression
Instinctive behavior
As parents, you are such a vital part of your child’s environment. How you
guide and influence them will be important in helping your child to
develop a healthy brain.
You can do this by:
• Encouraging positive behavior
• Promoting good thinking skills
• Supporting appropriate risk-taking behaviors
TIPS FOR ENCOURAGING POSITIVE BEHAVIOR
• Let your child take some healthy risks – New and different experiences help your child develop an
independent identity, explore grown-up behaviors, and move towards independence.
• Talk through decisions – Do this step by step with your child. Ask about possible courses of action
your child might choose, and talk through potential consequences that go along with their decisions.
• Use family routines – Routines will provide your child with structure, which is something every child
needs. Most routines are based around school and family schedules (family dinner, practices, recitals,
games, etc.).
• Setting boundaries – Adolescents need guidance and limit-setting from their parents and other adults
in setting boundaries.
• Trust their gut! – Encouraging your child to trust their gut feelings and instincts will help foster their
ability to judge situations both now and in the future.
• Offer frequent praise – When you tell your child how proud you are of them or what a good job
they’re doing, it will raise their self-confidence which is crucial during adolescence.
TIPS FOR PROMOTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF
THINKING SKILLS
• Encourage empathy – Talk about feelings – yours, your child’s, and other people’s. Highlight the
fact that other people have different perspectives and circumstances. Stress the importance of
being able to put oneself in another person’s shoes (empathy).
• Emphasize the immediate and long-term consequences of their actions – The PFC is responsible
for future thinking, which is still developing in your child. When you talk to your child about how
their actions influence their present and future, you are helping in the healthy development of
your child’s PFC.
• Matching language levels – Whenever possible, try to match your language level with your child’s.
When giving important instructions or discussing serious matters, check for understanding by
asking your child to repeat in their own words what you have said to them.
• Prompt your child to develop thinking skills – Use role-playing to problem-solve hypothetical
situations. Help them to identify the problem, list what options they have, and consider the
outcome that leads to the best solution.
TIPS FOR SUPPORTING RISK-TAKING BEHAVIOR
Risk-taking is an important way for adolescents to learn about themselves. Adolescence and risk-taking
go hand in hand. Children need to explore their own limits and abilities, as well as boundaries set their
parents.
• Help your child learn to assess risk - You can talk about the consequences of other people’s
behavior, for instance, in movies or on the news. Brainstorm with your child the consequences of
their actions.
• Agree upon ground rules - Find a compromise between keeping your child safe and giving them the
freedom to take appropriate risks. Decide together what the consequences should be if the ground
rules are broken. Be flexible and adapt the ground rules as your child matures and demonstrates
that they are ready for more responsibility.
• Give teenagers a way out- If your child feels pressured to take risks to fit in, help them think of ways
to opt out without losing credibility with their peers. Reinforce that they can always talk with you
without worrying that you’ll be angry or disappointed in them.
• Encourage a wide social network- You can’t control who your child will become friends with, but
you can give them the chance to make other friends through sports, church, or other activities.
Make your child’s friends welcome in your home – you’ll know where they are at least some of the
time.
UNDERSTANDING THE PREFRONTAL CORTEX WILL
HELP YOU TO:
• Depersonalize your adolescent’s reactions
• Understand adolescent behavior
• Develop strategies to improve communication
with your child
• Realize the importance of listening to your child
• Be an involved parent without being overbearing
INCREASING COMPLIANCE
IN THE HOME
VALERIE GANCARZ, MA, MSW, LSW BCBA
ALLENDALE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
UNDERSTANDING PROBLEM BEHAVIOR-UNDERLYING
ASSUMPTIONS
Behavior makes sense to the person engaging in that
behavior
Behavior serves a function for that person
Operant Behaviors are behaviors that are learned-based
on their history of consequences
FUNCTIONS OF BEHAVIOR
• Attention
• Escape/Avoidance
• Access to Tangibles
• Automatic Reinforcement
• Pain Attenuation
REINFORCEMENT & PUNISHMENT-NOT WHAT YOU
THOUGHT IT WAS…
• Reinforcement is defined by its
effect on behavior
• Something serves as
reinforcement only if it
increases the occurrence of
the behavior
• Punishment is defined by its
effect on behavior
• Something serves as a
punisher only if it decreases
the occurrence of behavior
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STRATEGIES TO INCREASE COMPLIANCE
• Provide Differential Reinforcement for appropriate behaviors or “Catch
your child being good”
• Establish “House Rules "and post them in your home in a central
location
• Be Consistent: If you say it, then do it.
• Offer Choices: “ You can either do ______ or _______, what’s your
choice?”
• Provide structure and predictable schedules
• Provide Visual cues when appropriate-(e.g., To Do List, schedule, Break
cards)
• Use Neutral phrases –avoid using words such as “No”, “Don’t” or “Stop”
HELP WITH HOMEWORK
STRATEGIES THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO FOSTER
RESPONSIBLE, INDEPENDENT BEHAVIORS IN YOUR
CHILD
BARBARA BOGDANSKI
LEARNING DISABILITIES TEACHER CONSULTANT
HOMEWORK
WHAT IT SHOULD NOT BE:
• Nightmare
• Headache
• Battle
• Sore subject
• Family tension
• Death of me
HOMEWORK:
WHAT IT SHOULD BE
A powerful tool for ensuring a child’s success in
school
HOMEWORK IS ALSO AN OPPORTUNITY TO :
• Develop personal responsibility
• Practice independence
• Develop confidence
• Refine organizational skills
• Become accountable for their own work
• Understand the correlation between effort and outcome
MOTIVATION
• Consistently praise your child’s efforts.
• Tell your child specifically what you like about what they are
doing or what they have done.
• Remember that a hug or pat will increase the impact of your
message.
• Use Super Praise to motivate your child.
INCENTIVES
• Incentives can be used when a considerable amount of praise
has failed to motivate your child.
• Start by letting your child know that the idea of an incentive is
YOUR CHOICE.
• Be consistent.
• Make a plan to phase out incentives.
GREAT MOTIVATING IDEAS
• Beat the Clock
• Trade Off
• Chunking
• Homework Contract
HOW TO SET UP A PROPER STUDY AREA
• Guide your child in choosing the location. It must meet the
“distraction-free” criteria.
• Choose a well–lit, comfortable, quiet location with all necessary
supplies at hand.
• A proper environment will help improve efficiency and attention
span.
HOMEWORK SURVIVAL KIT
• Pencils/pens/white-out
• Colored pencils/crayons/markers
• Pencil sharpener/erasers
• Glue/tape/stapler/paper clips/rubber bands
• Writing paper/construction paper/index cards
• Hole puncher/scissors
• Calculator/compass/protractor/ruler
• Dictionary/thesaurus/almanac
SCHOOL SUPPLY STORES
• Educational Warehouse
• Lakeshore
• Boslands
• Staples
• Office Depot
• Target
HOW TO GET HOMEWORK FINISHED IN TIME
• Homework must be
scheduled into your
children’s life, too.
• Each day should have a
“daily homework time.”
HOW TO ESTABLISH A DAILY HOMEWORK TIME
• Write all scheduled activities on the Daily Schedule.
• Determine length of time needed each day for
homework.
• Determine the best time of each day to save for daily
homework time.
• Work with your child to complete and then post daily
schedule.
ESTABLISH ROUTINES IN YOUR HOME
After school have your child:
*Empty and re-organize backpack
*Remove and clean out lunch/snack bags
*Set out work to be completed for homework
*Give parent any papers to be reviewed/signed
*Throw away or file any un-required papers
*Follow their established daily homework time
Teach your child to re-pack backpack, organizing all completed work into its proper location.
Have them review the next day’s schedule to determine if any additional items are required,
for example: instrument for band lesson, sneakers for PE, or uniform for after school
activity.
Place these items with the backpack in the same location each day
SOME ADDITIONAL IDEAS TO CONSIDER
• Have your child use an alarm clock to develop organization
and responsibility. Time management skills require an
understanding of how long things take to complete.
• Get a healthy night’s sleep!
• Establish a morning routine:
• Eating breakfast
• Personal grooming
• Responsibilities (animal care, making bed)
• Travel time to school
SUNDAY EVENING...GETTING READY FOR THE WEEK
• Make a weekly schedule
• Prepare materials for school:
lunches, materials for projects or activities, organize
supplies, (sharpen pencils and organize study area)
• Tidy bedroom
KRISTINA VASSALLO
GUIDANCE COUNSELOR/SOCIAL WORKER
BROOKSIDE SCHOOL
TIME
The best thing you can spend on your children is time.
WHY WE SAY WE DON’T HAVE TIME FOR OUR
CHILDREN…
Busy lives can make it difficult to find quality time
with our children, such as:
• Running from activity to activity
• Communication on electronic devices
• Work
WAYS WE CAN MAKE TIME FOR OUR CHILDREN
Even small amounts of down time can become quality time
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Time in the car
Waiting for appointments
Shopping- food, clothing, etc.
Walking dog together
Chores together
Watch television and movies with them
Cook together
Show interest in their hobbies- video games, online games, sports,
their music
Try to have dinner together as a family
HOW TO COMMUNICATE LIKE YOUR CHILD DOES…
Try to stay current with the latest in social media:
• Snapchat
• Texting
• Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
HOW TO FIND TIME WHEN YOU HAVE MORE THAN
ONE CHILD…
Find one-on-one time with each child:
• Individual interests
• Don’t assume they should always be grouped together
Methods:
• Getting ready for bed
• Turn alone time into quality time by identifying this moment as
“special”:
• Ice cream, movie of their choice, topic of conversation of their choice, talk
about their day
• Set aside an annual day for alone time with either you, your spouse, or
together
WHY SCHOOLWORK SHOULDN’T DEFINE YOUR
RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR CHILD
How schoolwork can affect the relationship with your child:
• Bad grades
• Difficulty understanding homework
• Lack of compliance with homework
STRESS IN THE
HOME
How to avoid this from happening:
• Spend time that is not related to school
• Don’t deprive your children of previously discussed quality time because of schoolwork
• If accessible, find an objective person to help your child with schoolwork
• Objective individuals (i.e. mom, dad, neighbor, cousin) may be more of a distraction than a
helpful tool
DON’T FORGET!
Things to remember when your child isn’t good at
everything…
• One of the most important variables in your child’s life is
the quality of their relationship with you, unrelated to
their educational success.
• While education is important, anywhere your child goes in
life, your relationship will extend beyond their educational
years.
Questions?
UPCOMING PARENTS AS PARTNERS EVENTS:
• Tuesday, November 18, 2014 – 7:00pm
PARCC and the Common Core
with Mrs. Cathy Danahy, Curriculum Coordinator
Brookside School Auditorium