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Building Core Capabilities for Life - Centre for Developing Child Harvard University

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Building Core Capabilities for Life - Centre for Developing Child Harvard University

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Main ideas:

- Although there is age-related decline, when it comes to performance, these skills and the brain regions that support them are malleable, and can be strengthened depending on how much they are practiced.

- Chronic experiences of threat can have a wear-and-tear effect on the body’s stress response systems.

- Two approaches can reset the balance of self-regulation in adulthood.

o   Environment (stressors management)

o   Developing individual core capabilities

- Attention bias modification – reframing (direct attention toward positive à reduce attention toward negative à reduce stressors

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The Power of Showing Up – Daniel J. Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson 

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The Power of Showing Up – Daniel J. Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson 

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Main ideas:

Chapter 1: What it means to show up

- 4S (Safe, Seen, Soothed, Secure) lead to secure attachment
- not about perfection (but being present, attuned and sensitive)

Chapter 2: Why do some parents show up, while others don’t

- Predictability and reliability reduces the need to channel energy and attention to combat survival needs

- Emphasis on the 4 types of attachments

- The correlation between attachment received and attachment given

- The neuroscience/logic behind the causations (coping strategy à transference of strategies)

- Attachment received à experiences processed (coherent narrative) à attachment style to give

- Coherent narrative is established via confronting the past and extending forgiveness/understanding/release from past experiences

Chapter 3: Beyond Helmets and Kneepads – Helping your child FEEL Safe

- Safety in terms of physical, emotional and relational

o Safety in terms of readiness of the child to handle situation/exposure (social media content, interaction pattern at home etc.)

- Providing safety in terms of 1) shielding from threat, 2) not becoming the threat

- Safety as a “pre-requisite” to allow for exploration and confidence and taking on life (conservation of resources, energy and attention)

- ACE (adverse childhood experiences) as a score/precursor for struggles into later parts of life

- Building emotional capacity to handle demands of situation (when things get bad à response 1) it’s ok; response 2) it’s the end of the world)

- Strategies to promote safety

o Self-regulation

o Repair (process through glitches)

o Promote safe harbor (consistency, reliability and presence)

- *the ultimate importance to reflect and process through information (coherent narrative)

Chapter 4: The Value of Being Known: Helping your kids feel seen

- The Triad of Connection

A triangle model (perceive – make sense – respond) in order to facilitate being seen

- Seen in terms of being present, understanding, and empathising

- The emphasis on Mindset – promote perspective-taking and insight-taking

- Relationships of “being seen” with the different forms of attachment (coping strategy)

- Being seen in terms of being recognized, acknowledged and accepted for the whole being

- Strategies to “see”

o Be curious; observe, understand, delay judgment

o Make time and space; converse, be present, take interest

Chapter 5: Presence Joins Us as Part of a Calming Whole: Helping your kids feel soothed

- About meeting the person at where he/she is

- Contingent response: addressing the immediate needs

o Recognizing that some behaviors stem from “cannot” instead of “will not”

- Soothing types

o Inner soothing (regulating internally)

o Inter soothing (relating to others, objects etc.)

- Soothing as a rehearsal to help the child learn to self-sooth (capacity development)

- Contingent responses beyond speech (body language, tones etc.)

- Importance of maintaining boundaries and rules in the context of creating safety; WHILE addressing felt emotions

- Calming internal toolkits

o Safe space

o Soothing music

o Soothing movements (expend energy; divert attention

Chapter 6: Putting all the S’s Together: Helping your kids feel secure

- Attachment figure being a launch pad and a safe harbor

- The idea of consistency and predictability

- Difference between connecting and coddling (meeting needs and giving in)

- The need to maintain boundary, while continuing to be present

- Maintaining authority without being forceful/fierce

- Continually build a trusting relationship by modelling consistency and predictability

- Imparting strategies to introspect (take a step back to calm down)

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Student-Centred Learning: What does it Mean for Students and Lecturers – Geraldine O’Neill and Tim McMahon, University College Dublin

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Student-Centred Learning: What does it Mean for Students and Lecturers – Geraldine O’Neill and Tim McMahon, University College Dublin

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Main ideas:

- The varied interpretation of SCL

- Commonly agreed traits of SCL

o   Student autonomy and choice

o   Shift in power (teacher-student relationship) and power distance

o   Active acquisition of knowledge (learning instead of teaching focused)

o   Teacher role as facilitator

o   The role of peers in SCL

§  Potential isolation (focus on individuality)

§  Potential group learning (projects etc.)

- Application of SCL and its limitations (especially in the area of assessment)

o   Tradeoffs

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Effects of Socio-Economic Status and Tracking on Students – Irene Y.H.Ng, Nursila Senin

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Effects of Socio-Economic Status and Tracking on Students – Irene Y.H.Ng, Nursila Senin

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Main ideas:

- Comparison of the SINGAPORE school systems with that of other countries

- Between school tracking (streaming) vs within school tracking (course/subject-based) vs no tracking

- Singapore having one of the highest inequality in terms of school aspirations and SES

- Analyzing the educational policy to shift from between school to within school tracking (as a strategy to reduce inequality)

- Role of social services to advocate for the reduction of inequality

- Recommended strategy (organized in a matrix to address school)

o   High priority (for disadvantaged students) X Low knowledge (of disadvantaged students): Inform

o   Low Priority X Low Knowledge : Advocate

o   Low Priority X High Knowledge : Innovate

o   High Priority X High Knowledge : Partner

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The Brain Basis for Integrated Social, Emotional and Academic Development – How emotions and social relationships drive learning  - The Aspen Institute

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The Brain Basis for Integrated Social, Emotional and Academic Development – How emotions and social relationships drive learning  - The Aspen Institute

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Main ideas:

- The evidence of our brain development well into childhood, adolescent-hood and adulthood

- The necessity and effectiveness to tailor the environment / school policies in response to these physiological changes

- Propensity of the brain’s development directly connected to the kind of relationships/ environment /support/ opportunity

- OTHERWISE, if untapped, synaptic connections get weaned/pruned off with age to allow the brain to be more efficient

- The role of stress (unhealthy) that impedes/reduces the window for neural plasticity

- adolescent/developmental phase of the person’s development having a direct impact on how the brain develops

- The role of the educational system/teachers/coaches/religious mentor to create/foster a supportive environment

- Environmental factors crucial for the whole brain development: rest/sleep, nutrition and low exposure to toxins, physical activity/green spaces, emotional well-being/social relationships, cultural well-being

- Strategies: emphasizing learner’s social and emotional experience, age-appropriate content/discovery, support creative and flexible thinking, building healthy learning habits

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The Adolescent Brain – A Second Window of Opportunity  - UNICEF (a compendium)

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The Adolescent Brain – A Second Window of Opportunity  - UNICEF (a compendium)

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Main ideas:

- Scientific evidence of the plasticity of an adolescent brain

- Adolescent’s risk-taking and sensation seeking behavior can be traced to such development (functional adaptive behaviors  to explore and gain independence)

- The necessity for different disciplines to work together to complement the research done in neuroscience and biology

- Efforts to establish causation and correlation between contexts/SES with the adolescent development

- Role of these findings in designing resiliency programs (coping with stressors)

- Adolescent as an opportunity/window for intervention

- The effectiveness of mindfulness exercise for the adolescent since it teaches focus and self-regulation

- The usage of technology

o Plus point: wider reach; implicit skills impartation (decision-making, speed of thinking etc.)

o Negative points: violence and aggression

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The Whole-Brain Child - Daniel J.Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson

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The Whole-Brain Child - Daniel J.Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson

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Main ideas:

Chapter 1: Parenting with the Brain in Mind
- Being aware of the brain means to be aware of the need to integrate
- Integration looks like helping the child to process through information/experiences to make connections (not distracting/denying them of negative emotions)
- Mental health as a river flowing through between 2 banks – 1) chaos and 2) rigidity

Chapter 2: Two Brains are Better than One (Integrating the Left and the Right)

- The simple illustration of left-logic right-emotions

- The generic application of breaking down (most) experiences into the emotional response and the logical response

- Connecting with the right (meeting the emotional needs first) before the left (redirect to logic for sense-making) as a basic tool to process an experience

- Meeting the subject at the emotional level known as attuning

- “Name it to Tame” it as a strategy

o Storytelling (getting subject to retell story)

o Getting subject to recount experiences in a sequential manner

o Capture other aspects of the experience (positive ones) which might have been overcrowded by big emotions (fear/pain/anger etc.)

- The key to helping a child(subject) to integrate is for us to be integrated ourselves.

Chapter 6: The Me-We Connection (Integrating Self and Other)

- Recognizing the innate desire to connect (amongst infants)

o The role of mirror neurons as evidence for such tendencies

- The need to facilitate and help the subject to build/develop/nurture the social skills

o Creating positive mental models (association with social relationships), and making relationships desirable/positive

- Practicing strategies that facilitate relationships (non-verbal, collaboration etc.)

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Your Teenager is not Crazy - Dr. Jeremy Clark & Jerusha Clark

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Your Teenager is not Crazy - Dr. Jeremy Clark & Jerusha Clark

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Main ideas:

Introduction

- Extending empathy/compassion toward adolescent

- The second window of opportunity (massive structural changes in the brain anatomy)

o Use it or lose it (pruning of unused neural pathways, myelination of active neural pathways for specialization)

o Neurons that fire together, wire together (establishing of associations; interconnectedness

Chapter 1: You don’t Understand

- Understanding gap caused by out-of-season expectations

o Parental expectations of the child (more mature)

o Child’s expectations of the parents (to be constantly present to support the growth)

o Situational expectations (expectations necessitated by physiological changes; phases of change, sequence of change, maturation of different parts of the brain – and the catching up by the other parts)

- Tips:

o Consistency and presence

o Observe (without judging and prescribing)

o Ask, listen and respect

o Remember (and relate)

o Parental needs to relinquish (intimacy, sense of being needed, confidence, control, ease)

Chapter 2: Leave Me Alone

- Emphasis on the (parental) need to relinquish control (decisions, outcomes, choices etc.)

- Teenagers’ search for identity and independence

- Maintaining healthy boundaries and ensuring support (Daniel Siegel, “lend support while supporting separation)

o Allowing space for failure (decision-making, especially poor ones)

o Involving teenagers to have a say (rules, decision-making etc.)

o Be comfortable with indecisiveness (trying new things)

o Affirming the teenager (saying “yes” more frequently)

Chapter 3: But Why

- Abstract Reasoning: adolescents’ changing way to view/perceive/understand the world

- Dialectic thinking: engaging in discussion and examination of opposing ideas in order to discover truth

- Process is facilitated by intentional dialogs (care-givers etc.)

o Ask good questions

o Not to take things personally

- Critical in the forming of identity (abstract thinking)

Chapter 4: I’m So Bored

- Sensation/novelty-seeking behaviors

- Dopamine at play (it’s a physiological change in bodily states)

- Encourage exploration, allow for curiosity (in their terms), spend time together

Chapter 5: It could be Epic

- Risk-taking behavior vs Hyperrational thinking (overestimate the chance of something positive happening)

o Hyperrational teens are aware of consequences

o Hyperrationality is encouraged by “audience”

- Manage by rewarding self-control, allowing failure, establishing clear boundaries

Chapter 6: But Nothing Happened

- About impulsivity and the developing prospective thinking (inhibitory control and learning from experiences)

- Correlates with phenomenon of substance/alcohol usage in adolescent

- ***early introduction of alcohol to adolescents are bad (even within controlled environment) à because it has impact on the biological development of the brain (impedes the myelination of the neural pathways)

Chapter 7: What do You Want Me to Say

- About communication patterns

- Possible correlation to structural changes in the brain that impact the language acquisition

- Indirect implications such as attention, stimulation, other priorities

- Strategies to engage

o Short frequent responses preferred

o Set example / modelling / practicing

o Be comfortable with silence / provide space / listen and acknowledge / be respectful – ask if opinions are appreciated

o Choose “I” language instead of “you”

o Discern the appropriateness of setting, time, place for conversation

o Provide choice, be humble, ask and clarify, be creative

Chapter 8: Why are You Freaking Out

- About emotional regulations and dealing with it

- Possibility of developing limbic system, and its association with the development of the social aspect of the brain function

- Strategies to engage

o If need to, walk away (preserve peace and calmness)

o Name it to tame it (model for the adolescent how to manage emotions by articulating the feeling, and what you are going to do about it)

o Allow the adolescent to have an equal say ( the last word, not always turning to our parental authority, relinquish the need to be right/for things to go our way, consult the adolescent)

o Extend compassion and understanding (beneath surface issues that might be contributing)

o Always hold our cool (walk away if need be)

o Sort the issues (boundary issue, negotiable issue let-go issue)

Chapter 9: Why are You Looking at Me Like that?

- About misunderstanding arising from misinterpretation of facial expressions

- A developing ability (adults process facial information in the prefrontal cortex, adolescents process it in the limbic system)

Chapter 10: Aren’t You Sorry

- About resolving conflicts (and the possible role of mirror neurons in the act of apology)

Chapter 11: What’s Wrong with my Friends

- About the adolescents’ inclination for social setting (development of the social brain)

- Managing expectations and communicating clearly

- Helping the adolescent to practice making good decisions (and affirming them of that), be interested but give space, encourage healthy dose of physical interactions, limit unsupervised group time

Chapter 12: It’s not Like We’re Getting Married

- The social brain and the desire to connect (with the opposite gender)

- The release of phenylethylamine that heightens during adolescence

- Pop culture and what they learn from watching

- Strategies to manage

o Be interested and talk about it frequently

o Ask and listen (discuss instead of mandate)

o Be vulnerable (appropriately), recognize the influence of the past

o Discourage exclusive relationships (provide opportunity for cross-gender hangouts, but discourage one-to-one)

o Do not be excessively strict

Chapter 13: This is Soooo Awkward

- Oxytocin at the central of opposite attraction (responsible for affection, and cuddly behaviors)

o Do not withhold affection from adolescents (because of awkwardness)

o Channel oxytocin drive in healthy ways (pets, caregiving etc.)

o Counter cultural lies (educate and talk about it openly)

- Necessity to recognize/address it as a developmental phase issue (not a gender issue)

Chapter 14: But It’s Mine

- Materialism and consumerism; and their association with the brain activity

o Triggers a similar area to religious fervor; sports/celebrity fanaticism

o Compounded by explicit advertisement and its bombardment

Chapter 15: Hold on, I Just Have to Send This

- The issue of technologies and brain development (stimulation)

o Addiction arising (the biological explanation)

o How technology changes how the brain develops

Chapter 16: It’s Not that Bad

- About living in a media-saturated world: written, music, visual, movies, games etc.

- Position of magazine (portrayals that shape the thinking), and games (designed to stimulate like addiction does; rely on reactions instead of deliberations)

Chapter 17: How do I Know That’s True

- About the crisis of faith

- Studies about the importance of faith and faith practices and their benefits for the brain development (e.g. meditation and scripture memorization promote myelination)

Chapter 18: It’s not my Fault

- Blame-shifting behaviors

- Viewed in light of biological/psychological contributions to emotions and other attributions

- Biology not to be the scapegoat for wayward behaviors

Chapter 19: I can’t Take this

- About stress and its management

- Adolescents especially susceptible because 1) many bodily and neural changes happening, 2) the stress-coping mechanism within the brain is still developing

- THP hormones helps to regulate stress hormones in adults

Chapter 20: I’m so Tired

- Teenage sleep pattern

o Melatonin (sleep-promoting neurochemical) release shifts in adolescence (sleep later, groggy in the morning)

- The impacts and importance of having sufficient sleep (bodily, emotionally, developmentally); and the adverse effects of lack thereof

- The challenge to have sufficient sleep (the modern schedule, and the intruding technologies)

- Promoting sleeping routine

o Create a sleep-friendly environment; waking environment

o Create a schedule and sleep ritual and stick to them

o Eat and drink wisely

o Exercise

o Watch the stress level

Chapter 21: I’m Starving

- About eating healthy and its importance to promote good general health (overall) and brain development

Chapter 22: What’s Wrong with Me (Girls)

- The physical changes and their onset in girls (Puberty and menstruation)

- Hyper-sensitive (emotionally) adolescence and hyper-active receptors in the brain to be extremely sensitive to environmental changes

- Onset of puberty in girls correlates directly to environmental factors

o More stress à earlier onset

o Presence of father à later onset

- Not allowing PMS to be an excuse for irresponsible decisions, and unwise ways of coping (binge eating etc.)

Chapter 23: It’s Not All I Think About (Boys)

- The big role testosterone plays (way beyond JUST sexual drives)

o Amygdala and hypothalamus are sensitive to testosterone

- Be interested and invest in the boys by extending understanding, and exhibiting humility to invite them into conversations

Chapter 24: I Feel So Ugly

- About body image; expectations and influence created by the media

- About the tendency for prolonged self-criticism (body image) to perpetuate the negative self-imaging

- Exercise helps

Chapter 25: I Hate My Life

- About depression and the myriad causes (environmental, genetic, stress, relationships etc.)

- Watch for prejudice and stereotypes (depression and other mental health issues are unique, therefore requires tailored treatment)

- The need to be more observant and available to pick out any signs and symptoms (the alarming statistics about mental health in adolescents, and the general misconception toward mental health)

Chapter 26: What If…

- About anxiety (and the developing corresponding part of the brain – basal ganglia)

- A very low portion of people with anxiety disorders seek help

- There is lack of understanding and stereotype about the condition

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The Teenage Brain (A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults)  – Frances E. Jensen & Amy Ellis Nutt 

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The Teenage Brain (A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults)  – Frances E. Jensen & Amy Ellis Nutt 

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Main Ideas:

Introduction: backstory and relating to own experience as a mother of teenagers; establishing credentials as a neural expert

Chapter 1: Entering the Teen Years

- History of adolescent neural science

- Concept of teenagers and the differentiation of adolescence from childhood (teenagers as man/woman-child) and from adulthood (teenagers as quasi-adults)

- Importance of differentiating sexually-mature from adulthood

- Insufficiency of sex hormones to explain the phase

Chapter 2: Building a Brain

- The basic anatomy of the brain, and the respective functions of the different parts of the brain (and its development)

- The role of environment (external stimulation) during the developmental phase (neurons that fire together, group together)

o The pruning of underused neurons to give way to relatively more active neurons à leading to the development of more acute senses/abilities etc.

o Animal brains have a corresponding reflection of the structure (dogs having brain parts that are responsible for movement and balance much much more developed than human)

o Possible to “prime” the subject into left-handedness by intentionally stimulating the region during the developmental phase

- The phased out development of the human brain to explain adolescents’ behaviors and the perceived lack of control/emotions (pre-frontal cortex last to mature)

- *Prospective Memory: ability to hold in the mind the intention to perform a certain action at a future time

o Importance for the repetition of information

- Debunking the myth of multi-tasking

o Tasks that do not require cognitive focus not counted

o Cognitive-focus reliant tasks would definitely jeopardize their execution (Missouri experiment)

o Distractions affect both the encoding (memorizing) and retrieval (recalling) (especially the encoding phase)

Chapter 3: Under the Microscope

- The chemical processes that went on during brain activity (synapses, myelin, excitatory and inhibiting)

Chapter 4: Learning (A Job for the Brain)

- The physiological processes involved in the brain (during learning)

o Imprinting as a classic example

o The power of repetition and its relations to “cells that fire together group together”

o The “use it or lose it” principle to neuron usage

- Environment that provides the stimulation required for “brain growth”

Chapter 5: Sleep

- The changes to sleep pattern during adolescence

o Later sleep; later wake (the 2-hr delayed release of melatonin – a sleep inducing chemical and the retaining of melatonin in adolescents after warking up)

- The association of good sleeping habits and learning performance

o Sleeping/resting after learning provides time for the brain to prune; allowing prioritization to take place à leading to consolidation and better learning

o Sleeping also enhances memories

- Poor sleeping pattern leads to myriad of negative outcomes (physiology, emotions, cognitive)

Chapter 6: Taking Risk

- The developing brain; self-control in adults rely on automatic processes such as the retrieval of image memories; whereas adolescents rely on reasoning

- Prefrontal cortex (responsible for reasoning) last to mature in brain development in adolescent

- Adolescent has an equal or even better ability to do reasoning and logical thinking; BUT adolescence risk-taking behaviors are primarily fueled by reward (response caused by the release of dopamine)

- In summary, adolescence measurement of risk-taking behavior cannot be determined by risk-perception, BUT the anticipation of reward despite risk

- Engaging in sports (CCA) and communal activities provide protection against risk-taking behaviors

- Media exposure and peer influence have direct implications for risk-taking behaviors

Chapter 7: Tobacco

- Adolescents are more susceptible than adults to any kinds of addiction

Chapter 8: Alcohol

- Adolescents’ brains are less susceptible to the immediate effects of alcohol, presenting a false sense of tolerance

- Alcohol causes long term damages to the adolescents’ brain

Chapter 9: Pot

- (in pot) Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) disrupts neural pathway development

- (naturally occurring in our brain) endocannabinoid has naturally occurring receptors in the brain, which binds readily with THC (4 times better)

- Short term alterations of perception/judgment/psychological state; longer term damages that can lead to psychotic illnesses

- HIGHLY addictive

Chapter 10: Hard-Core Drugs

- The brain responds to the hyperactivity of dopamine (caused by drugs) by reducing the number of dopamine receptors, resulting in less simulation à which leads to tolerance

- Developing white matter makes adolescents a lot more susceptible to effects/addiction

- Accidental “hooking” to drugs when painkillers are loosely administered to sportsman (abused drugs are cheaper than medicinal ones)

Chapter 11: Stress

- The pretext of adolescents driven primarily by EMOTIONS (prefrontal cortex still developing)

- The roles of adrenaline and cortisol, and the different levels in adolescents

- Cortisol linked to negative emotions and the sense of loneliness

- Freezing – a natural response in extreme stress (caused by a sudden surge of cortisol)

- Resilience: adults brain rebound from stressful period after 10 days on average; adolescents’ brain rebound is delayed by 3 weeks, suggesting longer term or even possibly irreversible effect

- (Normal) Adolescents have much higher amygdala activation when shown stressful pictures, when compared to adults and children

Chapter 12: Mental Illness

- Making the distinction between a normal teenager phase and a mental health condition (signs)

o Severity of mood (exaggeration and deepening)

o Change in function (behavioral, sleep, eating habits etc.)

- Schizophrenia not a childhood illness (abnormal frontal lobe activity – emerge in late teens)

- Conduct disorder, eating disorder, mood disorder, anxiety etc

o Important to recognize early red flags to call in interventions

- Coupled with poor judgment and decision making, and a developing prefrontal cortex, the tendency to self-medicate or other modes of relief such as drinking/smoking/drugs are prevalent amongst adolescents

Chapter 13: The Digital Invasion of the Teenage Brain

- Addiction to tech (when the same reward system in the brain is triggered – similar to how drugs/alcohol affects the brain)

- Moderation: balanced amount of gaming has benefit for brain development – spatial ability development, and quick responsive decision making

- The myth of multi-tasking

o Adolescents likely to repeat multi-tasking behaviors if it delivers reward responses

o Multi-tasking impedes learning

o Multi-tasking cause a rise in cortisol level, and may be linked with other bodily changes

- Cyberbullying, intrusion of privacy; all in the backdrop of poor decision making, and thrill-seeking behavior

- Importance to monitor and be aware of what happens within the adolescent cyber space

Chapter 15: Sports and Concussions

- Involvement in sports (contact and non-contact) pointing to a higher incident of head damage

- Damage usually in the cell (non-structural) therefore harder to detect

- Besides huge impact, repeated moderate knocks can also result in substantial brain injury

- Damage could be caused by the influx of neurochemicals trying to repair a brain injury

- Brain damage can also cause physiological impact such as reduced muscle mass

Chapter 16: Crime and Punishment

- The role of brain development/maturation process in dishing out punishments to juvenile offenders

- The necessity to make a distinction

- Contributing factors of the brain state; the family of origin etc.

- The arbitrary age bracket to define the range of punishment (maturation continues well into the 20s)

- Understanding the adolescents’ tendencies, and perceiving the juvenile offenders in light of the neurological understanding

Chapter 17: Beyond Adolescence (It’s Not Over Yet)

- The difficulty to define adolescence since the arbitrary timeline of brain development until 25 is a loose gauge

- The changing environment; parenting style; era and the influences that are contributing to personalities/brain development differences

- The ill-defined young adulthood and how it features in the light of all the other issues (marriage, pregnancy, college, jobs and other major decisions)

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The Influence of Art-Making on Negative Mood States in University Students - Drake, Searight, Olsen

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The Influence of Art-Making on Negative Mood States in University Students - Drake, Searight, Olsen

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Main ideas:
- there is no significant difference between different art forms and their effect on reducing stress
- across 4 art forms, all of them consistently and generally reduce stress, even when the engagement is for a brief period

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Can Coloring Mandalas Reduce Anxiety? A Replication Study - Vennet & Serice

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Can Coloring Mandalas Reduce Anxiety? A Replication Study - Vennet & Serice

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Main Ideas:
- there are significant differences observed between art forms
- free form art may not be as effective because participants might be stressed over the lack of direction
- general coloring of patterns did not bear significant differences in result
- however, coloring a dawn-colored mandala

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Cumulative family risks across income levels predict deterioration of children’s general health during childhood and adolescence - Yi-Ching Lin, Dong-Chul Seo

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Cumulative family risks across income levels predict deterioration of children’s general health during childhood and adolescence - Yi-Ching Lin, Dong-Chul Seo

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Main ideas:
- demonstrates the impact of Cumulative Family Risks (CFR) on children and youth's health
- integrates ecological perspectives and analyzes the influence of poverty
- challenged children may overcome poor life conditions via creative strategies
- social support and community ties can buffer the negative effects of economic distress

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The School Social Worker: A Marginalized Commodity within the School Ecosystem - Megan Callahan Sherman

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The School Social Worker: A Marginalized Commodity within the School Ecosystem - Megan Callahan Sherman

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Main ideas (American context)
- the evolving position of a social worker (in the school's ecosystem)
- the traditional perspective of social worker in school
* works only with outliers / special students
* irrelevant to participate in the mainstream system
* not as robustly trained as the other figures within the school system (teachers, psychologists etc.)
- may not be given the leadership opportunities within school, and hence limited in influence
- useful and untapped resources from the social worker in the school system
- the transforming role of a social worker (youth worker) in the context of school

relevance / implication:
- understanding the importance of perception and portrayal of our workers
- being aware of self-advocacy (to increase the presence and influence of social workers within the mainstream system)
- the importance of qualifications/credentials to lend credibility to our work

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Inequality Begins at Birth - Jeff Madrick

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Inequality Begins at Birth - Jeff Madrick

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Main Ideas:
- The relationship between environment and brain development
* Specifically, the impact of "poor" on the brain development of the child
* poor often implies higher stress, which (higher level of cortisol and adrenaline) can deteriorate the brain development
- the need to tackle "poor" children issues at the ecological system level

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Autonoymy, Belongness, and Engagement in School as Contributors to Adolescent Psychological Well-Being - Ryzin, Gravely, Roseth

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Autonoymy, Belongness, and Engagement in School as Contributors to Adolescent Psychological Well-Being - Ryzin, Gravely, Roseth

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Main ideas:

- Self-determination theory posits a model linking academic autonomy and belongingness in school to engagement, achievement, and psychological adjustment.
- students' perceptions of academic autonomy and belongingness in school can exert an influence on students' psychological adjustment (ie. hope)
- school-based reforms targeting academic autonomy and belongingness may yield more immediate results for student engagement, while changes in student hope may require a more extended timeframe.
- higher levels of engagement in learning contribute to increases in perceptions of academic autonomy and teacher-related support over time, which can create a positive feedback loop

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Social Inequality, Life Course Transitions, and Adolescent Development: Introduction to Special Issue - Buchmann

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Social Inequality, Life Course Transitions, and Adolescent Development: Introduction to Special Issue - Buchmann

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Main ideas:
- the interaction between the 3 factors (social inequality, life course transitions and adolescent development)
- life course transition identified as a critical milestone in an adolescent's adjustment to a new status
- social and individual factors (such as background, childhood experiences) serving as buffer for stressor/adaptation
social reproduction of inequality takes the social positioning of the family of ori- gin as the starting point and the adolescent or young adult status attainment as the outcome.
- adolescent agency may be developed by non-familial social environments. Children and adolescents themselves contribute to the formation of their out-of-home and out-of-school social contexts of growing up.

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Middle Childhood - An Evolutionary-Developmental Synthesis - Marco Del Giudice

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Middle Childhood - An Evolutionary-Developmental Synthesis - Marco Del Giudice

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Main ideas:

- the definition of middle childhood (6-11 years old)
- Juvenility - the period where the adolescent gains some degree of autonomy (sexually immature, no longer depends on parents for survival)
- the effects of past experience on developmental switches may be mediated by epigenetic mechanisms
- the uniqueness of middle childhood
* social integration and social competition
* Sexual selection (emergence and pronunciation of sexual differences)
* Heightened sensitivity to the environment

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Effect of Art Production on Negative Mood: A Randomized, Controlled Trial - Bell & Steven

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Effect of Art Production on Negative Mood: A Randomized, Controlled Trial - Bell & Steven

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Main points:
- an attempt to empirically prove the claim of art therapy capable of inducing reduction in stress level
- compared art production vs art viewing
- significant difference measured

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Anxiety and Art Therapy/ Treatment in the Public Eye - Chambala

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Anxiety and Art Therapy/ Treatment in the Public Eye - Chambala

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Main points:

- non-empirical
- concept of an art exhibition featuring arts produced by mental health patients, with a focus on anxiety disorder patients)
- common theme observed: usage of wide spectrum of colours, abstract imageries, and the tendency to embark on the art tasks rapidly

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Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) Improves Emotional Responses and Modulates Neurohormones in Adolescents with Mild Depression - Jeong et al.

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Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) Improves Emotional Responses and Modulates Neurohormones in Adolescents with Mild Depression - Jeong et al.

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Main Points:

- Preliminary study with multiple limitations
- results significant (small sample size consisting only of females)
- significant results observed with DMT on mild depression

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A Competence-Based Framework for Parent–School–Community Partnerships in Secondary Schools

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A Competence-Based Framework for Parent–School–Community Partnerships in Secondary Schools

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Main Points:

- A recommendation for parents to be actively involved in the adolescents during middle school
- brings forth the reality/difficulty of transition from primary to secondary education
- coincidences of problems and challenges with the adolescence (need for more support/attention)
- collaboration opportunity designed by school should NOT deter specific families to come on board (e.g. more disadvantaged family)
- collaboration between parents and school has the potential to become the buffer for the disadvantages faced by disadvantaged adolescents
- the need to engage parents in an empowering manner
- the collaboration as a platform to cultivate meta-skills such as coping and life skills
- the need to recognize the evolving challenges (such as isolation, withdrawal, alienation etc.)
- parents' main role is NOT to be an extension of the school, but to support the adolescents in developing competencies to deal with the challenges presented by that phase

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Main Ideas:

Introduction:
- The 7 Essential Life Skills that are indicative of future successes, and the importance of developing these skills so that the person (child) thrives in life
- The 7 essential life skills are
*Focus and self-control
*Perspective-taking
*Communicating
*Making connections
*Critical thinking
*Taking on challenges
*Self-directed, engaged learning
- The 4 underpinning executive functions are 1) focus , 2) working memory, 3) cognitive flexibility, 4) inhibitory control

Chapter 1: Focus and Self-Control
- is a key indicator to goal-directed behaviour
- might be more indicative of successes then IQ
* "focus" defined as the ability to maintain attention and stay on a task, especially in the midst of distractions
* "cognitive flexibility defined as the ability to change/accept changes
* "working memory" defined as the ability to retain and recall pieces of memory, and relating them to present situation
* "inhibitory control" defined as the ability to "block out" competing/inclined behaviour/stimuli/alternative tasks (in order to maintain focus and follow through with current task)
*executive functioning skills as a fragile skillsets that diminish rapidly with the lack of sleep/rest (other bodily dissatisfaction)
- the necessity of the focus and self-control skills in modern times where there is a time famine (tasks and multi-tasks that demand attention)
- the origin of focus and self-control traces back (scientifically) to pre-natal phase (children exhibiting bodily responses to external stimuli)
- the role of focus and self-control in our day-to-day living (deciding what to prioritize, what is urgent, what to respond to etc.)
- measure of focus and self-control in babies by looking at the level of alertness
- the critical evidence of a relationship between the ability to focus and self control, and the ability to manage stress (sometimes translates to transitions)
- what actually happens in ADHD (attention deficit, hyper activity, or both)
- the standpoint to promote focus and self control as early as possible (immature development of the pre-frontal cortex) needing exercises and practices to be better (imagined training muscles)
- Suggestions to promote focus and self-control in children
1. enable toddlers (children) to learn/experience focus and self control
2. use (dynamic) activities/play/toys/games/puzzles
3. develop/discover what(project) interest the child
4.read stories that require focus/listening
5. select tv shows/games carefully
6. pay attention to environment (background television can be disruptive)
7. encourage pretend play
8. introduce games with (changing rules)
9. encourage rest (both child and caregiver)
- take note that inhibitory control should not discourage creativity and exploration/imagination

Chapter 2: Perspective Taking
- an essential life-skill to teaches one to relate to another (beyond empathy)
- perspective-taking as a (social-emotional intellectual) skill that can be learnt/developed
- perspective-taking as a connecting skill to sense-make and interpret situation (why people are doing certain things/treating them a certain way, and how they should respond)
- establishing that children are born as individual (learning to connect/socialise) - evidence of the development of perspective-taking skills (interpreting behaviours and responses)
- perspective-taking in understanding goal-directed behaviours (intentions/preferences/thoughts/feelings)
- helping children to understand that other people might have different thoughts/preferences from them (crackers versus broccoli)
- at 4 years of age, children seem to understand that others might believe things differently from them (new friends might not know that a crayon box contain paper clips)
* social cognition (think about others' thoughts and feelings) present in children (but unable to express the complexity until later age)
- the degree of insight a child can develop (in perspective-taking) correlates to how a parent interpret the everyday events in their lives (how elaborate the interaction, and how emotionally-vested the interactions are)
- debunking aggression as an aggregate of child having limited options/know-how to respond (intuitive to fight back)
*connection of aggression to perspective-taking is when the appraisal process leading up to aggression is identified (hostile attribution bias when child perceive provocative acts as aggression)
*attributional retraining (using perspective-taking) helps the child to understand the possibility of accidents and other factors (leading to decrease in aggression)
- developing perspective-taking skills in children require adults to take perspectives, help the children to trust them, and help the children to feel understood
- techniques: repeat/imitate child's words, describe/articulate observations, ask questions, express empathy/assurances
- talk about feelings often, but do not overwhelm children with our problems (children have tendencies to assume fault, so important to assure them that it's not their fault), share instead our plan to recover
- talk about perspective-taking instances in the day-to-day, consequences of actions on others (other-oriented discipline)
- encourage pretend-play
*essentially perspective-taking skills help a child to understand the intent of others, and the ensuing social interactions/consequences/treatment

Chapter 3: Communicating
- parent look
- parent speak
- parent gesture
- the chapter captures strong empirical evidence to how communicating abilities are developed amongst children, beginning from exposure/recognition during the fetal phase
- the obvious preference/inclination for certain sound/voice/tone largely primed by familiarity and association
- the significant of non-verbals such as looking/pointing/gesture/body languages to help the child draw association and acquire language better
- focus and self-control as reliable predictors of good acquisition of language and mathematics skills amongst kindergarten children
- reading: a relatively new ability (evolutionally)
*discovery of a homogenous usage of the same brain areas when learning languages across the world
* reading acquisition broken down to phases: photographing words (perceiving letters in 3-D form - explaining the difficulties to differentiate "d", "b", and even "p"; MAPPING grapheme to phoneme (matching visual symbols with sounds)
*understanding the phases and pacing out learning (allowing time for children to read by letter, before reading by word)
*the benefit of exposure to sound/rhythm/audio stimulation to prime the child to learn reading skills
*no critical period for learning second language; bilingualism presents more differences than delay in abilities
***identifying and acknowledging the critical differences between the language tool and the communication tool - which is best promoted in actual conversations/serve and return/responding/questioning
- talking about things beyond the here and now
- the powerful impact stories can have as a tool/platform/conversation topic

Chapter 4: Making Connections
- Object sense (an expectation of how things should be)
- Space sense (a perception of space and distances, and relationships)
- Approximate number sense (a sense of many versus less)
- identifying relationships between rules/systems/understanding
- executive function practice through activities like categorization
*executive functioning skills like working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, reflection to allow for connections to be made (inhibiting preferred understanding, considering possibilities, remembering and joining the dots)
- connecting to understand, and connecting what's interesting

Chapter 5: Critical Thinking
- the relationship between information and decision-making
- the quest to decipher/discern the reliability of information, the choice of information, the acceptability of information
- the space for EF skills to provide the space for decisions to be made
- the people sense (a predisposed inclination/ability to decipher other humans) drawing the person to prefer a pro-social individual (intentions matter), more accurate and reliable information source (helpful behaviours preferred)
- the critical element of trust in critical thinking
- critical thinking skills as an essential skills to differentiate facts from fiction (reality from desires)
- the role of bias and self-interest in the context of trust (black and white, and sometimes grey; cause and effects; confounding outcomes)
- model problem-solving
- learning from others; learning from experiences (curiosity as an underlying motivation to develop CT)

Chapter 6: Taking on Challenges
- the role of stress and coping/managing it, and its danger (unattended stress/inappropriately handled has potential to kill/cause depression when overwhelming the individual)
- stress in childhood helps to prepare the child for adulthood
- the role of support to manage stress
- social referencing: modelling for the child how to respond to stress; facial cues
- attachment/presence/availability as buffer/support to manage stress
- a degree of control (even in the form of deciding on how to cope) helps the child to cope better
- the need to consider temperament (which predispose some bias in the child's tendencies to respond in different ways), parenting styles, and childhood experiences
- growth mindset (Carol Dweck) as a predictor for better coping and outcomes in life in general - the need to cultivate growth mindset

Chapter 7: Self-Directed, Engaged Learning
- still face experiment - it is impossible to be in-sync all the time (by toggling between in-sync, out-of-sync, back-in-sync, the repairing experiences help the child to learn better)
- importance of serve and return
- children learn (a lot) by observing; especially what adults do/say
- acknowledging that the learning experiences is holistic (the emotional, cognitive, developmental learnings are all happening concurrently and intermeshed)
- learning stems from secure attachment that sometimes allow for imitation
- learning when directed by goals move things along by encouraging them to explore and play
- learning that leads to practice, synthesising and generalising (memories at play)
- expect and encourage the children to give their best and be accountable for their learning (praise for efforts)
- promote a community of learners (parents, children, teachers all learning together)

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Where the 8 Brain-Pushers are derived from

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Turnaround Tools for the Teenage Brain - Eric Jensen & Carole Snider

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Turnaround Tools for the Teenage Brain - Eric Jensen & Carole Snider

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Chapter 1: Teach Students to Learn for Life
- essentially emphasising on setting the student up to cultivate a habit/sense of possibility/growth mindset to embark on a journey of learning
- 4 drivers: attitude, cognitive capacity, effort, focused strategy
- the educator in the role of facilitator to "partner" with the student to discover and embrace the 4 drivers

Chapter 2: Change Your Students' Brains
- the scientific breakdown on what actually "moulds" the brain changes
- the intertwining of the biological (genetic) factors, the environmental (experience) factors, and the interaction between the 2
- the interaction between the 2 can either express/suppress
- adolescence being a phase which is highly malleable
- the 8 brain-pushers/nudges
1. Relationships (influences stress level, degree of intimacy, reliability)
2. Attention and buy-in (establishing connections and relavance)
3. Mastery and autonomy (sense of control and influence)
4. Brain health (physical, emotional, diet, lifestyle, safety etc.)
5. Coherence and sense-making (ensuring understanding)
6. Mistakes and error correction (Trial and error- the need for specificity, objectivity, focused, constructive)
7. Challenge (playing to their "risk", variation, sense of control/progress)
8. Time on Task (caveated with existing state of mind, how motivated, how challenging, whether error happens etc, managing expectations)

Chapter 3: Begin with Attitude Building
- essentially a re-presentation of the growth mindset preposition (learned optimism, personal accountability)
- the simple tool of IRC (incident -> response -> consequence)
- promoting personal accountability to emphasise the individual's ability/responsibility to influence outcomes
- promote control; and perspective-taking (choosing the responses)
- being aware of labels

Chapter 4: Build Cognitive Capacity
- capacity to think, organise, and learn successfully
- executive functioning skills: self-control, processing skills, attentional skills (a child's biological tendency to pay attention to novel but distracting stimuli competing with our notion of sustained attention) , memory capacity, sequencing skills

Chapter 5: Foster Student Effort
- no students are stuck (poor attitude are symptoms, not the root of problems)
- educators' role to influence effort (educators having a direct role to help turn things around
- EFFORTS BUILDERS
* ongoing formative assessment: pretest/benchmark for the students to have something to measure progress against
* High engagement with reciprocal (peer) teaching: interactive and less downloading mode of engagement, empowering the students with skills instead of just contents
* teacher-student & student-student relationships
* teaching for mastery with clarity and challenge: teaching should be above and beyond just (sufficient) downloading content, but the impartation of skills; the process should encompass a sufficient level of challenge, and the learner be helped to overcome the challenge
* comprehensive, targeted interventions: the need to know, tailor, customise, and address unique/individual needs
* class climate and high expectations: the benchmark should be maintained to encourage the learner to rise to the occasion
* continuous, informal feedback: needs to be clear, concise and constructive to allow the learner to act upon. This has one of the highest correlations to performance, and the definition of feedback needs to go beyond praises and punishment

Chapter 6: Empower Exceptional Learners
- research has shown that the "typical brain" actually constitutes approximately 11 percent of the population (ie. majority of the brains are atypical)
- exceptional learners may exhibit bodily/physical symptoms/behaviours such as head movement, impulsivity, boredom, forgetfulness etc.
- exceptional learners may have underdeveloped executive functioning skills and may need more help to develop them
- "gifted" learners may also require some special customisation of contents/learning
- assumptions about gifted learners can be dangerous
* do not get them to "tutor" struggling students because they learn differently
* the customisation might mean them progressing at a different level (to ensure they are continually challenged in their learning)
* by giving gifted learners more work would not work as well as if they are given more challenging work

Chapter 7: Strengthen Body, Mind and Soul
- the integral step to consider the different aspects (health) of a learner
- does not deviate from earlier principles of relationships, efforts, empowering etc.
- addressing the basic needs (like Maslov) for better learning to take place

Chapter 8: Focus Students on Goals
- importance of setting goals
- beyond the abstract idea of goal-setting; the necessity to confront the practical process leading up to goals
- the emphasis on qualities like perseverance, positivity, belief etc.
- in the goal-pursuit, the kind of support an educator can provide for the learner

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Disciplining from a whole-brain approach

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No-Drama Discipline - Daniel J. Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson

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No-Drama Discipline - Daniel J. Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson

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Chapter 1: Rethinking Discipline
- Defining "discipline" - to teach or to illicit learning
- the magic of taking a pause
- asking the questions (why, what is the learning/outcome, how to achieve that)
- in a chaotic and emotionally-filled situation, the adults should be the adults, and the kid be the kid (being cognisant of the developmental capacity)
- recognising misbehaviour as a capacity issue (cannot), and not a character issue (will not)
- environmental situation and context have huge influence over the amount of capacity available (tiredness, frustration all have an impact on the amount of capacity the child has)
- punitive approach and its association with confusing a child's neural/biological response to go toward a caregiver to look for safety (but is also the same person inflicting pain/punishment/threat)
- connection and relationships form the basis for healthy discipline to take place ( and there is no one-size-fit-all method)

Chapter 2: Your Brain on Discipline
- the 3Cs of brain (changing, changeable and complex)
- the child will NOT be able to consistently behave all the time because they CANNOT
- Mindsight as an important concept for empathy (seeing the mind of others and self) ***is still developing

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Structure for Belonging: A Synthesis of Research on Belonging - Supportive Learning Environments - Kaleen Healey and Chloe Stroman

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Structure for Belonging: A Synthesis of Research on Belonging - Supportive Learning Environments - Kaleen Healey and Chloe Stroman

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Main ideas:
- the sense of belonging has a direct impact on the individual's ability to thrive in the environment
- fostering the sense of belonging takes into considerations multiple factors such as institutionalised segregation/separation/banding
- entrenchment of institutionalised  segregation/separation/banding can create barriers for sense of belonging to be forged
- erroneous to assume that the "sense of belonging" is homogenous across people in the same environment, without taking into account background and context
- the role of environment (others) in (social) learning - what is appropriate, what is inspirational, what is celebrated, what is frowned upon
- the educators' role to create the learning environment
- the reciprocity of learning: treating learners as carrier of knowledge, capable of contributing to the overall learning experiences
- there are explicit and implicit connotations with systemic (institutionalised) segregation that communicate a certain message to the learner (about them)

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A Trauma-Informed Approach to Sexual Violence Research Ethics and Open Science - Rebecca Campbell et. al

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A Trauma-Informed Approach to Sexual Violence Research Ethics and Open Science - Rebecca Campbell et. al

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- Trauma-informed defined as practices that realise the impact of trauma and potential paths for recovery, recognise the signs and symptoms of trauma, respond by integrating knowledge about trauma into their approach, and resist retraumatization
- Open Science defined as the idea that all science research results should be disseminated and shared openly
- a trauma-informed approach primarily centre upon the following
* respecting the individual / treating them as equal
* empowering the individual (and allowing them to be in control as much as possible)
* being sensitive to the context/culture
- the article looks at trauma-informed in the context of a research - focusing on 3 specific phases
*recruitment of research subjects
*data collection
*data dissemination
- questions about the suitability of the subject/phases of recovery (especially taking into account the impact of traumatic experience on the different parts of the brain) for research