Penny Williams from A Mom's view of ADHD and I decided to join forces this month in an attempt to reach more people through our blogs. I believe that many of my readers would find her blog helpful and I also felt that I could offer some insight into the school perspective to her readers. Penny wrote Make Homework Routine a few weeks ago. If you found that helpful, check out her blog full of more strategies! A Mom's View of ADHD is an excellent resource for parents of children with ADHD. It's written from by a parent going through it and provides excellent insight and strategies. I highly recommend it as a place for parents to go to connect and gain support.

Be sure to check out my article, Support for ADHD in the Schools. I discussed the options available for receiving support in the schools for ADHD such as an IEP or a 504 Plan.

As a School Psychologist- I attend numerous Special Education Meetings weekly. There are Child Study Meetings, where we discuss interventions and may decide to complete an evaluation. There are eligibility meetings, where we determine if a student is eligible for special education services. There are IEP meetings where we develop a plan for a student who is eligible for special education. Additionally, there are Manifestation Determination meetings, Functional Behavioral Assessments, Behavior Intervention Plans, and 504 Meetings.

1. Vote in the poll
It's on the left side of the page. I haven't had many voters yet, but the more I get, the more informative it will be for all of us. I plan to write an article about our responses. It will be hard to do that unless I hear from as many of you as possible. I think about 0.5% of my readers or less have voted so far. I was hoping for 20-30% or more.

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Over the last few years I have been very busy working with teachers to create individualized behavior plans for several different elementary school students. There have been amazingly successful plans where some of the most significant behavior problems in the school have turned it around. Children who made daily trips to the office are only there now to receive praise from the administration. Teachers previously brought to tears from the behaviors have stopped me in the hall to say "Oh my goodness, he's like a different kid!" Students who were close to being sent to a day placement school are now succeeding in a regular classroom. It's very encouraging if I focus on those students. However, there have also been some plans that have been revised and revised and revised and the student is still struggling and the teacher is still severely frustrated. I have been reflecting on why some behavior plans work and others don't. Of course one of the biggest factors is the student. All students are different and the motivation for the misbehavior or lacking skill is different in each student. While this is important to consider, this particular article does not focus on this. I'm going to focus today on the teacher's role in making the behavior plan successful.

• Focus on the Positive!!! The behavior plans that have had the most dramatic success are plans that allow the teacher to focus on the positive. Classroom consequences are still in place, but are not connected to the plan. Here is an example: Johnny's teachers will offer positive reinforcement frequently in the classroom by giving Johnny a “warm fuzzy” pom pom when he is caught engaging in a desired behavior. Johnny will chose the bag to keep the “warm fuzzies” in and carry the bag with him to every class. Once the bag is full, he receives an immediate reward. There is no limit to how many “warm fuzzies” he can earn in a day. He does not loose “warm fuzzies” that he has already earned. All teachers and staff who work with Johnny can give him “warm fuzzies” for his bag. This plan works because Johnny who was used to receiving a lot of negative feedback, is now getting positive attention frequently throughout the day. He receives something tangible (the warm fuzzy) that he can put into his bag. This begins to change his perception of himself, which changes his behavior, which changes his teacher's perception of him, which can potentially change his future. Plans that offer positive rewards completely separate from the classroom consequences seem to have the most significant effects.




• Be Consistent. Teachers who are able to be consistent and are able to follow through every time have the most success with the plan. Oppositional children are excellent at pushing limits to see how far they can push. Consistent teachers have more success because they don't offer the wiggle room.




• Be Flexible. This is not the opposite of being consistent. This is having flexibility in your expectations and stating them upfront. If the student was able to behave like everyone else in the class she would be. She may need some flexibility in some areas. For example you may need to have area for her to work in the classroom for times she needs to cool down and get away from a stimulus. The teacher may need to allow her extra time to finish projects if it is the transition that sets her off. Being flexible and willing to make acceptable changes for the student sets everyone up for success.




• Remember that all students are different. The behaviors may be exactly the same as a student you had two years ago. However, that doesn't mean that the motivation for the behavior or the lacking skills are the same. What works for one student may not work for the next. That is the reason for the individualized plan. I strongly recommend doing a formal Functional Behavioral Assessment and a Behavior Intervention Plan.

Teachers have a HUGE part in making the Behavior Plan sucessful. It is the teacher who has to follow through and implement it consistently every day. It is the teacher who has to push forward even when it appears it isn't working at first. It is the teacher who has a tremendous positive impact on the student when the behavior starts turning around. It is the teacher who does the work to change lives!

Our senses help us understand and navigate our world. They help us feel, see, taste, etc. When one or more of those processes is more or less sensitive to world, life feels different to that person. It is hard to understand what it feels like to have sensory differences unless you have sensory differences. It’s easy to tell someone to ignore a noise that doesn’t seem excessively annoying to you. It’s hard to understand when someone has an intense need for pressure unless you have a similar need. Having these sensory differences can be anxiety producing and stressful. In a classroom, it can make that person less attentive or have a more difficult time sitting still. Kids don’t always have the words or understanding to express what they are feeling. As a result, children who have sensory processing issues are often misunderstood. Sensory issues are often associated with children who have an Autism Spectrum Disorder. There is also an association between Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and sensory issues. Many times a child will have sensory issues and not have any other disability. Those children may have Sensory Processing disorder, which is a neurological disorder that makes processing and responding to sensory information more difficult. A person with Sensory Processing Disorder may be more or less sensitive than most people to any or all of the senses. Sensory Processing Disorder is not yet widely understood by the majority of people. Most people have an idea about what Autism is or ADHD, but people often do not know about Sensory Processing Disorder. Many school professionals have not learned about it and do not understand it. Many parents have never heard of it. If you have any concerns that your child may have difficulty with sensory processing, I strongly recommend The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder, Revised Edition This book was explains the various types of sensory processing and helps parents to understand what their child may be feeling. It is transformative for a parent to finally understand what is going on with their child. Strategies for the Classroom:

 Often making small changes to the environment can help a child regulate his own body and focus in the classroom. A seating disk fits on a chair and is filled with air. It allows a child to wiggle in his seat, without moving around and causing a distraction. The bumps and the movement can provide the sensory input needed to help a child focus better. The ball chair also allows movement and is good for low tone as well. Weighted lap pads help provide proprioceptive input that helps establish increased body awareness, improves attention span and concentration, and has calming benefits.   Strategies for home: Trampolines provide deep pressure. Also, it is great exercise. For some children, when they start having difficulty regulating his or her body, jumping on the trampoline helps provide the needed pressure and will calm the body after a few minutes. The Body Sock is made of tight material that pushes back against the child's movement. This can help children with coordination and spatial positioning.

 Disclaimer: I am not an Occupational Therapist and am not an expert in this area. I am writing this article to raise awareness in sensory issues that can have a huge impact in the classroom and within a family. Sometimes, minor accommodations can make significant improvements in the life of a child, which I have witnessed firsthand. I encourage any parents who think his or her child may have a sensory issue to seek help through an Occupational Therapist. In most cases, this will fall outside of Special Education and schools, unless the sensory issues are associated with a disability, such as Autism. Some schools are more proactive than others and have more Occupational Therapy support than others. Because OT services are not mandated outside of an IEP or 504 Plan, many schools will not be equipped to help you with this. It is recommended that you seek support through an OT, who can provide individual strategies to use in the classroom and at home.

You can find all of the same articles in a more visually appealing Blog.  From now on use www.schoolpsychologistfiles.com/blog.  Thanks!

With the U.S. administration calling for the United States to adopt a more “merit-based” immigrant selection system, this conversation focused on what policymakers should consider in designing—and managing—immigrant selection systems in a time of intense labor-market and demographic change.

With the Trump administration having announced the end of the DACA program, Congress is facing growing calls to protect unauthorized immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. This fact sheet examines DREAM Act bills introduced in Congress as of mid-2017, offering estimates of who might earn conditional legal status—and ultimately legal permanent residence—based on educational, professional, and other requirements in the legislation.

2017 saw the introduction of several bills—two of them by Senate Republicans in the weeks following the Trump administration’s announcement that it would terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program—that would provide a pathway to conditional and then legal permanent residence to unauthorized immigrants brought to the United States as children, if they meet a range of educational, professional, and other criteria.

An average of 915 DACA recipients every day will lose their work authorization and protection from deportation once the phaseout of the program moves into full force in spring 2018, MPI estimates. This fact sheet also offers U.S. and state estimates of the school enrollment and educational attainment, workforce participation, and industries and occupations of employment for the nearly 690,000 current DACA holders.

Rising numbers of young immigrants and refugees entering European schools following the 2015–16 migration crisis strained system capacity and injected new urgency into debates about how to support diverse learners and their families. This report examines the challenges facing European education systems and identifies key lessons to improve migrant inclusion in schools and integration more broadly.

The United States has long been the top choice for international students from around the world, hosting about 1.1 million foreign students in higher education institutions in 2016-17. However, U.S. enrollment has slowed in recent years due to several factors. This article offers a data snapshot of the population of international students in the United States.

This Migration Policy Institute Europe webinar examines possible scenarios for how social, economic, and technological trends could affect jobs, labor market policy, education and social policies, and migrant integration. Speakers also explored the potential of coding schools for refugees to help alleviate skills shortages and provide a pathway to work.

This fact sheet and accompanying interactive data tools provide characteristics of the estimated 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States, using a unique MPI methodology that assigns legal status to U.S. Census Bureau data. The fact sheet and tools offer statistics on these immigrants’ origins, U.S. destinations, educational attainment, English proficiency, employment, income, home ownership, and more.

Immigrant arrivals to the United States and the makeup of the foreign-born population have been changing in significant ways: Recent immigrants are more likely to be from Asia than from Mexico and the overall immigrant population is growing at a slower rate than before the 2008-09 recession. This useful article collects in one place some of the most sought-after statistics on immigrants in the United States.

A federal court on Thursday denied a motion to block an Arkansas directive preventing patients from receiving abortion care.

More than two months after Ahmaud Arbery was fatally shot while jogging near Brunswick, Georgia police arrested two men for the shooting, authorities said.

Authorities have charged a fourth person connected to the shooting death of a Flint, Mich., security guard who was killed after confronting a customer who entered a store without a state-mandated facemask.

Asian baseball, Grimes' baby, scary invasive insects -- how well did you follow the news this week? Take the UPI News Quiz for May 8, 2020.

As the population of gray wolves expands across the northern United States, researchers are finding a surprising side-effect: Their presence appears to lead to a reduction in the coyote population.

The Trump administration failed to conduct effective screening of passengers from South Korea and Italy for the coronavirus when those countries were experiencing rapid expansion in COVID-19 cases.

The United States economy shed more than 20 million jobs last month, the greatest month-to-month decline in history, the Labor Department said Friday in its monthly employment analysis.

California, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island are among states that are loosening coronavirus restrictions Friday to gradually revive their economies.

Cleveland police say they have used DNA research to solve the 33-year-old strangling of a teenage girl, and arrest her killer.

The Supreme Court on Friday granted a Justice Department request to temporarily block release of secret grand jury material from special counsel Robert Mueller's probe to Congress.

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A 29 years old female presented to us in the metabolic clinic of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) on account of a week history of easy fatigability, weakness, and lower extremity muscle cramps associated with numbness and tingling sensation in the peri-oral area, fingers and toes. Two weeks prior to the onset of her presenting symptoms, she had visited a local pharmaceutical shop on account of a distressing epigastric discomfort and was subsequently placed on daily oral omeprazole 20mg daily for a month by a pharmacist. She had been on the omeprazole medication for two weeks before her present symptoms manifested. Her past medical history was not suggestive of hypoparathyroidism nor pancreatitis. She was married with three children and has an uneventful family, social and obstetric histories. On examination, she was a healthy well-oriented young female with positive Trousseau’s, Chvostek’s and epigastric tenderness signs. Further Laboratory evaluation revealed she had low plasma magnesium, low plasma albumin-corrected calcium, and low serum parathyroid hormone levels, while other laboratory parameters were essentially normal. A diagnosis of omeprazole-induced electrolyte disorders (hypomagnesaemia and hypocalcaemia) associated with hypoparathyroidism was made following the review of her clinical examination and laboratory findings. She was subsequently managed with oral magnesium supplements following the withdrawal of the omeprazole medication (replaced with oral ranitidine), monitored weekly, and full recovery was achieved after three weeks.

The virus responsible for chronic bee paralysis is spreading rapidly among honey bee colonies in Britain, according to a new study.

The duration of SpaceX's first mission with astronauts on board -- planned for launch at 4:32 p.m. EDT on May 27 from Florida -- has been extended from a few days to potentially weeks aboard the space station.

Researchers suggest the coldest material in the universe could reveal the presence of dark matter particles.

The two astronauts who are to begin a new era of human spaceflight from U.S. soil this month said Friday they hope to inspire generations of Americans.

A new scientific study published Monday found that global warming is fueling a destructive algal bloom that is disrupting fisheries in the Arabian sea.

British scientists said Monday that an amino acid swap can help protect wheat crops from rising heat due to global warming.

Damage from a natural disaster in one place can spread globally due to urban trade networks, a Yale study said Monday.

Intensive farming, characterized by the overuse of antibiotics, large numbers of animals and limited genetic diversity, increases the odds of animal pathogens making the jump to humans and triggering an epidemic.

Over the last 40 years, climate change has been influencing where tropical cyclones form, according to a new study.

Test results suggest N95 masks can be safely disinfected through heating 50 times before their filtration efficiency begins to decline.

As the tropics get wetter, soils are likely experience greater rates of respiration and decomposition, limiting the carbon storage abilities of tropical soils and intensifying global warming.

Scientists have discovered the closest black hole to Earth, located just 1,000 light-years away.

While the coordinated attacks of Velociraptor dinosaurs depicted in the 1993 blockbuster made for compelling movie viewing, a study published this week claims raptors most likely hunted solo, not in packs.

Artificial intelligence requires a lot of energy. Simply solving a puzzle can require the equivalent of the energy produced by three nuclear plants in a single hour.

China produces a whole lot of stuff -- stuff that gets bought by the rest of the world. In 2019, China exported approximately $2.5 trillion dollars worth of goods.