Archive for 2011
Psychologist Jason Seidel, Psy.D, has heard partners lament all-too often: “This isn’t the person I married†or “I’m worried this person isn’t perfect for me.†And you know what? They’re probably right.
But there’s more to relationships than a partner who remains the perfect fit your entire life. Seidel explains more about the myth of the perfect partner and other relationship fantasies.
1. Myth: Your partner will always be the one.
Fact: There is no “once-and-for-all best match,†said Seidel, founder and director of The Colorado Center for Clinical Excellence in Denver. People and relationships rarely remain static. So that once great fit may “become broken, stale or wrong for [you].†In fact, according to Seidel, as you continue to grow in your life, you might even change who you’d pick as your partner.
A better way of looking at your relationship is to consider whether both of you are willing “to flex, experience, communicate and adjust.†More specifically, is your partner someone you “could struggle to reclaim or build a new way of connecting as [both of you] change,†and “would [you] want to?†Or “is this just great as long as things remain as they are (which they won’t)?”
Other important considerations are what both of you want out of the relationship and whether you’re on the same page when it comes to values and other key issues to you (an example would be having kids). Also, have you seen how your partner acts in a crisis? Do you trust each other? Do you know each other underneath your masks? Do you each honor who the other is?
2. Myth: It’s bad to have doubts before making a commitment or getting married.
Fact: “A lot of people have secret doubts that eat at them before and after the wedding or commitment about whether they are settling and should have held out for something better,†according to Seidel. But that’s not the point of commitment. Statistically speaking, “there is always someone better than your mate in some or even all dimensions of what attracts you or feels like the best fit.”
Also, having doubts is healthy, he said. That’s because “The older you get, the more you’re aware of the potential difficulties in relationships†and that relationships take hard work. The key is to consider if you can overcome these obstacles as a couple, respect each other’s differences and arrive at a compromise.
Couples run into trouble when they struggle with conflict, bury it or use other ways to distract themselves. In a healthy relationship “conflict is productive and mutually collaborative in terms of finding some way through it together,†Seidel said.
Read in Full:
While most of the time we try and stay positive here on World of Psychology, every now and again reality sucker-punches us back to our senses (although not personally affecting me).
The fact remains that despite our wise advice over the years, we haven’t budged the divorce rate in the U.S. (not that we thought we could!). Most relationships fail — there’s simply no way to argue with it.
So maybe it would help some of our readers to catch a sign of their failing relationship before it’s too late. Sure, we all would like to think that we could see the end of our relationship coming from a mile away. But truth is, many of us need a little help.
To that end, here are 8 ways you can bet you’re ruining your relationship and heading to splitsville.
1. Take your partner for granted.
There’s no better way to help hurry the end of the relationship than to just assume your partner is always there to make your life easier. Whether it’s by going to work or staying at home, cooking dinner or doing the grocery shopping, the ins and outs of our every day existence can take an especially hard toll when it comes to taking that special someone in our lives for granted.
Acknowledge your significant other’s efforts to your joint relationship and life together (no matter who is doing what). Say “Thank you†and “please†for being served something or for someone doing you a favor. After all, you wouldn’t treat a stranger in your home in that manner, so why would you treat the one you love any worse?
2. Stop talking.
Remember the start of your relationship? You couldn’t stop talking! You might’ve spent all night talking to one another, or countless hours on the phone or cuddled up on a couch somewhere.
Relationships die when the two people in it stop talking. And I don’t mean actual, physical talking (“We talk all the time!â€). I mean the kind of real, honest conversations that couples have all the time at the beginning of a relationship, but which fade over time. Here’s help for improving your communication with your partner.
That fading is a natural progression in most relationships. The key is to not let that fading turn into never having those real conversations (which aren’t about the kids, your jobs, or what you read on TMZ today).
Read More …
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/09/20/8-ways-to-ruin-your-relationship/
Borderline Personality Disorder Challenges Relationships
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on August 19, 2008
A new study finds different patterns of brain activity in people with borderline personality disorder were associated with disruptions in the ability to recognize social norms or modify behaviors — factors that may result in distrust and broken relationships.
Borderline personality disorder is a serious mental illness noted by unstable moods, behavior and relationships. Each year, 1.4 percent of adults in the United States have this disorder,1 which is widely viewed as being difficult to treat.
Using brain imaging and game theory, a mathematical approach to studying social interactions, the NIMH-funded researchers offer a potential new way to define and describe this mental illness.
They conclude that people with borderline personality disorder either have a distorted sense of generally accepted social norms, or that they may not sense these norms at all. This may lead them to behave in a way that disrupts trust and cooperation with others. By not responding in a way that would repair the relationship, people with borderline personality disorder also impair the ability of others to cooperate with them.
Read in Full:
Married and Bipolar
NAMI has reprinted Beating the Marriage Odds, the cover article from the current issue of bp Magazine about marriage and bipolar disorders. With some statistics pegging the divorce rate of people with bipolar disorder as high as 90%, the article offers encouraging advice and models from couples that have stuck it out and learned to successfully cope with bipolar disorder in the marriage.
Read More …
Fear of Commitment in Relationships
Commitment can be a scary word for some people because of the implications of what it means to commit. For many, commitment symbolizes loss, feelings of being trapped or controlled.
Committing to another person involves consideration of another person’s thoughts, feelings and needs which implies a loss of independence in activities and decision-making.
Ben loved his life, almost as much as he loved Gina. He loved sports, both watching and participating; music, he played in a jazz band; and time with the guys just hanging out.
Ben loved being with Gina as well. They were very compatible in so many ways. The only complaint that he had was that she seemed to want to restrict his time doing his own thing. Gina didn’t object to Ben’s regular Tuesday night band practices or his occasional weekend gigs. She did not object to his two baseball team commitments or season tickets with the guys during basketball season.
Read in Full:
Your Primary Spiritual Relationship – Love for Yourself
Popular culture is focused on attracting love, yet you’ll only be able to receive as much love as you give to yourself. You’ll deflect or guard love that doesn’t resonate with you – like a compliment you don’t believe. The opposite is also true. You’ll allow others to abuse you a bit less than you abuse yourself. So if you desire lasting love, learn to love yourself, because your relationships will parallel your relationship with yourself. The subject of love interested me from an early age after reading Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving. I was still young and unconscious of my feelings about myself. For years,the concept of loving myself eluded me.Like many on a spiritual path, I became very good at compassion for others, but had no idea what self-love meant. Little by little, I’ve learned that it starts with self-esteem, self-acceptance, and finally compassion and love – all of progressive stages.
Read More …
http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=44444&cn=110
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on August 24, 2011
A new study discusses the health-related benefits that appear to be conveyed by being in a good relationship. Of interest is the discovery that the advantages of marriage are different for men and women.
In men, marriage appears to be linked to improved survival rates with the more satisfying the marriage, the higher the rate of survival.
As an example, University of Rochester researchers discovered happily married men who undergo coronary bypass surgery are more than three times as likely to be alive 15 years later as their unmarried counterparts.
The quality of the relationship is even more important in women. An unhappy marriage does not provide a survival bonus yet satisfying relationships increase a woman’s survival rate almost fourfold, the study found.
Read in Full:http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/08/24/marriage-is-good-for-your-health/28882.html
Study Offers Insight For Returning Troops And Their Relationships
Article Date: 02 Sep 2011 – 0:00 PDTTroops overseas often want nothing more than to get back home to loved ones – but the reunion period often can be more emotionally taxing than the deployment.
Returning service members are at a greater risk of both depressive symptoms and relationship distress, and research shows the two often go together, says University of Illinois researcher Leanne Knobloch (pronounced kuh-NO-block). That’s not a good thing, since someone suffering from depressive symptoms “really needs the support of their romantic partner.”
In a study published in August in the Journal of Family Psychology, in a special issue on military families, Knobloch, a professor of communication, and co-author Jennifer Theiss, a professor of communication at Rutgers University, offer some advice for returning service members: Recognize the uncertainties you might have about the relationship and address them.
And anticipate sources of interference from your spouse or partner in everyday life and routines, and attempt to resolve them.
Those were two issues that showed up in their study as “mediators” linking depressive symptoms and relationship distress, Knobloch said.
Read in Full:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/233705.php
Higher Rate Of Extramarital Sex And Divorce Among Veterans
Article Date: 22 Aug 2011 – 1:00 PDTVeterans were significantly more likely to have ever engaged in extramarital sex and ever gotten divorced than people who were never in the military, according to new research to be presented at the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association.
The study, based on data from a 1992 national survey, found that more than 32 percent of ever-married veterans reported extramarital sex, which is about twice the rate among ever-married non-veterans (16.8 percent).
“To the extent that the patterns observed in these data hold for our current veteran population, the results of this study provide evidence that the concerns about infidelity among spouses of persons who have served in the military are to a considerable degree valid,” said Andrew S. London, chair of the sociology department and a sociology professor at Syracuse University. “However, even though the reported rates of infidelity were significantly higher for veterans than non-veterans, extramarital sex was only reported by one-third of ever-married veteran respondents.”
Read in Full:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/233131.php
“For many people, an affair is deeply traumatizing [and] some marriages can’t recover from it,†said Jason Seidel, PsyD, founder and director of The Colorado Center for Clinical Excellence in Denver. But if you decide to work on your relationship post-affair, you must accept a hard truth: Another affair can happen. This is the paradox of healing, Seidel said. Often, partners who’ve been cheated on will demand full access to their spouse’s email, cell phone records, Facebook and other accounts (or they’ll sneak around to get the access), he said. They see this as legitimate and essential to helping reestablish trust in the relationship. A common belief is “How could I ever trust you again unless you give me full access?â€While this thinking is understandable, it simply doesn’t work.The real issue, at the core, is self-protection. Partners cling to the idea that if they have all the information and control enough of their partner’s life, they’ll somehow be spared another betrayal, Seidel said. (Some partners also will take this distrust into new relationships, where they automatically doubt the person and almost prepare themselves for infidelity, he said.)
Read in Full:http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/08/25/to-heal-after-an-affair-and-rebuild-the-relationship/
Are Pick-Up Tactics Sexy or Sexist?
Do pick-up tactics work on women? Published on August 31, 2011 by Jeremy Nicholson, M.S.W., Ph.D. in The Attraction Doctor
Welcome back to The Attraction Doctor:As a social psychologist and dating expert, I have kept an eye on the pick-up community for years. Now, research is beginning to take a look too. An upcoming study in the journal Sex Roles has tested a subset of the more “assertive” techniques of the pick-up artist to evaluate whether some women like them and why some men use them.For my two cents, while I personally don’t advocate every single tactic employed by the pick-up artist, I do believe the overall message of empowerment and self-development for men is positive. Just like everyone else, men need to know they are valuable, lovable, and worthy of getting their needs met too – and sometimes they don’t know it. I also believe that finding love (and sex) requires a diversity of methods, depending on each person’s goals and desires. The techniques and tactics that work for some are useless or distasteful to others. The conclusion of the above-mentioned research appears to agree with me…
Read in Full:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-attraction-doctor/201108/are-pick-tactics-sexy-or-sexist
Irresistible Neanderthals: Sex in Human Ancestry
Why are we fascinated by Neanderthal sex?
Canoodling. Nookie. Hanky panky. Dalliances. Hookups.Yes, it’s Neanderthal sex, again.Caveman’s Sexy Bonus, the UK’s Daily Express headlined their version of the story, summarizing the key points with a totally anachronistic set of images:
Cavemen made us healthier by having sex with primitive Neanderthals…One night stands between them and our ancestors boosted the human genome.here is something that the press cannot resist about the idea of sex between early modern humans and the human populations that preceded them in Europe and Central Asia.Even the less lurid news reports seem more focused on imagined sexual acts than on details about immunity and disease.Indeed, it was the original press release from Stanford University that introduced “canoodling” into the story. From the first sentence the tone is coy and teasing:
For a few years now, scientists have known that humans and their evolutionary cousins had some casual flings, but now it appears that these liaisons led to a more meaningful relationship.
Casual flings? One night stands?
Read in Full:
Why We Think Monogamy Is Normal
How polygamy became an “exotic exception.” Published on September 9, 2011 by Michael E. Price, Ph.D. in From Darwin to Eternity
As I noted in my last post, the ethnographic evidence suggests that human nature is adapted to an ancestral mating system that was predominately polygynous (one husband, multiple wives). Most ancestral men aspired to polygyny (even though most weren’t impressive enough to attract more than one wife), and some ancestral women preferred to be the co-wife of a really impressive man than the sole wife of a second-rate one.In other words, the genetically encoded psychological machinery of human mating behavior was built by, and for, a world in which striving for polygyny was often reproductively advantageous. That’s why people living in modern societies often seem inclined towards polygyny, even in cultures that have attempted to abolish it.
Read in Full:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/darwin-eternity/201109/why-we-think-monogamy-is-normal
Why Don’t Women Flirt With Their (Own) Husbands?
Apparently Married Men Have To Give Up Being Flirted With
I was at a winery recently.As I was standing there [sipping some (quite honestly, not very good) wines], I noticed a couple across from me at the sipping bar.As I watched them, and observed how they were relating, I came to the conclusion that they were not married.I decided to go over and talk with them – just to confirm my suspicions.Eventually I got around to my point: “You aren’t married, are you?”After recovering from the oddity of the statement, they responded:”No. But how could you tell?”All I was doing is observing how the woman was relating to the man she was with.It was the way she looked at him – with just a hint of coyness.  It was the (artful) playfulness as she glanced at him.It was the way she smiled at him - with a clear warmth and a slight glow.It was the way in which she nuzzled up to him – gently letting him know that she was happy to be with him.Bottom line — she was being flirtatious.Why would this flirtatiousness lead me to conclude that this couple was not married?
Read in Full:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/love-bytes/201108/why-dont-women-flirt-their-own-husbands
Sexual Satisfaction Part of Successful Aging
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on August 25, 2011
A new study of older women finds that successful aging and a positive quality of life are linked to sexual satisfaction. Researchers at the Stein Institute for Research on Aging at the University of California, San Diego discovered successful aging, quality of life and sexual satisfaction continue to be interrelated even as the physical health of women declines between the ages of 60 and 89.The report is published online in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society.Researchers reviewed self-reported information from 1,235 women enrolled at the San Diego site of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study.
Read in Full:
http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/08/25/successful-aging-includes-sexual-satisfaction/28923.html
Depressed People’s Brains Process Feelings Of Hate Differently
Editor’s Choice
Academic Journal
Article Date: 05 Oct 2011 – 8:00 PDT
The human brain’s Hate Circuit appears to be uncoupled by depression, researchers from the University of Warwick reported in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. In other words, the brain of many people with depression appears to process hate differently, compared to those without depression.
Professor Jianfeng Feng and team used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan activity in the brains of 23 female and 16 male patients with diagnosed clinical depression, and compared their findings to 14 female and 23 male “controls” (people with no depression).
They found that the fMRI scans showed considerable differences in the brain circuitry of depressed individuals and the controls. The uncoupling of the “hate circuitry” involving the superior gyrus, insula and putamen was particularly noticeable, the authors wrote.
Read in Full:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/235530.php
Depression’s Secret Plan For Your Identity
This guest article from YourTango was written by Erin C. Pollard.
We’ve all come to know the experience of the blues, being down, heartbreak, disappointment, sadness, or what some might even call depression. All too often the worst part of the experience isn’t even the sadness or the bad feelings themselves, but rather the way sadness is able to change the way we see ourselves, our past, and our hope for the future.
Depression may try to convince you that it holds the true assessment of your personality, weaknesses, and limitations. But before you become completely convinced by depression there are six important things you should know.
1. When depression enters your life, its main goal is to impact your identity.
Your identity is what is most meaningful to you, your talents, your character, what makes you uniquely you. Depression knows that this is the key to taking away the most hope and happiness from your life and keeping you under its thumb. Simply ruining your mood isn’t enough for depression; it aims to shake the core of how you see yourself.
2. Depression is a master manipulator.
It starts by discrediting your proud and good-feeling moments in your memory. It will insist that you didn’t really succeed when you thought you had, that you simply got lucky. You may think the compliment you just received wasn’t really genuine, that they were just being nice. It may even go as far as to say that your friends don’t really care about you and that you are totally alone. It will suggest that everyone else has this figured out and the fact that you don’t makes you a loser, a failure, unlovable, or any number of other things.
Read More …
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/10/05/depressions-secret-plan-for-your-identity/
Managing a Work Life with Depression
Decades of recurring depression caused me a lot of problems but one of the worst was its effect on my work life. Those familiar symptoms a doctor will ask when making a diagnosis are poison for the profession I was in.
Loss of energy and motivation, difficulty in mental concentration, feeling worthless, losing interest in everything, frequent despairing moods: they’re all disastrous when you’ve got high pressure work that involves running group meetings of all sizes, managing teams, writing detailed reports.
When you add in other symptoms that build over time, like weakening short-term memory, and a related condition of extreme social anxiety, professional life gradually takes a dive.
Sherwin Nuland, the physician/author of “How We Die”, described the collapse of his practice in a memoir about his father (“Lost in America”). Working in a hospital, his condition was no secret, and his colleagues realized he could no longer handle his patient load. He didn’t want to admit the debilitating effects of depression, but after a while he had no patients and faced the reality that his practice had become impossible.
I toughed it out for years, but my clients could see the decline. During the last years of my attempt to keep going, I went from inconsistent performance to a total inability to work effectively. I wasn’t fired altogether but had to bow out when I couldn’t even trust myself to get the job done.
Read in Full:
http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=44815&cn=5
More Screening Needed to Identify Depression, Vision Loss After Mild Stroke
ScienceDaily (Oct. 3, 2011) — On the surface they appear unaffected, but people who have mild strokes may live with hidden disabilities, including depression, vision problems and difficulty thinking, according to a study released October 3 at the Canadian Stroke Congress.
The study calls for new guidelines for the treatment and management of mild strokes, which account for two-thirds of all strokes and usually involve a hospital stay of one to five days. Co-author Annie Rochette, Ph.D, of the University of Montreal, and her research team interviewed 200 people in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta within the first six weeks of their stroke.
“There is no such thing as a mild stroke,” says Dr. Rochette, who describes high rates of sleeplessness and depression among study participants – almost a quarter of whom were clinically depressed. “These patients face huge challenges in their daily lives.” Study participants reported a significantly poorer perceived quality of life.
Read in Full:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111003080409.htm
Be Prepared for SADness
Just because it’s only fall, don’t be fooled, winter is just around the corner and it’s always wise to plan if you’re someone who is affected by “winter blues.†In fact, over 10 million Americans alone experience SADness. That is Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) where the lack of sunlight and the presence of gray skies begins to mirror how we feel inside leading us down a dark corridor to depressing thoughts, lethargic bodies, and uncomfortable emotions. Women are 3 times more likely than men to experience SADness during this time and suicide rates begin to spike up.
Here’s a little background to know how SADness operates. During any adjustment in mood there is an interaction that goes on between our thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and behavior. For example, when you wake up in the morning and you’re tired and it’s cold, pulling off the covers and exposing your body to the cold might lead to some physical discomfort. The thought may arise, “oh, what I would give to just stay in bed, this is torture”. That may lead to the emotions of frustration and resentment, which makes the body feel agitated and tense. Your partner turns to you and sluggishly says “good morning” in which you reply “whatever”. While in the shower all you can think about is how miserable this day is going to be. The cycle continues throughout the day as you try to isolate and avoid people, finding yourself stuck, stewing in negative thoughts, uncomfortable sensations and emotions, and reactive behavior.
Read More …
http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=44743&cn=5
Today is National Depression Screening Day, so it’s time for your annual depression checkup. Are you depressed? Or are you skirting the threshold of depression, feeling low on energy and taking little pleasure out of life?
You don’t need to make an appointment or go see someone in person in order to find out the answer to these questions. Since 1995, Psych Central has offered an online interactive depression test that gives you an instant result. While nobody can diagnose a mental disorder online, it can give you a quick sense of whether it’s something to be concerned about and make an appointment with a mental health professional to examine further.
The quick depression test is just 8 questions and is an accurate screening measure for depression. It takes most people less than a minute to complete. The longer 18-question depression quiz is the oldest one online and is a more thorough screen for depressive symptoms. It’s a little more accurate, and most people complete it in under 3 minutes.
Read in Full:
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/10/06/national-depression-screening-day-is-today/
ScienceDaily (Sep. 28, 2011) — Autism spectrum disorders, including Asperger syndrome, have generally been associated with uneven intellectual profiles and impairment, but according to a new study of Asperger individuals published in the online journal PLoS ONE, this may not be the case — as long as intelligence is evaluated by the right test. Both autistic and Asperger individuals display uneven profiles of performance in commonly used intelligence test batteries such as Wechsler scales, and their strongest performances are often considered evidence for deficits.
However, this study reports that Asperger individuals’ scores are much higher when they are evaluated by a test called Raven’s Progressive Matrices, which encompasses reasoning, novel problem-solving abilities, and high-level abstraction. By comparison, scores for non-Asperger individuals are much more consistent across different tests. Interestingly, Asperger participants’ performance on Raven’s Matrices was associated with their strongest peaks of performance on Wechsler.
A previous study by the same group found very similar results for autistic individuals as well, whose peaks of ability are perceptual, rather than verbal as in Asperger individuals. This suggests a common information processing mechanism applied to different aspects of information (verbal vs. perceptual).
According to co-author Michelle Dawson, “while we know autistics process information atypically, very little thought has gone into how to fairly assess their abilities. In fact there is so little understanding of what autistics do well that their strong abilities are often regarded as dysfunctional. Here we have again found that measurable strengths in autistic spectrum individuals are not “isolated islets of abilities” as previously thought, but are in fact representative of autistics’ intellectual abilities. This in turn raises questions about how we can provide autistics with the kinds of information they can process well, as we do with non-autistic individuals. We consider the effort to understand and encourage autistic strengths to be of paramount importance. “
Based on these results, the authors emphasize that autistic spectrum intelligence is atypical, but also genuine, general, and underestimated.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110928180405.htm
Journal Reference:
-
1. Isabelle Soulières, Michelle Dawson, Morton Ann Gernsbacher, Laurent Mottron. The Level and Nature of Autistic Intelligence II: What about Asperger Syndrome? PLoS ONE, 2011; 6 (9): e25372 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0025372
Zanny–Born to Run
Credits: http://extraspecialkids.com/
Desiree Q. Luong, Palo Alto Special Needs Parents Examiner September 22, 2011
Approximately 17% of all children have some type of developmental disability, and the number is growing every day.
We know that not all kids are the same, so each book by Extra Special Kids addresses a different symptom, not a disorder. Extra Special Kids  stories can benefit “typical” children who might have difficulties in one area while also helping kids diagnosed with learning disabilities.
Do you know a child who never seems to sit still?
Grab your running shoes and follow a day in the life of Zanny, a little boy who simply CANNOT stop moving!
These fun, witty, picture books and apps are a way of helping children with limitations understand their symptoms better in a positive and engaging way while trying to boost their self-esteem.
iPad app features include:
- *Beautiful, hand-drawn illustrations
- *Exciting sound and movement touch features to hunt for and discover
- *Pictures that move by touch and animate with gravity as you tilt your iPad
- *Professional and lively audio narrator
- *Charming background music recorded specially by an award-winning producer
Bonus game attached!
“The Extra Special Feelings Game” is for kids with Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, PDD, young children, or anyone who needs help with recognizing feelings and facial expressions.
All kids go crazy for Zanny’s antics, but particularly “extra special” kids who love to see themselves in living color.
To purchase Zanny-Born to Run by Extra Special Kids, LLC, CLICK HERE.
Books to look forward to:
-Little Lilly’s Touch Book
-Timmy Tastes Textures
Source:
Sep
29
Albert Einstein
Reforming Gifted and Talented Programs
by: Terrence Falk | Friday 9/23/2011
Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Leonardo Da Vinci, Marie Curie, and a host of other famous individuals had two things in common: they were extremely gifted and probably had some special educational needs. Asperger’s syndrome, autism, hyperactivity, and dyslexia are common conditions for gifted individuals.
Gifted children often get low grades and have poor behavior in school. Their special needs get in the way of learning. Even without special needs, gifted students are often bored with school work so don’t stay on task. Their minds often race ahead of their ability to act. Think of a race car engine in a VW Beetle body, and you begin to understand the challenges many gifted and talented children face.
Many gifted and talented education experts believe that such gifted students have a higher percentage with exceptional educational needs than the general population. Whole organizations and websites are now devoted to “twice exceptional†or “2e†children.
Unfortunately, those are not the students that are often placed into gifted and talented programs. Instead, these programs are filled with “well-schooled†children who get high grades, do all their homework, and follow instructions of their teachers. Their parents push them along, support them with tutors, piano and dance lessons. These children may be bright and hardworking, but they do not meet the classic definition of gifted and talented.
Like many school systems, some Milwaukee gifted and talented programs have few if any 2e students. Instead 2e students are systematically eliminated from programs in favor of well-schooled children. Many gifted children are overlooked when school systems rely on teacher identification to find gifted children. 2e children may mask both their giftedness and their special needs by having their gifts compensating for their needs thus appearing to be fairly normal.
Severely physically handicapped children with gifts and talents may be especially hard to identify. Our most brilliant physicist, Steven Hawkins, can only communicate through eye movement directed to a special keyboard. He was fortunate that his paralysis slowly developed allowing him to completeh is university studies and have his genius recognized before he was immobilized.
Helen Keller was deaf and blind from birth. Her caregiver, Anne Sullivan, found a way to communicate with Helen and opened her gifts to the rest of the world. How many Steven Hawkins and Helen Kellers are out there that we will never know who will never make the contributions these two made to our society?
Read in Full:
http://www.insidemilwaukee.com/Article/9232011-TwiceExceptionalChildren
WHEN Ethan Ling climbs into his go-kart, all his cares and worries are left behind.
The 10-year-old, who has Asperger syndrome, has just won his fourth trophy, despite only takingpart in his first race in February.
Ethan often finds school difficult because of his condition – a form of autism which can cause difficulties with communication and social skills, often leading to isolation and emotional problems.
But Ethan’s mother Tricia says her son’s go-karting success has been a breath of fresh air for the family.
The 34-year-old from St Mellons, Cardiff, said: “Ethan’s been struggling in school as some people don’t understand the condition and it’s difficult to get things across.
“He has learning difficulties but when he goes out on the race track he is just like every other child.
“I know we all say that we are proud of our kids, but he is really good and he really enjoys it.
“He struggles so much at school but this is just a breath of fresh air for us.”
Ethan won his fourth trophy at a race in Llandough and was also successful in races in Rissington and Yeovil.
Tricia said: “We have been travelling all over the country.
“Racing has been so good for him; he is very happy and relaxed when he his behind the wheel. He was five when he first went in a go-kart. We took him on holiday and the rules are more relaxed abroad. He loved it, he became obsessed with it.
“When he was eight we put him through race academy in Llandough and in January he passed his test so he could race competitively. We are very proud of him.”
Ethan now has plans for a career in racing driving and hopes to find a sponsor so he can continue his winning streak.
“He wants to be a Formula 1 driver,†Tricia said.
“He has got his own kart already. It’s a very expensive hobby but my husband Steven is a mechanic, so that makes it a bit cheaper for us.”
To sponsor Ethan, email patricia.ling@hotmail.com
Source:
By Gaby Leslie | Yahoo! News – 7 hours ago
A teenage girl thought by her father to have been possessed by an ‘evil spirit’ died from suffocation during an exorcism, it has been reported.
Tomomi Maishigi’s father and a monk performed a ‘waterfall service’ on the 13-year-old where she was allegedly bound to a chair by a belt and placed face-up underneath a water pump for five minutes at a Buddhist church in Kumamoto, south Japan.
The pair – 56-year-old monk Kazuaki Kinoshita and the girl’s 50-year-old father Atsushi Maishigi – were arrested yesterday on charges of inflicting injury resulting in death.
According to the Mainichi Daily News, her father held the girl down under the falling water while the monk chanted sutras in the early hours of 27 August.
When the victim fell unconscious, they called an ambulance but she was later pronounced dead.
Kumamoto Prefectural Police said the teenager died of suffocation and that she had undergone the ritual a hundred times before.
Mr Maishigi reportedly claimed that his daughter was possessed and found the monk to perform the ritual to exorcise the demons so she could get better. But she resisted and became violent.
“Our actions were aimed at exorcising evil spirits from her and were not physical abuse,” the men were quoted as telling investigators.”
Tomomi had suffered from mental and physical illness since she was a senior-grade primary school student, and had not attended school since April.
A spokesperson for the Nakayamashingoshoshu’s (a sect of Buddhism) main temple in Kiyama said: “The water rite is done to bring one’s wishes to reality, but of course you cannot exorcise with it. We also do not instruct to bound the arms and legs when doing the ritual.”
Source:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/teenager-died-from-%E2%80%98suffocation%E2%80%99-in-exorcism.html
By Paul Nelson
September 26th, 2011 @ 7:35am
SALT LAKE CITY — The transition from high school into being part of “the real world” can be hard for most people. It can be overwhelming for kids with high-functioning autism or Asperger’s Syndrome. But, a new support group is trying to change that.
Young adults with these disorders struggle for a number of reasons. Judith Zimmerman with the Jordan Family Education Center says they live in a literal world and don’t have the social skills many of us take for granted.
“Maybe their communication skills are poor. They have difficulty maintaining eye contact. Those things don’t go over well,” she said.
She says these social problems can keep someone with either of these disorders from finding a job or dating, and they can become overwhelmed, feeling like a failure.
“Some kids get frustrated and angry, but I do see a lot of them withdrawing to mom’s basement and hanging out there and just being OK with that,” Zimmerman said. “Then, they don’t have to deal with these problems. As a parent, that’s not what you want to see.”
The Jordan School District offers classes that help elementary and middle school students. But Zimmerman says many parents wanted more.
“The request came out of the parents’ needs, saying, ‘Gee, too bad you don’t offer something for my kid who just graduated from high school but continues to struggle.”
Read in Full:
http://www.ksl.com/?sid=17376268&nid=148
Published: Tuesday, September 27, 2011, 8:44 AM Â Â Â
Updated: Tuesday, September 27, 2011, 8:49 AM
Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism being diagnosed in a growing number of children, may soon disappear from the official psychiatric diagnostic manual.
Under a proposed revision, Asperger’s would be eliminated as a diagnosis and be replaced by autism spectrum disorder — a label that would apply to all types of autism, from the mildest form to the most severe. The proposal also would eliminate another autism diagnosis — pervasive development disorder — not otherwise specified.
The proposed change is generating controversy. Experts revising the manual for the American Psychiatric Association say the Asperger’s diagnosis is confusing and that the distinction between Asperger’s and “high-functioning” autism is often meaningless. Some patients and their families, however, want Asperger’s to remain in the manual because they believe the diagnosis is part of their identity and differentiates them from more severely disabled autistic people.
“I see lots of young adults who enjoy this label and diagnosis,” says Dr. Kevin Antshel, a clinical psychologist at Upstate Medical University. “They say, ‘So what if I’m quirky? I’m an Aspy.”
The revised edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual is due out in 2013.
The various forms of autism affect about 1 of 110 U.S. children, according to federal estimates.
There are now three different autism diagnoses:
*Autistic disorder or classic autism, characterized by significant language delays, social and communication challenges, and unusual behaviors and interests. Some individuals in this category also have intellectual disabilities.
*Asperger’s, characterized by milder symptoms of autism, but typically no problems with language or intellectual disability.
*Pervasive developmental disorder — not otherwise specified. Individuals in this category have some, but not all of the symptoms that accompany the other two diagnoses.
Under the proposed revision, clinicians making the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder would rank the symptoms by severity.
Asperger’s has been an official diagnosis since 1994, 50 years after the condition was first described by Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger.
Antshel believes getting rid of the Asperger’s diagnosis is a good move. Research shows there’s a lot of overlap between the different forms of autism, he says. “Some people who have an autism diagnosis eventually morph into Asperger’s and vice versa,” Antshel says. “I think it would help reduce some confusion.”
The autism spectrum disorder diagnosis may make it easier for some youngsters with Asperger’s to get services in school. “There are a lot of individuals with Asperger’s I see who are not getting services in school because they are considered too high functioning,” he says. “They may be doing well academically, but they are not functioning well socially.”
Marylee McClaskey of Baldwinsville has 13-year-old twin sons — one with Asperger’s, the other with autism. She believes getting rid of the Asperger’s diagnosis would be a big mistake.
Read in Full:
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