The Daytona Beach News-Journal has an excellent article about Florida's review of its policy regarding the prescription of psychotropic drugs for children in foster care. It notes the side effects of such drugs, such as depression and suicidal thoughts, as well as the difficulty of knowing how to best help children who cannot seem to control their behavior without medication.
Hat tip: Florida Child Injury Lawyer Blog
The San Diego Union-Tribune tells the story of a school lock-down when administrators panicked over an 11-year-old student's home-made motion detector. The device, a Gatorade bottle with electronic components attached, apparently looked enough like a bomb to panic clueless administrators.
If my child were at this school, I would be very concerned that administrators at a self-named tech magnet school think an 11-year-old can make a bomb out of a Gatorade bottle. If I were a taxpayer, I would be irate that it took the fire department three hours, a robot, X-rays and a search of the parents' garage to decide that it was not a bomb.
The final irony is the statement by the fire department spokesman that the authorities are recommending counseling. Counseiing?!! But of course. We don't want to encourage experimentation or independent thinking, do we? Especially in a school dedicated to technical creativity and experimentation.
I ran across an interesting entry at Scientific Blogging, explaining a study in Developmental Neuroscience. The study's authors compared images of the prefrontal cortex of spider monkeys, and concluded that those monkeys who had been through mildly stressful experiences showed an increase in certain brain cells, which cells in turn enabled them to deal successfully with stressful experiences later in life. The study's authors noted several limitations, such as that the study was skewed toward female subjects. And, of course, the findings would not hold true for major emotional trauma. Still, it is a very interesting study about the inoculative effect of new and mildly stressful experiences.
To quote the blogger, Andrea Kuszewski, who reviewed the study,
Even as children, being faced with challenging situations is a good thing. We learn to problem-solve, think for ourselves, and build resilience to protect us from harm in future unexpected events. As an added bonus, dealing with stress early on helps us to develop emotional stability as well.
This is one of those studies that reinforces what experienced youth service workers already know -- encouraging children to take on new challenges is good for them. Learning to master skills, whether it is speaking in front of a crowd or camping or sports, is a necessary part of becoming a well-adjusted adult.
A recent project led me to an interesting study in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology looking at what factors influence the opinions of clinicians about whether child sexual abuse occurred in a given case. It should come as no surprise that the study found that even expert clinicians are human, with many unexamined biases.
What I did find disconcerting was the study's conclusion that the clinicians noticed leading questions, but not other suggestive techniques. The study included interviews that, in addition to leading questions, used (a) inducing stereotypes ("he is bad"), (b) statements that assume abuse ("don't be afraid to tell"); and (c) praise or criticism for certain disclosures from the child. Although experienced clinicians were more likely to note the leading questions, few of them noticed the other three suggestive techniques.
As the study's authors noted, this finding "is surprising as there is ample evidence that a number of suggestive interviewing techniques apart from leading questions may affect children's testimony in a negative way. This is an alarming finding because if the clinicians do not recognize such influences as harmful, it would not be possible for them to take steps to avoid such influences when interviewing children themselves."
The authors recommended more training about suggestive techniques and pre-existing beliefs, as well as (of course) more studies on the subject.
In a rare demonstration of common sense, Texas legislators recently enacted a law requiring school administrators to consider several mitigating factors in determining punishment for students. The hope is that administrators will start to differentiate between Cub Scout camping utensils and dangerous knives. This USA Today article also highlights Florida's new law following the same trend.
On the other side of the pond, adults are headed the opposite direction. The UK Scout Association has advised that Scouts no longer bring their knives on camping trips "unless there is a specific need." Because we all know that campers never need knives, and boys never need to practice new skills.
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Our recent bout with swine flu (well, technically "flu-like symptoms ") made this new study catch my eye. Researchers publishing with the American Society for Microbiology found that hand sanitizers are less effective at killing the Norwalk virus than antibacterial skin cleansers.
Hat tip: Food Poison Journal
I have a variety of reasons for taking such a long break, some very pleasant (a new grandchild), some not-so-pleasant (swine flu working its way through the family), and some rather dull and ordinary (lots of new projects at work). I hope I'm back for a while now.
Two New Jersey men claim to have recovered memories of sexual abuse that they suffered more than 60 years. Yes, 60 years. I tend to be skeptical about claims of recovered memories, but this one is particularly hard for me to believe. According to this article in the Star-Ledger, one man says that his repressed memory broke through "after he learned on television, in October 2004, that the Newark Archdiocese had settled with victims of sex abuse for $1 million without acknowledging wrongdoing."
But of course. That's how all repressed memories work.
Hat tip: Tillers on Evidence and Inference
The next issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest has a provocative article arguing for training psychotherapists in evidence-based treatment protocols. As one would expect, it has drawn a lot of both support and criticism. I, for one, am glad to see the field addressing the question of why so many therapists continue to ignore therapies that studies have shown to be effective.
My presentation at the American Camping Association Southeastern Region conference was about good ways to avoid, or at least lessen the chances of, lawsuits. Although I focused youth camps, and the ACA standards, my suggestions also might be helpful to other groups.
I've posted a QuickTime version of the presentation that you can download here. To view it, you will need QuickTime, which you can get for free from here.
If you have any questions, disagreements, or suggestions, definitely let me know.
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