"Can preschool boost the IQ scores of poor African-American children and prevent them from failing in school?"

American Radio Works' Early Lessons
Click the blue link just above to read the full article and hear the radio report, plus some pictures. 


"The Perry Preschool was the idea of a man named David Weikart. He was a school system administrator in the small city of Ypsilanti, Michigan back in the late 1950s. When he took the job, he was shocked to discover how many poor African-American children were doing badly in school. A lot of them were being assigned to special education classes, getting held back, and failing to graduate from high school.

Weikart wanted to do something about it, but school officials did not share his enthusiasm. They didn’t want him changing things, messing around in their schools.

So rather than change the schools, Weikart decided to invent a new kind of school – a pre-school for 3- and 4-year-olds. His hope was that preschool could boost children’s IQs."

"Happiness is like Self-Esteem: You have to work for both."

I've had several conversations recently about how therapy works and how it works differently for each client. Some seem to make leaps and bounds in their quality of life in pursuing insight into their histories and behaviors. Some report being flummoxed with an untangling and a difficult inertia leaving them clouded, stuck.

In my practice, I prefer to first provide clients with tools and skills to improve their functioning. I've found that new skills, improved functioning provide direction away from acute distress. With more mental energy we can come back to build insight next.

I find that clients who are pushed to dig deep and pursue insight about their present based on distant, painful memories often become resistant and sometimes disillusioned with counseling. When we can work the fine balance, not denying the potential benefits of exploring past roads, and focus first on regaining functionality with new skills, clients tend to make positives strides faster and become more invested in our work together.

When clients are more well-suited to resolving conflicts and are getting through their day to day successfully, we often ramp up the exploration. That's when the anxiety, the crush, the dark inertia is lifted enough for insight to be more beneficial than detrimental. It becomes about asking, how did I get there, and how can I avoid that again? What contributed to that painful phase, and how can I prevent it again? Insight into what shapes us, what has us thinking the way we do, speaking the way we do, will help us understand the motivations behind our current behaviors. With that new awareness, it becomes easier to re-habituate and choose new, more functional behaviors today.

The New York Times recently had an interesting piece on the values of insight in therapy. Well worth a read. It fits nicely with the way I practice and the value I share with Dr. Susan Heitler. We help clients learn new conflict resolution and communication skills - we lean more towards 'how-to' work before the 'how-come.'

I agree with the article's author Dr. Friedman and his assertion that insight is one ingredient in fulfilling therapy. He adds, "happiness is a bit like self-esteem: You have to work for both. So far as I know, you can’t get an infusion of either one from a therapist."

Autism Vaccine Link A Fraud

Study Linking Vaccine to Autism Was Fraud, Journal Reports
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS   Published: January 5, 2011

"The first study to link a childhood vaccine to autism was based on doctored information about the children involved, according to a new report on the widely discredited research."

"A new examination found, by comparing the reported diagnoses in the paper to hospital records, that Wakefield and colleagues altered facts about patients in their study.
The analysis, by British journalist Brian Deer, found that despite the claim in Wakefield's paper that the 12 children studied were normal until they had the MMR shot, five had previously documented developmental problems. Deer also found that all the cases were somehow misrepresented when he compared data from medical records and the children's parents."

Stop Bullying - Do Not Stand Idly By

Anti-Bullying Program Reduces Kids’ Gossip
By RICK NAUERT PHD Senior News Editor

Major Takeaways: Retaliation escalates the bullying and victimization. Anti-bullying curriculum can show dramatic decreases in bullying. Bystanders can be the greatest anti-bullying tool - if you see something, say something. 


"Frey said that bystanders are very important in decreasing gossip and bullying, but many times bystanders feel uncomfortable and don’t know what to do. Bystanders’ silence can give a lot of power to bullies, but if bystanders speak up, the bullying stops.


“Stand up straight, look the bully in the eye, and say ‘knock it off,’” Frey said. Friends who encourage victims to retaliate, on the other hand, may inadvertently set victims up for continued bullying, she said."

NPR: When One Sibling is Developmentally Disabled

..."Of course, there are no good terms: special needs, intellectually disabled, mentally retarded, brain damaged. The labels range from euphemistic to offensive. The best seem clinical and unemotional, as if not to burden anyone with the real difficulties behind the phrases.

But Cecily manages very well. She lives semi-independently in a community for people with developmental disabilities. She holds a full-time job caring for severely disabled people. Once a week she does what she loves best, helping in a kindergarten. She cooks and shops and watches movies on a DVD player with her nose practically touching the screen."

When One Sibling Is Developmentally Disabled by DAPHNE BEAL

Maya Angelou: Poetry in Self-Defense

Maya Angelou - a longtime favorite of mine. I was elated when she spoke my freshman year at Duke. 
I nearly perfected a brief impersonation, including her speech's catch phrase: "go out and get it." She started that speech singing a hymn, a prayer in Hebrew, and a spiritual. In the Duke Chapel. 


NPR did a piece this morning with Dr. Angelou to speak about her new cook book. The best part was her recitation of one of my favorite poems:


The Health-Food Diner

No sprouted wheat and soya shoots
And Brussels in a cake,
Carrot straw and spinach raw,
(Today, I need a steak).

Not thick brown rice and rice pilaw
Or mushrooms creamed on toast,
Turnips mashed and parsnips hashed,
(I'm dreaming of a roast).

Health-food folks around the world
Are thinned by anxious zeal,
They look for help in seafood kelp
(I count on breaded veal).

No smoking signs, raw mustard greens,
Zucchini by the ton,
Uncooked kale and bodies frail
Are sure to make me run

to

Loins of pork and chicken thighs
And standing rib, so prime,
Pork chops brown and fresh ground round
(I crave them all the time).

Irish stews and boiled corned beef
and hot dogs by the scores,
or any place that saves a space
For smoking carnivores.

1983 by Dr. Maya Angelou

You can hear the story behind this poem in the piece by NPR. 

A Sad Tale, An Uplifting Finish: What Used to Happen to Children with Disabilities

"It Wasn't Until His Parents Died That Jeff Daly Learned What Happened to His Younger Sister Who Disappeared 47 Years Earlier"

CBS Sunday Morning piece: Where's Molly?

Where's Molly Website - Trailer for Documentary

You can learn about how Denver is helping families of children with disabilities (and adults with disabilities and traumatic brain injuries) by visiting Denver Options' website.