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Paula Barrett is an adjunct professor at the University of Queensland, Australian National University and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, she is often a keynote at global conferences on child psychology and education.
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Notes from Paula Barrett’s Presentation at Corpus Christi
Feb 26 2009 (W.Chapman)
Risk factors for Anxiety in children/ adolescents;
• temperament‐low stress threshold (1/5 people at birth, @Primary school 1/2 anxiety, sensitive, worry, tummy ache etc)
• friendship issues, (s‐schl 2/3 show signs of depression without intervention in primary school),
• brain development,
• life events trauma Consequences/ interesting facts:
• Just like any medical condition it is not embarrassing and can be intervened
• all kids have strengths as a result of this sensitivity‐ it can be channeled towards gifts
• current brain research‐ is that you keep changing your brain, new brain cells continue to form, i.e. you can change learn new behaviours
‐ brain very incredibly sensitive in teen yrs‐
‐ drugs alcohol very damaging to development in teen brains (v recent rsrch from last 2yrs)
• ‐traumatic life events also include chronic behaviours
Protective factors
• attachment /being connected
• cognitive style (do people see the glass as 1/2 full or ½ empty)
‐5% of people are always positive
‐5% of people are always negative
‐ Most people are in middle
• research shows all can learn to be more positive which leads to happiness, health, success etc
• family is important factor (dads, grandparents , uncles aunts extended family group v important)
• if you don’t have extended family you need to form one; support ntwk
• friendships crucial in teen yrs
• school imp. preventative factor ; particularly if parents support the school
Specific girls’ strengths
• more advanced social emotional (boys less aware)
• more advanced fine motor (boys advanced gross motor)
• slower physiological arousal
• better verbal expression younger
• more opportunity for same gender support ( more female role models in schools)
• girls 2 to 3 yrs ahead
Girls’ vulnerabilities
• less awareness of positive role models; we need strong female role models (wall of excellence for women : Alice Springs)
• Developmental mismatch, between emotional and social. Development and brain maturity (looking and acting like women earlier without the brain to handle it)
• educational and social pressures (more protected in girls’ schools)
• discrepancy of social messages: life more complex for women – (carers, cooks, mothers, working hours, too many roles/ multiple conflicting roles)
Healthy Educational Development
• exercise, diet, sleep‐
• no computers should be in kids rooms; kids can't regulate time when online;
• Diet – the problem is not fat. problem is sugar
• emotional and social skills ‐‐resilience we need to train kids more in this area
• cognitive development – schools do this well
• family school community development‐
• kids need to spend two hrs per week doing things for other people‐ e.g. nursing homes etc
Otherwise:
• ‐anxious kids explode at home from the stress of their day, feel sick about school, difficulty going to sleep,
• Life too rushed for kids
‐
What to do about it?
• awareness and early intervention arms kids with skills to succeed
Metaphor kids used to only go to dentist when abscess formed, now we are proactive and preventative
Resources:
• The brain that changes itself (Doidge 07)
• The developing brain (too academic)
• Blame it on my brain (Morgan 08)
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