NCJ Number
181061
Journal
Reaching Today's Youth Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Dated: Fall 1999 Pages: 8-13
Editor(s)
Alan M. Blankstein,
Lyndal M. Bullock
Date Published
1999
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Through brief case studies, the author demonstrates how typical middle schools regularly fail to uncover or meet the needs of at- risk children who suffer from severe emotional and behavioral disorders that are often caused by abuse, neglect, and family violence.
Abstract
The case studies show that school personnel are sometimes unaware of serious psychological problems among students. Moreover, a student's history is sometimes hidden from school authorities by parents or the student. Some students need a more therapeutic environment than a typical middle school can provide, and students who are isolated and unproductive need adult attention. At the school-based level, in-service training can help teachers become more aware of the signs and symptoms of depression in young people. Guidance counselors can organize weekly group meetings for students according to specific needs. Collaborative programs between schools and mental health agencies from the community can be developed to bring additional personnel and services into the educational setting. In addition, productive actions teachers and other school personnel can take in their daily interactions with students include learning the names of students and talking with them regularly, listening to students, recognizing resilient characteristics and reflecting them back to young people, helping students reframe adversities as challenges, identifying and celebrating student competencies, encouraging students to develop the skills necessary for self-advocacy, providing opportunities for daily success, using an optimistic explanatory style when dealing with mistakes, making resources known and available to all students, and promoting a supportive environment. 34 references and 1 figure