Turning education on it’s head…?

Howard Gardner first proposed his Multiple Intelligence Theory back in 1983. The theory, which originally proposed seven different ‘types’ of intelligence has remained popular without ever really flourishing in any practical sense. Well, that may be about to change! A new wave of schools – Studio Schools – is launching in the United Kingdom which turns many of our traditional notions about schooling and education on their head.

Gardner proposed seven (later expanded to eight) different intelligences:

1. Linguistic
2. Logical-Mathematical
3. Musical
4. Bodily-Kinasthetic
5. Spatial
6. Interpersonal
7. Intrapersonal
8. Naturalist

Each intelligence, he proposed is a continuum, and everybody is somewhere on each continuum. You may be much higher up on one continuum than on another. For example, you may be very high up on the ‘linguistic intelligence’ continuum. In this case, you probably did very well in your schooling, as people high in ‘linguistic intelligence’ are able to manipulate written and spoken language very well.

But what if you were low on this continuum, and high on, say, the ‘bodily-kinasthetic’ continuum? Chances are you may not have done quite so well in your schooling. People high on this scale in comparison with the other scales may be said to ‘learn by doing’ – by being active and learning by using your body and moving. These people learn best by 1) doing things 2) working in teams 3) doing things for real, ‘not in theory’ – all the opposite of what the present education system is founded on.

The present school system doesn’t always cater well for all types of learners. Geoff Mulgan introduces here a new, and somewhat revolutionary idea in the way schooling and the education system could, and maybe should, operate if it is to fail less young people than it currently does.

Called the ‘Studio School’, the idea is to create an environment that has teenagers fighting to get in not fighting to get out. In the Studio School, work and learning are integrated in a curriculum that is delivered to 14-19 year olds, not through sitting in classrooms but through actually working on real life practical projects.

Listen to Geoff introducing the new schools in this short 6-min talk! There could be as many as 35 Studio Schools open across the UK by next year. One of the most exciting education innovations for a long time!

What is Hypnotherapy?

What is Hypnotherapy?

Hypnosis is the induction of a state of consciousness in which a person loses the power of voluntary action and is especially responsive to suggestion or direction.

Download 3 free hypnosis mp3 albums here

The word hypnosis is used to describe the purposeful induction of a trance like state. However,  we all go in and out of mild “trances” or hypnosis-type states every day; those moments when our minds wander and we daydream, even simply sitting down to watch television, we give it our our attention and enter a trance-like or hypnosis-like state. These states are all natural and safe. The idea of hypnosis is simply to put you into one of these mild “trance” states purposefully – with the aim of sending powerful hypnotic suggestions to help you change your life.

Far from being asleep or unaware, hypnosis is actually a heightened state of awareness in which you are deeply relaxed and are open to suggestion. Because of this heightened state of awareness hypnosis may be used to attempt to make changes within your subconscious mind which will change your behaviour patterns and your thinking about yourself. Hypnosis is an approach used to try and minimize the unwanted traits that sometimes prevent personal growth and development.

What can hypnosis be used for?

Well, it’s almost a case of what can’t hypnosis be used for. Hypnosis is widely used for the treatment and elimination of almost any adverse beliefs and thinking errors. It is used to help a wide range of health problems, and is demonstrated to be effective for issues including self esteem and confidence as well as supporting people changing habitual behaviours such as smoking. Hypnosis doesn’t work for all people. It is a subjective experience and results do vary.Trying out these approaches for yourself can give you a better indication of whether or not it is likely to be a useful approach to help you.

Download 3 free hypnosis mp3 albums here and find out for yourself.

Take a look at my Hypnotherapy and Hypnosis information sheet over at YourPsychology.co.uk for more information about hypnotherapy and hypnosis.

Autism Strategies and Tips by YourPsychology.co.uk

As much of my writing is connected to autism, I’ve decided to launch a new ‘sister’ blog which I’ll be using for my writing about autism.

I will also use the blog to distribute tips and strategies for parents and teachers to use when supporting children with autism. These will be from research evidence, and also from my professional experience of supporting children with autism and challenging behaviour.

Check out the blog here.

Introducing Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

I often use cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) in my work with children and young people. The therapeutic approach offers a useful framework for tackling a range of issues, from social anxiety, to depression, to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). CBT aims to help a client become aware of distortions to their thoughts which may be causing psychological distress. CBT also aims to help a client become more aware of behavioural patterns which are reinforcing their thinking, and to correct them.

The aim is not to correct all thinking errors a client makes. After all, virtually everyone distorts reality in some ways.  The therapist attempts to understand experiences from the client’s point of view, and the client and therapist will work collaboratively with with a scientific approach, exploring the client’s thoughts, assumptions and beliefs. The therapist helps the client develop ways to test these thoughts and beliefs by checking them against reality and against other assumptions.

Often this process will continue outside the therapeutic session with ‘behavioural homework’ activities where the client takes some of the ideas explored in therapy and tests them out in real life situations. Often the client will be asked to record their thoughts, feelings and emotions in different situations for discussion at future meetings with the therapist. CBT interventions are grounded in the notion that thoughts, feelings, and behaviour are all interrelated and all influence each other.

Due to the interrelationship between thoughts, feelings and behaviours, interventions will often involve working on the client’s behaviour. For example,  a client with a strong fear that pigeons will land on their head if they walk under trees may go to great lengths to avoid walking under trees. This behaviour will prevent the client from experiencing occassions that contradict their thought that “if I walk under a tree, a pigeon will land on my head”, or even their mental image of a pigeon landing on their head the moment they step under a tree. The therapist may help the client to overcome this avoidance of walking under trees as part of the process of correcting the distorted thought that walking under trees will lead to pigeons landing on the client’s head.

Throughout the therapeutic process of learning, exploring and hypothesis testing, the client develops coping strategies as well as improving their awareness, introspection and evaluation skills. This enables them to challenge their thoughts on their own in the future, reducing their reliance on the therapist, and reducing the likelihood of experiencing a relapse.

I write more about CBT on my website here.

Weighted Therapy for children with autism – free ebook

I was recently asked to write a foreword for an upcoming book on the use of weighted therapy for children with autism. The book has just been released – and is available as a free download from Sensory Direct here. There is a hardcopy version in the pipeline.

Aimed at parents and carers of those with sensory issues, the book is an easy to read guide about weighted blankets, weighted jackets and other weighted therapy products.

Here’s an extract from my foreword…………

“I am aware of very few titles that address weighted therapy directly, and none that cover the topic in such an easy-to-read manner as this guide does. Knowing the potential benefits of weighted therapy is essential to teachers and other professionals in both special education and mainstream schools……..my hope is for the message contained in this guide to reach parents and carers, like you, who may need it. Read on and start discovering how weighted therapy may benefit your child today!”

Take a look, hope you enjoy!

Gary

Shocking treatment for children with autism

The Guardian has reported this week about practices at a school for children with severe autism and emotional problems in Boston, USA. In the year 2011, the school uses electric shock treatments to try and prevent and eliminate challenging behaviour.

Get the article in full here.

Against punishment & aversive strategies

Punishment is the contingent presentation or withdrawal of a stimulus resulting in a future decrease in response strength. An aversive is a stimulus or event one would ordinarily act to avoid. To differentiate between the two, punishment effectively reduces the frequency of a behaviour. If a stimulus is presented or withdrawn with the intention of reducing frequency of behaviour, but does not do so, it is deemed aversive. The Guardian article reports that one young person, Brandon, then aged 12, was given no fewer than 5,000 shocks – without success.

People use punishment for a number of reasons. It may be a lack of response alternatives – do they know any other ways to react in those conditions?  For example, in classroom situations, ‘time-out’ is readily available and easy to implement. The use of strategies like this can also be developed through a modelling effect – it was the response used by parents, grandparent, teachers as the person was growing up. Punishment often serves to treat behaviour by reducing it’s frequency in that instance, to provide protection from the behaviour, and as a useful way of emotional expression and control by the person instigating the punishment.

So it solves an immediate problem – a short-term solution. However, punishment doesn’t teach any new skills – it teaches people to avoid situations but the function that the behaviour was serving still exists. This can be very problematic long-term as the person must devise other ways of communicating that need.

In June 2010 the human rights group Disability Rights International released a report seeking to debunk Israel’s claim for the validity of “aversive treatment”. The use of electric shocks was not a treatment at all, it said, but torture.

Examples from all around the world have demonstrated that positive behaviour support can effectively reduce challenging behaviour and teach people new ways of communicating effectively to get their needs met. Longitudinal instruction designed to teach skills and competencies that facilitate behavioural change for the purpose of social integration – not aversive treatments that dehumanise and cause pain to vulnerable children.

Autism created in mice

Researchers at MIT have managed to create mice that have characteristics similar to autism observed in humans. By modifying a particular gene – Shank3 – they were able to replicate compulsive, repetetive behaviour and social avoidance behaviour in the mice.

Senior author of the research, Guoping Feng, professor of brain and cognitive sciences and member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT notes that “We now have a very robust model with a known cause for autistic-like behaviors. We can figure out the neural circuits responsible for these behaviors, which could lead to novel targets for treatment”.

The model could potentially be used to test new drug treatments before they are used on humans with autism.

The research was published by Nature – find links to access the full article  here.

Autism Interventions Summary

The number of interventions proposed for children with autism is large and can be overwhelming for families and professionals alike. Some approaches are well supported by good research, while others gain support through reports of successful use by individuals.

Here I’ve listed some of the most commonly cited interventions. It is important to bear in mind that none of these approaches have been shown to be effective for all children with autism. Finding out which approach works best for any particular child is not easy. More detailed summaries of these approaches can be found on the NAS website.

Behavioural Approaches

• Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA)
• Lovaas Method

Complimentary therapies

• Autism assistance dogs
• Dolphin therapy

Diet and vitamins

• B6 and magnesium supplements
• Fatty acids (omega-3 and omega-6)
• Gluten-free/Casein-free diet

Medical Intervention

• Serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (medication or dietary)

Physiological Interventions

• Auditory Integration Training

Relationship-based Interventions

• Son-Rise

Service-based Approaches

• Daily Life Therapy – Higashi
• SPELL
• TEACCH

Skills-based Approaches

• Makaton
• Picture symbols
• Social Stories and Comic Strip Conversations
• Social use of language (SULP)
• Visual supports

Standard Therapies

• Counselling
• Music therapy
• Speech & Language therapy
• ‘Strategies for tuning into autism’

Technological Intervention

• Computers
• Light & Sound Therapy Centre

Light It Up Blue for Autism Awareness Day

We’ve turned yourpsychology.co.uk blue for autism awareness day on April 1st and 2nd 2011! What could you do?

Autism Speaks is shining a light on autism by raising awareness in communities across North America. Please join them.

Help spread the word about ‘Light It Up Blue’ & autism

By working within our own communities to raise awareness this April, we can all help to increase understanding about a spectrum of disorders that affect more and more families each year.

Help spread the word about the Light It Up Blue campaign by sending an email to your friends or family members or, help to shine a light on autism by sharing this website on your favorite social network.

Listen here to the song ‘Light it up blue’ performed by Owen Sanders & 10 of his classmates!

Attachment styles – how school staff can react

Summary of attachment styles, behaviours to expect, and guidance on ways to react

Anxious avoidant – child will overly focus on the task/task becomes focus

• Approach to classroom tasks: Often not willing to write; Needs to be autonomous; Apparent indifference to anxiety

• Approach to teachers: Will not ask for help; Tries/likes to keep distance from teacher; The task acts as an emotional safety barrier between pupil and teacher

• Strategies

o   Group teaching – teacher can teach to group rather than direct

o   Structured activities with clear boundaries

Anxious ambivalent – child appears dependant on teacher and teacher attention

• Characteristics: Well developed language; Works well in 1:1 situations; Attendance issues

• Strategies – reassure child that the child is kept in mind

o   Give child special object (teachers) to keep safe

o   Special hand signals from across the room regularly

o   Return to check work frequently. eg, every (4) mins.

Disorganised – Lack of response to being told what to do

• Characteristics: Constant state of vigilance (hypervigilance); Heightened state of anxiety; Lack of trust towards teacher (sometimes better with headteacher); difficulty accepting authority; Little understanding of cause and effect – poor peer relationships; Lack of response to rewards/sanctions; Learning difficulties – underachieving;  Finds conceptual thought difficult; Unable to permit the teacher to know more than they do; Tasks may be seen to highlight incompetence = humiliation and rejection

• Strategies – Lack of response to being told what to do, so: Visual timetables, write homework down etc; Reliable, predictable routines become the ‘safety net’; Place of safety – ‘safe haven’