Hazelden,Meth Parents - June 2007- LEGACY OF HOPE Newsletter

WELCOME to July, 2007 - 'NEWS OF HOPE'

EXCITED TO SHARE BREAKING NEWS WITH YOU!!

On Friday, June 22, 2007, E.D. Hill of FOX NEWS LIVE (national television news from New York) interviewed Susie as an expert in teen and family issues.

The story of the day invovled a 16-year-old girl who had just married her 40-year-old high school track coach. WATCH as E.D.Hill asks Susie to help shed some light on the motives and feelings of a teen making what most youth and adults alike consider a questionable decision.

Watch Susie on FOX NEWS LIVE

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It's a HOT summer! We hope you're keeping cool and having some fun!

Our July edition contains some interesting current research results in a variety of prevention areas.

JULY TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Brain Development and Why Teens Take Risks
2. Zero tolerance Policies can have unintended effects
3. Academic Achievement Improves with Emotional Connections in the Classroom
4. Should Parents Provide Party Alcohol for Teens?
5. Susie's Calendar for Sept and Oct - Getting Busy!

PICTURES ABOVE (from left) on the road in June:
Pic 1 - 2007 BEST Summer Institute - a week of teacher and counselor development coordinated by the State of Vermont Dept of Education - held at the Killington Grand Hotel, Vermont.
Pic 2 - Susie with BEST co-coordinator, Richard Boltax
Pic 3 - Team from Montpelier, VT (John Nelson, Laura Delcore, Mark Moody and Debra Lord)
Pic 4 - More friendly BEST attendees
Check out Susie's Calendar for fall

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Check out my article in the July/August issue:
Are You Getting Your Grandkids High?
Link below.

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Read Susie's July/August Article

Brain Development and Why Teens Take Risks

(Nikki Smith,” Brain Development and Why College Students Take Risks,” The Peer Educator – The Bacchus Network, Apr/May 2007)

As I share from research in LEGACY OF HOPE, it is now known that changes in the brain continue until age 25 (Caufman, 2000). That prefrontal cortex keeps growing from 12 to 25, which means, says Smith, “that adolescence does not end with the teen years, but extends into the 20’s.” (How reassuring is that?!) She goes on to say that “not until the prefrontal cortex is fully developed, are young adults better able to reason, make judgments and control impulses.”

And the amygdala, a small almond shaped region of the brain, guides decisions based on “spontaneous emotions, or the ‘gut’ reactions (Giedd, 1999)”, says Nikki Smith.
“During this time of (brain) development (14 to 25), adolescents must rely on … the amygdala (Wallis, 2004), and their emotions/gut.

”Making decisions based on emotion, rather than rational thought, can be the catalyst for high-risk behavior.” This is what makes the teen and college years so susceptible to peer influence and an apparent lack of discipline.

Research at Temple University revealed that teens and young adults would make safe choices when alone, but when in groups, “the younger subjects took more risks. It appeared that the presence of their friends increased the likelihood of risky behavior. As the prefrontal cortex matures, social or peer pressures have less of an impact and reasoning has more influence when making decisions.

Smith states that these findings may provide some explanation about why college students’ drinking patterns and behaviors while under the influence may vary with age.
It was found by Sandra Brown, PhD, Chief of Psychology Services at the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center in San Diego, “alcohol has the greatest impact on the brain of those under 21.“ Adults (those over age 25 with a fully developed prefrontal cortex) would have to consume twice as much alcohol to suffer the same damaging effects as younger adults or teens.

Brown’s studies also found that alcohol use during the adolescent years can damage memory and learning capabilities as well as impact the decision-making and reasoning areas of the brain. When teens and college students engage in excessive drinking, they put themselves at risk from risky decisions, but also may be causing permanent brain damage.

The neuroscience research helps in the development of decision-making tools that students can use during potentially high-risk activities. As Nikki Smith suggests, “For example, programs can be designed to motivate students to take responsibility for their own health by making informed, healthy choices.” Programs with high excitement value that reach youth on an emotional level, but are not high-risk are the recommended solution:
• Alcohol-free parties
• Game nights
• Sports related activities – open gym nights, ‘beach’ volleyball parties, etc.
• Friday night common interest activities (performing arts events, etc.)

“Emphasize the social norm that most students are making healthy decisions while still having a good time with friends,” Smith encourages.

In the meantime, as LEGACY OF HOPE illustrates and Smith shares, “Learn to talk to the influential amygdala, while waiting for the prefrontal cortex to take its position as the boss.”

Engage teenage amygdalas with LEGACY OF HOPE!

Surprising Results on Zero Tolerance Policies Research

The American Psychological Association (APA) Zero Tolerance Task Force reviewed 10 years of research on the effects of zero tolerance policies in middle and secondary schools, according to R. Farberman in his article in the October, 2006 issue of APA Monitor, “Zero tolerance Policies can have unintended effects, APA report finds.”

The outcome may come as a surprise to school administrators and parents. The research concluded that zero tolerance policies “not only fail to make schools safe or more effective in handling student behavior, they can actually increase the instances of problem behavior and dropout rates.”

Farberman goes on to say that “the research also showed that zero tolerance policies failed to increase the consistency of discipline across student groups and failed to decrease uneven enforcement of punishment across racial lines.”

The report did not recommend that schools abandon zero tolerance policies, but “that they be modified to allow for more flexibility and that individual teachers and administrators can use their judgment on appropriate responses to incidents that take place in their classrooms or buildings.”

Farberman quotes Cecil Reynolds, PhD, task force chair, “Many incidents that result in disciplinary action in school happen because of an adolescent’s or child’s poor judgment, not due to an intention to harm. Zero tolerance policies may exacerbate the normal challenges of adolescence and possibly punish a teenager more severely than warranted.”

The task force suggests that there be disciplinary actions targeted to specific misbehaviors. “Three levels of intervention are recommended:
* primary prevention strategies targeting all students;

* secondary strategies targeting those students at risk for
violence or disruption; and

* tertiary strategies targeting those students who have
already been involved in violent or disruptive behavior.”

Learn more about LEGACY prevention assemblies

Academic Achievement Improves with Emotional Connections in the Classroom

(From “Facilitating Academic Achievement Through Affect Attunement in the Classroom”, The Journal of Educational Research, Jan 01, 2001, Fouts, Gregory – material presented at the BEST Summer Institute sponsored by the State of Vermont Dept of Education, June 25-28)

After in-depth and lengthy (1 to 2 hour) conversations with over 25,000 wounded teens following LEGACY OF HOPE assemblies, I have concluded that the emotional connectedness that LEGACY OF HOPE facilitates gives teens attunement with me and makes me safe and approachable to them. I get to be the first adult many teens have ever divulged their emotional troubles to. And then, of course, I get to coach and encourage them into the counselor’s office or other appropriate resource to help them work through their personal problems whether they are with friends, family, alcohol/drugs, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, grief and more. “Attunement” creates a “moment” of oneness and is vital to youth to experience with a teacher, counselor, adult mentor, parent or even speaker if they are to be motivated, safe and open to learn from them.

Researcher Gregory Fouts agrees with the importance of the emotional connection in learning. He states that there is a relationship between academic achievement and social-emotional skills. In his research report, he shares, “For example, Mercer (1983) suggested that the lack of social-emotional skills may limit academic success. Sabornie (1994) reported that low-achieving children have a lack of social skills similar to that of children with learning disabilities, and this accounts for poor academic achievement.”

And “Mate (1999) argued that the lack of early attunement experience may contribute to attention deficit disorder in children and thereby lower their academic performance in school.”

“Harvey and Kelly (1993) argued that without attunement or the ‘dance’ of emotional experience, the ability to relate to and to learn from one another is seriously compromised.”

“Thus, attunement in the classroom may be an important social skill and conceptualized as the ability to emotionally connect with a teacher and to occasionally be ‘in the moment’ and ‘one’ with a teacher.”

As a result, Fouts created a study “to examine the effect of teacher-student attunement on the academic performance of students with and without learning disabilities.” Fouts worked with eight Grade 4 classes – 31 children with learning disabilities and 147 without learning disabilities. Drama techniques were used to elicit teacher-student attunement, helping children experience emotional safety and spontaneity, comfortable interaction with peers and teacher.

The results of Fouts research study found that “drama techniques do facilitate teacher-student attunement" (as also experienced when teens attune with me via the dramatizations in LEGACY OF HOPE). In addition, “this attuned teaching has a considerably greater impact on academic performance than on traditional teaching… also found that the greater the frequency of attunement a student experienced with the teacher, the greater the improvement in academic performance.”
The findings were consistent with several researchers and educators who “suggested that emotional connection to the teacher and materials through promoting active student emotional involvement and creativity can improve academic performance (Cortines, 1996; Demo, 1984; Hootstein, 1994; Johnstone, 1992, MacGregor et al., 1977). particularly noteworthy was the fact that "the improvement occurred within a single lesson, indicating that the effect of attunement was both immediate and powerful.”

Fout’s Discussion states,
”We expected that attuned teaching would enhance the academic performance of children with and without learning disabilities. All children need emotional connections with other persons for successful adjustment and learning with others. Attuned teaching may result in children being comfortable, more emotionally expressive and involved with the teacher,” thereby increasing “attention to the teacher, interest in the materials, and motivation to learn.”
The result: “Academic improvement for all children, even those who may have cognitive deficits."

Fifteen years of theatrical attunement with teen audiences has demonstrated to us at LEGACY that drama techniques do help children including teens grasp a lesson, a message, an awareness that might otherwise be missed. And our conversations with so many troubled teens have revealed how many youth do not have emotional attunement or safety in their homes, which follow them to school and can impact their academic achievement unless thoughtful, compassionate, conscious teaching with attunement intervenes for them at school. Given the impact of emotional-social well-being in youth, I hope all of us adults commit to working on “attunement’ with the youth around us - beginning with acknowledging our own emotions, accepting and welcoming them in our lives, and empathetically communicating with youth in you life.

Let LEGACY OF HOPE help emotionally attune teens to your teaching

Should Parents Provide Party Alcohol for Teens?

Excerpted from “The Teen Drinking Dilemma”, Newsweek, June 25, 2007, Kantrowitz, Barbara and Underwood, Anne

I have been asked on numerous occasions what I think about parents providing alcohol in their homes to their teens and their friends so they know where they are and can take the keys, keeping the teens safe when they party. I have worked with such parent organizations as Westlake High School Safe Homes where members work to discourage parents from providing alcohol to teens at home parties and better educate parents about the issues of underage drinking. Parents may see the action as a step in protecting, overseeing, perhaps, controlling the behavior of their teens.

However, most alcohol and drug abuse professionals, psychologists and experts in the field agree that it is not in teens’ best interest to provide alcohol in your home so teens can supposedly party “safer.”

The June 25, 2007 Newsweek article spoke to the issue saying that for every family that has a healthy respect for alcohol and introduces their teens to alcohol as a part of family life, “there are many more where allowing alcohol causes problems.” “The data is quite clear about teen drinking and it has nothing to do with being puritanical,” says William Damon, director of the Stanford University Center on Adolescence in the Newsweek article. “The earlier a kid starts drinking, the more likely they are to have problems with alcohol in their life.”

And it is especially critical in families where there is a history of alcoholism, “which greatly increases the risk,” authors Kantrowitz and Underwood remark. Research, as mentioned in articles in the July LEGACY OF HOPE newsletter, is clear; teens that drink too much can have impaired memory and other learning problems. As a result, the article quotes Aaron White of Duke University Medical Center who states “parents should think twice about offering alcohol to teens because their brains are still developing and are more susceptible to damage than an adult brain.”

Of particular concern are teenage girls whose lesser body weight and higher body fat make them more susceptible to getting drunk and getting drunk faster. According to the Newsweek article and Dr. Mark Willenbring of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “We’re absolutely seeing more women competing in drinking games,” and, he continues, “That’s a terribly dangerous thing to do,” in part because they become more vulnerable to sexual assault.”

The article also dispelled the myth that youth in other countries with lower legal drinking ages learn to drink responsibly and moderately. Truth is, according to the Newsweek article, quoting Chuck Hurley, chief executive officer of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, “’The highest rate of cirrhosis of the liver is in France,’