This reading reminded me a lot of our lessons at the beginning of the year on the parts of the brain. I was surprised how much I remembered! I was most interested in the use of social stories as behavior modifiers because they seem shockingly similar to what we have be learning about the steps in collaborative problem solving. Social stories seem to skip the empathy stage though, which I thought was the most important. Although I like the organization and collaboration that the social stories provides, I am concerned about its lack of empathy.Do you think that this strategy has empathy built in, or is there some way that it can be improved to include an empathy stage?
For me, the purpose of the stories seemed to be getting at that idea. They wanted kids to see their behavior almost as an objective third party and develop empathy for the person they may have wronged. So for example, if Student A hit Student B, and the teacher went through a social story about a student hitting another with Student A acting as the objective viewer, the purpose seems to be getting Student A to see their bad behavior and build empathy for the person they hit.
Which...now that I just wrote that out, I realized that I don't think that actually had anything to do with the empathy stage haha. Anyway.
I guess as a teacher, you could use it as a way to say, "So what I'm seeing is..." or "What I'm noticing is..." Honestly, I found this technique to be a little awkward and strange--and difficult to adapt to high school students--and I don't know if it would work all that well alongside CPS. Maybe you could use it when you're long-past the initial intervention and the student still isn't responding well or the ideas you've tried aren't really working? I'm not sure.
Casey, I also think that the empathy stage is the most important. Without it there isn't really away for you to truly understand the student. Now with social stories I think there is a level of empathy introduced. I see it more as a way for the student to empathize with someone or something in order to change their behavior.
Kayleigh, I also agree with you on the the whole CPS being a little awkward with high school students. Maybe we should just use different words or phrases that make it less awkward. Or maybe the more you do it the less awkward it feels.
I was really surprised that impulsive behavior may result from genetic dispositions or prenatal exposure to drugs, although looking back I probably shouldn't have been. I knew that people could be more inclined to be alcoholics if their parents were, so it makes sense that people could be impulsive because their parent's were. I guess I assumed that emotional/impulsive responses has more to do with maturity and that some students have more control than others because of their experiences (development of non-cognitive functions and whatnot). Now that I know that impulse control can be cause by genetic predispositions, I feel much more inclined to be sympathetic with students that have problems with impulse control.
First, can I point out how this module tied in with what we learned in our Exceptional Learners class? I see this happening a lot. Okay, so I was really interested in the methods for relieving anxiety. The emotional freedom technique (EFT) was something I've never heard of before. The eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) was also pretty interesting, this one reminded me sort of like hypnosis. Based on more research that I did, it actually is a type of hypnosis. So as crazy as these techniques sound, I do believe they work, especially since they are backed up with research. The question that I have is if you guys believe that these techniques are alternatives to using medication to treat anxiety? Personally, I am more towards the medication side but I could see this working in mild cases. What do you guys think?
One more thing. I could definitely see myself teaching my class these two methods for relieving anxiety. Maybe before a test or something. It would be fun.
One of my friends' mother is a therapst and she uses it on some of her patients, or is at least aware of it. This particular friend tried it as well, and she said it didn't work for her. I think that it's going to largely depend on the type of person you are, how your brain works, and what you find to be helpful. She said for some people it was great--others, not so much. I'd still lean more towards medication, but it might be a neat thing to try as a supplement to that and regular therapy, especially if you have a condition like PTSD that makes it hard for you to talk about your experiences.
I agree with Kayleigh in that it depends largely upon the individual and what works for them. I think that it would be a great idea to teach students maybe just the basics of a couple of these techniques at the beginning of the year to use before tests, but I don't think that I would spend that much class time on them. If a student has serious difficulties with anxiety and stress, they should probably be seeing a therapist that can give them specific, individualized care.
This might seem like a strange question, but as I went through this module one of the questions was talking about recalling an emotional moment or experience when we were in school. I mentioned that, from kindergarten through middle school, I had at least two or three crying fits during the year. It was always a topic of conversation for parent-teacher conferences because it must have freaked out and bothered some of my teachers. It became even more bizarre in middle school since I was older and the assumption was the I was better able to handle my emotions (ha!). The behavior stopped out of nowhere once I hit high school. Based on what we've read in this module, I'm curious if you guys think that it could be related to the issues with the thalamic pathways which are often the reason why people have things like social anxiety, general anxiety disorders, and phobias. Or, do you think that it was just brain immaturity? It was so strange that it stopped without any kind of therapy, discussion, or warning, and it's hard for me to even remember the reasons for the outbursts.
That's a very provocative question, Kayleigh! I had a friend in elementary school who had crying fits regularly and out of nowhere (or at least it seemed that way to me). Sometimes they were clearly stress related, I remember she would cry before chorus concerts, but some that were a bit more confusing, such as a time I remember her crying over a class activity that involved chewing a cracker and spitting it back out. To return to your question, I think that it probably had a lot to do with your pathway system not being fully developed yet. Since you were younger than other students, your pathways, as well as your frontal lobe's executive control system, may not have been as fully developed as other students. I think that it is possible that your brain was just not yet fully capable of constraining excessive and stressful emotions, especially since this behavior ended when you got to high school without any therapy or medication.
That sounds logical. Most of the fits I don't remember, but there was one that I had in eighth grade that hit when I tried to do makeup math work in class. I had no idea what I was doing, was too afraid to ask the teacher for help, so I sat there and bawled for like, ten minutes before my teacher realized what was happening and come over to help me. So I imagine it was my brain's response to stress. I didn't see any other way of handling the situation, so I cried. Very weird.
As for your friend, I can imagine the cracker activity made her really uncomfortable and she didn't have any other way of expressing that aside from getting visibly upset. Looking back on my own behavior, I can see why that may have triggered a crying episode.
I agree with what Casey had to say. I think it could have been a combination of both, your pathways not being fully developed and brain immaturity. I feel like everyone has had an emotional outbreak as a child. I know I did. Maybe because when we are young we handle stress or anxiety by crying or throwing a fit. When we are older and have better non-cognitive skills, like self control, we find other things to helps us.
Looking back, it's hard to say whether or not how you reacted at such a young age was due to maturity or pathways. I should think that the younger you are, the more difficult it is to distinguish between the two. However, I think you are right: it could have very well been a combination of both things. But because you brought these examples up, It called into mind some similar experiences for me. However in my case I was not in middle school. I was eighteen and about to graduate. I forgot my hairpin at home (I still fiddle with them, perhaps you've seen me in class) and although it was something so small I found myself having a full on anxiety attack. I had to leave my math class before I burst into tears, and had to have one of my friends come and calm me down. Since I suffer from anxiety such as this, it is interesting to read about the differences between thalamic and cortical pathways and figure out exactly what was going on inside my brain. It gave me a feeling of control and understanding to know exactly what had happened to me.
Earlier in this post we mentioned ways to broach the topic of behavior modifiers to older students. Ever since we have started looking at the brain in this class, I have been chewing over the idea that it might be helpful to some students if this sort of subject was roughly touched upon in science classes. It may not do anything-- but then again it may just give students a new perspective: this is not something that is unique to them, and there are ways to conquer your emotions with help. That way when the topic of behavior is touched on by a teacher or an administrator, it wouldn't seem out of the blue or condescending. We would be putting the students in a growth mindset by allowing them to see the science aspect.
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ReplyDeleteThis reading reminded me a lot of our lessons at the beginning of the year on the parts of the brain. I was surprised how much I remembered! I was most interested in the use of social stories as behavior modifiers because they seem shockingly similar to what we have be learning about the steps in collaborative problem solving. Social stories seem to skip the empathy stage though, which I thought was the most important. Although I like the organization and collaboration that the social stories provides, I am concerned about its lack of empathy.Do you think that this strategy has empathy built in, or is there some way that it can be improved to include an empathy stage?
ReplyDeleteFor me, the purpose of the stories seemed to be getting at that idea. They wanted kids to see their behavior almost as an objective third party and develop empathy for the person they may have wronged. So for example, if Student A hit Student B, and the teacher went through a social story about a student hitting another with Student A acting as the objective viewer, the purpose seems to be getting Student A to see their bad behavior and build empathy for the person they hit.
DeleteWhich...now that I just wrote that out, I realized that I don't think that actually had anything to do with the empathy stage haha. Anyway.
I guess as a teacher, you could use it as a way to say, "So what I'm seeing is..." or "What I'm noticing is..." Honestly, I found this technique to be a little awkward and strange--and difficult to adapt to high school students--and I don't know if it would work all that well alongside CPS. Maybe you could use it when you're long-past the initial intervention and the student still isn't responding well or the ideas you've tried aren't really working? I'm not sure.
Casey, I also think that the empathy stage is the most important. Without it there isn't really away for you to truly understand the student. Now with social stories I think there is a level of empathy introduced. I see it more as a way for the student to empathize with someone or something in order to change their behavior.
DeleteKayleigh, I also agree with you on the the whole CPS being a little awkward with high school students. Maybe we should just use different words or phrases that make it less awkward. Or maybe the more you do it the less awkward it feels.
I was really surprised that impulsive behavior may result from genetic dispositions or prenatal exposure to drugs, although looking back I probably shouldn't have been. I knew that people could be more inclined to be alcoholics if their parents were, so it makes sense that people could be impulsive because their parent's were. I guess I assumed that emotional/impulsive responses has more to do with maturity and that some students have more control than others because of their experiences (development of non-cognitive functions and whatnot). Now that I know that impulse control can be cause by genetic predispositions, I feel much more inclined to be sympathetic with students that have problems with impulse control.
ReplyDeleteFirst, can I point out how this module tied in with what we learned in our Exceptional Learners class? I see this happening a lot. Okay, so I was really interested in the methods for relieving anxiety. The emotional freedom technique (EFT) was something I've never heard of before. The eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) was also pretty interesting, this one reminded me sort of like hypnosis. Based on more research that I did, it actually is a type of hypnosis. So as crazy as these techniques sound, I do believe they work, especially since they are backed up with research. The question that I have is if you guys believe that these techniques are alternatives to using medication to treat anxiety? Personally, I am more towards the medication side but I could see this working in mild cases. What do you guys think?
ReplyDeleteOne more thing. I could definitely see myself teaching my class these two methods for relieving anxiety. Maybe before a test or something. It would be fun.
One of my friends' mother is a therapst and she uses it on some of her patients, or is at least aware of it. This particular friend tried it as well, and she said it didn't work for her. I think that it's going to largely depend on the type of person you are, how your brain works, and what you find to be helpful. She said for some people it was great--others, not so much. I'd still lean more towards medication, but it might be a neat thing to try as a supplement to that and regular therapy, especially if you have a condition like PTSD that makes it hard for you to talk about your experiences.
DeleteI agree with Kayleigh in that it depends largely upon the individual and what works for them. I think that it would be a great idea to teach students maybe just the basics of a couple of these techniques at the beginning of the year to use before tests, but I don't think that I would spend that much class time on them. If a student has serious difficulties with anxiety and stress, they should probably be seeing a therapist that can give them specific, individualized care.
DeleteThis might seem like a strange question, but as I went through this module one of the questions was talking about recalling an emotional moment or experience when we were in school. I mentioned that, from kindergarten through middle school, I had at least two or three crying fits during the year. It was always a topic of conversation for parent-teacher conferences because it must have freaked out and bothered some of my teachers. It became even more bizarre in middle school since I was older and the assumption was the I was better able to handle my emotions (ha!). The behavior stopped out of nowhere once I hit high school. Based on what we've read in this module, I'm curious if you guys think that it could be related to the issues with the thalamic pathways which are often the reason why people have things like social anxiety, general anxiety disorders, and phobias. Or, do you think that it was just brain immaturity? It was so strange that it stopped without any kind of therapy, discussion, or warning, and it's hard for me to even remember the reasons for the outbursts.
ReplyDeleteThat's a very provocative question, Kayleigh! I had a friend in elementary school who had crying fits regularly and out of nowhere (or at least it seemed that way to me). Sometimes they were clearly stress related, I remember she would cry before chorus concerts, but some that were a bit more confusing, such as a time I remember her crying over a class activity that involved chewing a cracker and spitting it back out. To return to your question, I think that it probably had a lot to do with your pathway system not being fully developed yet. Since you were younger than other students, your pathways, as well as your frontal lobe's executive control system, may not have been as fully developed as other students. I think that it is possible that your brain was just not yet fully capable of constraining excessive and stressful emotions, especially since this behavior ended when you got to high school without any therapy or medication.
DeleteThat sounds logical. Most of the fits I don't remember, but there was one that I had in eighth grade that hit when I tried to do makeup math work in class. I had no idea what I was doing, was too afraid to ask the teacher for help, so I sat there and bawled for like, ten minutes before my teacher realized what was happening and come over to help me. So I imagine it was my brain's response to stress. I didn't see any other way of handling the situation, so I cried. Very weird.
DeleteAs for your friend, I can imagine the cracker activity made her really uncomfortable and she didn't have any other way of expressing that aside from getting visibly upset. Looking back on my own behavior, I can see why that may have triggered a crying episode.
I agree with what Casey had to say. I think it could have been a combination of both, your pathways not being fully developed and brain immaturity. I feel like everyone has had an emotional outbreak as a child. I know I did. Maybe because when we are young we handle stress or anxiety by crying or throwing a fit. When we are older and have better non-cognitive skills, like self control, we find other things to helps us.
DeleteLooking back, it's hard to say whether or not how you reacted at such a young age was due to maturity or pathways. I should think that the younger you are, the more difficult it is to distinguish between the two. However, I think you are right: it could have very well been a combination of both things.
DeleteBut because you brought these examples up, It called into mind some similar experiences for me. However in my case I was not in middle school. I was eighteen and about to graduate.
I forgot my hairpin at home (I still fiddle with them, perhaps you've seen me in class) and although it was something so small I found myself having a full on anxiety attack. I had to leave my math class before I burst into tears, and had to have one of my friends come and calm me down.
Since I suffer from anxiety such as this, it is interesting to read about the differences between thalamic and cortical pathways and figure out exactly what was going on inside my brain. It gave me a feeling of control and understanding to know exactly what had happened to me.
Earlier in this post we mentioned ways to broach the topic of behavior modifiers to older students. Ever since we have started looking at the brain in this class, I have been chewing over the idea that it might be helpful to some students if this sort of subject was roughly touched upon in science classes. It may not do anything-- but then again it may just give students a new perspective: this is not something that is unique to them, and there are ways to conquer your emotions with help. That way when the topic of behavior is touched on by a teacher or an administrator, it wouldn't seem out of the blue or condescending. We would be putting the students in a growth mindset by allowing them to see the science aspect.
As a side note, I have absolutely no idea why that text post showed up as "Josie." This is Kayleigh.
ReplyDelete