Children in Foster Care develop Resilience through Compassion CBCT - Mindfulness

Negi with HH Dalai Lama

A new study shows that a therapeutic intervention called Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT) appears to improve the mental and physical health of adolescents in foster care.

Mindfulness and CBCT

CBCT is a tool that provides strategies for people to develop more compassionate attitudes toward themselves and others.

It is well documented that children in foster care have a high prevalence of trauma in their lives.

For many, the circumstances that bring them into the foster care system are formidable; sexual abuse, parental neglect, family violence, homelessness, and exposure to drugs.

In addition, they are separated from biological family and some are regularly moved around from one place to another.

Emory researchers conducted the study in collaboration with the Georgia Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Division of Family and Child Services (DFCS).

The study was recently published online in the journals Psychoneuroendocrinology and Child and Family Studies.

Thaddeus Pace

“Children with early life adversity tend to have elevated levels of inflammation across their lifespan,” explains Thaddeus Pace, PhD, lead author on the paper in Psychoneuroendocrinology, and assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory.  

Check out his Website: The Emory Mind-Body Program

“Inflammation is known to play a fundamental role in the development of a number of chronic illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia, cancer and depression.”

The study finds that adolescents who practiced CBCT showed reductions in the inflammatory marker C-reactive protein (CRP), reduced anxiety and increased feelings of hopefulness. The more the study participants practiced, the greater the improvement observed in these measures.

Charles Raison

“The beneficial effects of CBCT on anxiety and feelings of hopelessness suggest that this intervention may provide immediate benefit to foster children,” says Charles Raison, MD, corresponding author of the study in Neuroendocrinology, now at the McClelland Institute, University of Arizona.

“We are even more encouraged by the finding that CBCT reduced levels of inflammation. Our hope is that CBCT may help contribute to the long-term health and well being of foster care children, not only during childhood, but also as they move into their adult years.”

Additionally, an article recently published in the journal Pediatrics reported that a high proportion of children in foster care programs across the United States are on psychiatric medications, many inappropriately e.g. AntiPsychotic Treatment

Linda Craighead

“In light of the increasing concern that we may be over-medicating children in state custody, our findings that CBCT can help with behavioural and physical health issues may be especially timely,” says Linda Craighead, PhD, senior author for the paper published in Child and Family Studies, and professor of psychology at Emory.

The Study

CBCT is a multi-week program developed by the Psychology dept. at Emory University by Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi, PhD, one of the study’s co-authors. Although derived from Tibetan Buddhist teachings on compassion, the CBCT program has been designed to be completely secular in nature.

Geshe Negi

The Georgia Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Division of Family and Child Services (DFCS) identified 71 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 19 as eligible for study participation.

All of the children lived in the greater metropolitan Atlanta area, and were in state custody (i.e. foster care) at the time of the study.

The participants were randomised to six weeks of Cognitvely-Based Compassion Training (CBCT), or to a wait list control group. Before and after these interventions the adolescents were assessed on various measures of anxiety and hope about the future. They also provided saliva samples for the measurement of C-reactive protein.

The researchers found that within the CBCT group, participation in practice sessions during the study correlated with reduced CRP from baseline to the six-week assessment.

The researchers are careful to emphasize that further studies will be needed to determine if there are long-term benefits with CBCT.

Humanising Computer Aids affects trust and dependence

Computerized aids that include person-like characteristics can influence trust and dependence among adults, according to a Clemson University researcher.

A recently published study by Clemson University psychology associate professor Richard Pak examined how decision-making would be affected by a human-like aid.

Human Factor's Blog

The study focused on adults' trust, dependence, and performance while using a computerized decision-making aid for persons with diabetes.

The study is one of the first to examine how the design of decision-support aids on consumer devices can influence the level of trust that users place in that system and how much they use it.

Richard Pak

The design and look of an aid are important elements for designers because of the potential dangers associated when users trust unreliable decision aids or lack trust for reliable aids simply because of the their appearance.

"Just as trust is an important factor in how humans deal with other humans, it also can determine how users interact with computerized systems," Pak said. "Trust can be influenced by the aid's reliability and level of computerization as well as the user's experience and age."

Many people interact with computerized decision aids or automation on a daily basis, whether they're using smart phones, digital cameras or global positioning systems. When automation is only reliable sometimes, a person's level of trust becomes an important factor that determines how often the aid will be used.

"Figuring out how trust is affected by the design of computerized aids is important because we want people to trust and use only reliable aids," said Pak.

Pak's research findings have revealed that the inclusion of an image of a person can significantly alter perceptions of a computerized aid when there is no difference in the aid's reliability or presentation of information.

"Humanlike computer aids provide a reduced decision-making reaction time for adults," said Pak. "A plausible explanation is that the increase in trust led to an increased dependence on the aid, which led to faster performance."

Pak's future research will examine the specific aspects of the aid that affect trust in different age groups and gender.

He also is studying the affects of the aids on users when faced with decisions that have either a high consequence, such as making health decisions, or a low consequence, such as deciding what type of computer to buy.

Pak's study was published Tuesday in the journal Ergonomics. The journal article was co-authored by Clemson researchers Nicole Fink, Margaux Price, Brock Bass and Lindsay Sturre.

Dyslexia: Teaching Strategies to help Children

There are numerous techniques for teaching dyslexic children. Not all dyslexic children will respond to the same techniques, so it is important to work out what will work with each particular child. Presented here are some of the techniques you could try.

Start with the Child
Dyslexic learners may often have ‘failed’ and it is very important to start by talking to and listening to your pupil. This

• Lets you get to know the pupil as a person and get to know their interests
• allows the pupil to get to know you
• builds up trust and confidence
• helps you to assess oral ability

Learners need to feel confident to ‘have a go’ and often a dyslexic’s self esteem can be low because of previous failure. When trust is established it is much easier to find out the best way to help and support.

Try to use a range of resources and approaches which will ensure success early on which will motivate the student to learn more and to be more confident in his/her ability to learn.

What material should I use?
There are numerous programmes, teaching aids, software packages etc that you can use with students. Whichever you choose, if you are positive about it then the pupil’s confidence is improved there is a far greater chance of success.

Tuition should be multi-sensory involving looking, listening, speaking, touching etc with as much variation as possible but we are all unique and it is good to observe whether the child/adult is predominantly a

VISUAL LEARNER (learns best by seeing)

AUDITORY LEARNING (learns best by listening)

KINESTHETIC LEARNER (learns by doing/feeling)

The following are just a few tips that can be useful for any type of learner. However, the more you get to know your pupil the more you will work together to find the best individual tips.

Visual Learners

• Use pictures and multi-media material
• Stick spelling words anywhere in view
• Look at pictures in a book before reading
• Play games eg ‘pairs’ to improve memory
• Draw mind maps
• Use different colour eg syllables in words
• Use good visual software programmes
• Have an uncluttered work area

Auditory Learners

• Talk about the book to be read or the information to be learned
• Make sure instructions are orally clear
• Get the student to record the information so it can be listened to again
• Use software which has good auditory input.

Kinesthetic Learners

• Trace letters in sand or in the air
• Use concrete objects which can be handled eg wooden letters, numbers etc
• Memorise facts while moving about

Tips for Numbers Work

• Talk about numbers eg TV channels, dates, house numbers
• Count eg climbing stairs, skipping, etc
• Handle real coins
• Discuss time – day/night, early/late
• Sequence days, months, birthdays
• Use board games, dominoes, dice
• Use maths words eg how many, the same
• Discuss symbols and signs
• It is very important for a dyslexic to feel confident using a calculator.

Good organisation needs to be encouraged as dyslexics often jump to the answer. They need to be taught how to set down ‘working’.

Tips for Written Work

• use lined paper
• use spell checker
• use word bank
• cloze procedure (handouts with blanks)
• use Co-writer or Texthelp (if available)
• whenever possible give praise for content

Tips for Reading

• limit reading demands
• ensure appropriate reading level/material
• paired reading
• prepare a subject word list
• if the child has Meares Irlen Syndrome use coloured overlays/glasses
• try out computer software eg wordshark
• listen to taped books

Classroom Assistants
The classroom assistant can be

• crucial in helping a pupil achieve success
• of important help to the class teacher

The classroom assistant often knows a pupil far better than most of the other staff in the school because of the close daily contact in a variety of situations. The assistant can

• break down instructions and tasks
• keep a pupil on task
• organise work materials
• read and/or scribe
• note down homework
• help with practical tasks

For a dyslexic this support is invaluable.

The classroom assistant can sometimes help the class teacher to prepare individual work material. In addition the assistant can let the class teacher know

• which tasks are causing difficulty
• where the pupil’s strengths lie
• if homework is causing excessive stress
• if there are problems relating to peers

Difficulties with processing information mean that lack of time is often a problem for a dyslexic child.

He/she will feel a failure if work is consistently left incomplete.

The individual support of a classroom assistant can allow a pupil to finish a task before moving on.

For more information visit the www.dyslexiasw.com/ website: 

Born Liars Podcast: Why we can't live without deceit?

Listen to a 15 min BBC Podcast. Extracts from the book on children and lies, narrated by Tim McInnerny : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011zm18

Ian Leslie traces the line from the great apes - who are no mean liars themselves - to humans and documents studies which suggest that becoming human wasn't a simple evolutionary process of the best forager and builder surviving, but the building blocks came from our social contacts and our understanding of deceit.

'Consistently startling and fascinating. Most popular psychology books follow a depressingly familiar path: there's some dodgy theorising at the beginning, then a raft of dubious statistics with a few anecdotes to back them up.

Born Liars, however, is in quite a different league. It's erudite yet wears its learning lightly and is full of terrific stories. It will also make you see yourself, and the world around you, in a new light.' - 'Book of the Week', in the Daily Mail (not necessarily a good thing)

Ian Leslie was born in 1972 and lives in London. He combines careers in advertising and writing. His first book, To be President (Politicos, 2008), an account of the 2008 US presidential election, was described by Adam Boulton as 'brilliantly capturing the drama and emotion of Obama's successful run for the White House' and was extracted by Granta.

He regularly appears as an analyst of American politics on Sky and the BBC. He has written about politics, culture, marketing and psychology for Prospect, the Guardian, the Times and the BBC.

He also blogs about all these things at Marbury, named one of the fifty 'Most Powerful' blogs in the world by the Observer.


Written by Ian Leslie
Abridged by Pete Nichols
Reader: Tim McInnerny
Producer: Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.


The book Born Liars by Ian Leslie, is available from Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/Born-Liars-Cant-without-Deceit/

Parenting Skills: Trust Issues in Children

Researchers examining 'trust' issues in children conducted a study whereby children were shown a video of a ficticious game called 'daxing'. In the video shown to the children, either a boy or a man argued over the correct way to 'dax'.

The child was then asked to play the game 'dax', and the method they chose to use was recorded. Children were also shown a puppet, who interjected and said it was his time to 'dax'.

The Puppet's role
I find the inclusion of a puppet very interesting in this study. I believe that the puppet here represented a non-threatening neutral or objective character, neither adult nor peer and therefore exerted little or no social pressure on the child.

It had no established role, except that of an object that had a social status equal to, or lower than the child and therefore, can easily be addressed and controlled by the child. Perhaps moreso than his peers, perhaps not, but I digress.

To return to the study, the puppet performed 'daxing' either in the way the boy in the film or the man in the film did it, and the children's reactions were recorded.

Results
The researchers found that the children imitated the adult's method of 'daxing' significantly more often than they imitated the boy's method.

Children were also more likely to intervene when the puppet performed 'daxing' using the boy's method, protesting that the puppet was 'daxing' wrongly.

Lessons Learned
The results from the study suggest that children prefer to learn from adults rather than other children when it comes to rule-governed activities like learning a new game.

They also expect other people (the puppet) to learn and perform actions in the way that the adults have defined. This is demonstrated by the expectation that the puppet would also follow the adult's actions and not the boy's and consequent protests if it did not.

Social Norms
These findings tell us many things. Firstly, that young children will more readily accept adult's instructions and behaviour as being right, in normal circumstances and that adults' behaviour should be copied and followed or repeated, accordingly. Certainly, if the other choice is to listen to or comply with their peers or, heaven forbid, a puppet (other people).

This has wide spread implications for social learning of both good, bad and corrective guidance and behaviour in children and adults, especially for parents. The basic expectations of the children are that their parents are the leaders, good role models and positive examples to be trusted, obeyed and followed.

For more information on the study click on the link to the British Psychological Society (BPS)