Related Posts

• Learn from Author Lisa Firestone

  PAR author Lisa A. Firestone, PhD will be presenting “Suicide: Treating the Self-Destructive Client” through live CE workshops in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey as well as an online during February and March. These workshops will be helpful for users of the Firestone Assessment of Violent Thoughts™ (FAVT™) ,  the Firestone Assessment of Violent Thoughts™-Adolescent (FAVT-A™), and the Firestone Assessment of Self-Destructive Thoughts™ and Firestone Assessment of Suicide Intent™ (FAST™-FASI™). For more information or to register, visit The Glendon Association.

• Putting learning disabilities into the curriculum

  

  School psychologists play a key role in collaborating with teachers, parents, and other professionals to assess, diagnose, and intervene when a student may be at risk for learning disorders and dyslexia. Assessing and determining the appropriate educational placements for students influences their academic journey in an important way.  Here are examples of some unique ways some schools are addressing the needs of students with reading and learning disabilities in order to set learners of all styles up for success. Encouraging movement and passions  In one K-8 school in Maryland, the schedule, the environment, and the curriculum are all designed to help students with language and learning differences learn to advocate for their specific needs. The school creates movement opportunities throughout the day to give students an opportunity to work out their energy and gather focus.  Teachers also incorporate student passions and interests into their lessons in order to ensure a positive and creative school experience for students who may have felt frustrated or left behind in their regular public school environment. Some curriculum examples include:  Integrating topics the students are passionate about into the ...

• Learning difficulties, test anxiety?
  The KLDA can help!

  

  Test anxiety is a fact of life for most students. They may worry if they studied enough, if they’ll remember everything they studied, and if they’ll pass the class. College students may feel extra pressure to succeed from their parents (who may be funding their education), their coaches, and their instructors. For most students, the symptoms of test anxiety (sweaty palms, feelings of helplessness, and difficulty concentrating) end as soon as the test is over. But for students with an undiagnosed anxiety disorder or another issue that affects learning, such as ADHD, depression, specific learning disability, or executive function deficits, the symptoms persist. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 40 million adults in the United States ages 18 and older have an anxiety disorder—yet only 36% of them seek treatment. Many may not even realize they have a treatable medical condition. College students face enormous amounts of stress, and not just from tests. For some, it’s the first time away from home and the first time they’ve had to manage and organize their lives independently. These ...

• A New Framework for Assessing SLD

  

  The Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA) recently published Specific Learning Disabilities Evaluation Principles and Standards, introducing a comprehensive framework for the assessment and identification of students with specific learning disabilities (SLD). These standards are a valuable resource for educators, psychologists, policymakers, and anyone interested in and involved with enhancing the quality of education and support for individuals with specific learning disabilities.  The primary goal of this new framework is to encourage a transition from a one-size-fits-all approach to a more individualized and research-informed evaluation process that promotes better understanding, increased collaboration, and tailored interventions for students with SLD.  These new principles and standards expand upon the existing mandates of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) by providing a more comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to evaluating and supporting students with SLDs.  These guidelines emphasize collaborative evaluation teams involving professionals from various fields, including psychology, education, and medicine. They extend beyond the previous focus on identification and delve into personalized interventions that cater to each student's unique academic, linguistic, social, emotional, and behavioral needs. Additionally, these updated principles highlight the importance of ...

• An interview with the authors of the SPECTRA

  

  This week, Sierra Iwanicki, PhD, project director, spoke to Mark A. Blais, PsyD, and Samuel Justin Sinclair, PhD, the coauthors of the SPECTRA: Indices of Psychopathology to gain more insight into the development and uses of this instrument. What motivated you to create the SPECTRA? Mark A. Blais, PsyD: Several factors combined to motivate the SPECTRA’s development. Like most psychologists, we were concerned about the shortcomings of the DSM’s categorical diagnostic system (e.g., excessive comorbidity, arbitrary thresholds, and within-disorder heterogeneity) and the problems this system created for psychological assessment. Therefore, we were excited by the emergence of multivariate research exploring the structure of adult psychopathology. And as this research accumulated, we became convinced that an instrument based on a hierarchical–dimensional model of psychopathology would have great utility for clinical assessment. Unfortunately, to our knowledge, none of the existing psychological inventories were fully congruent with the hierarchical model. Confident that the hierarchical model of psychopathology had significant clinical utility, we decided to develop the SPECTRA. With funding from the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Department of Psychiatry, we undertook a rigorous development process ...

• Meet the Authors of the ChAMP, PAR’s New Memory Assessment

  Based on the latest advancements in memory research, the Child and Adolescent Memory Profile (ChAMP) is a fast, easy-to-administer measure that covers both verbal and visual memory domains for young examinees ages 5 to 21 years. Recently we had a chance to catch up with Elisabeth M. S. Sherman, PhD, and Brian L. Brooks, PhD, pediatric neuropsychology experts and authors of the ChAMP. PAR: What compelled you to want to develop a memory test? Sherman and Brooks: At the heart of it, we’re primarily clinicians who work with kids, some of whom have severe cognitive problems. Most can’t sit through lengthy tests. We could not find a memory test for kids that was easy to give, accurate, and also quick. We really developed the ChAMP because there wasn’t anything else like it out there. We hope other users like using the ChAMP, too. PAR: How have you used memory testing in your clinical work? Sherman and Brooks: Memory is such an important part of success in school and life. As clinicians, we evolved from giving memory tests selectively, to giving them to most ...