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Behavioral Strand Update: VISUAL PROCESSING: MAKING SENSE OF THE WORLD AROUND US

3/24/2016

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What is visual processing? This is often a question I get during an IEP meeting when sharing psycho-educational results for students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD). As a school psychologist, it’s a term I talk about often, but I realize that is not the case for everyone. Visual processing in simplistic terms is the process of making sense of information taken in through the eyes. In other words, it’s the way a person’s brain makes sense of and interprets what they see in the world around them. Visual processing allows our students to identify what they see and then derive meaning. In most cases our brains are programmed to adequately interpret the size and orientation, perceive distance, and discriminate between similarities and differences in an object or shape. It’s when our student’s brains misinterpret this information that a problem may occur. 

For student’s struggling with visual processing, it is likely that it will show up academically in spelling, mathematics, and reading. For example, the difficulties may result in recognizing previously learned information, remembering letters and numbers, difficulty discriminating between letter such as b, d, p, q, and mathematical concepts related to size, magnitude or position, and  mistaking words with similar letters (i.e. eat, tea, ate). Keep in mind that for each student struggling with visual processing difficulties, the areas of need may include each of the above areas of difficulty or only some, each student’s needs will be unique and require individualized support. Additionally, be clear that visual processing is not related to poor vision or a visual impairment. Visual processing is not about how clearly one see’s, but how well the brain interprets what is seen.


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Visual discrimination is the ability of the student to discriminate dominant features of an object. This may include position or an object, shape or color. Keep in mind that visual discrimination, figure ground, and closure problems may result in a person confusing words with similar beginnings or endings and even entire words.

Spatial relationships is 
the ability to perceive positions of objects in relation to other objects such as figure reversals or rotations. Student with these issues have difficulty telling where objects are in space. That includes how far things are from them and from each other. It also includes objects and characters described on paper or in a spoken narrative. Student may also have a tough time reading maps and judging time.

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Visual figure ground is the ability to identify and object when there is a complex background or with surrounding objects. Student with this type may not be able to pull out a shape or character from its background. They may have trouble finding a specific piece of information on a page when reading.

Visual closure is the ability to identify a whole figure when pieces are missing. Students with these issues have difficulty identifying an object when only parts are visible. They may not recognize a truck if it’s missing wheels. Or a person in a drawing that is missing a facial feature. Students may also have great difficulty with spelling because they can’t recognize a word if a letter is missing.

Visual memory is the ability to recognize an item shortly after it has been removed. Students with difficulty recalling what they’ve seen may struggle with reading and spelling. They may also have trouble remembering what they’ve read and using a calculator or keyboard.

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Visual sequential memory is the ability to perceive and remember a sequence of objects, letters, words, and other symbols in the same order as originally seen. Students with these issues have difficulty telling the order of symbols, words or images. They may struggle to write answers on a separate sheet or skip lines when reading. They also may reverse or misread letters, numbers and words.
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Visual form constancy 
is the ability to recognize objects as they change size, shape, or orientation. Students with difficulties in this area may struggle to recognize that a picture is the same as a real object, misperceive size, height, width, distance of an object, and be unable to recognize everyday objects when item is in a different size (i.e. scissors).  

For strategies and resources to support students with visual processing difficulties check out:
  • At a Glance: Classroom Accommodations for Visual Processing Issues
  • Visual Processing Disorder: How does this affect learning?
  • Visual Processing Disorder (Strategies for Different Age Groups)
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Blog post written by:
Meka Tull, School Psychologist and Interim Director of School Partnerships

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Clinical Strand Update: 49 PHRASES TO CALM AN ANXIOUS CHILD

3/24/2016

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This week I'm sharing a short article about ways to support an anxious student.  I'm often in conversation with our clinical team about how careful we need to be not to inadvertently reinforce anxious students' fears. Well-meaning school teams often end up giving anxious students accommodations that don't also help them challenge or face-distorted anxious or fear-based beliefs. Accommodations such as a shorter day schedule, time alone, and breaks when the feelings show up could be sending messages to the child that the world is an unmanageable place, and they can't handle it so we'll find ways that they can escape. Ideally, we will work with these students to accommodate just long enough to build the strength they need to lean into their anxieties and disconfirm their worries - worries that are out of proportion and/or debilitating them in their life.  

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Okay, so how DO we support an anxious kid in the moment? What could we say or recommend that wouldn't be simply rescuing them from their feelings?  It's not helpful to say "buck up kid, deal with it!"  But it's equally not helpful, it turns out, to say "I'll save you!"  This article offers some simple phrases that we can use with anxious children - it's written for parents, but I think useful for all of us. 

Maybe you'll print this out and put it up somewhere as a reminder, or even share with the parent of a child who seems to experience more anxiety. 
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Enjoy!

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 Blog post written by:
Emily Marsh, Director of Clinical Intervention Services

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Partnership Profile - Rocketship Education

3/18/2016

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One of our All-In partnerships is with Rocketship Education (RSED), a charter management organization that was founded in 2007 and currently operates 16 schools in 4 regions (Bay Area, Milwaukee, Nashville, and Washington DC - coming soon). While Rocketship has distinguished itself in the sector for innovation in Blended Learning, our connection as organizations is a shared vision and commitment to creating educational equity and inclusion for all students.

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Over the past few years we have been providing Educationally Related Mental Health Services (ERMHS) for Bay Area RSED students. Through the provision of strong clinical services,  we have built a strong relationship with RSED school leaders. While we continue to provide clinical services for the Bay Area RSED schools (thanks to CIS Jennifer Uribe!), this year All-In expanded our partnership with RSED to include a pilot project with Mosaic Elementary School (ROMO).
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The goal of this partnership is to support ROMO’s culture and climate by implementing strategic parts of the Unconditional Education model and a multi-tiered approach to strengthen the school’s social emotional and behavioral services. The staffing design places a Seneca Unconditional Education Coach at ROMO full time (Jennifer Simeone), but unlike other partnership sites with UE Coaches, this position is a hybrid role supporting the school leadership team to implement school-wide social-emotional and behavioral systems and services, as well as holding a caseload of students who need clinical services. This first year of the ROMO partnership plan is to work closely with RSED leadership to implement various supports (noted below), identify the ones that have the greatest impact, and explore ways to scale those services to other RSED schools over time. Due to the fact that ROMO already has several best practice systems in place, including PBIS and social emotional learning curriculum,  it was an opportunity for our UE Coach to join the school teams in strengthening interventions and services for the students and school community. Based on the school needs assessment process, additional social emotional and behavioral supports were put into place.
Overview of the UE Coach/Clinician…
  • Serves as a member of the school’s PBIS Team (similar to our Culture and Climate Committee)
  • Serves as a member of the school’s RTI Team and participates in Student Huddle Meetings (similar to our COST)
  • Supports implementation of Check-In/Check-out system
  • Supports the Office Discipline Referral system
  • Provides clinical and behavioral consultation services for school staff (regular office hours)
  • Supports classroom teachers to implement community circles and SEL lessons
  • Facilitates school staff professional development workshops (e.g. Trauma Informed Education)
  • Provides individual and family therapeutic services for a caseload of students
  • Provides social skills groups for students in need of support​

So far, so good - The ROMO students and staff are experiencing the positive impact from Seneca’s Unconditional Education, thanks to great work from our current UE Coach (Jennifer Simeone), support from the Seneca team  (Jennifer Uribe and Sara Moses) and fantastic RSED school leaders (notably Genevieve Thomas, VP of Integrated Special Education and Principal Danny Etcheverry).  We are in the early stages of planning for next school year, but it looks promising that we will continue the partnership and potentially expand services to include more students and schools. More to come, but please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or comments. 
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Blog post written by:
​Lilly Green, Director of School Partnerships

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BEHAVIORAL STRAND UPDATE: Shifting Attitudes from Negative to Positive

3/11/2016

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"The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude."
-Oprah Winfrey

Often times, when working with children and adolescents in a school setting, adults tend to form feedback in a negative way. This is often reflected by rules that are posted in the halls that say “No running, No yelling, etc.” When this occurs at schools, often times we see a spike in behaviors due to the negative annotations around the rules and expectations at the school. This is why the power of shifting the attitude from negative to a positive often helps with empowering students and their self-esteem.
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What needs to be in place before I can expect these strategies to work? 
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The effectiveness of these classroom strategies are maximized when: (a) the strategies are implemented within a school-wide multi-tiered behavioral framework, such as school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS); (b) classroom and school-wide expectations and systems are directly linked; (c) classroom strategies are merged with effective instructional design, curriculum, and delivery; and (d) classroom-based data are used to guide decision. Additional information on PBIS is available at http://www.pbis.org/
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Often times student have trouble with seeing the negative impact of their words but have trouble with giving and receiving positive compliments. For example, when I ask a student, “give me three things that make you unique,” often times they respond with, “I don’t know" or a shrugged shoulder. This often leads the Seneca staff  to think about the 10 important values of the internal working model:
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When we look at these closely, we recognize that students often feel negative about themselves due to the 10 values above and often staff ask how can we change this students viewpoint or outlook on their life.

Below are two examples of how the staff in a school setting can change the mindset of a student’s negative way of thinking into a positive one.
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1. Numerous student support assistants are continually amazed at the number of students who have a lot of trouble giving and receiving a compliment. Students seem to have no trouble, however, with the occasional teasing or name-calling on the playground or in the classroom.
 
To remedy this, we often play “Compliment Tag” within the different classrooms. This is a fun activity that requires no materials or supplies, and it is best carried out in small groups of four to six students - although, we have been able to do it with whole classrooms!

Students sit in a circle and decide on one person to be “it” first. This student has to tag another person in the group. However, unlike a typical  game of tag where you run and use your hands, this game requires you to tag a person with your words. The student who is “it” will say another student’s name in the group, give her a compliment, and then say, “Tag you’re it.” The person who gets tagged responds by saying, “Thank you,” and the person who gave the compliment responds with, “You’re welcome.” The person tagged then picks someone else and it continues until everyone has had a chance to give and receive a compliment.

After “Compliment Tag” is over, it is always a good practice to have some discussion questions for the class to consider. Was it easy to give someone a compliment? Do you think it is possible to practice giving compliments on your own? How did it feel inside when you had a compliment given to you? How many compliments do you think you could give each day?
 
2. Here is a link about a teacher from Florida that makes time at the beginning of the day for positive self-talk/compliments for his students in order to shift their mindset from a negative to a positive in order to be ready to learn: 
Florida teacher positive self-talk

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Blog post written by:
Darrell Burns, Assistant Director of Behavioral Interventon

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New Developments in Mental Health Service Provision for Youth in California

3/4/2016

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A lot has been happening around the state in related to how youth in California receive mental health services. Here’s two highlights that have the potential to impact the future of our work!

Expansion of Katie A.
The 2011 settlement of the Katie A. lawsuit required child welfare and mental health systems to provide foster youth with “coordinated, comprehensive, and community-based services,” which include Intensive Care Coordination (ICC) and Intensive Home Based Services (IHBS). Earlier this month, the California Department of Health Care Services notified counties that all MediCal eligible youth are now entitled to such services if needed.
 
Here’s a bit more info about the initial Katie A. settlement agreement.
 
What does this mean for our work?
Once county mental health departments figure out how to implement, our clients with MediCal insurance should have more support and services available.
 
For more detailed info, the full letter can be found here.
 
State-level Analysis of Transition from AB 3632 to AB 114 (ERMHS)
Last month the California State Auditor completed an analysis of how the provision of mental health services to students in Special Education. In 2011, the state underwent a transition which transferred the responsibility for the provision of such services from county mental health departments to local educational agencies (LEAs) otherwise known as districts. See the graphic for a better understanding of what changed in this transition:

Key Responsibilities Under State Special Education Law Before and After Assembly Bill 14 Took Effect
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The audit produced the several recommendations, including:
  • Implementing processes to track outcomes for students receiving ERMHS to determine whether services are effective.
  • SELPAs (the regional governing bodies for Special Education) and County Mental Health Departments should increase their collaboration in providing school based services
 
What does this mean for our work?
  • Seneca and All-In! are at the forefront of developing measures to track the effectiveness of mental health services. Our program-wide implementation and analysis of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) Assessment positions us to be influential in how measurement tools are developed state-wide!
  • Increased collaboration between county mental health departments and SELPAs is right in line with our goal of integrated, coordinated services and service systems. Integration and coordination are essential for building efficient school systems and ensuring our most vulnerable students are getting the supports they need to be successful at school!
If you’re interested in the full report, it can be found here.
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Blog post written by:
Robin Detterman, Executive Director of School Partnerships

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Unconditional Education Hosts a Visit from the California Department of Education

3/4/2016

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After learning about the Unconditional Education model, the California State Superintendent of Instruction, Tom Torlakson, came to visit Learning Without Limits to gain a more in-depth understanding of the model. The UE model, with its emphasis on creating an inclusive culture and climate that benefits all students, is closely aligned with the California Department of Education’s Whole Child Community Schools Strategic Plan. This plan emphasizes the  “multidimensional aspects of each child’s growth and development including cognitive, physical, social, emotional, and community influences,” and recommends that, to effectively meet these needs, “schools should collaborate with families, caretakers, and community agencies to deliver integrated services that promote improved access to health and learning supports, high expectations, and a positive school climate – all of which are necessary for students to thrive in the twenty-first century.”
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We are thrilled to have had the opportunity to share our model with the California Department of Education and to discuss how it aligns with some of the State’s top priorities. We look forward to future collaboration as we work to transform the system and provide a more equitable education experience for our students and their families.

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Blog post written by:
Jenny Ventura, Director of Model Implementation and Assessment

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