Dr. Laura's Blog

Fall ushers is an important time for juniors and seniors in high school who are preparing for college applications, and it is also an exciting moment for newly admitted and returning college students to begin the new academic year on college campuses across the United States. With recent budget cuts, many high schools have been forced to let school counselors go, forcing many high school students online to get advice on topics, such as writing college essays and getting letters of recommendation. In addition, many college students struggle to navigate a larger campus with stricter academic requirements than they are accostomed to in high school. We have partnered with John Wiley & Sons, Inc, a top education publisher, to bring high school students, college students, the most practical tips and advice for navigating the transition to college. See here for a complete collection of articles from John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

High school students may be interested in articles on why the college admission process has become so competitive, what colleges look for in an applicant, and choosing a college once you have been admitted.

College students will likely benefit from articles on everything from Organizing Your Study Space, Participating in Extracurricular Activities, and Managing Academic Pressures at College.

There is even information for students who are seeking an alternative to the traditional four-year college, including community college.

We hope that students and parents find this information helpful. Typically, this content is available only on the bookshelf of your local bookstore, so please let us know if you would like to see more of this kind of information!

To help parents make sense of all the information (and misinformation) on childhood immunizations and vaccinations, Education.com has collaborated with Dr. Wayne Yankus, a practicing pediatrician in New Jersey and past president of the New Jersey Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, to bring together articles to address parent’s most pressing questions about children’s vaccines. Dr. Meg Fisher, Vice President Elect of the New Jersey Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Dr. Paul Offit, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Dr. Alan Weller, and others contributed parent-friendly articles for this Special Edition. You can find it here.

The Special Edition includes articles that provide an overview of what vaccines are, how they work, as well as information on individual vaccines, immunization schedules, rumors associated with vaccines, and requirements for kindergarten entry in each state. For parents who prefer to get their information in audio, we have also provided a number of audiocasts from the American Academy of Pediatrics covering topics, such as the impact of giving several vaccines at once to a child, and the danger of the flu.

Our goal with this special edition is to provide the much needed information and guidance for parents of children and teens on understanding the role of vaccinations in their child’s life.

As the school year winds down, many parents and teachers are discussing plans for the next school year. At Education.com, we have received a large number of questions in our online community, JustAsk, regarding the topic of grade retention. In general, the questions go something like this, “My child’s teacher is recommending that my child be retained another year. What should I do?” Given the large number of parents who are struggling with this questions, I decided to tweet about it on Twitter @ChildPsych. The tweet generated such a healthy debate on the advantages and disadvantages of grade retentions, I thought I might keep the conversation going in the form of a blog post.

To date, the majority of research suggests that grade retention does NOT positively impact children. For example, Dr. Jimerson conducted a meta-analysis (analyzing the cumulative results of previous research on the topic) in 2001, finding that “grade retention does not provide greater benefits to students with academic or adjustment difficulties than does promotion to the next grade.” Experts have theorized that the characteristics that predisposed the child to difficulty in school initially, persist throughout development, effectively “trumping” any short term gains that could be earned with grade retention. Indeed, the evidence is so strong, the National Association of School Psychologists issued a position statement (the top thinkers in the field of school psychology convened together, discussed the topic, and declared a final declaration on the topic) recommending that parents and teachers limit the use of grade retention.

Despite the evidence, I do recognize that grade retention can be beneficial for some students. Some students simply need another year of development to be “ready” in order to access the classroom curriculum. I recommend that parents do their best to  get the latest information available on grade retention, talk with their child’s teacher and school administrators, and use their gut to make the best decision possible. And, when in doubt, JustAsk!

I am a very lucky woman. I had the honor and pleasure of judging within the Social and Behavioral Sciences category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Reno, NV last week. This year, ISEF included 1,563 students from over 50 countries who conducted independent research in a traditional “science fair” format. Intel awarded nearly $4 million in scholarships, laptops and other prizes to the top finalists.

The opportunity to engage with the brightest young minds in the world is an experience I will never forget. Graduate school and college teaching were both exciting for me, but there is something very special about discussing research with young teens who are just discovering the thrill of scientific inquiry. The looks on their faces as they discussed their research questions, their experimental methodology, and, oh, what they found! The light in their eyes and the pride they carried will forever stick with me. And, I should not forget to mention the parents! The expectant looks on their faces as they waited outside the judging hall for their children. There was little doubt in my mind that, as a judge, I was playing a very important and serious role in the experience of science for the finalists. Of course, I had a little fun with the experience, too. I started my Twitter feed (@ChildPsych), and I tweeted regular updates from ISEF. I am on Twitter now. I am official!

I would like to personally congratulate all of the finalists, but I would like to give a special “shout out” to the Young Scientist and Social and Behavioral Science Award winners. The Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award winners each took home a $50,000 scholarship. The first Young Scientist award winner is Tara Anjali Adiseshan from Charlottesville, Virginia. Tara completed a project titled, “Identifying and Classifying Evolutionary Interactions between Sweat Bees and Nematodes.” The second Young Scientist Award winner is Olivia Catherine Schwob from Boston, Massachusetts. Her project was titled, “How Worms Learn, Part III: Mammalian Gene Expression and Associative Conditioning in Caenorhabditis elegans.” The third Young Scientist Award winner is Li Sallou Boynton from Bellaire, Texas. Her project was titled, “The Use of Bioluminscent Bacteria to Detect Environmental Contaminants.” Their work will most certainly have important implications for future health and well-being of the populace.

I enjoyed the experience so much that I plan to apply again to serve as a Grand Award Judge for the 2010 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in San Jose, Ca. If you are the parent of a budding scientist, I encourage you to review the criteria for the fair, and if you are a doctoral level researcher or practitioner, I invite you to apply to serve as a judge next year. Whatever your level of involvement with this fine program, I guarantee that you will not be disappointed, and you will enjoy the experience of witnessing the young bright minds of the world.

This has been a big week, a week of gigantic, monumental proportions - we are nearing the end of National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week. Maybe you have heard of it, maybe you haven’t, but either way, I would invite you to bring the spirit of this week into your home today, and in the future.

National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week and day was established by the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health to promote positive, mental health, well-being and social development for all children and adolescents. The most recent Report of the Surgeon General indicated that about 20% of children are estimated to have a diagnosable mental disorder with at least mild functional impairment. Of all the various mental disorders, anxiety is the most common problem for children (approximately 13%). Although a substantial portion of children do “grow out” of disorder, many mental disorders identified in childhood and adolescence do persist into adulthood.

Thus, awareness and intervention is critical! It is so very important that parents and other caring adults are aware of normative development and understand the signs of emotional distress. There are a number of proven and effective treatments available (most of them do not include medication!). If you suspect your child, or a child you know, may be struggling with emotional distress, you should seek the advice and guidance of a mental health professional. 

If you are uncertain where to start, you can begin by talking with your child’s teacher and/or school counselor. They have most likely worked with a number of children who have received mental health services from qualified professionals, and they can make an informed recommendation for someone in the community. If you are like many people these days, and you do not have extra cash to pay for a counselor, there are many low cost alternatives available in the community. Look in the phone book for local university counseling clinics. Universities typically have graduate training programs for counselors, and they offer sliding scale fees (pay only what you can afford based upon your salary) to community members. The quality of the services is typically quite high given that the trainees are being supervised by very experienced counselors.

If you would like additional information on children with behavior problems, sad or worried feelings, check out the additional resources we offer at Education.com. Most importantly, do not delay if you suspect that a child may be suffering from emotional distress. It doesn’t have to be so hard!

I have long been interested in the topic of gender differences. My interest first began in graduate school when I learned that boys and girls have very similar rates of various emotional issues, such as depression and anxiety prior to adolescence; however, beginning in adolescence, girls suddenly outnumber boys 2-1. It became clear to me that there are a variety of factors (biological, social, and psychological) that are affecting boys and girls in such a way that girls are disproportionately at-risk for depression and anxiety. Given that boys and girls are having different experiences, I began to wonder about the role of gender differences in education and parenting. What do parents and educators need to know to best meet the needs of boys and girls, helping them to grow and develop in healthy and positive ways?

To get parents answers to some these questions, we decided to initiate a new section of Education.com that focused on gender differences in education and child development. We partnered with Dr. Leonard Sax, a doctor and psychologist, who has studied gender differences in the developmental sequence of brain development of children and adolescents. Dr. Sax has found significant gender differences that, he writes, influence the ways in which boys and girls should be taught in the classroom.

To better understand the unique needs of boys and girls, we worked with a number of top researchers and educators in gender differences to summarize the latest and greatest information on this topic for parents. For instance, Dr. Julia Rucklidge wrote a great article on gender differences in ADHD and Dr. Abigail James contributed a wonderful piece on gender differences in emotional responses to stress. We also developed some fun interactive tools to answer parents most pressing questions.

We hope you enjoy the new gender differences special edition. We plan to add new content to this section of the site over time. Please let us know if you have any feedback or comments!

Last week, I introduced everyone to the concept of the Education.com expert panel, but I didn’t have a chance to go into detail about who is actually on our expert panel.  If you read the last post, you may be thinking, “Ok, so they have involved some so-called experts, but I still don’t know who is influencing the content on the site.” Fair enough. I’m going to share some background on five of our experts today along with their plans for bringing up-to-date research and information on topics you care about to the site over the course of the next year.  Without further adieu, let me begin:

The first expert I would like to introduce you to is Dr. Jeanne Funk.  Dr. Funk is a child clinical psychologist and Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Toledo in Ohio. As a researcher, she has been studying the impact of media violence, particularly violence in video and computer games, on children’s adjustment and behavior. Dr. Funk has traveled the world, talking with parents, researchers and video game makes on this topic, most recently visiting Saudi Arabia. Intrigued? So am I. At our Expert Panel Meeting, Dr. Funk committed to gathering articles from the folks who have been studying and thinking about kids and video games for years. Some of the topics she would like to tackle include stereotyping in video games and effects on kids, the effects of video games on a child’s brain, video game ratings explained, video games and teachers, and much more.

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Whether you are brand new to Eduation.com or you have been visiting us for a while, you have likely asked yourself, “Alright, who are these guys? Who is behind all this content?” You have probably discovered that the majority of our articles are from top-notch non-profit, government, and university organizations. In short, we have aggregated the best-of-the-best in one place. But how do we decide who is the “best”? As we have all learned from a plethora of recent lawsuits in advertising, determining who is number one in low fuel efficient vehicles, fewest dropped calls, and, yes, who is the best in high quality parenting and education content, can be a challenge.

Dr. Daniels and I do our best to review the content from our partners, but we are just a small team of two (albeit a very “mighty” team of two!). Thus, the smart founders of our company foresaw that we would need some help, reinforcements, if you will. Thus, on the seventh day…an expert panel was formed (cue ray of light!)… We gathered together twelve super brains in education and child development, to help advise the direction of the company and assure that we were “staying close to our roots.” For a quick list of our expert panel members, please see - http://www.education.com/about/experts/.

In true Education.com style, this isn’t some group of people who only serve a perfunctory role on the site, in addition to consulting throughout the year, we bring them together once a year to review the progress of the company and discuss future plans and directions. Our second annual meeting was held last week, October 9-10th in Palo Alto, California, and we couldn’t be more excited about conversations and plans that were made over the course of the two day conference.

One of the first priorities of the meeting involved discussing expert involvement in the Education.com online community. That’s right; our experts are actively involved in the Education.com community, answering questions on regular basis. We think this makes our online community pretty special because we have both parents AND experts patrolling the community, providing expert opinion and advice. Not all of us have immediate access to a pediatrician, psychologist, and/or teacher, so we’ve removed some of the leg-work and brought them all together in the Education.com community. For instance, Dr. Wayne Yankus, a community pediatrician in New Jersey, practicing for almost thirty years, is a regular on the community discussion boards. Dr. Yankus has been sharing his wisdom and expertise in the community on a daily basis for over a year now. If you want to talk with a straight-shooting pediatrician who has seen it all, Dr. Yankus is your guy.

We have plans to dramatically improve the usability of the current community section of the site and expert involvement will continue to be a prominent feature of the new community. At the meeting, we shared plans for the new tool (coming soon!) with our experts, and we discussed the process for experts to respond in a timely fashion. We are all very excited about the new tool and the value that we can bring to parents with our expert support team. Check back later this month for a peek at the new Education.com online community!

The second focus of the expert panel conference involved a special project initiated by each expert panel member that will focus on an important and pressing topic for parents. We’ll talk more about this later this week!