No Manual? No Problem! Strategies and Interventions to Help Your Child Thrive in Today's World - Softcover

Monica Reinhard-Gorney (author) & Perk Musacchio (author)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1516534182 ISBN 13: 9781516534180

Publisher: Cognella Academic Publishing, 2018

Synopsis

No Manual? No Problem! Strategies and Interventions to Help Your Child Thrive in Today’s World is an essential book for parents who are looking for proven solutions for the many challenges that kids face today.

With over 60 years of combined experience in education, teaching and parenting, Monica Reinhard-Gorney and Perk Musacchio offer a comprehensive resource for parents that explains how children develop at all stages and provides progressive research on child and brain development.

The authors identify common “culprits,” such as poor diet, too much screen time and lack of play, which can inhibit healthy social, behavioral and physical growth and development. To combat these culprits, they reveal over 100 safe, drug-free interventions and strategies backed by science to encourage the body and brain to perform optimally, and even show the potential to improve symptoms of ADD/ADHD, fine and gross motor deficits, and other learning disabilities. Shared alongside this information are personal accounts of successful implementation of the various strategies and interventions.

In addition, the book brings to light why some parenting styles are effective while others fall short, helping you to cultivate and nurture a parenting style that works best for you and your child.

No Manual? No Problem! empowers you to take an active role in your child’s development at all stages so that your child can reach his or her full potential.

About this title

About the Author

Monica Reinhard-Gorney, M.S.Ed. is a wife, mother of two girls, and a proprietor of a private educational counseling practice. Her counseling encompasses helping local students, as well as those around the globe, prepare for undergraduate and graduate school visits, interviews, and the overall higher education application process. Monica also helps to connect students and parents with educational resources and interventions to increase school success in grades K-12. She has worked in top private and public schools and holds a master’s degree in school counseling from the University of Pennsylvania.

Perk Musacchio, M.Ed. is a wife, a mother of three, grandmother of four, and the owner of Skills2Soar, LLC, an educational consulting company. She has over 40 years of experience working with students of varying cognitive abilities, emotional needs, learning styles and disabilities, mastery of the English language, and levels of autism. Working with diverse populations has provided Perk with extensive experience in the areas of curriculum and program development, instructional techniques, behavior management strategies, crisis prevention and intervention, leadership, and professional development and consultation. She earned her master’s degree in education from Temple University.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

No Manual? No Problem!

Strategies and Interventions to Help Your Child Thrive in Today's World

By Monica Reinhard-Gorney, Perk Musacchio

Cognella, Inc.

Copyright © 2019 Monica Reinhard-Gorney and Perk Musacchio
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5165-3418-0

Contents

INTRODUCTION, 
SECTION I: THE FOUNDATION, 
1. ALARMING STATISTICS, 
2. HOW THE BRAIN WORKS, 
3. MILESTONES FROM INFANCY THROUGH LATE ADOLESCENCE, 
SECTION II: THE CULPRITS, 
4. FOOD AND NUTRITION: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW, 
5. WHAT HAPPENED TO PLAY?, 
6. THE HIDDEN DANGERS OF SCREEN TIME, 
7. ACHIEVING BALANCE IN A BUSY WORLD, 
SECTION III: THE OPTIONS, 
8. PARENTING STYLES, 
9. STRATEGIES THAT BUILD A STRONG FOUNDATION, 
10. INTERVENTIONS AND THERAPIES FOR WHEN YOU NEED MORE, 
CONCLUSION, 
APPENDIX: FURTHER RESOURCES, 
ENDNOTES, 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, 
ABOUT THE AUTHORS, 

CHAPTER 1

Alarming Statistics

"Let's raise children who won't have to recover from their childhoods."

— Pam Leo

The data shared in this chapter shows that the rate of learning and physical and mental health based diagnoses is, in fact, increasing. Not only is this distressing for the children and parents who are affected, but the rising rate of these issues strains every classroom and the entire school system.

As we shared in our introduction, we have seen significant changes in our schools and student performance. According to U.S. News & World Report and Newsweek, our own local Pennsylvania schools are ranked as some of the most excellent schools in the country. However, despite that ranking, amazing programming, systematic and multisensory instruction, excellent support services, and high standards and expectations for all students, the rate of children receiving special education services has never been higher.

Soon we will share some statistics on the rising rates of many diagnoses impacting children, but first we wanted to address a popular argument made that some things only seem worse because we are simply more knowledgeable, more aware, or because better diagnostic tools are now available. While this may be the case in some instances, we don't believe that to be so with most issues that we see impacting children today. For example, the incidence of anaphylactic food allergies is higher than ever before. Thirty years ago it was rare for there to be multiple EpiPens® in a nurse's office, and bags of EpiPens® didn't go on field trips with kids. It is highly unlikely that school personnel, or doctors for that matter, simply overlooked or could not identify children going into anaphylactic shock — there simply just weren't as many children affected by these severe allergies.

Back in the early 1990s, in one particular school district, there was an increase in the rate of students who were being identified for special education in the category of "specific reading disability." The administration and the teachers knew, per educational statistics, that no more than 4 percent of the student population should require special education. If more than 4 percent of the student population required special education, then the school should look at the general education programs, because something must be faulty in curriculum or instruction. It was decided that a different reading program should be taught to all primary students, and following the implementation of the new reading program the number of students being diagnosed with that specific reading disability began to decrease. That is what happens when you address the root cause of a problem. When rising rates of disability are due to poor programming or instruction, you fix the source of the problem, and you see improvement. We wish we could say that the percentage of students receiving special education has remained lower, but it hasn't. For example, in our state of Pennsylvania the rate has quadrupled, and is now at 15.9 percent.

The big question becomes, why? We feel that despite excellent educational programming more and more children are having learning, emotional, and neurological challenges that don't fit into any particular category, and their challenges are becoming more complex. Ask any daycare worker, educator (preschool to college), nurse, therapist, or anyone who has worked with children for more than 20 years; something is different. The needs are greater and not so clear-cut. Some of the needs are so great that school districts and/or local agencies assign personal care assistants or behavior specialists to children who need continuous adult support throughout the school day. In our home state of Pennsylvania alone, this greater need is reflected in the education budget for the 2017–2018 school year. The general education budget rose by 1.7 percent over the previous year, yet the special education budget increased by 2.3 percent over the previous year. Considering that the number of students receiving special education is drastically less than the number of students in the general education population, as in 16 percent to 84 percent, it is eye-opening that the budget costs for special education are escalating at a rate greater than that for the general education population.

Undoubtedly, there is a relationship between children's physical, mental, and neurological health and their performance at school. We wanted to know if our more personal and local observation that children seemed to be struggling with more issues was backed by national trends and data. The data we uncovered substantiates that children across the country are experiencing greater physical, mental, and cognitive challenges.

Physical Health

Allergies

Food allergies are at an all-time high. They increased over 400 percent from 1997 to 2007, and fatal allergies are more common than ever before.

Asthma

From 1980 to 2000, the number of doctor visits for asthma nearly tripled, from 6 million annually to 17.3 million. Asthma-related deaths have increased by 56 percent (2007), and now more than 9 million American kids younger than age 18 have asthma. In 2007, asthma medical care costs were $11.5 billion annually. Ten years later, in 2017, the group Documenting Hope reports that asthma costs the United States $56 billion a year.

Cancer

According to the National Cancer Institute, cancer is the leading cause of death by disease past infancy. Over 10,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, and there has been a 0.06 percent increase in the rate of cancer each year for the last 35 years. One in every 330 children will be diagnosed with cancer.

Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is the kind of diabetes that most doctors and researchers say children are born with and was once considered rare. The rate of type 1 diabetes has been increasing by 30 percent per decade.

Type 2 diabetes accounts for the majority of diagnosed cases and is usually associated with older age, obesity, family history, physical inactivity, and race or ethnicity. It can be prevented and does respond to treatment. Until recently, type 2 diabetes was rare in people younger than 30 years. In 1990, the rate of type 2 diabetes began to surge from the 4 percent where it had held steady for decades. The leading cause of type 2 diabetes in children is obesity. Researchers from the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study shared that the rate of Type II diabetes in 10–19 years olds rose 21 percent from 2001 to 2009.

Obesity

When comparing the rate of obesity among children since 1988, we see that it is increasing at an alarming rate:

In fact, according to Beth Lambert and Victoria Kobliner, authors of A Compromised Generation, over one-third of American children are classified as either obese or overweight, a tripling in prevalence since the 1970s.

Mental and Emotional Health

Anxiety, Depression, and Suicide

Many people experience some low-level anxiety from time to time, and this is normal. However, it crosses a line when it starts to have a significant impact on one's daily life; this is when it may become a diagnosable condition. According to statistics from the National Institute of Mental Health, the prevalence of anxiety disorders among those aged 13 to 18 years is 25.1 percent. This means that one in four teenagers has a diagnosable anxiety condition.

Being exposed to a chronic source of anxiety causes some children to experience emotional trauma and may lead to a greater risk of poor physical and mental health, negative social consequences in life, and a shortened life span. In her article, "Childhood Trauma Leads to Lifelong Chronic Illness — So Why Isn't the Medical Community Helping Patients?" science reporter Donna Jackson Nakazawa revealed that two-thirds of Americans report having adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). These experiences range from extreme cases of abuse (physical and emotional), to having a parent who suffered from depression or alcoholism, divorce, or death of a loved one. Experiencing trauma makes one twice as likely to receive a costly medical diagnosis in adulthood. According to the CDC, the cost of treating patients with early childhood trauma is $124 billion annually. A collaborative effort between the CDC and Kaiser Permanente revealed that in a study of 125,000 patients, those who had a doctor who acknowledged and helped them address their childhood trauma experienced a 35 percent reduction in doctor visits. This is why more professionals are utilizing an ACE survey with their clients, as this questionnaire can identify those who may be at greater risk, and therefore offer early intervention and prevention. Not all adverse life events can be avoided, but seeking and receiving the appropriate help following these events can greatly reduce their impact later on.

Rates of depression and anxiety among young people in America have been steadily increasing for the past 50 to 70 years. James Prescott, researcher at the National Institute of Health (Child Health and Human Development), reported that 1.5 million prescriptions for antidepressants are issued annually for children under the age of 18. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for those between the ages of 15 and 24 and the fifth leading cause of death for those aged 5 to 14. In 2010, counseling centers at 93 universities nationwide reported a 30 percent increase in caseloads of students with mood and anxiety disorders and suicidal ideation.

In an article written for The Conversation in the fall of 2017, Dr. Jean Twenge summarizes the findings of a published research study that she and her colleagues conducted. She says,

Around 2012, something started going wrong in the lives of teens. In just the five years between 2010 and 2015, the number of U.S. teens who felt useless and joyless, classic symptoms of depression, surged 33 percent in large national surveys. And in fact, this large youth survey revealed that teens, who spent more time on social media and electronic devices such as smartphones, were more likely to report mental health issues. Teen suicide attempts increased 23 percent. Even more troubling, the number of 13- to 18-year-olds who committed suicide jumped 31 percent.

Dr. Twenge and her colleagues, using a variety of respectable methodologies, were able to rule out homework load and academic pressure as cause for increase in suicide rates. Interestingly, they found a strong correlation between the increase in female suicide rates and the use of social media.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

ADHD has increased by at least 400 percent over the past 20 years. Now, more than 3.5 million children are living with the diagnosis. American children consume 90 percent of the world's Ritalin, the most popular ADHD medication. In 1997, 6.5 percent of children aged 5 to 17 were reported to have ADHD. In 2013, this rate increased to 10.1 percent.

Autism

According to statistics provided by the CDC, autism has increased from approximately 1 in every 5,000 births in 1975 to 1 in 88 in 2012. Data from the National Center for Educational Statistics shows that in 1977 there were no autistic students receiving services in our schools, but in the 2013–2014 school year, 538,000 students were receiving services for autism. Given that one could argue that autism was not well known or diagnosed in 1977, we looked at the year 2000, when it was well known and diagnosed, and there were 93,000 students receiving services. Thirteen years later, there was a reported increase of 445,000 students receiving services for autism!

Prescription Medication Use

One of the factors that has impacted children's performance in the classroom is the increasing amount of physical and mental health problems that children face, but with that also comes the side effects of over-the-counter and prescription medications used to treat those conditions. According to data released by the CDC, in 1960 the annual expenditure on prescription medications was $2.7 billion. In 2013, that figure was $271 billion. In a little over 50 years, the amount of medication required by Americans has increased 9,937 percent. These numbers reflect the total population, but the following data are specific to children.

CDC data from 2012 indicated that 7.5 percent of the population aged 6 to 17 years were on prescription medication for emotional or behavioral problems. Data in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, reveals that in 2010 more than 1.3 million prescriptions were written for adolescents for the antidepressant Sertraline and another 1.3 million prescriptions for the antidepressant Prozac. The use of atypical antidepressants (antidepressants that don't fit into the category of antidepressants but act on neurotransmitters to affect symptoms of depression) rose 42 percent from 1997 to 2000.

In 2002, doctors wrote 1.2 million prescriptions of antipsychotic medications for children. In the three-year period from 1997 to 2000 the use of antipsychotic medication increased 138 percent. A recent release of data by the CDC states that 10,000 toddlers — children aged 4 and under — are on amphetamine-based ADHD medications, and 3.5 million prescriptions for ADHD medication were written for high school–aged children in 2013.

Dr. Mark Hyman, medical director of the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Functional Medicine, acknowledged that, "the untested and potentially unsafe combinations of psychotropic drug cocktails has increased 500 percent in children." The increase in children being treated with drugs is disheartening to say the least, but it is especially concerning to learn that a number of those drugs are not significantly or appropriately tested for safety in the ways that they are being prescribed. Rather than continue to observe these rates increase, we need to find a way to prevent this from happening in the first place.

Learning and Developmental Milestones

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the rate of specific learning disabilities more than doubled from 1977 (1.8 percent) to 2012 (4.6 percent). In their book Learning Disabilities, authors Roger Pierangelo and George Giuliani share that in the 24th Annual Report to Congress in 2002, the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Special Education, reported that 5 percent of the population, or 2.9 million school-aged children, had a learning disability. This statistic only reflects those enrolled in public school. As there are a substantial number of private schools that solely enroll learning disabled children, many regularly estimate the number of learning disabled children to be higher. Kenneth Bock, Cameron Stauth, and Korri Fink, in their groundbreaking book, Healing the New Childhood Epidemics, suggest that the rate of learning disabilities within the total population (including children in private schools) is closer to 20 percent.

Accommodations on Standardized Tests

The SAT uses different criteria to determine whether a student is eligible for accommodations than the ACT. But these testing companies have two things in common: (1) they require that you have a diagnosis to get accommodations, such as a specific learning disability or ADHD, and (2) the rate of students needing accommodations for each test has increased.

In the 2007–2008 school year, approximately 49,767 students received accommodations on the ACT. During the 2010–2011 school year, 78,441 students received accommodations. Over the course of three school years, 28,673 more students needed accommodations.

In the 2005–2006 school year, the SAT received 70,000 requests for accommodations. In the 2010–2011 school year, they received 80,000. In other words, 10,000 more requests in a matter of five years' time.

The above numbers don't include the number of students who applied for accommodations but were denied. In guidance counseling offices all across America, counselors prepare applications for extra time for their students who are receiving support and services at school, and yet some of those students are denied. If you look at the numbers above, about 7 percent of the test-takers are receiving accommodations. Therefore, 7 percent of the student population applying to college who need these tests require accommodations, and a great many more are denied. Also, many learning disabled children do not even take these tests, so it seems fair to believe that the rate of learning disabilities in the population is greater than 7 percent.

Developmental Delays

Developmental delay is a broad group of disabilities that affect major life activities such as language, mobility, learning, and self-care. The National Center for Educational Statistics reports that in 1977 there were no students receiving services for developmental delays, but in the 2013–2014 school year there were 410,000 students receiving services for delays. Again, one could argue that in 1977 developmental delay was not being diagnosed as thoroughly as it is today, so we compared the data from the years 2000 and 2013, and found that some 213,000 students were receiving services for delay in 2000, and in 2013 the number of students receiving services for delay nearly doubled! According to data from the CDC, the rate of developmental disabilities increased 17 percent from 1997 to 2008.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from No Manual? No Problem! by Monica Reinhard-Gorney, Perk Musacchio. Copyright © 2019 Monica Reinhard-Gorney and Perk Musacchio. Excerpted by permission of Cognella, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cognella Academic Publishing
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1516534182
• ISBN 13: 9781516534180
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304