February 2020 SEPTA Meeting Minutes

Arlington Special Education PTA

Monthly Meeting 

February 13, 2020, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

 APS Syphax Building, Rooms 452/454

2110 Washington Blvd, Arlington, VA 22204 

1. Introductions

SEPTA President Janna Dressel introduced SEPTA’s board and Parent Resource Center (PRC) staff in attendance at the meeting, as well as Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Bridget Loft.  Ms. Loft gave some brief remarks in which she recognized APS’ goals of establishing strong leadership in the Office of Special Education (which has been met with the recent appointments of Dr. Kelly Krug and Ms. Heather Rothenbuescher as Interim Co-directors of Special Education.  Dr. Krug will be overseeing Elementary and Ms. Rothenbuescher will be overseeing Secondary), implementing recommendation from the recent Program Evaluation r, including enhancing the model of inclusion in APS, and establishing a robust school system (vs. system of schools). 

II. General Business

A. Janna recognized the efforts of Melissa Craig in putting together the SEPTA Summer Activities Fair last month.  Janna also announced the following upcoming SEPTA events:

1. The next SEPTA meeting is scheduled for March 12^th and will address strategies for building and sustaining friendships
2. Transportation appreciation breakfast is tentatively scheduled April 14^th (first Tuesday after spring break).  SEPTA is looking for volunteers for this event.
3. Awards ceremony on May 6^th at Washington-Liberty HS.  Volunteers are needed for the awards committee.

B. SEPTA is looking for volunteers to serve as SEPTA board members for the 2020-2021 school year, as well as to serve as nominating committee members.  Please let Janna know if you are interested.

C. December meeting minutes were approved.

D. Treasurer’s Report

SEPTA Treasurer Cara Abercrombie reported that $11,500 was raised from the on-line auction, which was more than what was projected.  SEPTA is seeking additional ideas for spending and programming.  There was a delay in conducting the audit this year, but it was recently completed.  Cara reviewed SEPTA’s responses to the audit form, and the audit was approved.

E. Oakridge Elementary School is in need of a Special Education Parent Liaison.  A Special Education Parent Liaison training is planned for the end of March. More details coming soon.

II. Presentation 

Dr. Judith Glasser provided a presentation on Growing Up with Learning Challenges: Impact on Emotions and Behavior.  The slides to her presentation can be found at https://drive.google.com/file/d/16jjzj7twMq-IovsH7EImMLxNg4tp__1Q/view?usp=sharing.

Dr. Glasser had received a number of questions in advance of the meeting and noted that she organized her presentation around the following categories of questions that she received:

• Behavior management at home and school
• Importance of accurate diagnoses
• Handling of emotions
• What is normal vs. abnormal behavior
• Hormonal changes in teenagers 

She noted that 1/3 of kids with learning challenges don’t show signs of social/emotional distress.  Impairments relating to the right side of the brain (visual/spatial) do not necessarily show up in school, while impairments relating to the left side of the brain (language) are more apparent in school, since they affect subjects such as reading and math.  Often times, kids with dyslexia get missed.  

A child who experiences learning challenges may have a lowered sense of self-efficacy and result in a lack of persistence on new tasks, which can impact the rest of their learning.  Learning challenges can also impact self-esteem and self-concept, which is how far a person’s measure of themselves measures up to ideal self. There is a clear link between a person’s self-concept and school performance.  

There is also an emotional impact from a lowered self-concept.  This can result in anxiety, increased self-blame, shame, anger, frustration, depression, and family/social problems.  This can be demonstrated through statements such as “I’m so stupid/no good at school work,” as well through covering or hiding work or what is known as the impostor syndrome where the student pretends that they can read by memorizing, copying other students’ work.  

It’s not typically clear whether emotional difficulties or learning challenges come first.  Emotional difficulties certainly can lead to learning challenges – e.g., anxiety makes it hard to learn, but they can also co-exist, and some of the learning challenges (e.g., dyslexia) may even be genetic. 

Dr. Glasser recommended reframing how we look at emotional difficulties along the lines of if the child is experiencing problems, it is important to determine if there are lagging skills or unsolved problems, as opposed to getting angry at the child over his or her grades or homework problems.  The child is often put in a situation where learning challenges affect him/her through the day and then they continue at night when the child does homework; it is no surprise that there are ensuing meltdowns. Therefore, it is important to identify what is the lagging skill or problem in order to determine effective interventions.  

Causes of anger and frustration include the failure to meet expectations on a regular basis; being told to work harder although they are working as hard as they can – i.e., not meeting potential; the child is often victim of bullies (problem at recess, lunch, less supervised setting).  Anger can be a symptom of depression in kids and teens, and it is important to note that depression symptoms are not the same in kids/teens as adults. It is often hard for children with learning challenges to put thoughts into words; they can’t share how they are feeling or label emotions, which causes them to internalize these thoughts and feelings, and their depression becomes worse.  

High anxiety affects working memory (ability to retain information and manipulate it) which is necessary for pretty much every academic task and impairs performance.  Children with learning challenges may have difficulty understanding nonverbal communication/nonverbal cues. If a child is having language difficulties, it can be hard for that child to keep up with social groups, or in some cases, a child with learning challenges may not have the same degree of social maturity as his or her peers – e.g., a 12 year old with ADHS may act more like 8 year old.  Dr. Glasser recommended socialthinking.com as a good resource.

A child with learning challenges may experience more family problems – e.g., sibling rivalry is more intense than usual, tension between a more accomplished child vs. learning challenged child.  In response to a question from the audience, Dr. Glasser mentioned that involving the other sibling in a therapy session has been helpful, as is family therapy. The importance of everyone understanding what is going on with the child with learning challenges, including siblings, helps to diminish anger and tension within the family.  Another comment from the audience noted that parents can often exacerbate the problem. Dr. Glasser emphasized that therapy needs to go beyond just the child but acknowledged the challenges of getting parent in the room too. She mentioned that 1-2-3 Magic group training would be helpful for the parents. Parents could get training while their child is in therapy, and therapists working with both the parents and child can then talk to each other.  An audience member asked whether there were other signs of depression in kids other than anger. Dr. Glasser said that you can also look for withdrawal from things that the child previously liked to do; isolation; and grades going down when they didn’t used to. An audience member commented that in her experience, rigidity was also a sign of depression; her child did not want any change. Another audience member recounted her own experiences being bullied as a child and her concerns with her own child being bullied as well.  The parent has informed school so that everyone is keeping an eye on child, but the PRC may be another resource that she can consult with respect to addressing bullying.     

Dr. Glasser addressed how feeling unsuccessful at school can lead to acting out behavior, resulting in the child getting in trouble and negative attention.  Strategies for intervention include:

• Addressing bullying through assertiveness.  Using “I” sentences. Parents may need to learn it themselves to teach their kids.   The book “Your Perfect Right” is a good resource. A very basic step is just saying “stop.”  However, ignoring the bully doesn’t solve the problem. It is often helpful to role play – anticipate what the bully would say.  If bullying is occurring at school, school authorities need to know. Audience members discussed the advantages and disadvantages of addressing the problem with other (bullying) child’s parent.  
•  Dr. Glasser recommended taking neuropsychological reports with a grain of salt.  There are often many recommendations that would be too much to implement; need to prioritize interventions so as to conserve resources.  Depression should be the highest priority. She emphasized exercise over therapy. Play helps to reduce stress. She recommended consulting Dan Siegel’s “Healthy Mind Platter,” which includes exercise, healthy diet, “time in”—e.g., nature – which are all good for coping skills.  
• Just listen to the child, and say “I understand.”  Wait if the child needs time to organize their thoughts.  Important thing is to understand a child’s feelings. Don’t lecture and yell.   An understanding adult is critical.
• Firm discipline/structure – be firm and kind.  You make the decision and follow through (don’t threaten consequence that you can’t carry out)
• Create routines
• Take time for training, explain, and then implement as a family –e.g., 123magic.com
• Use 12 words or less
• Inviting cooperation – through creating games
• Additional resources for behavior management at home and school are 123 Magic, Kazdin method, Dan Shapiro lecture series on parent-child journey
• Handling big emotions using coping skills.  Drawing, painting, nature, etc. Try to prevent these emotions before they get big.  What are the triggers? What is the back-up plan?

For parents and caregivers, self-care is very important as well.  

Getting an accurate diagnosis of your child’s learning challenge is key; note that the diagnosis can change over time, especially during teenage years.

In terms of understanding what is normal vs. abnormal behavior, a psychological evaluation will compare your child’s data against peers, so that any differences can identified and addressed.  

Dr. Glasser addressed using bar charting in her practice to illustrate in a tangible form the child’s strengths and struggles that the child, with the support of parents, teachers, etc. can work on.  She recommended bar charting your own strengths and struggles with the child first as an example before helping them discuss their own.

There was a question from the audience about getting an appropriate ADHD evaluation.  Dr. Glasser advised that a psychological evaluation is needed, but a neuropsychological evaluation is not as necessary.   Another thing to be aware or careful about is the over-prescription of medication when it is not necessary. A school psychological evaluation may be sufficient in evaluating for ADHD, but it is always possible to supplement with an outside evaluation.  

Lastly, a parent recommended that siblings of children with disabilities can get attend the SuperSibs program organized by the PRC.  There is a session on 2/27/20 for middle schoolers and on 3/18/20 for elementary schoolers.