Outdated or Misinformed? Childhood Maltreatment in college textbooks

April 25, 2015April 25, 2015Na'ama Yehuda Articles and references, Resources and links, Speech Language Pathology, Trauma and Development Tags: academic courses, Adverse Childhood Experiences, child maltreatment, college, development, introduction to psychology, Memory, outdated, psychology, Research, textbooks, Trauma 1 Comment

Vintage Phrenology: thegraphicsfairy.com

There are over 1,000,000 substantiated reports of child maltreatment annually in the US alone (US Department of Health 2013). The impact of maltreatment on development and health is indisputable. The last two decades showed brisk research in the area of trauma and dissociation all over the world. It is therefore quite surprising to find psychology textbooks to be so behind the times (and behind the data) on covering child maltreatment. This leaves hundreds of thousands of students a year with less-than-accurate information that may impact their ability to identify or understand the aftermath of child maltreatment.

In an important article (also see full link below), Brand and McEwen review the three leading introductory psychology textbooks and how they address (or not address) childhood maltreatment and its aftermath. The results are distressing in lack of citing of current data (as in many textbooks on psychopathology).

One can hypothesize why prominent textbooks will not sufficiently cover such an important topic (one would think they would find it essential to cover well if only for the known health effects of childhood maltreatment across the lifespan, in both physical and psychological health, costs, and healthcare utilization). Maybe it is as simple as using outdated resources or not keeping up with research and known data. Maybe it speaks to more widespread issues of denial and minimization of childhood maltreatment. Maybe other reasons. Regardless of why the textbooks are lacking, the reality remains that the textbooks leave students un-informed on the topic.

The good news is that this can be changed! The data is available–it just needs to be included and reviewed better!

Hopefully having more awareness to this will allow students and faculty to challenge the choice of textbooks and to demand better coverage of such a relevant issue. Students are shortchanged when they are under-informed and when data is slanted or may appear to be biased or outdated.

What can you do?

Let your faculty, librarian, and fellow clinicians and students know that our college students deserve a more cohesive review of childhood maltreatment. Share the article below. Talk to professors who teach these courses and support them in seeking better balanced textbooks. The research is available, it simply needs to be included rather than avoided. Let us work together for improving information in education!

Coverage of Child Maltreatment and Its Effects in Three Introductory Psychology Textbooks / Bethany L. Brand, PhD, and Linda E. McEwen, MA

http://traumapsychnews.com/2015/01/coverage-of-child-maltreatment-and-its-effects-in-three-introductory-psychology-textbooks/

The Connection that Never Was

April 22, 2015Na'ama Yehuda Articles and references, Resources and links, Speech Language Pathology Tags: Autism, Confirmation, connection, parenting, Research, Study, Truth, Vaccination, Worry 1 Comment

Am sharing the article below because there is benefit to reducing the worry and panic and misconceptions among those who still hear things about the supposed connection between autism and vaccination, and don’t know or never had good access to the facts.

This recent article in JAMA is one more study that shows NO CONNECTION between the MMR Vaccine and Autism. In fact, there never WAS a connection. In fact, no peer reviewed studies ever did show a connection. The study that caused the original panic was — by the admission of the researcher himself — made up and the results were falsified. The article was withdrawn a long time ago from reputable journals, and the scientist has been discredited for the results he falsified. Furthermore, his claims were never replicated (not surprisingly, given that they were false from the get go), and there has never been any support for the connection.

Some children may have adverse effects to vaccines–or to any medication or substance for that matter. Children can react to cotton, wool, milk, wheat, sugar, natural vegetable dyes, sweet potato, eggplant, broccoli, eggs–just about anything. This does not make the rare reactions mean that these substances should be avoided generally, or that they ’cause’ diseases. Vaccinations do not cause autism. There has never been any support for that, and many people did try to find it. They did not.

I hope this current publication in one of the most prestigious and rigorous journals in the world will help straighten out some of the facts for those who are still worried.

Vaccines save lives. They do not cause Autism. Never had.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2275444#

Happiness glide

April 13, 2015April 13, 2015Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Speech Language Pathology, Things Kids Say Tags: Best Ever, children, delight, happiness, Happy Monday, Life Lessons, speech-language-pathology, Things Kids Say, Weekends Leave a comment

“I had the best weekend ever!” the preschooler’s eyes sparkled.

“Oh, wow, that’s so great!” I responded, grinning. It is contagious, you know, this kind of zest for life. And the enthusiasm of this little one was particularly catching. He literally beamed delight.

“We had the best ever dinner and the best ever pizza!” he bounced on his heels, the words not coming nearly fast enough. “And I saw the best movie ever on the Netflix. And my grandpa makes the best popcorn and it like magic in the microwave and I have the best pajamas ever!”

“You have new pajamas?!” My monkey brain had to assume.

He paused and regarded me with some confusion. “I already HAVE the best pajamas ever! It’s superman pajamas!”

Silly me.

He kicked off his shoes and glided on the wood floor with his socks, balancing with his arms. “Wheee! Best floor ever!”

“Did you have the best weekend ever, too?” he added, not quite waiting for a response before sighing contentedly. “You did, right? Because it was the best weekend ever!”

The details change a bit; there’s not always popcorn, sometimes its just TV and not Netflix, sometimes it is the park, or playing ball, or baking cookies, or his dad reading him story. Doesn’t matter. The weekend is always–always–the best one ever.

And it makes for Happy Mondays; every one.