Week 1- Mind brain & education Flashcards
SNP
-Integrates neuropsychological and educational principles into the assessment and intervention process to facilitate learning and behaviour within the school and family systems
Changes in education
19th century:
Abacus
Frontal teaching
Behaviorist approach: listen and behave
Punishment
One size fits all
20th century:
Tablet
Differentiated teaching/ group work
Constructivist approach: learning is regulated by developmental stages (cognitive, emotional, social, physical)
Reward, social safety
Inclusive education
Characteristics of special needs
- Externalising problem behaviour
- Internalising problem behaviour
- Problematic attitudes to work
- Physical disabilities
- Speech, language, and numeracy disorders
- Being gifted
- Intellectual impairment
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Being behind in literacy/reading and/or numeracy
Internalizing problem behaviour
Child is bothered by their problems but people around them aren’t
Anxious/ depressed
Withdrawn
Somatic complaints scores
Externalizing problem behaviour
Behaviours expressed outward, others are bothered
Rule-breaking
Aggressive behaviour
Tasks of a SNP
- Provide neuropsychological assessment and
interpretation services to schools for children with known or suspected neurological conditions. - Assist in the interpretation of neuropsychological findings from outside consultants or medical records.
- Seek to integrate current brain research into
educational practice. - Provide educational interventions that have a basis in the neuropsychological or educational literature
- Act as a liaison between the school and the medical community for transitional planning for TBI and other
health impaired children and adolescents. - Consult with curriculum specialists in designing approaches to instruction that more adequately reflects what is known about brain-behavior
relationships. - Conduct in-service training for educators and parents about the neuropsychological factors that relate to common childhood disorders.
- Engage in evidenced-based research to test for the efficacy of neuropsychologically-based interventions
Integrated SNP/CHC model
-Uses CHC theory as a basis: “periodic system of human cognitive abilities”
-Integrates CHC functions into a practical model for SNP assessments
How we acquire knowledge/ learn:
3 R’S:
Reading
Writing
Arithmetic
Components of attention
Selective/focused- What you focus on and where it is in space
Sustained- Length and intensity you process things
-Short in children
-minutes corresponds with age (4yrs, 4 minutes)
- ADHD associated with
Shifting- Can engage with something then disengage
Short term memory task
N-back task
Single back (n-1)
“Hit the table when the previous was the same”
Working memory task
N-back task
Dual back (n-2)
“Hit the table when the one before the previous was the same
Learning & memory stages and their locations in the brains
Encoding: Prefrontal cortex
-Right hemisphere: Episodic
-left hemisphere: Semantic
Consolidation: Medial temporal lobe (hippocampus and amygdala)
Midline diencephalon (thalamus)
Retrieval
Hippocampus
Amygdala
Task impurity
Never have a pure task that measures only attention in clinical practice
Selectivity task
-Memory capacity improves till young adulthood
-Selectivity is only mature until young adulthood
Correlations between academic achievement and the selectivity task
Strong correlation with general intelligence tests
-But achievement like tests overlap
Strong correlations with cognitive ability tests including EF subtests
-No item overlap: EF contribute to achievement
Reasons for growing interest in SNP
- Recognition of the neurobiological bases of childhood learning and behavioural disorders
- Increased number of children with medical conditions that affect school performance
- Increased use of medications with school aged children
- Increase in the number of challenging educational and behavioural issues in schools
- Increased emphasis on the identification of processing disorders in children diagnosed with SLD
Polypharmacy
The simultaneous use of more than one psychiatric medication
Reasons polypharmacy may be appropriate
o Child may have multiple distinct disorders for which there are different and appropriate multiple medications
o Symptoms of the disorder are only partially treated with one medication
o An additional medication is needed to reduce side effects of the other medications
o In complex cases decisions to prescribe medications are complicated by diagnostic uncertainty
School neuropsychological assessments are useful for:
- Identifying processing deficits in a child that could adversely affect educational attainment and the development of remediation and/or compensatory strategies to maximize the child’s learning potential
- Describing a profile of a child’s neurocognitive strengths and weaknesses and relating that information to the child’s learning and behavior in the school and home environment
- Documenting whether changes in learning or behavior are associated with neurological disease, psychological conditions, neurodevelopmental disorders, or non-neurological conditions
- Monitoring educational progress over time in children, particularly in children with severe neuropsychological insults such as TBI
- Providing comprehensive assessment data that will increase the likelihood of success with evidence-based interventions
Reasons for increased interest in applying neuropsychological principles into the practice of school psychology and educational settings
o The growth in pediatric/child neuropsychological research
o Advances in neuropsychological theories applied to assessment
o Advances in functional and structural brain imaging techniques
o Limitations of clinical applications in school settings
o Increased use of medications by children and youth and their potential side effects on cognitive processing
o Advances in understanding of the neurocognitive effects of TBI, common neurodevelopmental disorders, and chronic illness
SNP Assessment models
- Cognitive Hypothesis Testing (CHT) model
- Neurodevelopmental Model (NDM) of evaluation and intervention
- Integrated School Neuropsychology/ Cattell-Horn-Carroll conceptual model (Integrated SNP/CHC Model)
Cognitive hypothesis testing model
-Hale and Fiorello
-Combined 2 approaches:
(a) individual psychoeducational
assessment
(b) intervention development and
monitoring, using both behavioral
interventions and problem-solving
consultation
-Respect for assessing the child’s behaviour within the confines of their environment
-Single-subject designs
- 4 component parts: theory, hypothesis, data collection, interpretation
-Relies on Lurian and process-oriented approaches
Ways of obtaining demand characteristics for a particular test
Access literature about test and read what it is reported to measure
Read the tests manual and evaluate its construct validity
Read research literature to see how it can be used with clinical populations and how it relates to similar measures
Further training in school neuropsychology gives a greater understanding of the neuropsychological constructs vital for development of reading, math, writing and spelling
-2nd and 3rd methods most reliable
Neurodevelopmental model of evaluation and intervention
-Fletcher-Janzen
-Draws heavily on Lurian theory
-Provides a framework to systematically examine all of the sensory, integrative and generative cognitive processes that relate directly to cognitive products such as academic achievement
-0 to 18
-Organizes assessments in a hierarchical format
-Guided by Lurian developmental periods
- 7 cognitive processing areas for tasks:
o auditory processing
o visual processing
o sensory/ motor processing
o language processing
o memory processing
o attention and executive functions
o social-emotional processing
