blockhead's Blog

Teachers, when you received your training to teach, the world probably looked much different. Guns meant water pistols and gangs meant West Side Story.

Here is a test to see if your skills have kept up with the changes in our kids. If you discover that you are more prepared to work with Beaver Cleaver than Beavis and Butthead, then consider coming to our Problem Student Problem-Solver professional development training workshop or ordering some of our books and tapes. Our resources can turbo-charge your skills to fit contemporary kids.

The answers are shown below and at the bottom, you can also rate your skills for working with today's youth and children.

** 1. Who is the hardest-to-manage, most potentially violent kid, and how must you work with them differently than everybody else?

**** Bonus Question: If you work with this hardest- to-manage child using the same approaches you use with everyone else, what is likely to happen?

** 2. There may be just 3 major ways that kids can respond to adult directions. Name the 3 ways.

**** Bonus Question: What is the only effective way to get children to comply with adult directions?

** 3. Name the student most likely to drop out.

**** Bonus Question: What other problems will this child quite likely face?

** 4. Who are the kids at highest risk of extreme violence?

**** Bonus Question: Why do you work differently with each of these kids?

** 5. Other than violence prevention, name the single most important school readiness skill to teach to students. (Hint: Most schools don't have a formal plan to teach it, but they all require it)

**** Bonus Question: When is the time to teach this skill?

ANSWERS!!

1. CONDUCT DISORDERS. Conduct disorder is a mental health term that essentially means that the child is sociopathic. While you can continue to successfully use relationship-based approaches with any other child, these methods almost inevitably flop with conduct disorders who, by definition, can't relate normally to others.

Bonus Question: If you use conventional relationship-based approaches with conduct disorders, it conveys to them that you do not understand them. It may be close to painting a target on your chest. Actions that are normally appropriate under some circumstances, such as giving one more chance, can be dangerous even disastrous with conduct disorders. If you do not know this child backwards and forwards, you may lack key tools to ensure your safety and the safety of other children.

2. The child can become OPPOSITIONAL. The child can CAPTIULATE if coerced to do so. The child can comply: ACCEPTANCE.

Bonus Question: Acceptance is really the only way to gain compliance. Power- struggling with oppositional kids means everyone loses especially you as no adult ever wins a power struggle with a kid. If you must hassle and harass a kid into capitulating, that is not a positive way of interacting with others that you want the child to emulate as it will normally not work in the world. Plus, imagine the harm you might do hassling a troubled child by coercing compliance from them. Acceptance is the standard that works everywhere and won't damage even a very vulnerable child while gaining their compliance.

3. TEEN MOMS

Bonus Question: Teen moms also have the highest risk of poverty, going on welfare and never getting off of welfare when compared to anyone else. Shouldn't everyone know who is the one child at highest risk of dropping out and be aware of the potential additional litany of woes?

4. CONDUCT DISORDERS, THOUGHT DISORDERS, EXTREMELY DEPRESSED KIDS

Bonus Question: Each of these 3 children needs a very different kind of help. For example, the thought-disordered child might be able to benefit tremendously from medication, while there is no medicine for conduct disorders. This means that to best prevent extreme violence, you must understand how to work with different kids very differently.

5. ATTENDANCE If the student isn't in your classroom, you can't work your magic on them Bonus Question: Day 1 of school. It's that important.

SCORING: (Score 1 point for each question or bonus question)
8-10 You're READY for even the 'South Park' kids!
5-8 You're DUE for a Training Update!
0-4 You're OVERDUE for a Training Update!

If this article has made you realize that you are using yesterday's methods with today's students, you may want to see what updated teacher training looks like. Take a look at http://www.youthchg.com, and discover how you can fill in the gaps in your training so working with difficult, conduct disordered, angry, truant and agitated students doesn't have to be so difficult.

Get much more information on this topic at http://www.youthchg.com. Author Ruth Herman Wells MS is the director of Youth Change, (http://www.youthchg.com). Sign up for her free Problem-Kid Problem-Solver magazine at the site and see hundreds more of her innovative methods. Ruth is the author of dozens of books and provides workshops and training. For re-print permission for this article, contact the author by

email (dwells@youthchg.com.)

There are three types of kids who may be at the highest risk of extreme violence. Obviously, you must take seriously any threat or indication of danger from any kid, so if a dangerous child you know doesn't fit one of these categories, please don't just breathe a sigh of relief. Rather, the point of emphasizing these three top-risk youth, is to have you apportion your time wisely. You can't monitor each child equally. This information may guide you on who you monitor most closely, especially in the absence of other events or information to guide you.

In this space, we will have time to cover only one of these youth in any kind of detail. We will cover the second two kids in a subsequent article. But, we understand you may want to know all that right now, so if you want to learn more immediately about any of these three youth, go to our web site to http://www.youthchg.com/hottopic.html and read a reprint of the full article that this text is excerpted from.

The youth at highest risk of extreme violence may be the conduct disordered child. If you don't already know this term, visualize the fictional character, J.R. from the TV show 'Dallas' because the hallmark of being a conduct disorder (c.d.), is having no heart, no conscience, no remorse. Only a mental health professional can diagnose a conduct disorder for sure, but being aware that you may have a conduct disordered child in your class or group, is important to ensuring your safety, along with the safety of your kids, because you work with conduct disorders completely differently than other kids. Since the c.d. child has little relationship capacity, you should not use relationship-based approaches with a diagnosed conduct disorder.

It would be insensitive to call a conduct disorder a 'baby sociopath,' but that is close to what the term means. It means that the child acts in ways that appear to be seriously anti-social, and the concern is that the child may grow up to be a sociopathic type of person. Since this child cares only about himself (c.d.'s are predominately male), there are little brakes on this child from serious or extreme violence. Not every conduct disordered child will engage in horrific behavior. There is a range of misbehavior c.d.'s may get involved with, ranging from lying to setting fires or being a sexual predator. At the most serious end of the spectrum, lies the possibility of extreme violence, such as a school shooting.

Note that this introductory article is just a starting point to managing conduct disorders and unmanageable students. This intro will not be adequate to give you more than a start. Check out these initial guidelines below:

METHODS FOR CONDUCT DISORDERED YOUTH

There's not space for all the critical do's and don't's that you must know but here are some of the most important:

DO'S:

*The main point we give in our classes is that these children operate on a cost-benefit system, and that to control your c.d. kids, you must keep the costs high, and benefits low.

*These children also especially need to pro-actively learn how to manage their fists, mouth, and actions.

*Your goal is to teach them that when they hurt others, it often hurts them too. All interventions must be in the context of 'I-Me,' because that is all this kid is capable of caring about.

DON'T'S:

There are so many of them, it is hard to know where to start because so many of the techniques you use with other kids fall apart with this kid. Here are some of the most critical don't and do's when you work with a diagnosed-- that's the important word here-- conduct disorder. Without the diagnosis, use these guides especially carefully.

*Don't: have a heart-to-heart relationship.

*Don't work on building trust.

*Don't put an emphasis on compassion, caring, empathy, values, morals.

*Don't expect compassionate behavior.

*Don't trust.

*Don't give second chances.

*Don't believe they care or feel remorse.

Hopefully this brief guide to the hardest-to-manage, most potentially dangerous kid will help you avoid using everyday interventions that will be unproductive, even dangerous. Hopefully this information will steer you towards relying on non-relationship-based interventions that emphasize learning skills like anger control, managing the fist, etc. along with firm rules, boundaries and limits. Be sure to visit our web site (link below) for 100s more strategies and guides to additional information.

Get much more information on this topic at http://www.youthchg.com

Author Ruth Herman Wells MS is the director of Youth Change, (http://www.youthchg.com) Sign up for her free Problem-Kid Problem-Solver magazine at the site and see hundreds more of her innovative methods. Ruth is the author of dozens of books and provides workshops and training.

Ever felt urged to steal a piece of bubblegum from the grocery store and given in? Then you are likely training to become either a kleptomaniac or an addictive compulsive thief. Do not despair – you’re not alone. Not a threat. And there is a way out.

True kleptomania is by standard practitioners of psychology viewed as a very rare condition. Lay people often confuse it with recurrent failure to resist obsessive, addictive, or compulsive thoughts or urges to steal objects which they often will use. Kleptomaniacs will steal without ever needing the things they steal. They do not feel anger, but they also don’t premeditate their actions. On the other hand, compulsive thievery is inspired by anger and there’s also a degree of premeditation involved, because often the items stolen will come in handy for the thief.

The ways in which psychologists cure these diseases is by attempting to find out what is the motivating factor for the person involved and address it. Honest people steal, they say. Not only through shoplifting but also through embezzlement and fraud.

“A kleptomaniac is someone who steals a lot but not particularly for monetary gain', says Terry Shulman who is a self confessed ex-shoplifter. He says that most people that shoplift in any compulsive manner are really crying out for help. His own story shows that it is quite possible for people to overcome the habit, once a person understands the often complex causes. Where it gets tricky is where stealing has become an addiction. People who get hooked on shoplifting need specialized treatment.

However, owing up to the ugly truth and seeking help is already overcoming the biggest hurdle before someone will be able to stop the habit. Many shoplifters that contacted Shulman after he published his book and was interviewed on Oprah told him afterwards that they had been at the end of their ideas of how to tackle the problem. Shulman refuses vigorously to believe people that steal are bad, inhumane or evil. He condemns the crime but not the person committing it and says that stealing is symptomatic of something else in most of the cases. This is also the view of Will Cupchik, an psycho analyst who’s authored a book outlining a method to treat honest and otherwise normal people with a compulsive shoplift problem. Claiming that he’s found the pattern of behavior of ‘Atypical Theft Offenders’, Cupchik provides interesting insights into the minds of shoplifters. He offers treatment courses with certified diplomas for people who’ve kicked the habit for good.

Both Cupchik and Shulman cite cases of high profile offenders that have lost their jobs for getting caught shoplifting and go on to analyse the events that are elemental to the habits. It appears that the factors that motivate people to steal items are largely similar in nature.

“[My story is not] intended to make excuses for stealing or shoplifting. I’m not suggesting shoplifting addicts go unpunished. Any illegal act, be it illegal gambling, drug offenses, or drunk driving, must have legal consequences”, he says. After his book was published a string of self help groups throughout the country was set up by people facing this problem. The first such a group was his home state Detroit, where he in 1992 set up Cleptomaniacs And Shoplifters Anonymous (CASA) because he wanted to provide a safe, confidential and non-judgmental space for compassion, understanding and recovery from 'addictive-compulsive' dishonest behavior, primarily shoplifting, fraud, kleptomania and embezzlement.

“Our stories illustrate how good but vulnerable people try to cope with life at pivotal times and how punishment is not enough to stop shoplifters. [They] go more in depth than previous stories in the scant literature available on shoplifting or kleptomania. I hope this will provide clarity and hope for those who have little of either,” Shulman says. His website shopliftersanonymous.com cites figures that show just how endemic the situation is and what bearings it has on the economy. Shopping proletariat style does actually run into quite hefty sums in terms of dollar value. Retailers lose some USD25 million a day alone due to shoplifting. This is the largest ‘target area’ for the shoplifters; some 69% of them steal in department stores; 63% steals in supermarkets; 57% specialty shops; 54% convenience stores; 47% drug stores and 27% all other type stores.

And, interestingly, shoplifting is about the only area of crime that women get involved in on a par with men; the split is 50%-50%. It seems that this also is something people don’t easily give up on, because the large majority of culprits – 75% - is of adult age.

Many people that steal in some way or other will have less difficulty moving to different crimes. According to a study by Ernst & Young LLP and Ipsos-Reid in 2002, businesses can lose 20 percent of every dollar earned. “[When you] can justify one type of fraud [you] can justify another,' said George P. Farragher, an accountant and certified public fraud examiner at Ernst & Young's Cleveland office commenting on his firm’s findings.

Twenty percent of the employees cited in that study said they were aware of fraud at their companies and the most common form was expense account fraud. Of the 20 percent of the people in the know, 37 percent even knew about theft of office items. What’s perhaps even worse; 16 percent knew employees who claimed extra hours worked and 7 percent said they knew people who inflated their expense accounts!

Angelique van Engelen is a freelance writer who works and lives in Amsterdam. She creates tailormade, keyword rich content, articles, news, features about arts, society and culture. Contact her on http://www.contentclix.com