Point on the Path Professionals
9410-91 Street NW T5M1H7 Edmonton, AB, Canada

Here’s the danger of letting a state/ provincial government take over professional regulation. The social workers should be accountable to their code of ethics and the bigotry of the current government should not be a factor. Watch for this government control creep into health professions in Alberta.

This is a little off from my usual posts well for one because I’m writing it and not just sharing someone else’s post. It’s Orange Shirt Day. I work with Indigenous Canadian children involved in Children’s Services everyday. And we still need so much reforming, it breaks my heart. The system tries. I see good people work so hard for children and try to find family, and work with struggling parents, but it’s not good enough for the kids. It’s just not. Childhood is time-l...imited and we need to be faster to claim the stability they require: in families that will love them for a lifetime, yes- and with the support of community and professional run programs and services. These require money in the form of grants and better more stable funding at a level adequate to meet the needs. The system causes secondary trauma because a bureaucracy is a shit parent. Shit. And limited resources as the excuse to not provide well enough for the children in care right now that’s not good enough. I wore orange today to hold close to my heart the very confused foster child who thinks it’s their fault they are experiencing this reality; and the foster child who rages because they *know* it’s not their fault. I wore orange for the child that never wants to leave fostercare because it’s the most stability they’ve ever experienced; and the 10-year old children in treatment facilities because they’ve burned out too many foster homes. The resilience I see every day amazes me. And there is nothing over about our terrible systemic treatment of our Indigenous children. Let’s remember those hurt so badly by residential school, but let’s not forget their descendants and those of the ones they left behind, because those amazing spirits are here right now.

Interesting article- unbelievable. The damage of a system with too many moving parts and for-profit companies involved huge cracks.

Children growing under threat (with survival adaptation)- age faster on a cellular level.

Teens are so often stereotyped and teens living out of parental care much more so. Some of my favourite hours in the day are talking to teens involved with CS. As a group they are tenacious, resilient and socially insightful.

Yes. These two quotes are aligned with my practice philosophy and ethically should be for all helping professionals.

So important that therapists and other helping professionals keep working to see our own biases, including racism. These comments are made out of ignorance. Ongoing learning and reflective practice are keys to do no harm and try to do some good.

"For those of you who wish to leave politics out of dealing with trauma, I wish to remind you that trauma is all about people living under social conditions where terrible things are allowed to happen, and where the truth cannot be told." ~ Bessel van der Kolk REPOSTING.

Have 10 minutes a day to learn about racism and privilege so you can be a better ally? Here is where you start. An excellent break-down of resources!

An open letter to kinship and foster parents and group care staff. Dear___[your first name here]____, I see how hard you are working to not lose your cool. I hear that you have lost your cool. I know how hard that first week was: How much school work needs to get done? How can you get more vitamin-rich food into your picky eaters? How can you find a minute to grab a shower? How do you explain Coronavirus and Pandemic to a child who suddenly lost their family visit this week?...Continue reading

When I see you the thank yous going out to those who are keeping us safe right now, I am so grateful! But, one glaring omission is the frontline staff of ch...ild protective services. Did you know that child abuse and neglect increases during a crisis? It does. Significantly. And our social workers and investigators are out there, going into homes, conducting interviews, assessing safety. Every day. Every night. At the potential expense of their own health, and of those they love. Please take a moment to thank them for all they do. For what they are doing right now, to ensure the most vulnerable children have a voice and are safe. We see you and we appreciate you! See more

Feeling Exhausted Right Now? How Coronavirus Is Putting Americans in a Collective Shock and Trauma Response, and How Best to Cope https://parade.com//korinmi/coronavirus-trauma-shock-ptsd/

Coronavirus Leaves Foster Children With Nowhere to Go Children and youth in care described as the New Lepers. Keep that in mind the next time you think of foster care as home. https://www.themarshallproject.org//coronavirus-leaves-fos

Herbert Tico Braun, a College Fellow and professor in UVAs Corcoran Department of #History, is urging you to keep personal records of these tumultuous times.... Think of your #children, your #grandchildren, your #friends down the road, who will ask you what was it like during that #pandemic What was it called? Corona-something? You know, the one that was named after a Mexican beer back then in 2020 or 21. When was it? When you think about the individual in this pandemic, think of yourself and you can write about yourself, think and write about other individuals, and about your relationships to others, to your society, societies, to your loved ones, your friends, your institutions. When you think about society, think about parts of it; death, disease, Wuhan province, the Chinese government, medical systems, Italy, the stock market, shaking hands, online classes, isolation, your town, your family, rich people and poor, social distancing, public events, the market, vulnerabilities, hoarding, hospitals, politicians, health insurance, selfishness, fear, sick leave, economic policies, exponential expansion, individualism, cooperation, competition, solidarity and more. #neurochild #authors #quarantine

Ive been talking to lots to treatment facilities for youth and community group homes, foster families.... its such important work that just got SO much harder and riskier last week. And youre keeping them going. Thank-you on behalf of the kids that dont know to thank you.

Parents and other caregivers need support during this crisis not surveillance https://www.usatoday.com//coronavirus-pandemic/2892923001/

It has been special days ... Many #children think it is scary, Ms Solberg said at the beginning of the press conference. It is OK to be scared when so many t...hings happen at the same time. Ms Solberg and her ministers then answered questions posted via childrens television program NRK Super and childrens paper Aftenposten Junior, such as: Can I have a birthday party? Can I visit my grandparents after I went to a shopping centre? How long does it take to make a vaccine? and What can I do to help? #neurochild #countrygoals #leadership

The key to resilience is trying really hard, then stopping, recovering, and then trying again. This conclusion is based on biology.

These dads speak up for their kids rather than accept the dogma of their faith.

Self-regulation involves the ability to manage your #emotions and #behaviour in accordance with the demands of a situation. Its a set of skills that enables yo...ur #child to inhibit their emotional or behavioural responses and direct their behaviour towards a goal, such as making it to the end of the birthday party for the cake to be served, or not hitting their friend so they can have a fun playdate. Kids with good self-regulation can pay attention to classroom activities and ignore distractions, remember the teachers directions long enough to carry out a task and resist impulses. All of these skills may give them an advantage to succeed in school. In fact, kindergarten teachers rank self-regulation as one of the most important skills for school readiness. Self-regulation comes in different forms: #Emotional self-regulation is important for helping children manage how they express and experience emotions. #Behavioural self-regulation helps children demonstrate control over their actions. Simple games, like Simon Says, have been shown to help children control their impulses. #Cognitive self-regulation helps children follow rules and plan out the appropriate response, such as listening during story time. Essentially, a childs emotional regulation skills come down to how they manage incoming and outgoing stress. Research consistently shows that self-regulation is necessary for social-emotional and academic success and well-being and is one of the most important skills for children to develop. As parents we can help our kids develop self-regulation by explaining why they have to wait for something or why they have to take turns. And we can also nurture its development by being mindful of our own stress response if it urges us to move away from our child when theyre emotionally floundering. What is often needed from us when helping our child deal with anger and other intense emotions is for us to move toward them. A caregivers calm and steady physical presence fills the gap of developmental immaturity during the time when a child feels and acts out of control. This collaborative approach to a childs emotional well being can help improve your childs self-regulation skills with time. Infants do not have the ability to regulate their emotional arousal and need the soothing presence of caretakers to help them manage fear, frustration, and anger. They calm by experiencing their caretakers voice tone and warm physical contact, being stroked and gently rocked, and having their physical needs attended to. From a developmental perspective, effective parenting of young children can be understood as a process of co-regulation. Bessel van der Kolk, researcher on developmental trauma, maintains that a primary function of parents is to help children learn to manage their own arousal. Repeated cycles of emotional upset, followed by relaxation after the caretakers calming intervention, provide the basis for developing a sense of trust and safety. In time, the child internalises this co-regulation as an expectation of a soothing response which provides a foundation for learning self-regulation. The need for co-regulation continues throughout our lives. In times of crisis, troublesome emotions are managed with the support and soothing presence of attachment figures. For instance: The small infant is totally reliant on caregivers and has many crises each day. The pre-school child is expected to manage emotions and impulses more effectively, but will still be overwhelmed on a regular basis and need external soothing and support. Even adolescents and adults must rely on attachment figures to get through periods of high stress. In a broader sense, the patterns of self-regulation that one develops may come to define the individual throughout their life. Daniel Siegel states that How we experience the world, relate to others, and find meaning in life are dependent on how we have come to regulate our emotions. While the concept of co-regulation to nurture self-regulation is seemingly basic, its more challenging than it sounds. Next time your child is in the throes of an emotional meltdown, some tips to call to mind in that gap between thought and reaction are as follows: Model positive emotional regulation skills for your child. Identify and respond to the stressors in your daily environment mindfully, not aiming for perfection but by making constant improvement. Help your child cultivate an awareness of what consistently causes them stress. Common scenarios are lack of sleep, excess hunger, loud noises, unexpected change, and transitioning away from electronic devices. Empower your child with knowledge. Familiarise them with emotions by discussing anger warning signs such as sweaty palms or pounding hearts. Helping kids notice the physiological signs of anger works towards promoting concrete internal signals that promote self-awareness. Teach the basics of emotional intelligence by widening your childs emotion vocabulary. Identifying emotions is the first step to working through them. Explore coping strategies together. Taking good quality breaths can sooth and calm the nervous system and lower a childs baseline emotional arousal level. Every childs nervous system and sensory system is unique, so it is realistic to expect plenty of trial and error, and solutions that change over time. Consider: Is there a particular space my child finds calming? Where do they run when upset or frustrated? Do they seem to calm with physical touch or appear to avoid it? Do they prefer to be around others or respond better to quiet solitude? There is hope for improved emotional regulation for all children, regardless of any challenges they may face emotionally, behaviourally or environmentally. Or as Dr Stuart Shanker once said, There isnt a single child who, with understanding and patience, cant be guided along a trajectory that leads to a rich and meaningful life. Working in an active partnership with your child in quest of developing self-regulation can lead to a radical change in outlook for both parties. And with time, you should eventually see your child begin to emulate your hard work by putting the pieces of self-regulation into practice themselves when things dont go their way. https://www.researchgate.net//282744852_Effect_of_Self-Reg https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2005-05449-005 https://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-onl/cyconline-mar2010-bath.html https://parentswithconfidence.com/6-guaranteed-ways-to-boo/ https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5675896 #neurochild #brainscience #childdevelopment

What a great model! I wonder if we have something equivalent in Edmonton?

#Neuroscience presents us with strong evidence for the profound influence of early experiences. In order to build healthy #brain connections from the outset, yo...ung children need responsive and rich social interactions with caregivers, combined with sufficient nutrients and an environment free of toxins (CDC at Harvard University, 2016). Playful experiences offer a unique context for these supportive and rich learning experiences in early childhood. What global citizenship, coping and thriving look like for children may differ dramatically across time, culture, and context, but the deep understanding that comes from effective learning experiences will no doubt be an important step. In playful experiences, children tap a breadth of skills at any one time. When playing together, children are not just having fun but are building skills of communication and collaboration. A game of hide-and-seek helps them to manage feelings about the unknown while also helping them to think about what other people know and see. Beyond enjoyment, #playful #experiences have the potential to give children the skills they will need in the future that go beyond facts. Playful experiences appear to be a powerful mechanism that help children not only to be happy and healthy in their lives today but also develop the skills to be the creative, engaged, lifelong learners of tomorrow. Regardless of whether a play activity falls closer to free play, guided play or games on the continuum, optimal learning through play happens when the activity (1) is experienced as joyful, (2) helps children find meaning in what they are doing or learning, (3) involves active, engaged, minds-on thinking (4) involves iterative thinking (e.g., experimentation, hypothesis testing), and (5) involves social interaction (the most powerful resource available to humans other people). These characteristics are based on a theory presented by Hirsh-Pasek, Zosh, Golinkoff, Gray, Robb, & Kaufman (2015) where they provide evidence that a deep, conceptual understanding requires that children are active (minds- on) and engaged (not distracted) with meaningful material especially in socially interactive contexts. Research shows how child-centred preschool lays a more solid foundation for later learning than an academic focus alone (Marcon, 2002; Campbell & colleagues, 2008; Weisberg, Hirsh-Pasek & Golinkoff, 2013). A number of educational programmes offer inspiration for future efforts. For example, those which emphasise the importance of children actively directing their own experiences have been shown to lead to positive results on academic as well as social and behavioural measures (Lillard, 2016). A number of well-controlled studies have compared the effects of academically oriented early education classrooms with those of play-based classrooms. The results are quite consistent from study to study: Early academic training somewhat increases childrens immediate scores on the specific tests that the training is aimed at (no surprise), but these initial gains wash out within 1 to 3 years and, at least in some studies, are eventually reversed. Perhaps more tragic than the lack of long-term academic advantage of early academic instruction is evidence that such instruction can produce long-term harm, especially in the realms of #social and #emotional development. Neuroscience is beginning to uncover the neural mechanisms of the characteristics of playful experiences and how these link to learning. This is covered in a literature review titled Neuroscience and learning through play: a review of the evidence (Liu, Solis et al., 2017), and more insight is anticipated over the next decade as the technology improves enough that testing infants and young children in more naturally occurring situations (e.g., play situations) becomes more affordable and less invasive. https://www.legofoundation.com//learning-through-play_web. https://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com//what-research-tells- https://www.psychologytoday.com//early-academic-training-p #neurochild #earlychildhood #letthemplay

May 2020 will be the 50th anniversary of the abortion caravan. Do you know someone that was involved? Have them contact Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada [email protected] https://www.cbc.ca//50-years-ago-the-women-of-canada-s-abo