Spread the Word: Branding and Marketing Your School Counseling Program

A few years ago my part-time counselor and I presented on branding and marketing a school counseling program at our state SCA conference. Here is a link to our PowerPoint
Spread the Word We chose the iHelp logo because that was the year our school began the one-to-one imitative giving iPads to all students. We continue to use the iHelp logo on our materials. Pictured above is my office door. The students think the see through (window) labeled "Live cam" is very funny. Public relations for counseling programs is an ongoing responsibility. Every year we have new staff and students who need to be informed about what we do. Despite all our efforts, not a week goes by that I don't receive an email from a parent that begins with a phrase like "I don't know if it is appropriate to ask you for this kind of help..." We also do LOTS of online marketing especially via our Blog and Twitter feed. We are beginning the process to lobby our school board to reduce our counselor:student ratio, hoping to eventually get to 1:250 at all levels. Please think about how you can promote school counseling programs and join ASCA and your state SCA so they can lobby for more school counseling positions! Follow me on Twitter @mbmccormac

Is it ADHD or Trauma?

Symptoms of child traumatic stress could be mistaken for ADHD and that the risk of misdiagnosis is high. This is because there is an overlap between ADHD symptoms and the effects of experiencing trauma. Unless symptoms are examined closely, the profiles of child traumatic stress and ADHD can appear to be similar. For example:
 Young children who experience trauma may have symptoms of hyperactivity and disruptive
behavior that resemble ADHD.
 Trauma can make children feel agitated, troubled, nervous, and on alert. These behaviors
can be mistaken for hyperactivity.
 What might seem like inattention in children who experience trauma might actually be
symptoms of dissociation (feelings of unreality or being outside of one’s body) or the result of
avoidance of trauma reminders.
 Among children who experience trauma, intrusive thoughts or memories of trauma (e.g.,
feeling like it is happening all over again) may lead to confused or agitated behavior which
can resemble the impulsivity of ADHD.
Overlapping symptoms can make it difficult to obtain a correct diagnosis, which can complicate both
assessment and counseling.
Read more about this adhd_and_child_traumatic_stress

ADHD Self-Regulation and Executive Function

ADHD is the most common disorder in children. The percent of children estimated to have ADHD has changed over time and can vary by how it is measured. The American Psychiatric Association states in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5, 2013) that 5% of children have ADHD. However, other studies in the US have estimated higher rates in community samples.

As school counselors it is important to know a lot about ADHD because students with this disorder are frequently referred for small groups. Learn more about ADHD from the best adhd
Here is an article from ASCA on collaborative classroom and behavioral evidence-based strategies that counselors can recommend to teachers and parents Students-With-ADHD The government suggest counselors assist these children by providing teacher training on effective practices eric.ed

School counselors also offer small groups for students who need self-regulation and behavioral support strategies-for-students Counseling is an effective intervention for ADHD because it addresses behavior modification. Children with ADHD can have a difficult time regulating their emotional and behavioral response to situations. Learning effective coping strategies is one way to gain control over symptoms. Counselors can also help with the development of a plan for organization and prioritization, key areas of difficulty for those with ADHD. Goal setting, reward and consequence, and emotional regulation are other areas that are addressed during counseling groups.

I do not like to run a group of all students with ADHD unless I have at least one role model. I also never name a group anything that makes it obvious a difference the members may have so I call them names like Remote Controllers, Super Selfies, Turtles. The group sessions need to be very active and engaging. In my groups for younger kids I focus on regulating their bodies and feelings. A good resource for activities for groups in grades 3-5 is Caselman"s Teaching Kids Impulse Control.

More Self-regulation Resources

This pack of large cards from  yoga4classroomsactivity-card-deck have great movement and breath work activities that are perfect for small groups and could be used with individuals and class lessons too. They promote self-awareness and if you go to the site you can receive 6 free downloads if you subscribe. I really like the "Peace Crawl" because in addition to using bilateral movement it has a chant that goes with the movement. I think chanting while moving further calms the brain and reinforces helpful behaviors that promote self-regulation. Conductor breath is great because it incorporates gross motor movement of large muscles in tune with the breath. I find that students self-regulate better when they learn to do helpful gross motor movement much faster than just giving them a fidget which is only going to use small muscles.

Yoga for Self-Regulation

We have an increasing number of students referred to group counseling for self-regulation. I find that before they can focus they need to get in touch with their bodies through movement.I start with a movement activity like mindful walking or cross crawl marching. Then I have them work their bodies by doing yoga in these groups. I based this ABC list on the book The ABCs of Yoga for Kids by Teresa Powers. I prefer mostly standing poses so I made this list. After the yoga centering at the beginning I do a few breathing activities. I try to make these fun so we may do pinwheel breathing or use straws to breathe a fetaher around the table. For more resources check out 

zensationalkids.com

Recognize - Is it MOO?

One of the hardest part of bullying prevention is for students to be able to recognize if a situation is bullying or it is a lesser problem that kids can solve on their own. This year I have enlisted by cow puppet to teach MOO. Since this is a new strategy I am doing it K-5. In K-1 I have created some basic handouts with a cute cow outline the kids can color and the word recognize. This is my second grade handout featuring the Second Step poster (Help Stop Bullying 3 Rs) and requiring them to fill in the key words strong and respectful. An assertive response is required for most bullying (except perhaps physical). For the upper grades I add an additional O for one-sided and talk about fairness and negative power. The teachers and students have all enjoyed my first lessons of the year about bullying featuring Mean, On purpose, Over and over (and One-sided). I always send the Home Link Handout provided by Second Step that informs parents about our bullying program and gives suggestions how they can practice refusal skills at home.

Evidence-based Bullying Prevention

All fifty states in the United States have passed school anti-bullying legislation, the first being Georgia in 1999 and Montana the last in 2015. A watchdog organization called Bully Police USA bullypolice  advocates for and reports on anti-bullying legislation. States have clear policies about bullying and you must follow what your own state requires. For example, this year Virginia passed additional bullying legislation which requires principles to notify parents of any alleged bullying within 5 days. Virginia has several valuable resources for schools prevention/bullying/ Here is a list from 2016 listing evidence-based programs to address bullying bullying-prevention-curriculum. I know it is not totally up-to-date because it still lists Steps to Respect but the Committee for Children has transitioned to Second Step Bullying Unit (pictured above) which is very similar but more up-to-date. Bullying programs make a difference, in schools that have an anti-bullying program, bullying is reduced by 50%. Many school counselors facilitate the bullying prevention program in their schools. ASCA offers bullying-prevention-specialist-training if you feel you need more training on this critical topic.

Who Gets Bullied at School

People can be mean and those who bully often target someone who is perceived as "different" than their peers. It could be a student who is gifted or has a special talent. Students with food allergies are targeted and blamed for school's tightening policies about food being served at class parties. If a student has a physical feature that is noticeable like large ears or being short, that can make him/her a target. Students who have a limited number of friends, are introverted, or socially anxious are often harassed. They get called "retarded" because they rarely speak in groups. Adults need to be very vigilant and responsive to bullying. It frequently is done when peers can see it and hear it but the one doing the bullying thinks the adult won't notice or is not around. If a student is bullied and reports it to an adult, the adult must receive the report in a way that is helpful. Never tell a child to ignore bullying. Bullying is a repeated pattern of behavior that will likely occur again. When adults in a school are not responsive to bullying reports kids stop reporting bullying but bullying is still happening!

UNITY DAY: Together against bullying.

United for kindness, acceptance and inclusion. Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Make it ORANGE and make it end! What are your true colors when it comes to bullying? If you care about safe and supportive schools and communities make your color ORANGE on Unity Day. That’s the day everyone can come together – in schools, communities, and online – and send one large ORANGE message of support, hope, and unity to show that we are together against bullying and united for kindness, acceptance and inclusion. Learn more at pacer.org They have great resources for kids, parents, and educators.

My school participates every year in Unity Day. For the past few years I have involved the SCA by giving them a mini lesson about Unity Day and then having them make the posters that are displayed during October for Bullying Prevention Month. The one pictured above is simple and cute. We hung it on the front door of our main office.

October is Bullying Prevention Month - Stop Bullying On the Spot

We use this bulletin board every other October because all our students know the story of Spookley the square pumpkin who was bullied by the round pumpkins. Lessons are available here pacer.org/bullying/classroom/elementary/spookley/
It helps reinforce the Second Step Bullying Unit lessons I teach and the literatur based lessons led by our classroom teachers, administrators, and librarian. This year we waited until the latter half of the month to start talking to the kids about bullying. Our district uses a common scope and sequence and the elementary counselors agreed we needed to talk about accidents and empathy before bullying. We use all the Committee for Children products and these are early lessons in Second Step. If you do not have the money for Second Step check out the resources on the government website stopbullying.gov

Books to Help Children with Anxiety

I recently found these 3 great resources to help my students who struggle with high levels of anxiety. A Small Thing ... but Big explains systematic desensitization in a kid friendly way - the girl overcomes her fear of dogs. Upper elementary students can learn about the same process by reading School of Fear. I always tell parents and children that trying to manage anxiety if like the Wack-a-Mole game at the arcade because you might get separation anxiety under control and then it pops up as social anxiety or a specific fear.  Therefore I think this new release has the perfect cover. I have it on pre-order from Amazon but I am hoping they will have a copy at our state SCA conference this week. Reading about the struggle of others with anxiety helps normalize the experience and teach strategies. I read A Small Thing... but Big to my emotion management group.

You Cue Feelings

I am always looking for good resources to teach children about emotions. We want to them to have good feeling vocabulary so they can understand and label the various levels of basic feelings. We also want children to make the connection between feelings and thoughts.  Dr. Ann Vagin has a good book called "You Cue Feelings", a website socialtime.org, and a You Tube channel. Dr. Vagin likes to use online videos as the stimulus to teach children about feelings. I prefer to use children's literature. The book pictured above "Ready for Anything!" is a great one to use in emotion regulation groups to stimulate discussion of emotions and how different thoughts cause different feelings. For example, one character is nervous about going on a picnic because what if there are bees. The other character wanted to go on a picnic because what if there are butterflies. After reading and discussing pleasant and unpleasant feelings and thoughts and the book, the students identify a comfortable and uncomfortable and the associated thoughts. Dr. Vagin has lists of her favorite videos to teach feelings on her website and in her book.