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2008 NASP Convention Featured Sessions

Featured sessions are specifically relevant to the convention theme and are presented by leading international experts who are invited to speak by the NASP president. This year’s featured sessions include a wide variety of presentations, which are detailed below.

NASP Distinguished Lecture: Is Resilience an Evidence-Based Concept? Thoughts From the Latest Bandwagon (FS01)

10:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 6

Sam Goldstein, PhD, Professor, George Mason University, VA, and Practitioner with the Neurology, Learning and Behavior Center, Salt Lake City, UT

In this multimedia presentation, 2008 Distinguished Lecturer Sam Goldstein traces the historical, scientific and popular concepts of resilience as a driving force in the new positive psychology. He asks (and answers) whether the theoretical tenets of the resilience model are worthy of the rapid growth of this model in applied psychological practice, education, and the broader culture.

The study of resilience has expanded significantly over the past 20 years. Interest in understanding risk and protective factors and their operation has accelerated, as has determining whether this information can be distilled into clinically relevant interventions that increase positive outcomes for youth facing risk. Studies also examine whether resilience can be applied preventively to the population of children in general using educational and community models. Indeed, meta-analytic studies of preventive intervention effectiveness have generated increasing evidence of the ability to reduce the numbers of youth with certain emotional and psychiatric problems through an understanding of the forces that shape life outcome. Dr. Goldstein addresses whether research is sufficient to justify the increasingly popular concept that resilience may not only serve as a powerful antidote for the myriad challenges and adversities children face today but also guide the practices of education, mental health, and parenting long into the future.

Sam Goldstein, PhD, NCSP, is research professor of psychology at George Mason University and a clinical psychologist working in a private practice setting as part of a multidisciplinary team, providing evaluation, case management, and treatment services for children and adults. Dr. Goldstein is a nationally recognized expert on neuropsychological disorders, behavior, learning disabilities, and resiliency. He is on staff at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City and the University of Utah Neuropsychiatric Institute and has served as a member of the hospital’s craniofacial team.

Dr. Goldstein holds Diplomate and Fellow status with multiple professional organizations and is a member of numerous parent and health organization boards. He has authored, coedited, or coauthored numerous books, book chapters, and professional publications. He serves as coeditor for the Guilford Press series, Risk and Resilience and is editor of the Journal of Attention Disorders. His recent books with Robert Brooks include Raising A Self-Disciplined Child (McGraw-Hill, 2007) and Understanding and Managing Children’s Classroom Behavior: Creating Sustainable, Resilient Classrooms (Wiley, 2007). Past bestsellers include Raising Resilient Children. With Dr. Jack Naglieri he is coediting the Encyclopedia of Child Development (Springer Publishers). Dr. Goldstein also will be discussing his newest book, Understanding and Managing Children’s Classroom Behavior: Creating Sustainable, Resilient Classrooms, 2nd Edition, during the NASP Book Group Gathering, 10:00–11:00 a.m., Thursday, February 7.

Sam Goldstein

NASP Legends in School Psychology Address: Serendipity and Mentorship Along the Research-to-Practice Journey (FS02)

3:00–4:20 p.m., Wednesday, February 6

Cathy F. Telzrow, PhD, ABPP, (retired 2007) Professor and Coordinator of the School Psychology Program, Kent State University, Hudson, OH

Dr. Telzrow’s 35-year professional career represents a laudable exemplar of school psychology’s scientist-practitioner. In work settings ranging from public schools to a special education regional resource center to a university training program, Dr. Telzrow continually challenged herself and other researchers and practitioners in school psychology to answer the “so what?” questions. In her 2008 Legends Address, she reflects on a professional journey toward the confluence of research and practice. She highlights two features of this journey: (a) the role of serendipity in offering up opportunities and life lessons, and (b) the ways in which heroes, great and small, shaped and enriched the experience and fostered a continuing cycle of professional mentorship.

Cathy Telzrow, PhD, ABPP, retired from Kent State University in 2007, where she was professor and coordinator of the School Psychology Program for the previous 10 years. Prior to joining the KSU faculty in 1997, Dr. Telzrow worked as a school psychologist and special education administrator for 25 years. She has authored and coauthored dozens of publications related to assessment and intervention for students with disabilities and the effects of public policy on school psychological practice. Dr. Telzrow has been the recipient of numerous awards for scholarship, leadership, and professional service over her 35-year career in school psychology.

Resilience, School Psychology, and the Schooll Mental Health Movement (FS03)

9:00–9:50 a.m., Thursday, February 7

Mark D. Weist, PhD, Professor and Director, Center for School Mental Health Analysis and Action University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD

School mental health programs and services are growing in the United States and other countries. These programs ideally reflect a shared agenda, with families, schools, and community partners working closely together to develop, implement, and continuously improve a full continuum of mental health promotion for students in general and special education. School psychology is playing an instrumental role in this movement, which is increasingly focusing on strategies to promote student mental health and resilience. However, the movement faces many challenges, including stigma, limited support in many communities, poor support for high-quality and evidence-based practices, and fragmented advocacy. This presentation presents key themes in the growing school mental health movement, reviews critical roles for school psychology within it, summarizes challenges and strategies to overcome them, and emphasizes school mental health’s critical roles in promoting resilience in children and adolescents. Networks and resources to advance the work also are presented.

Mark D. Weist, PhD, received his clinical child psychology degree from Virginia Tech in 1991 and is currently a professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Maryland. He directs a program in 27 Baltimore schools, and a federally funded national center focused on the advancement of high-quality school mental health promotion. Dr. Weist has edited four books and has published and presented widely in the school mental health field. With colleagues from the Clifford Beers Foundation and University of Maryland, he has started the new journal Advances in School Mental Health Promotion.

When No One Understands: Enhancing the Resilience of Adolescents and Their Families (FS04)

10:00–11:20 a.m., Friday, February 8

Brad Sachs, PhD, Director, The Father Center, Columbia, MD

Adolescence is a profound juncture in the family’s development that entails every member striking a new balance between continuity and change, between separateness and attachment. This balancing act requires each generation to find ways to grieve for what is being lost in order to cultivate what will be gained. The adolescent must grieve for the death of her childhood in preparation for making the transformation into young adulthood. The parents must grieve for the death of their influence over and relevance to their teen in preparation for discovering or reclaiming sources of meaning and purpose in their lives other than parenthood.

When parents and adolescents are unable to recognize and resolve the depths of this unavoidable grief, anguish is the inevitable result, anguish that can express itself in numerous ways, in either generation. Symptoms of thought, mood, and anxiety disorders; psychosomatic illness; chemical dependencies; eating disorders; promiscuity; under- and over-achievement; and relational instability can all be understood as manifestations of an essential family mourning process that has been hindered or gone awry. When parents and adolescents are able to find ways to constructively grieve, however, the resilience of both generations is enhanced, leading to growth, renewal, and healthy evolution. Featured speaker Dr. Brad Sachs explores the complexity of this dramatic developmental passage so that educators and clinicians can more effectively intervene with courage, creativity, and compassion when adolescent anguish spurs teens and their parents to seek assistance and support.

Brad Sachs, PhD, is a psychologist specializing in clinical work with children, adolescents, couples, and families in Columbia, Maryland, and the founder and director of The Father Center, a program designed to meet the needs of new, expectant, and experienced fathers.

Education for All: Addressing LGBT Issues in Our Schools (FS05)

1:00–2:20 p.m., Friday, February 8

Kevin Jennings, Executive Director, GLSEN, New York, NY

For many schools, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues are an emerging area of concern—and one that few feel they can address well. School psychologists can play a vital role in supporting the needs of LGBT students in terms of both education and prevention and direct intervention for individual students. This featured session will help educate participants on the basics of sexual orientation, sexual behavior, and sexual identity, as well as of issues of gender identity and expressions. Speaker Kevin Jennings highlights how anti- LGBT prejudice manifests itself in schools—to the detriment of the learning process for all students. He explains the unique stresses on LGBT youth and how these stresses impair their educational performance and he discusses interventions that have proved to create more inclusive classroom and school environments.

Kevin Jennings is founder and director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (www.GLSEN.org). He is a writer, teacher, and activist who served as the faculty adviser to the nation’s first Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at Concord (Massachusetts) Academy in 1988. Under his leadership, GLSEN has made safe schools for LGBT students into a national issue, increased the number of students protected from harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity by over 600%, and increased the number of GSAs from under 50 in 1995 to over 3,600 today. GLSEN programs like GSAs, No Name-Calling Week, and Day of Silence are now commonplace in America’s schools. Mr. Jennings was named to Newsweek magazine’s Century Club as one of “100 people to watch in the new century” and is also the recipient of the Human and Civil Rights Award of the National Education Association. Mr. Jennings is the author of six books, including Always My Child; A Parent’s Guide to Understanding Your Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender or Questioning Son or Daughter and Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son: A Memoir. He also helped write and produce the documentary Out of the Past, which won the 1998 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for best documentary film.

Risk, Resilience, Autistic Traits: Social Development in the General Population (FS06)

3:00–3:50 p.m., Friday, February 8

John N. Constantino, MD, Associate Professor of Child Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO

Recent research has revealed that autism is not a discrete disorder; rather, it is an extreme form of a continuously distributed trait. This presentation covers implications of this paradigm shift on diagnosis, prevalence, assessment of risk and resilience, genetics, and recognition of how quantitative impairments in the autism spectrum may affect undiagnosed children.

John N. Constantino, MD, is associate professor of child psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine. He has pioneered the development of quantitative methods for measuring reciprocal social behavior, generating new insights into the genetic and neurobiologic causes of autism and new opportunities for rapid assessment of autistic syndromes in educational settings.

Trauma Through the Eyes of a Child: How to Understand and Help Traumatized Children and Adolescents (FS07)

10:00–11:20 a.m., Saturday, February 9

Joy D. Osofsky, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA

Understanding effects of trauma exposure related to the developmental level of the child helps guide and frame ways to respond to and support children and adolescents in the aftermath of a disaster. Featured speaker and renowned child psychologist Joy Osofsky reviews the cognitive, emotional, and social effects of trauma exposure on children of different ages. Dr. Osofsky reviews the potential needs of teachers as well as children in reestablished schools postdisaster. She presents school-based interventions and strategies to support school personnel in dealing with traumatized children as well as a description of psychological first aid for teachers and schools. The featured session also includes a discussion of vicarious traumatization, burnout, compassion fatigue, and the need for self-care. Audience participation is encouraged.

Joy D. Osofsky, PhD, is a clinical and developmental psychologist and professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. She is head of the Division of Pediatric Mental Health. Dr. Osofsky is director of the Harris Center for Infant Mental Health at the university’s Health Sciences Center and codirector of the Louisiana Rural Trauma Services Center within the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, she served as the clinical director for child and adolescent initiatives for Louisiana Spirit, the State Office of Mental Health Crisis Services Program. Her book, Young Children and Trauma: Intervention and Treatment, includes contributions related to mental health, child welfare, the judiciary, and law enforcement. Dr. Osofsky is past-president of Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families, is pastpresident of the World Association for Infant Mental Health, and served on the Pew Commission for Children in Foster Care. Since 1997, she has consulted with Judge Cindy Lederman, administrative judge of the juvenile court in Miami/Dade County related to the development and evaluation of programs to benefit high-risk children and families in court.