Happy August! Many of you will be getting back at it this month and with that comes new folders, new markers, and now, new forms! Whether you’re a new school social worker just starting out or looking to update the outdated forms you’ve been using since the mid 90’s, the pack is sure to meet ...

As a clinical social worker, I often worry about my clients. Besides working with a higher-risk population that have had hospitalizions in the past year, I’m a human being and I care about my clients. I especially have a soft spot for people suffering with hopelessness, feelings of worthlessness, and depression. It’s a hell I’m…

It is important for parents to understand the difference between IEP vs 504. IEPs have more safeguards in place to ensure schools provide the right support.

Games can be the perfect tool to introduce and teach social emotional learning skills to kids and young adults. These are the skills that help kids become more self-aware, develop positive relationships, show empathy towards others, manage emotions, use self-control, resolve conflicts, and make posi

Check out these 22 easy ways you can integrate and use social emotional learning in your classroom that won't take up a lot of time.

I was in a heated IEP meeting one time, and a teacher angrily blurted out, 'What do you want from me? Do you want me

Social Emotional Workshop offers practical tools for social emotional learning and counseling.

Working with kids and young adults who are oppositional can be challenging. Being oppositional might mean refusing to do work, breaking rules, and engaging in other challenging behaviors. The truth is, many kids can be oppositional from time to time, so many of these strategies work with all learner

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Throughout my years teaching middle school, I have had the experience of seeing many "work refusals". These are the situations when kids, for a variety of reasons, just refuse to start the work you give them. They might shut down and rest their head on their desk or lash out in anger, shouting about

A sorting activity from the Self-Control Unit of the Social Emotional Learning curriculum. Work through these scenarios as a group to help build valuable skills. This curriculum is flexible, no prep, and easy to implement.

The A to Z of Coping Skills display poster for you to use to talk about coping strategies and worksheet for children to come up with their own strategies.

Applying for graduate school is a big step! Whether you are just graduating with your bachelor’s in social work or you have been out for a few years, preparing that application takes time, energy, and careful consideration. Your grades are only one

Resources, tips, and materials to help you, help children with autism

Do you need warm up ideas? I want to share 3 warm up ideas for social studies classes with you. These are engaging and easy to implement!

Today I'm excited to have Corrina from From Mrs. Allen's Teaching Files here to share a really fun and exciting activity to use when talking about self control. Self control is such a hard

A crisis plan (sometimes called a safety plan) can sound intimidating, but think of it like a tool: a gameplan for navigating the worst days.

Our free If Feelings Could Talk SEL poster teaches kids about what different emotions such as worry, anger, and resentment mean.

November 16, 2018

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Two helpful acronyms for social workers taking the LMSW (or LCSW) social work licensing exam.

This article reviews some of the essential functions of case managers. Case managers play an important role in the healthcare system.

Working with kids and young adults who are oppositional can be challenging. Being oppositional might mean refusing to do work, breaking rules, and engaging in other challenging behaviors. The truth is, many kids can be oppositional from time to time, so many of these strategies work with all learner

Free printable list of calm down tools and toys for older kids and teens

I-statements (I-messages): Examples and fun worksheets to help your family develop an assertive communication style and improve conflict resolution

Using social stories to teach social skills gives students direct and meaningful direction in learning essential social skills.

If you think I have the answers here, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. I'm far from having any answers.

Social Skills IEP Goals Bank, includes Goals and Objectives for preschool, Kindergarten, Autism, Peer Interaction and much more.

A 2nd grade winter early finishers social emotional worksheet that makes students think about things they can and cannot control.

BOOM! is an easy and active review game that works well for any subject. This review game for middle or high school students is SO MUCH FUN! I play this in my classroom before test day. It could be used for math, science, social studies or any other subject!

A description of Tier 3 interventions in MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports)

This is part two of a very occasional series of posts about my take on different psychological theories. Earlier this year I took a look at Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological approach to life. Who knew this would be my most popular post? As of this evening, over 4,430 people have viewed that blog entry. I'm thankful that the post is so popular: my human met him once and found him to be a very kind man. Children love and want to be loved and they very much prefer the joy of accomplishment to the triumph of hateful failure. Do not mistake a child for his symptom. -- Erik Erikson Today we draw our attention to Erik Homberger Erikson. Please note, this is someone radically different from the conservative commentator Erick Erickson. The two would have very little in common in their world views. Erik was born on June 15, 1902 in Frankfort am Main, Germany. After graduating from high school, he moved to Florence Italy to study art. By 1927 he was teaching a a psychoanalytically informed school for children in Vienna that was started by Dorothy Burlingham and Anna Freud. Deeply influenced by this work, Erikson earned a certificate from the Maria Montessori School and later did psychoanalytic training at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute. After graduating from the psychoanalytic institute in 1933, Erikson and his wife fled the Nazis who had come to power in Germany. His long career included positions at Massachusetts General Hospital Judge Baker Guidance Center, Harvard Medical School, and University of California Berkeley. While in California Erikson studied children on a Sioux reservation for a year as well as children in the and Yurok tribe. Erikson left Berkeley when professors were asked to sign a loyalty oath. He returned to Massachusetts first working at the Austen Riggs Center for a decade and finally returning to Harvard. He remained a professor of human development at Harvard University until he retired in 1970. Erik Erikson's highest academic degree was a high school diploma. In 1973 the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Erikson for the Jefferson Lecture, which is the US government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture was entitled "Dimensions of a New Identity." Enough background information. Onto the good stuff. This chart is the most commonly learned distillation of Erikson's work. Sorry his name is spelled wrong in the chart. It seems there is a lot of confusion about the proper spelling of his name. The spelling I'm using, Erik Erikson, is the correct way. So when you think about it, puppy development and human development isn't all that different. I'm not so sure dogs really ever get past adolescence. That's okay though, I think you all like us just the way we are. Here is Erikson's theory, as it applies to humans, in a nutshell: The infant's first social achievement, then, is his willingness to let the mother out of sight without undue anxiety or rage, because she has become an inner certainty as well as an outer predictability. -- Erik Erikson Early in life both babies and puppies face a crisis: trust versus mistrust. If the world is safe enough, and we are cared for well enough, we develop a sense of stability and security. If we work through this well we approach the world with a confident curiosity. If problems happen (abuse, neglect, deprivation) we learn the world is unsafe, we lose our curiosity, and become closed off and hidden. We learn to hope. Always moving forward, our next crisis is autonomy versus doubt. Ever spend time with a two year old that constantly says no? Play a game with a very young child who insists on controlling every dimension of the game? Early on, youngsters learn a delicate balance between autonomy and interdependence. How many parents, in a demand for discipline, demand complete obedience from their children at all times? Too much of a demand for a child to bend to the will of an adult can create deep feelings of shame, incompetence, and out of control behaviors. Striking a successful balance creates creatures who remain curious, have built in self control, and have a certain degree of autonomy. We learn will. Children must eventually train their own children, and any impoverishment of their impulse life, for the sake of avoiding friction, must be considered a possible liability affecting more than one lifetime. -- Erik Erikson Next up comes initiative versus guilt.Young ones busy themselves learning about the world around them. Square pegs fit in square holes. Round pegs fit in round holes. Sugar spilled on the floor makes mom crabby. We learn to count, speak, and ask for things with ease. We start to engage in activities. We want to play with that game. We want to walk in this direction. We start to take risks and learn how to keep ourselves safe (look both ways before we cross the street!). Good enough parents encourage and support children's efforts toward their own goal directed activities in realistic ways. When things go wrong and parents actively discourage children's independent activities (or belittle their activities), children can develop guilt about their needs, desires, and activities. We learn purpose. The next crisis we all face is industry versus inferiority. During these years, our primary years of school, we find our self confidence. Now having developed goal directed activity, our activity becomes productive. We create the things we need. Words come together to form sentences. Sentences come together to form paragraphs. Paragraphs come together to form stories. Good enough parents share a sense of excitement in what their children create. When things go wrong, and children are ridiculed or unable to meet adult expectations, children internalize a sense of inferiority We learn competence. Every adult, whether he is a follower or a leader, a member of a mass or of an elite, was once a child. He was once small. A sense of smallness forms a substratum in his mind, ineradicably. His triumphs will be measured against this smallness, his defeats will substantiate it. The questions as to who is bigger and who can do or not do this or that, and to whom—these questions fill the adult's inner life far beyond the necessities and the desirabilities which he understands and for which he plans. -- Erik Erikson As childhood rolls into adolescence, we face the crisis of identity versus role confusion. Having built confidence in our abilities, we start to look for our place in our world. We ask the question "Who am I and where am I going?" In this time of development we find ourselves at a crossroad of development where we consolidate the rapid development of childhood and walk across the bridge to adulthood. Given enough time and space to explore the different roles society has to offer us, a young person can freely experiment and explore many different kinds of identities. A good enough parent will let their adolescents stretch and reach into all sorts of different identities while also offering some loose protective boundaries. Restrictive and domineering parents can clip the experiences of an adolescent and prevent them from finding a sense of identity that can haunt them long into their adulthood. We learn our identity. As our adolescence grows into young adulthood, we grapple with issues of intimacy versus isolation. Having found our identities we no longer need to destroy things that threaten our sense of self. We ask of ourselves if we are loved and wanted, and whether we will share our life with someone or live alone. Done well we find ourselves forming long-term commitments to others through intimate and reciprocal relationships. Done poorly, we find ourselves isolated. We learn love. As young adulthood moves into middle adulthood, we face the crisis of generativity versus stagnation. We ask of ourselves, "Will produce something of real value?" We find our way to contribute to society developing a sense of generativity, productivity, and accomplishment. Through our work we provide something toward the betterment of society and future generations. Done poorly we feel stagnated, dissatisfied, and disconnected from a sense of purpose. We learn care. As adults grow into elders, we face the crisis of ego integrity versus despair. Our work gradually slows and our attention turns inward toward contemplating our accomplishments. Done well, we see ourselves has having created a successful life. Done poorly we review our lives and feel we haven't reached our goals and we despair. We learn wisdom. Healthy children will not fear life if their elders have the integrity enough not to fear death. -- Erik Erikson

Seriously, pat yourself on the back.

Prompting Hierarchy- How I got duped! What you need to know about the prompting hierarchy. Snag the infographic and info perfect for working with your staff!

These effective de-escalation strategies help parents, or caregivers, defuse meltdowns & outbursts in children. These de-escalation strategies will....

If you have worked with a BCBA in the past, it is likely that you have heard the term FUNCTIONS OF BEHAVIOR. BCBAs look at function to determine WHY

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and Conduct Disorder (CD) are among the prevalent disruptive behaviors in both children and adolescents. These disorders are under the “Disruptive, Impulse-Control, and Conduct Disorders” in the fifth edition of the

The miracle is in how well it seems to be working in real classrooms, at all grade levels, across the country.

When it seems like the only word they know is "no."

Oppositional defiant disorder is a type of behavior disorder that is diagnosed in childhood. As the name implies, children with ODD are defiant and may be hostile towards everyone around them. These are the students that always get into trouble despite numerous attempts to teach them the consequences of their actions.

Giving your child the power to make choices is an important strategy for any parent. It allows children to have some control over their own lives. Which in turn can help you avoid those dreaded power struggles.

I'm sure we've all heard this term before. If you are a teacher, especially a special educator, you know this term well. You might...