1. Empowering Children
through
Awareness and Advocacy:
Knowing our kids and helping kids know
themselves
Debra N. Brosius, Psy.D.
debrabrosius@gmail.com
Licensed Clinical Psychologist, VA & FL
Board Certification Eligible- Neuropsychology

2. Overview
• Empowerment
• Opening clinical example
• Self-awareness in the learning environment
• Predictors of success
• Delay of gratification and transparency
• Harnessing discipline to meet educational
goals
• Developing maturity in our youth

3. Process of Empowerment
• The power to move beyond
resistance at all levels
• To allow for greater
autonomy
• A capacity for greater choice
making
• Enhancing our inherent
mental capacity
• A multidimensional process
allowing people to gain
greater control over their
lives
• Viewing the individual as the
primary agent of change

4. Clinical Example
• N is a 14 yo male adolescent entering 10th
grade at an international school.
• Caucasian expat; native English speaker
• Struggling in new curriculum (science)
• Bright 115 FSIQ (V<P)
• WM 85; PSI 91
• LM scores (A<V)
• Previous hx of: ??

5. Awareness
• To perceive, to know or
to be cognizant of….
• Awareness begins with
self- examination
• Addressing deficits early
lead to better prognosis
and is less costly over
time (National Association of
School Psychologists, 2008).

6. How to?
• Analysis:
– My student…
– Is aware of his/her academic strengths
– Is aware of his/her academic weaknesses
– Is aware of his/her non-academic strengths
– Is aware of his/her non-academic weaknesses
– Is aware of his/her special talents and abilities
– Is aware of his/her feelings, opinions, and values
– Is able to match activities to strengths
– Understands his/her specific learning disability
– Accepts his/her learning disability
– Is able to "compartmentalize”
– Uses strategies to work around the learning disability
– Set goals for the academic year

7. How to?
• My student…
– Is aware of how his/her emotional reactions affect
behavior
– Is aware of situations that cause stress, frustration
and emotional upset
– Has developed strategies for avoiding or reducing
stress
– Is able to recognize the onset of stress
– Knows when outside support/help is needed

8. Success
(Raskin et al., 1999)
• 20-year longitudinal study described
successful LD kids and families (N=41 of 200+):
– Self-awareness
– Proactive
– Perseverance
– Utilizing goal setting techniques
– Utilization of support systems in the environment
– Emotional coping strategies

9. Developing Self-Awareness
• Greater awareness through observation and
constructive feedback
• Formative assessment
• Strengths and weaknesses: helping to tolerate
areas for growth/weaknesses
• Challenges to overcome: Late bloomers
• Building of resiliency- a life skill
• Openness and acceptance by student (and
parents)

11. SOS:
An academic example of formative
assessment
• PROCEDURE:
• Write a statement (one which can be argued from two
points of view) on the board.
• Give students five minutes to agree or disagree with the
statement by listing facts, data, reasons, examples, and
so on that they have learned from the
discussion, reading, or media presentation.
• Collect the S-O-S summary to assess student
understanding.
• Adjust next day’s instruction according to information
gleaned in the formative assessment.

12. Developing Proactive Students
(not aggressive and entitled)
• Encouraging students to become their own
advocate
• Collaboration and ownership by
student, instructor and parent
• Empowering students by giving them
reasonable choices throughout the day
(negotiable vs. non-negotiable).
• Assuming responsibility for actions and
consequences

13. Perseverance
• With adversity comes character building
opportunities
• “I am not a quitter; I can do hard things” and
when things are not working, learning how to
shift strategies (mental flexibility)
• Opportunities for vicarious learning, reframing
and role modeling by mentors

14. Goal-Setting
• Planning, organization and time management
• Successful individuals generally set goals that are
specific but flexible so they can adjust to context
and unforeseen circumstances.
• Prepare, evaluate, readjust
• Realistic
• Attainable
• Careful not to overinflate abilities or weaknesses

15. Executive Skills
Dawson & Guare, 2012
• Many students in middle and high school often
struggle in this area:
– Task initiation
– Working memory
– Organization (time management)
– Goal directed persistence
– Response inhibition
– Sustained attention
– Planning
– Flexibility
– Setting up a management system

16. Using tools and providing structure

17. Use of Effective Support Systems
• Multiple sources and resources:
– Family
– Friends
– Teachers
– Mentors
– Peers
• Gradual movement away from dependent
systems

18. Emotional Coping Strategies
• LD kids often experience:
stress, anxiety, depression
• Components of successful
emotional coping:
– Causes of stress
– Physiological indicators
– Accessibility to resources
(internal and external);
developing distress
tolerance

19. Transparency
• Open and facilitative communication by
parents of children with special needs.
– Spectrum of behavior
– Culturally mediated
– Social stigma & insecurity
• Multidisciplinary approach yields the best
outcome.

20. Delay of Gratification
Mischel, 1972
• Inhibition control: Biology
and a learned skill.
• Marshmallow Study
Revisited: Teaching self-
control in the context of
reliable and predictable
parenting.
• http://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=JsQMdECFnUQ

22. Delay of Gratification
in Classrooms
• Cultivate something (i.e., plants)
• Simple and variable opportunities for an end
of day award
• Visual savings: jar of marbles
• Tasks that are graded for effort not outcome
• Write down goals and hang them up
• Offer choices with a greater reward for waiting

23. Harnessing Willpower to Meet
Educational Goals
(APA, 2011 & Brooks & Goldstein, 2009)
• Self-discipline is more important than IQ in
predicting academic success.
– Strategies:
• Avoid temptations; small goals in everyday life
• Make a plan
• Consider your motivations
• Positive thinking: “I can do this”
• Fuel the willpower
• Focus on one specific goal at a time

24. Developing Maturity in Our Youth:
Our Challenge (Elmore, 2011)
• IY generation.
• More knowledge but less interpretation.
• Lack of emotional maturity
– Interventions:
• Keep commitments
• Ability to handle compliments and constructive
feedback
• Logical decision making
• Humility and openness to learning
• Ability to put others before themselves

25. Conclusion
• Questions?
• Further Clinical Examples
• Clarification

26. References
• Brooks, R & Goldstein, S. (2009). Raising a Self-Disciplined Child. Mc Graw
Hill; New York.
• Dawson & Guare (2012). Coaching Students with Executive Skills Deficits.
Guilford Press; New York.
• Elmore, T. (2011) Artificial Maturity: Helping Kids Meet the Challenge of
becoming Authentic Adults. Jossey-Bass.
• Levine, M (2001). A Mind at a Time. Simon & Shuster; New York.
• Levine & Clutch (2001). Jarvis Clutch Social Spy. EPS; USA.
• Mischel, W, Ebbesen, E. B., Zeiss, A. R. (1972). Cognitive and attentional
mechanisms in delay of gratification. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 21, 204-218.
• Raskind, M. H., Goldberg, R. J., Higgens, E. L., & Herman, K. L. (1999).
Learning Disabilities: Research and Practice, 14, (1), 35-49.
• To, T (2004). Risk markers for poor educational attainment in young
children: Results from a longitudinal national survey. Archives of Pediatrics
and Adolescent Medicine. 158, (7), 643-649.

27. Resources
• Council for Learning Disabilities (CLD) P.O. Box
40303 Overland Park, KS 66204 (913) 492-8755 Fax:
(913) 492-2546
• Division for Learning Disabilities (DLD) of the Council
for Exceptional Children (CEC) 1110 North Glebe
Road, Suite 300 Arlington, VA 22201 (703) 620-
3660 Fax: (703) 264-9494 Toll-free: (800) 328-0272
• International Dyslexia Association (IDA) Chester
Building, Suite 382 8600 LaSalle Road Baltimore, MD
21286 (410) 296-0232 Fax: (410) 321-5069
• www.socialthinking.com
• www.growingleaders.com