www.copernican.solutions

  • Home
  • About
  • Careers
  • Staff
    • David A. Perna, PhD
    • Suzanne Brooks, PsyD & NCSP
    • Molly Curcio, PsyD
    • Caitlyn Donaghey, LICSW
    • Kaeley Majewski, PsyD
    • Sherry Paden, PsyD
    • Ian Ljutich, MA, MSW
    • Alexa Myta, PsyD
    • Kristen Burke, MA
    • Akshita Pokharna, MA
    • Jennifer Havard
    • Jenifer Nesin
  • Services
  • Groups
  • College Program
  • DBT Program
  • MMT Approach
  • Training
  • Our Posts
  • Payment
    • In-Network Insurance
    • Out-of-Network Insurance
    • Insurance-Frequently Asked Questions
    • Insurance-Single Case Agreements (SCA's)
    • Insurance-Good Faith Estimates (GFE's)
  • Emergencies
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • About
  • Careers
  • Staff
    • David A. Perna, PhD
    • Suzanne Brooks, PsyD & NCSP
    • Molly Curcio, PsyD
    • Caitlyn Donaghey, LICSW
    • Kaeley Majewski, PsyD
    • Sherry Paden, PsyD
    • Ian Ljutich, MA, MSW
    • Alexa Myta, PsyD
    • Kristen Burke, MA
    • Akshita Pokharna, MA
    • Jennifer Havard
    • Jenifer Nesin
  • Services
  • Groups
  • College Program
  • DBT Program
  • MMT Approach
  • Training
  • Our Posts
  • Payment
    • In-Network Insurance
    • Out-of-Network Insurance
    • Insurance-Frequently Asked Questions
    • Insurance-Single Case Agreements (SCA's)
    • Insurance-Good Faith Estimates (GFE's)
  • Emergencies
  • Contact Us

MIT/Dyslexia/New Research: Reading Challenges are More Pervasive than Previously Thought

11/22/2018

1 Comment

 
Picture

David A. Perna, PhD
​Licensed Psychologist
Lecturer in Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School

View my profile on LinkedIn
Picture

Categories

All
1 David A. Perna
2 Caitlyn Chappell
3 Heather Corazzini
Adolescent Psychology
Anger Management
Borderline Personality Disorder
Education
Executive Function
Healthy Lifestyles
Learning Challenges
Nutrition
Social Media
Technology
Your Child
Youth Violence

"Dyslexia affects many brain regions, not just those involved with language."

 
Gabrieli-2016

Picture
MIT Researcher John Gabrieli published fascinating findings in the journal Neuron as part of his research and the research of his team (See Reference below) into the roots of dyslexia. His research revealed that dyslexia impacts many different systems within the brain which in turn impact the ability of the dyslexic child to adapt to his/her environment. 

Gabrieli also noted:
  • That there were other systems impacted in the dyslexic brain that had nothing to do with language development and aquisition.
  • He specifically noted a decrease in "Neural Adaptation." He defined this as the brain's ability to adapt to repeated information.
  • He also posited that the brain has many neural systems to work-around challenges in areas of brain funtion that are evolutionarily older. He indicated that the brain had not developed these compensatory systems in reading to date since reading is a much newer brain function. 

I found this article fits my clinical impressions of the complex nature of many child and adolescent patients who struggle with dyslexia. It also highlights the numerous systems that we need to address in our treatment in an applied clinical setting with this population. In our work, we commonly address the degree to which these patients struggle with anger outbursts, poor frustration tolerance, and impulsivity, all of which bring them to our door for treatment. In treating such a complex population, our treatment interventions are equally complex, including familial support, school support, self-esteem support, referral for specialized testing (Such as Central Auditory Processing Evaluations), and individual/family therapy that are all intertwined to address each patients specific learning/mental health concerns. 
​
It is beyond the scope of this review to reveal the complexity of this MIT team's work in this area. A thorough reading of the article that is listed below is recommended. 

Perrachione et al., 2016, Neuron 92, 1383–1397 December 21, 2016

Picture
1 Comment

Note Taking & Students-Pen vs. Keyboard

2/22/2017

3 Comments

 
Picture
David A. Perna, PhD
Licensed Psychologist
Lecturer in Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School
View my profile on LinkedIn
Picture
Image From the New York Times

Categories

All
1 David A. Perna
2 Caitlyn Chappell
Adolescent Psychology
Anger Management
Borderline Personality Disorder
Executive Function
Healthy Lifestyles
Nutrition
Social Media
Technology
Your Child
Youth Violence

Here is the 2014 New York Times article that many educators have asked me to forward to them. It focuses on the differences in note taking with a pen vs. keyboarding on a computer.  It talks about:
  • How handwritten notes increase retention of academic material
  • The proliferation of high-quality college notes on Note-Taking Apps
  • How college students  are selling notes for cash
  • Academic studies on notetaking such as Dr. Mueller’s work out of Princeton University  

​Please feel free to look at Dr. Mueller and Oppenheimer's academic article:
 
Mueller, P., & Oppenheimer D. M. (2014). The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking. Psychological Science, Vol. 25(6) 1159–1168
mueller-pam-notetaking_atricle-2016.pdf
File Size: 844 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Here is the link to the original New York Times article that was written by reporter Laura Papano:
 
Take Notes From the Pros (2014, October 31) The New York Times, Retrieved From http://nytimes.com

3 Comments

Executive Function Challenges and Anger

9/2/2016

1 Comment

 
Picture

David A. Perna, PhD
​Licensed Psychologist
Lecturer in Psychology
Department of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School

View my profile on LinkedIn
Picture

"Executive functions are viewed to be primary learning challenges that impact functioning across a variety of learning contexts." 

Many children with anger issues suffer from executive function deficits. These deficits impact their ability to make effective academic progress in school in addition to impacting their functioning in a variety of other social-learning contexts. Executive functions are viewed to be primary learning challenges that impact functioning across a variety of learning contexts. Unlike a specific learning disability, such as dyslexia, which is viewed to impact a specific learning category, such as reading, an executive function deficit generally, impacts multiple categories of learning.

For example, an attention deficit disorder would impact an individual’s ability to make progress in many learning categories, whether they are academic or social. The inability to pay attention in class can impact the ability to learn history as well as the ability to drive a car safely. Organizational deficits are pervasive as well. For example, the inability to organize one’s assignment pad would impact school performance, while it could also impact the ability to socialize with friends (calling friends to get together too late on a friday night rather than earlier in the week).

"Cognitive flexibility allows kids to adjust to the curve balls that life throws at them."

Common Executive Function Deficits
Associated with Anger Management Disorders:


1. Causal Linking Challenges:
The inability to understand that one event causes the other. An example would be a patient who thinks that his probation officer is causing him to have a limited social life, forgetting the fact that the probation officer was assigned to work with him because he had made the poor choice of assaulting another person. In this situation the patient loses track of his own behavior as the primary reason why he has lost many age-appropriate freedoms. Within school it might include the lack of understanding that completing homework will increase one’s understanding of the class material and subsequent performance on tests.

2. Organizational Deficits: 
Difficulties with the ability to keep track of details that allow the patient to successfully negotiate a myriad of social interactions and learning opportunities. An adolescent might be upset that she has misplaced her homework assignment and cannot complete her homework. However, within her social interactions she might become angry at a parents when she misplaces a slip of paper that contained a phone number that she felt was essential to her social life.

3. Sequencing Challenges:
Difficulties with the ability to keep track of sequences of events that are needed to facilitate a positive outcome in a learning situation. The inability to follow a given sequence to solve a math problem will generally result in the wrong answer. In a job situation, an adolescent might sanitize the counters of a fast-food establishment and then place a package with raw chicken onto the cleaned counter in front of his boss just prior to being terminated. A hard-working kid would have lost a job over the likelihood that his sequencing challenge could result in someone going to the hospital.

4. Time Management Issues:
Difficulties with allocating time to complete/attend events and activities that are of meaning to the patient or other people in his/her environment.  An example would include having an adolescent plan on completing a major project for school on a weekend when relatives were visiting from out of town resulting in a huge family fight. Within the social realm it might include being bombarded by complaints from peers as a result of being late for a movie. 

5. Transition Issues:
Difficulties with the ability to transition between two activities. Examples of these difficulties range from obvious difficult transitions, such as ending summer and starting school in September to less clear transitions, such as the movement from a sleeping state to a waking state each morning. The resulting morning tirades can be overwhelming for parents. Within a middle school environment the process by which kids constantly move from class to class could prompt a student with this challenge to feel unsettled throughout the school day. As soon as he feels settled in class the bell rings and he has to head off to the next one. As the day progresses the sense of stress increases to the point where an explosion can occur in the last period of the day.

6. Cognitive Flexibility:
The ability to learn new ways of coping with ever-changing stressors in a fluid manner. This issue is many times referred to as the ability to be prepared for all of the “Curve balls” that life throws one’s way. A child who was taught one way of solving a math problem using long division in 5th grade becomes enraged when her 6th grade teacher introduces a new method. Or in social settings it might represent the ability to quickly respond to the fickle interests of a peer group who wanted to go to the mall on Friday night when plans were made earlier that day during school lunch, to the movies when plans were made at 6PM Friday night, and out for food at 9PM when all the peers at the theater realized that the popular kids were having dinner at a nearby Shake Shack. For the average teen popularity always tops planning, however, for the teen with cognitive flexibility issues the plan is written in stone. This skill challenge is closely tied to transitioning challenges and challenges in understanding other people’s perspectives (theory of mind).

7. Memory:
The ability to remember information in a manner that allows it to be readily available for quick and efficient access. For example, a child might erupt at the thought that he had to get his hair cut when in fact both parents informed him of the hair cut days earlier. In school it might include the embarrassment of walking into class on a Monday morning and being handed a test by the teacher after forgetting to study over the weekend.


8. Generalization:
​The ability to generalize from one situation to the other. For example, a student is told not to write on his desk at school, which he agrees not to do, but is then caught writing on a table in the cafeteria. In such a situation the child may be incredibly frustrated that the teacher did not clarify this issue to a greater extent and may become highly focused on the fact that he has not written on his desk since the teacher asked him to stop. The connection between the two situations is simply not apparent to the student, while the teacher may start to feel that the student is playing him/her. In reality the student is simply clueless to the connection between the two contexts. 




Categories

All
1 David A. Perna
2 Caitlyn Chappell
3 Heather Corazzini
4 Alexis Chirban
Adolescent Psychology
Anger Management
Borderline Personality Disorder
Cultural Awareness
DBT Techniques
Diversity
Education
Executive Function
Healthy Lifestyles
Learning Challenges
Mindfulness
Nutrition
Social Media
Technology
Your Child
Youth Violence

1 Comment

    COPERNICAN CLINICAL SERVICES

    ​Welcome To Our Posts

    At Copernican Clinical Services we feel that KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. Our Posts Section represents our way of passing that Knowledge on to you. Please feel free to  to share our posts with your friends, family, and/or other professionals who might find them helpful.

    Have a Great Day!

    Archives

    November 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2019
    November 2018
    February 2017
    January 2017
    September 2016
    March 2016
    June 2015

    Categories

    All
    1 David A. Perna
    2 Caitlyn Chappell
    3 Heather Corazzini
    4 Alexis Chirban
    Adolescent Psychology
    Anger Management
    Borderline Personality Disorder
    COVID-19-Home Schooling
    Cultural Awareness
    DBT Techniques
    Diversity
    Education
    Executive Function
    Health
    Healthy Lifestyles
    Learning Challenges
    Mindfulness
    Nutrition
    Social Media
    Substance Use/Abuse
    Technology
    Your Child
    Youth Violence

    RSS Feed

Picture

Copernican Clinical Services:
"We Help People Change"

​​Therapy For:
Children/Adolescents/​Adults/ Families

Reach Out To Us At:
Ph: 617-244-2700
Fx: 617-244-2774

E-mail: admin.help@copernican.solutions

​
​© COPYRIGHT 2020 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED COPERNICAN CLINICAL SERVICES, A SUBSIDIARY OF COPERNICAN BUSINESS SOLUTIONS, INC .
Newton Location:
44 Thornton Street,
Newton, MA 02458

​


​Lexington Location:
35 Bedford Street
Suite #8: First Floor
Courtyard Entrance
​Lexington, MA 02420