Life events can include the Tuesday afternoon cooking class with the group worker or the Saturday afternoon football game, but in the sense that Fritz Redl thought of them, these activities are only threads in a fabric of living that includes all the elements of daily life: playing, working, school-based learning, learning through activities,…

Michael G. Wessells, recipient of the International Humanitarian Award, is cited for his pioneering and sustained contributions to the protection of children affected by armed conflict and to the development of international guidelines for the provision of community-based, culturally responsive psychosocial support in emergencies. Wessells has…

Reiss ("The normal personality: a new way of thinking about people." Cambridge University Press, New York, 2008) empirically derived a reliable and valid taxonomy of 16 life motives ("psychological needs"). The model suggests six motivational reasons for low achievement in school. Low achievement may be motivated by fear of failure (high need for…

Patriotism can be a force for good or evil. American patriotism helped vanquish fascism; German patriotism helped create and sustain it. Wars of national liberation depend on patriotic fervor to oppose colonial rule; unfortunately, ethnic cleansing draws on this same fervor. Appeals to the transcendent value of the nation-state can be progressive…

With the large number of National Guard members and reservists being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, public educators find themselves endeavoring to support the emotional and academic needs of military children and their families. Military children may exhibit behavioral and emotional difficulties during these deployments. Educator awareness of…

The highly gifted create structures, generate ideas, and efficiently process information in ways qualitatively superior to moderately gifted and average ability individuals. Consistent, accurate, and valid feedback is more difficult to obtain, and the net effect of this is a tendency toward low self-esteem. (Author/CL)

The experiences of a home counselor for a blind infant intervention program are summarized. Discussed is the role of four areas in successful programming: (1) exposure, or the need for hands-on experience with the world to understand cause/effect and promote imagination; (2) experience of things in such a way as to provide realistic associations…

The article discusses the physiological and psychological factors that influence the regulation of body weight and reviews several approaches to weight loss. A comprehensive, multidisciplinary program for weight control is proposed. (Author/MT)

Follow-up of 24 gifted students revealed that 16 had seriously contemplated suicide and that half of these 16 had made at least one attempt. The importance of career strategies as well a strategies for creative growth was emphasized. (CL)

A case study of divorced parents of a learning disabled boy reveals the stresses involved in raising a disabled child by oneself. A counselor was able to help them focus on the child's needs for recreation opportunities as well as on their own needs as adults. (CL)

In this article, the author discusses how art helped to calm her students after the events of 9/11. What other area in the curriculum could offer such an opportunity? The author asserts in the event of a tragedy, it is appropriate to allow students to express themselves through the media and concepts with which the class is working. This will…

Adolescents possess numerous strengths and vulnerabilities based on their unique stage of development. When youth experience a disaster, whether natural or human-caused, there are certain considerations to be taken into account when providing them with support. This article describes common adolescent reactions to the impact phase of disasters as…

It is argued here that autonomy entails universal psychological needs pertaining to agency and identity formation, expressed in different ways over different developmental periods. As children develop skills and abilities related to psychological needs for self-expression and competence, they will claim areas related to the exercise of these…

The mother of a Down Syndrome boy describes her feelings regarding her younger nonhandicapped son and the need to understand and meet his needs for information and attention. (CL)

Discusses a two-phase qualitative study on parents' experiences of psychosocial needs arising from having a child with cancer over four to eight months in Singapore. Findings showed subjective burden consistently higher at both the initial stage of treatment phase and after discharge from hospital. Implications for psychosocial support for parents…