Children living with uncertainty and insecurity often have difficulty focusing on learning. They might demonstrate disrespectful or defiant behaviors, act out, or act with aggression. As an educator, you may provide the only stability in their otherwise turbulent world. "Making It Better" explains trauma-­informed education, an approach…

Teachers of gifted children are addressed in a discussion of dealing with feelings of gifted students. Combining respect for their skills and talents with an ability to manage and confront their manipulation is considered. (CL)

A sandplay technique is explained to have helped learning and reading disabled students get in touch with their feelings as well as to have improved their reading skills. (CL)

Examines the coming of age experiences in the protagonists in Josefina Lopez's play "Simply Maria" and Jose Cruz Gonzalez's play "The Highest Heaven." Highlights how two Mexican-American protagonists face the personal challenges of adolescent adjustment as well as the geopolitical difficulties of adapting to two distinct cultures. (PM)

A teacher recounts her handling of the deaths of two junior high students, summarizes five stages of death, and reviews children's perceptions of death at different ages. Suggestions for teaching terminally ill students are offered along with ideas for helping parents, handling a class after a death, and helping a student after a death in the…

The article discusses common problems facing mainstreamed hearing impaired persons and describes ways in which "maps" can designate a person's representations of reality. Mental health implications of such maps and their ability to locate the source of adjustment difficulties are noted. (CL)

The author, a parent of a multiply handicapped child and a special education teacher, discusses the emotional stresses of parents with handicapped children and suggests ways in which teachers can help. (CL)

Suggestions for using preventative counseling with gifted junior high or high school students are considered in terms of specific adjustment problems and activities to increase student awareness. (DB)

This document presents one module in a set of training resources for trainers to use with parents and/or professionals serving children with disabilities; focus is on coping with loss and change. The modules stress content and activities that build skills and offer resources to promote parent-professional collaboration. Each training module takes…

Describes the situations children face when their families move and suggests how teachers and program developers should arrange activities to help children adjust in the new society. (CI)

A teacher of gifted and talented primary students discusses ways to approach the subject of death and dying. Five class activities are presented which are designed to encourage fluency, risk taking, curiosity, and imagination through language arts and art. (CL)

Discusses the rigorous testing by students which must be undergone by new social workers at an alternative school for adolescents. Describes one social worker's successful handling of students' distrust of new persons and fear of rejection. (SAK)

The Teenage Health Teaching Modules (THTM) program is a health education curriculum for adolescents. Each THTM module frames an adolescent health task emphasizing development of self-assessment, communication, decision making, health advocacy, and self-management. The major goals of this module are to promote feelings of self-acceptance in…

Terminally ill children need rules, limits, and reasonable goals to work toward. Parents and teachers should maintain routines for these children as much as possible. (CL)

This training module on parent readiness levels is based on the premise that parents pass through stages of development in accepting and working with their child's handicap. The module is designed to be used in inservice training on parent involvement and to aid staff in identifying levels of parent readiness for involvement and in recognizing…