Youth activities help teens gain independence with less family conflict

Organized youth activities help teens develop independence without the conflict and distancing from their families that parents have come to anticipate during adolescence, says a new University of Illinois study.

"Participation in these groups can make the teen passage smoother for everyone," said Reed Larson, the Pampered Chef Ltd. Endowed Chair in Family Resiliency at the U of I. "When parents negotiate teen independence around such issues as going to parties, messy rooms, or the choice of a girlfriend or boyfriend, it's rarely a win-win situation."

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 8:31 PM

1 in 3 boys heavy porn users, study shows

Boys aged 13 and 14 living in rural areas, are the most likely of their age group to access pornography, and parents need to be more aware of how to monitor their children's viewing habits, according to a new University of Alberta study.

A total of 429 students aged 13 and 14 from 17 urban and rural schools across Alberta, Canada, were surveyed anonymously about if, how and how often they accessed sexually explicit media content on digital or satellite television, video and DVD and the Internet. Ninety per cent of males and 70 per cent of females reported accessing sexually explicit media content at least once. More than one-third of the boys reported viewing pornographic DVDs or videos "too many times to count", compared to eight per cent of the girls surveyed.

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 8:31 PM

Planning to Major in Business?

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 8:31 PM

The Florida Council for Exceptional Children (FCEC) would like to invite all interested persons to submit proposals for the 61st Annual FCEC Conference, hosted by Miami Chapter 121, to be held at the Bahia Mar Beach Resort & Yachting Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on October 11-13, 2007.  The Conference will continue the collaborative efforts with school districts, universities, family organizations in Florida and the Florida Association Student CEC.

FYI:  

*     The 61st Annual FCEC Conference will be on October 11-13, 2007, at the Bahia Mar Beach Resort and Yachting Center in Ft. Lauderdale. (801 Seabreeze Boulevard, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33316) 

*     Dr. Tom E. C. Smith and Dr. Janette Klingner are both Keynote Speakers at this year's conference.

*     Dr. Ann Nevin, with Dr. Jacqueline Townsend and Dr. Richard Villa, will be providing a pre-conference session on Co-Teaching, on Thursday, October 11th. 

*     The deadline to submit your proposal is May 1, 2007. 

*     Please note that all presenters are responsible for all registration fees and expenses.

 Please check out our new and improved website at http://www.ffcec.org <http://www.ffcec.org>  for more information on the conference and resources available to our members.

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 1:07 PM

A just-released study of teen dating abuse found that 71% of teens (13-18) "regard boyfriends/girlfriends spreading rumors about them on cellphones and social-networking sites as a serious problem, and 68% say friends sharing private or embarrassing photos or videos is a serious problems. The survey, sponsored by Liz Claiborne, Inc., as part of its 16-year focus on stopping domestic violence, also found that "a significant majority of parents are completely unaware of this type of dating abuse." The study is part of a national education campaign that also includes a 24-hour hotline (866-331-9474) that Liz Claiborne has committed to help fund for three years. The confidential teen hotline is operated by the Austin-based National Domestic Violence Hotline. Here's USATODAY on the hotline and Reuters on all of this. Here are other key survey findings:

• "24% of teens in a relationship communicated with their partner via cellphone or texting hourly between midnight and 5 am."
• "30% say they are text messaged 10, 20, 30 times an hour by a partner inquiring where they are, what they're doing, or who they're with.
• "67% of parents whose teens were checked up on 30 times per day on their cell phone were unaware this was happening.
• "25% of teens say they have been called names, harassed, or put down by their partner through cellphones and texting.
• "71% of parents were unaware that their teen is afraid of not responding to a cell phone call, text or IM massage or email for fear of what their partner might do."

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 8:41 PM

http://info.fldoe.org/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-4251/ptofcontact-memo.pdf <https://fgcu-piranha.fgcu.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://info.fldoe.org/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-4251/ptofcontact-memo.pdf>

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 5:38 PM

Reaching Out to Parents

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 11:07 AM

Children who sleep more weigh less

Children who sleep more tend to weigh less than children who sleep less, and they are less likely than their counterparts to be overweight five years later. That’s one of the major findings of a new study published in the January/February 2007 issue of the journal Child Development.

Conducted by researchers at Northwestern University, the study looked at 2,281 children from a nationally representative survey called the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics. The children were ages 3 to 12 at the start of the study and 8 to 17 when follow-up information was collected.

Children’s sleep was measured by the total number of hours they slept, the times they went to bed, and the times they woke up.

Children who slept more had lower BMI (body mass index) measures and were less likely to be overweight five years later than their counterparts who slept less, even when their BMI and overweight status and such factors as parents’ income and education and the children’s race and ethnicity were taken into consideration. Specifically, the researchers found that sleeping an additional hour reduced young children’s chance of being overweight from 36 percent to 30 percent, while it reduced older children's risk from 34 percent to 30 percent.

Although the National Sleep Foundation recommends that children ages 5 to 12 get 10 to 11 hours of sleep each night and adolescents get 8 to 9 hours, the study found that on weeknights, 7-year-olds slept on average less than 10 hours. By age 14, weekday sleep time fell to 8.5 hours.

“Our results suggest that many American children are not sleeping enough,” said lead researcher Emily K. Snell of the School of Education and Social Policy and the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. “In addition, our results suggest that encouraging parents to put younger children to bed earlier and allowing both younger and older children to sleep longer in the morning, as well as encouraging school districts to avoid very early school start times, might represent one important and relatively low-cost strategy to add to other efforts to help reduce childhood weight problems.”

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE ON February 7, 2007 (12:01 AM)

Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 78, Issue 1, Sleep and the Body Mass Index and Overweight Status of Children and Adolescents, by Snell, EK, Adam, EK, & Duncan, GJ (School of Education and Social Policy and Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University). Copyright 2007 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 10:26 AM

Involvement of nonresident fathers may protect low-income teens from delinquency

Many American children live without their biological fathers. A substantial proportion of fathers who live apart from their children have lost touch with them and therefore don't provide consistent parenting. A new study has found that when nonresident fathers are involved with their adolescent children, the youths are less likely to take part in delinquent behavior such as drug and alcohol use, violence, property crime, and school problems such as truancy and cheating.

The study, by researchers at Boston College, is published in the January/February 2007 issue of the journal Child Development. The research was funded, in part, by the W.T. Grant Foundation, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation, Administration on Developmental Disabilities, Administration for Children and Families, Social Security Administration, and the National Institute of Mental Health.

Researchers looked at a representative sample of 647 youths who were 10 to 14 years old at the start of the study and their families over a 16-month period, gathering information from the adolescents and their mothers. The families were primarily African-American and Hispanic, and most lived in poverty.

Taking into consideration adolescents' demographic and family characteristics, the researchers found that when nonresident fathers were involved with their children, adolescents reported lower levels of delinquency, particularly among youth who showed an early tendency toward such behavior.

They also found that adolescent delinquency did not lead fathers to change their involvement over the long-term. But in the short-term, as teens engaged in more problem behaviors, fathers increased their involvement, suggesting that nonresident fathers may be getting more involved in an effort to stem their children's delinquency. This finding was most prevalent in African-American families and contrasts with the pattern in two-parent, middle-class, white families, where parents often pull away and become less involved in the face of adolescent delinquency.

"Nonresident fathers in low-income, minority families appear to be an important protective factor for adolescents," said Rebekah Levine Coley, professor of applied development and educational psychology at Boston College and the study's lead author. "Greater involvement from fathers may help adolescents develop self control and self competence, and may decrease the opportunities adolescents have to engage in problem behaviors."

Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 78, Issue 1, Reciprocal Longitudinal Relations Between Nonresident Father Involvement and Adolescent Delinquency, by Coley, RL, and Medeiros, BL (Boston College). Copyright 2007 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 10:25 AM

Children's sleep problems can lead to school problems

African-American and poor children fare worse

It is obvious that young children who have difficulties sleeping are likely to have problems in school. A new study shows that African-American children and children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds fare worse than their counterparts when their sleep is disrupted.

The study offers one of the first demonstrations that the relationship between children's performance and sleep may differ among children of different backgrounds. Conducted by researchers at Auburn University and Notre Dame University, it is published in the January/February 2007 issue of the journal Child Development.

The study looked at 166 8- and 9-year-old African-American and European-American children from varying socioeconomic backgrounds. The children's sleep habits were measured through wristwatch-sized activity monitors they wore during sleep for one week, sleep diaries of bedtimes and wake-up times, and reports of sleep quality and sleep-related problems such as sleepiness during the day. The children also were given individual cognitive tests measuring a range of mental functions related to school achievement.

When children's socioeconomic status was taken into consideration, African-American and European-American children's performance on cognitive tests was similar when they slept well, the study found. But when sleep was disrupted, African-American children's performance was worse. Similarly, children from lower and higher socioeconomic backgrounds performed similarly on tests when they slept well and their sleep schedules were consistent. But when their sleep was disrupted, children from higher-income homes did better than children from lower-income homes. The study did not address why African-American children and youngsters from lower-income homes may be more vulnerable to the effects of sleep disruption.

"The results build on a small but growing literature demonstrating that poorer sleep in children is associated with lower performance on school-related tests," says Joseph A. Buckhalt, lead author of the study and Wayne T. Smith Distinguished Professor at Auburn University. "The findings are consistent with the idea that health-related disparities between different groups of American children have important consequences. In the context of these disparities, children are not at equal risk for cognitive difficulties when sleep is disrupted."

The study was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 78, Issue 1, Children's Sleep and Cognitive Functioning: Race and Socioeconomic Status as Moderators of Effects by Buckhalt, JA, and El-Sheikh, M (Auburn University), and Keller, P (Notre Dame University). Copyright 2007 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 10:24 AM

Children who sleep less more likely to be overweight

EVANSTON, Ill. -- Research indicates that getting inadequate sleep has negative effects on children's social and emotional well-being and school performance. Now a Northwestern University study finds it also increases their risk of being overweight.

The study -- conducted in two waves of data collection approximately five years apart -- is the first nationally representative, longitudinal investigation of the relationship between sleep, Body Mass Index (BMI) and overweight status in children aged 3 to 18.

"Our study suggests that earlier bedtimes, later wake times and later school start times could be an important and relatively low-cost strategy to help reduce childhood weight problems," says Emily Snell. Snell is co-author of "Sleep and the Body Mass Index and Overweight Status of Children and Adolescents" in the Jan./Feb. issue of Child Development.

"We found even an hour of sleep makes a big difference in weight status," said Snell, a Northwestern doctoral student in human development and social policy. "Sleeping an additional hour reduced young children's chance of being overweight from 36 percent to 30 percent, while it reduced older children's risk from 34 percent to 30 percent."

The Northwestern study not only differs from most other investigations of the effects of sleep on children's weight in its five-year approach. It also helps disentangle the issue of whether sleep actually affects weight or whether children who already are overweight are simply poor sleepers. In addition, it takes into account the possible effects of other variables including race, ethnicity and income.

Snell co-wrote the article with Northwestern's Emma K. Adam and Greg J. Duncan, assistant professor and professor of education and social policy, respectively. Adam and Duncan are fellows at the University's Institute for Policy Research and Center for Social Disparities and Health.

Their findings also suggest that later bedtimes play a greater role in the overweight status of children aged from 3 to 8, while earlier wake times play a greater role in children aged 8 to 13. No significant differences in the effect of sleep on weight was found between boys and girls nor was there evidence that children who slept more grew more in height.

The researchers used time diaries, in which the parents or caregivers of young children or children old enough to keep diaries themselves recorded all activities -- including bedtime, time asleep and wake time -- over the course of a weekday and weekend day. In analyzing the diaries, they found troubling age-related trends in sleep behavior.

By age 7, children were sleeping on average less than 10 hours on weekdays. By age 14, weekday sleep time fell to 8.5 hours. A full 16 percent of adolescents aged 13 to 18 were found to sleep fewer than seven hours on weekday nights. The National Sleep Foundation recommends children aged 5 to 12 years get 10 to 11 hours of sleep and adolescents get eight to nine hours.

"Many American children are simply not getting the sleep they need. Parents, policymakers and health care providers all are concerned about the obesity epidemic among children," says Snell. "Our results suggest that something as simple as helping children sleep more at night could reduce their risk of being overweight."

The 2,182 children examined in the study came from a nationally representative sample called the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics.

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 10:22 AM

Parents blind to their children's weight

Researchers with Deakin's Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research surveyed more than 1200 families to find out if parents had concerns about their children's weight and if they took any preventative action to avoid obesity in their children.

The study of more than 1100 families found that 89 per cent of parents of overweight 5—6 year-olds and 63 per cent of parents of overweight 10—12 year-olds were unaware their child was overweight. It also revealed that 71 per cent of parents of overweight 5—6 year-olds and 43 per cent of parents with overweight 10—12 year-olds did not think their child's weight was a problem.

"These are quite troubling results and suggest that current obesity prevention campaigns are not hitting the mark with parents," said head of the Centre, Professor David Crawford.

"Parents are part of the front line in the battle to reverse the trend of obesity in children, it is therefore essential that they are armed with information and practical strategies that they understand and can easily build into their daily lives."

Professor Crawford said it was not altogether surprising that many parents were unaware their child was overweight given that "many adults are not able to recognise overweight in themselves."

He suggested that some reasons for the lack of recognition of childhood overweight could be that some parents, particularly mothers, tend to judge overweight by whether or not their child is teased about their weight at school or has developed limitations in physical activity; or that, with childhood obesity becoming increasingly normative, that some excess weight simply goes unnoticed.

Despite parents' inability to recognise problem weight in their children, Professor Crawford said a substantial proportion of parents reported they employed various strategies to help prevent their child from gaining too much weight.

The most common strategies included: promoting a balanced diet; promoting physical activity; reducing junk food; limiting the amount of fat and sugar; promoting more fruit.

While this is encouraging, Professor Crawford said that less than 10 per cent of parents increased consumption of fruit and vegetables as a potential weight-control strategy, and few reported that they tried to limit or reduce their child's intake of high-energy drinks and limit television viewing.

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 10:59 AM

Survey identifies teen online behaviors associated with online interpersonal victimization

Teens who talk to strangers online are more likely to become victims of online harassment than those who share their personal information on the Internet, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. In addition, engaging in an overall pattern of various online behaviors is more closely linked to online interpersonal victimization than any specific behavior alone.

Online interpersonal victimization is defined as unwanted sexual solicitation or harassment, according to background information in the article. Approximately 9 percent of online youth are targets of harassment and 13 percent are targets of unwanted sexual solicitation each year. These incidents may lead to psychosocial problems such as depression and physical assault by peers.

Michele L. Ybarra, M.P.H., Ph.D., of Internet Solutions for Kids, Inc., Irvine, Calif., and colleagues analyzed data from a 2005 telephone survey conducted on 1,497 youth in the U.S. aged 10 to 17 who had used the Internet at least once a month for the past six months. Participants' average age was 14.2, about half were female and 76.2 percent identified themselves as white. Most came from well-educated households with a high annual income.

The researchers examined the frequency of nine online behaviors believed to increase the odds of online victimization including posting personal information online, sending personal information online, harassing or embarrassing someone, making rude or nasty comments, meeting someone online, having people known only online on their buddy list, talking about sex with someone known only online, purposely visiting an X-rated Web site and downloading images from a file-sharing program.

A total of 1,125 or 75 percent of the respondents engaged in at least one of nine online behaviors. One in four or 28.2 percent of the youth engaged in four or more different types of online behavior in the previous year. Those who engaged in four types of online behaviors were 11 times more likely to report online interpersonal victimization than those reporting none of the online behaviors.

"Most Internet safety advocates suggest discouraging youth from sharing personal information and talking with unknown people online," the authors write. However, the study found that talking with people only known online under certain conditions is associated with online interpersonal victimization, but sharing information is not. "Aggressive behavior in the form of making rude or nasty comments or frequently embarrassing others, meeting people in multiple ways and talking about sex online with unknown people were significantly related to online interpersonal victimization," they continue.

"With one in five youth who use the Internet reporting an unwanted interpersonal victimization in one year's time, identifying effective Internet safety messages is an adolescent health issue of great importance," the authors conclude. "Pediatricians and other child and adolescent health professionals should help parents assess their children's online behaviors globally in addition to focusing on specific types of behaviors."

(Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2007;161:138-145. Available pre-embargo to the media at www.jamamedia.org.)

Editor's Note: This study was supported 100 percent by federal sources (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention). Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

Editorial: Assessing the New Digital Divide Between Parents and Their Children There is an emerging digital divide that seems to separate parents and their children, leaving parents feeling unprepared, frightened and helpless, writes Dimitri A. Christakis, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Washington, Seattle, in an accompanying editorial.

"There is no doubt that the accelerating pace of technology has yet again dramatically changed the experience of American childhood," Dr. Christakis writes.

This digital divide can give way to paranoia and anxiety or benign neglect on the parents' behalf. The finding that the most influential risk factors for online interpersonal victimization are talking about sex with someone known only online and being rude or nasty oneself shows that we need to develop and test practical "strategies for teaching children Internet hygiene," Dr. Christakis writes. "The ways children put themselves at risk in the virtual world appears to mirror the ways they do in the real one. This new invader of the home may constitute a novel threat, but it may not be as unknown as we fear." (Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2007;161:204-205. Available pre-embargo to the media at www.jamamedia.org.)

Editor's Note: Dr. Christakis is the author of The Elephant in the Living Room: Make Television Work for Your Kids. Please see the article for additional information, including author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

For more information, contact JAMA/Archives Media Relations at 312/464-JAMA (5262) or e-mail mediarelations@jama-archives.org.

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 10:45 AM

Congress has proclaimed the week of February 5-9, 2007, as National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Week.

"Teen dating violence is a growing problem and a sad reality for many teenagers," OJJDP Administrator J. Robert Flores has observed. "Our research has consistently demonstrated that teens exposed to, or victimized by, abuse are at increased risk for delinquency. Fortunately, this problem can be prevented if parents are involved in the lives of their children. By playing a significant role in determining whom their children spend time with and under what circumstances, parents can build a safe environment in which their children can explore a healthy relationship with the opposite sex."

Resources:

With funding from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the American Bar Association has developed an educational toolkit. In 2006, more than 1,000 of these kits were provided to schools and community organizations across the country. For additional information, visit: http://www.abanet.org/unmet/toolkitmaterials.ht ml.

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 10:41 AM

>From Grace Fleming,
Your Guide to Homework / Study Tips.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!
It can be pretty difficult for students in the twenty-first century to
understand the hardships that African Americans endured during the
brutal era of government-sanctioned racial oppression and segregation in
the United States.

These links will bring African-American History to life, with real audio
recordings of African Americans born from the 1820s to the 1860s,
personal narratives, and poignant images.

link:
http://homeworktips.about.com/od/historyhomework/tp/blackhistory.htm

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 8:52 PM

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Children with obsessive-compulsive disorder are three times more likely to be bullied than other children, and the name-slinging could cause symptoms of OCD to worsen, University of Florida researchers have found.

“One of the things we have noticed working with many kids with OCD is that peer relations are extremely impaired,” said Eric Storch, a UF assistant professor of psychiatry and pediatrics and lead author of the study. “Kids target kids who are different. Kids with OCD sometimes exhibit behaviors that peers simply don’t understand.” Read more >>>
link: http://news.ufl.edu/2006/08/14/ocd-bully/

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 5:54 PM

Greetings!

Last week, Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) introduced a bipartisan resolution in Congress officially designating this week as National School Counseling Week. The resolution was passed by the U.S. Senate on Feb. 1, 2007. I invite you to share the resolution and Murray's floor statement with the stakeholders in your educational community.

Please take a moment to thank Murray and Smith for introducing this bill. Murray in particular has been very supportive of ASCA and school counseling through the years. Murray can be reached by fax at (202) 224-0238 or from her Web site. Sen. Smith can be reached by fax at 202-228-3997 or from his Web site.

As an association, ASCA is growing and changing as well. This month, ASCA's membership surpassed 20,000 for the first time in the association's history. ASCA continues to introduce more programs and service to help you help your students. The profession still faces many challenges, as well. Many students, parents and educational professionals still do not understand the work of school counseling. Consequently school counselors are still assigned tasks that take them away from their students or they are seeing their positions eliminated. Although the average school counselor to student ratio is declining, some school counselors are still assigned to as many as 1,000 students. School counseling students are still graduating from counselor education programs unprepared to face the challenges of the profession. ASCA continues to work with other organizations to ensure that school counselors are part of the collaborative efforts of teachers, principals, superintendents, school boards and others to ensure that every student has the opportunity to receive the best education we can provide.

I hope you can use this week to draw attention to your school counseling program and to all of the benefits you can bring to your students. Let yourself enjoy some of the attention and credit you so richly deserve as a school counselor. And take a moment to reflect on what you do and why you do it. Why are you a school counselor? What is your purpose in being an educator? What do you want to accomplish in your school and for your students? And are you accomplishing what you need to accomplish? Let these reflections guide you through the rest of the week and throughout the year.

Sincerely,

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 5:45 PM

Generation M: What does it really know about technology?

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 1:07 PM

Why I Won't Go to Prom

By April Daley

Most girls I know have been dreaming of their high school prom since the days of carefree trips to the playground, girl power proclamations and cooties. Images of flowing Cinderella gowns and Prince Charming still dance in their minds. They think about possible dates and limousine seating arrangements. Read more >>>

link: http://www.youthcomm.org/NYC%20Features/JanFeb2007/NYC-2007-01-09.htm

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 12:52 PM

Celebrating Safer Internet Day across the world
Almost 40 countries will participate in the fourth edition of Safer Internet Day (SID) which this year takes place on 6 February.

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 12:52 PM

IVAN PRAYS FOR A SUPERMAN TO FIND HIM A HOME For a special report, ABC News "20/20" followed the lives of three children growing up in Camden, N.J.: Billy Joe, Moochie and Ivan. In a public park, Diane Sawyer met Ivan Stevens; his mother, Precious; and his little brother, Imere. Sometimes they spent the whole day dirty, hungry and homeless, with no place to go. The owner of an illegal boarding house occasionally gave them a place to sleep. He padlocked the refrigerator to keep them from taking food, and all three of them slept on one chair, surrounded by clutter and roaches. Ivan wished he could be Superman and fly on someone's back to find his family a home. "Superman" had also heard of kindergarten. "I wanna go to school so bad. I wanna read," Ivan said excitedly on the first day of school. On the way to school, though, reality set in, and Ivan realized that for the first time he'd be without his mother's protection. He was also afraid that the other kids would be mean to him, and he started to cry. "It's alright. ...

You can be scared," his mother said. "But you gotta be a big boy. I'm not going to ever leave you where you [are] not welcome." The teacher welcomed Ivan to the class, and he reluctantly said goodbye to his mother. A school administrator sat down and helped him get started. "Do you know your threes?" asked the school district supervisor. Ivan easily counted the three wheels on the tricycle, but he was stumped when asked how many meals you are supposed to eat in a day. Ivan, who has gone to school without eating breakfast, was puzzled. The words "lunch" and "dinner" seemed foreign to him. In fact, at the end of the day, when commenting on how great kindergarten was, he proudly showed the extra juice box he was able to take with him. "I'm not going to cry no more, and I'm going to be a big boy," he said, noting that he also had eaten cheese with bread and applesauce. The bravery of these children fighting poverty and fear everyday will both amaze and enrage you.

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2819991&page=1

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 12:52 PM

1. Habbo's safety campaign

   Habbo Hotel, "one of the world's largest and most popular online destinations for teens" (claiming 2 million members in North America) is following the lead of other responsible social sites and raising safety awareness. Having designated February "Teen Online Safety Awareness Month for North America," Habbo's press release says it will "saturate its site ... with interactive activities for teens such as the 'Infobus,' a virtual bus inside the Habbo community on which members can learn how to protect themselves from online scams and predators." There will be incentives for hopping on the "bus," Habbo says, in the form of prizes and "Habbo Coins" with which users decorate their "rooms." Habbo has sites for users in 25+ countries. If the above link goes dead, here's the "Press Room" for Habbo's parent company, Helsinki-based Sulake Corporation Oy, which will probably archive the release shortly.

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 12:29 PM

1. Schools banning cellphones

   Schools all over the US are "cracking down on students whose cellphones disrupt classes and make it easier to cheat," USATODAY reports. For example, Milwaukee's 222 schools just started enforcing an if-you-use-it-we'll-take-it rule "prompted by fights that escalated into brawls when students used cellphones to summon family members and outsiders." Reporter Judy Keen gives us other examples in Minnesota, Kentucky, Mississippi, and New York City. Meanwhile, 2006 was a record year for cellphones - more than 1 billion shipped in last year, the Associated Press reports. And in the New York Times, SafeKids.com's Larry Magid points out that, with a mere download or two, most any kid could figure out how to make the most basic phone do a lot of what today's expensive "smart phones" can do.

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 12:13 PM

Less television and more gathering around the dinner table prevents

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Sitting down to a family meal more often and cutting down on television watching can help keep children from becoming overweight, according to a new University of Missouri-Columbia study.

After following 8,000 children from kindergarten to third grade, researchers concluded that kids who watched the most TV were at the greatest risk of being or becoming overweight. Children who ate fewer meals with their families also were at risk for becoming overweight.

"Other research has shown that children who eat meals with their families eat more healthy foods than children who don't eat as many meals with their families," said Sara Gable, associate professor of human development and family studies in the MU College of Human Environmental Studies. "I suspect there are other benefits of family meal times that protect children from developing some of the habits that could lead to weight problems."

The researchers grouped children into three categories to determine the factors associated with becoming overweight: children who were not overweight during kindergarten and first grade but were overweight by the third grade; children who became overweight during kindergarten and stayed that way through the third grade; children who were never overweight.

"Children who were never overweight between kindergarten and third grade were watching, as per parent reports, roughly two hours of television per day, or about 14 hours during a typical week," Gable said. "The children who were persistently overweight were watching about 16 hours of television per week."

Members of the persistently overweight groups also lived in neighborhoods that parents perceived as less safe for outdoor play.

"These results suggest that some overweight children have fewer options for active play when they are at home," Gable said.

The study, which was funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, was published in this month's issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 9:20 AM

Social Networking Websites and Teens: An Overview

 Amanda Lenhart, Mary Madden

A social networking site is an online place where a user can create a profile and build a personal network that connects him or her to other users. In the past five years, such sites have rocketed from a niche activity into a phenomenon that engages tens of millions of internet users. More than half (55%) of all online American youths ages 12-17 use online social networking sites, according to a new national survey of teenagers conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The survey also finds that older teens, particularly girls, are more likely to use these sites. For girls, social networking sites are primarily places to reinforce pre-existing friendships; for boys, the networks also provide opportunities for flirting and making new friends.

# posted by SchoolCounselor.com @ 9:20 AM