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Rebecca Gotlieb About Rebecca Gotlieb

Rebecca Gotlieb, Ph.D. is a human developmental psychologist and educational neuroscientist. Her research focuses on individual differences in social, emotional, cognitive, and brain development from early childhood through adolescence and young adulthood with implications for education. Dr. Gotlieb is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at the University of California, Los Angeles. She completed a Ph.D. in the University of Southern California's Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. She received a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Brain Sciences and membership in Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College.

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Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World by Maryanne Wolf
Rebecca Gotlieb
Rebecca Gotlieb
December 20, 2018

Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World by Maryanne Wolf

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How often do you read in a deep and sustained way fully immersed, even transformed, by entering another person’s world?  In her newest book, Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World,Maryanne Wolf cautions that, the way our engagement with digital technologies alters our reading and cognitive processes, could cause our empathic, critical thinking, and reflective abilities to atrophy.  This in turn could undermine our democratic, civil society.

Wolf, the John DiBiaggio Professor of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University and the director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at UCLA, has written a series of nine warm letters to her readers encouraging us to think about the perils of a changing reading culture and promises of supporting media biliteracy in young readers.  She argues that we should teach students distinct ways of reading print versus digital sources and help them switch between these modes of reading.  Drawing on evidence from across cognitive neuroscience and education and on her own experiences as a teacher, parent, researcher, and non-profit founder, Wolf suggests helpful parenting practices, ways teachers can support reading and digital literacy, and how policy might increase the number of students who can fully immerse themselves in written thought.

As important as reading is to our thinking today, we did not evolve to read and cannot learn to do so without support.  It is through an elaborate process of neural recycling—of repurposing brain areas that have evolved for other reasons—that we are able to become readers.  With whimsical analogies to the circus Wolf explains how the act of reading even a single word requires coordinated activation across many neurons in regions distributed throughout the brain.  She explains properties of attention, vision, sound, and affective processing in the brain that contribute to reading.

Wolf then explores how digital reading may endanger deep engagement with text and empathizing with others by limiting our attention span and background knowledge.  Surprisingly, we are reading more than ever before—on average about a hundred thousand words per day. Because we are so overloaded with text, simplifying, skimming, and reading in short bursts are reasonable compensatory mechanisms. Wolf’s concern lies in this skimming style of reading becoming a habit that we exercise across all content. She is troubled by the trends of decreasing empathic abilities among young people, increasing rates of attentional disorders, and increasing susceptibility to “fake news”—all of which have occurred in parallel with a rise in digital reading, media multi-tasking, technologically mediated social interactions, and outsourcing of knowledge to the internet. Deep reading, on the other hand, causes people to take perspectives—a process that requires patience and increases our knowledge of the world and our ability to behave morally.

By fourth grade only a third of children in the U.S. can read deeply. Nearly half of African-American and Latino student are not reading at even a basic level. Wolf offers advice about countering this trend in the digital age. Drawing heavily on The Big Disconnect, Wolf suggests that before age five, children and parents should jointly read physical print-based books as often as possible and largely limit digital reading. Reading to children exposes them to the sounds, visual representations, and word-meanings in our language and builds their knowledge of the world. Schools can support reading by determining students’ readiness to read and helping all students improve, including struggling readers who have been underexposed to text and readers with learning disabilities. Phonics should unequivocally be a part of reading instruction. Teachers in higher grades should learn to teach reading since many of their students may not be proficient.  Policy makers can help by investing in early childhood education, literacy, teacher professional development, and equitable access to print and digital media.

Wolf concludes by proposing that, since the next generation will enter a job market primarily based on jobs that do not exist today, we need to support young people in building biliterate brains.  That is, they need to learn to work effectively in both print and digital media. As they develop proficiency in both deep and fast ways of reading they will also learn when and how to switch between these modes.  Schools should require courses that openly discuss the intriguing and harmful aspects of internet usage, and responsible practices.

A democracy thrives on diversity of ideas, but if citizens are not able to use new technologies, critical thinking, and empathic skills to evaluate those ideas, society will not advance. Wolf’s strategies for supporting reading in a digital age help us improve as readers and help us grow a stronger, more civil democracy.

Wolf, M. (2018). Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World. New York: Harper Collins.

The Fear Factor: How One Emotion Connects Altruists, Psychopaths, and Everyone In-between by Abigail Marsh
Rebecca Gotlieb
Rebecca Gotlieb
October 16, 2018

The Fear Factor: How One Emotion Connects Altruists, Psychopaths, and Everyone In-between by Abigail Marsh

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Abigail Marsh’s 2017 book , reviews research by her and others showing that extraordinary altruists and psychopaths may be two extremes of a bell-curve of human caring with altruists and psychopaths distinguished by how sensitive they are to feelings of fear. She employs an evolutionary perspective to argue that having evolved to care for vulnerable young has equipped us with the neural architecture to care for other people more generally. She concludes by arguing that we both can and should strive to be more altruistic.

Marsh, associate professor of psychology at Georgetown University, has herself been both the beneficiary of extraordinary altruism and the victim of assault. At age 19 she was in a serious car accident that might have left her dead had an anonymous stranger not intervened, at great risk to himself, to rescue her. A few years later a man she did not know grabbed her in a sexually inappropriate manner. When she reacted with outrage, he proceeded to punch her in the face, knocking her to the ground. Marsh has devoted her career to understanding the roots of and individual variability in these extremes of behavior, how we can help people with psychopathic tendencies, and how we can behave more like altruists.

Early in her career, Marsh uncovered a peculiar relationship; the ability to recognize fear in faces predicted altruism. This effect held across different types of altruistic actions and was more robust than many factors that had traditionally been expected to be closely related to altruism. Intrigued by this, she went on to study responses to fearful faces in children and adolescents known for their lack of altruism and lack of remorse for causing other people pain—youth with callous-unemotional traits (or psychopathic tendencies). Marsh conducted functional MRI scans of the brains of these youth as they were exposed to faces displaying different emotions. Previous research had suggested that the amygdala—a brain structure located deep in the middle of the brain—responds strongly when an individual is exposed to fearful expressions. In children with psychopathic traits, however, this brain pattern was not observed—a fact consistent with these children stating that they rarely experienced fear. It may be that psychopathic individuals’ impaired ability to feel fear impairs their ability to empathize with others’ fear, and this makes it difficult for them to understand why it can be wrong to make people feel afraid.

Given that many human traits can be modelled with a bell-curve shape and that the distribution of psychopathy in the population looks like a bell-curve cut in half, Marsh hypothesized that perhaps a normal curve could be constructed to represent the full distribution of caring in the population with extraordinary altruism balancing out psychopathy. Although many people engage in altruistic actions frequently, extraordinary altruists do so for people they do not know at great cost to themselves, even when there is no expectation to do so.

Humans can function normally with one kidney but are born with two. Anonymous kidney donors—people who voluntarily undergo kidney surgery, incurring financial costs and medical risks, in order to give one of their kidneys to person they do not know—served as an ideal case study of extraordinary altruists. Marsh recruited these extraordinary altruists to undergo similar functional MRI scans to the ones she had had youth with callous-unemotional tendencies undergo. Interestingly, she identified complementary findings. Extreme altruists’ amygdalae were especially responsive to fearful faces and their right amygdalae were about 8% larger than those of people in the general population. Marsh concludes that, although there is a common trope that extraordinary altruists are fearless to be able to help others in the way they do, on the contrary these individuals are actually hypersensitive to the fear of other people and motivated to act because of it.
That hypersensitivity to fear may stem from a co-opting of our parental instincts. We have evolved to love our small, underdeveloped babies, enjoy physical contact with them, and produce nutritious mother’s milk to feed them. We are built to parent, and are drawn to provide care for other beings, even those who are not our children.

Marsh argues that people are more compassionate than we typically recognize. Better quality of life is associated with greater caring. Thus, as quality of life continues to improve, more people may become increasingly compassionate. To bring about greater altruism we should cultivate a humble understanding that strangers’ welfare is worth as much as our own. Most simply, Marsh argues that there is a virtuous cycle of giving, so, “if you want to be more altruistic, just start!” (P. 50).

Marsh, A. (2017). The Fear Factor: How One Emotion Connects Altruists, Psychopaths, and Everyone In-between. New York: Basic Books.

Twice Exceptional: Supporting and Educating Bright and Creative Students With Learning Difficulties by Scott Barry Kaufman
Rebecca Gotlieb
Rebecca Gotlieb
September 19, 2018

Twice Exceptional: Supporting and Educating Bright and Creative Students With Learning Difficulties by Scott Barry Kaufman

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Students who have both exceptional talents and learning difficulties have been understudied and underserved in the educational system. Fortunately, Twice Exceptional: Supporting and Educating Bright and Creative Students with Learning Difficulties helps shed light on this unique and diverse population.  This volume contains contributions from over 30 talented scholars and practioners and was edited by Scott Barry Kaufman, who brings a special sensitivity to the topic because of his own experiences as a twice exceptional (2E) student. Kaufman, whose books we have reviewed previously (see here and here) envisions an educational system in which every student receives individualized, challenging, and supportive instruction. Until that dream is realized, it is especially important to provide that kind of individualization to 2E students or students who “demonstrate exceptional levels of capacity, competence, commitment, or creativity in one or more domains coupled with one or more learning difficulties” (P. 7). This book, filled with examples of students with varying 2E profiles, provides guidance about best practices for identifying and supporting 2E students, spotlights specific 2E sub-populations, and concludes with examples of schools that successfully support 2E students.

Although there is research that recognized 2E students dating back to the 1920s, federal education laws have been slow to do so.  In the 1980s there was a shift in gifted education towards recognizing a greater variety of gifts and trying to develop students’ talents rather than assuming that students are either gifted or not. It was not until 2004 that federal disability laws first acknowledged that students with disabilities can also be gifted. Today, parents still face resistance in getting services for 2E children. For example, while 7% of the general student population participates in gifted education, only 1% of students who receive disability services are involved in gifted education.

Contributing to this problem may be difficulties related to defining and assessing both “disability” and “giftedness.’ Additionally, the interacting effects of students’ disabilities and giftedness can contribute to the students’ unique profiles not being recognized. That is one’s exceptionality can hide his disabilities (making adults characterize the student as lazy), one’s disabilities can hide her exceptionalities (making adults underestimate the student’s potential), or one’s disabilities and exceptionalities can each mask the other (making adults miss great potential and great need for support). What 2E students need is to have their unique intersections of exceptionality carefully described and monitored across time and context. Several chapters in this collection provide guidelines for comprehensively assessing students’ learning profiles.

2E students need their strengths, talents, and interests developed.  Unfortunately, too much attention is given to compensating for these student’s weaknesses rather than developing their strengths.  We should strive to help them reach their fullest potential.  We should support students in being assertive self-advocates. When they can advocate for themselves they typically set higher expectations for themselves than others would set for them. Beyond self-advocacy, tending to and developing the social-emotional needs and abilities of 2E students is important for helping them have the resilience to persist through the difficulties they will inevitably face in school. Another key principle for supporting 2E students is creating effective collaboration among family members, teachers, friends, coaches, psychologists, and medical professionals. This book offers several strategies for strengthening the relationship between families and schools.

Several chapters in Twice Exceptional profile certain categories of 2E populations and offer strategies for supporting these populations with a strengths-based approach.  For example, attention deficit hyperactive disorder could be reframed as an attention divergent hyperactive gift.  Similar ideas are applied to students with autism spectrum disorders, sensory processing issues, and dyslexia or other reading disorders.

One of the most valuable contributions of this book is the focus in two chapters, on an especially underserved 2E sub-population—that of 2E students who are also racial or ethnic minorities. For several problematic reasons, students of color are underrepresented in gifted education. Having other exceptionalities compounds this problem further. To serve 2E students of color it is important to remain flexible, set high expectations, offer role models, and be creative about how to draw out these students’ strengths.

Twice Exceptional concludes by describing real model schools that are designed to support 2E students.  These schools celebrate strengths, differentiate curriculum, incorporate social-emotional learning into academic learning, provide a safe space filled with positive peer and teacher relationship, and remain flexible, patient, and optimistic.  Above all, they develop autonomy in their students by encouraging the 2E students to assume primary responsibility for shaping their learning.

Kaufman’s Twice Exceptionaloffers a much need consolidation of information about 2E students to raise awareness about this population and help researchers, parents, and educators better serve 2E students.

Kaufman, S. B. (Ed.). (2018). Twice Exceptional: Supporting and Educating Bright and Creative Students with Learning Difficulties. Oxford University Press.

Attack of the Teenage Brain!: Understanding and Supporting the Weird and Wonderful Adolescent Learner by John Medina
Rebecca Gotlieb
Rebecca Gotlieb
August 07, 2018

Attack of the Teenage Brain!: Understanding and Supporting the Weird and Wonderful Adolescent Learner by John Medina

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John Medina, developmental molecular biologist and New York Times best-selling author, has written a book about how to parent and teach teenagers in light of what we know about adolescent social, cognitive, and neural development.  In Attack of the Teenage Brain!: Understanding and Supporting the Weird and Wonderful Adolescent Learner, Medina emphasizes that designing better high schools will require us to consider the development of executive functioning skills during adolescence.

Paradoxically, while elementary schools and schools of higher education in the U.S. are exceptionally strong, our high schools have mediocre performance by international standards. Investing in executive functioning, or the skills that help us effectively and cooperatively get things done, may offer our best opportunity for improving U.S. high schools, Medina argues. Countries whose high schools perform better than ours, also have adolescents with stronger abilities to self-regulate, switch perspective, and temporarily store and manipulate information—the three core components of executive functioning. Medina reviews research by Walter Mischel (reviewed here by Learning and The Brain previously) that shows that the ability to delay gratification, a component of executive functioning, can predict many aspects of children’s future personal, academic, and career success.

To understand how to capitalize on adolescents’ executive functioning skills, it is helpful to understand how the brain changes during adolescence. Using clear, vivid, and accessible analogies, Medina explains several aspects of adolescent neural development that have implications for how we teach them. For example, adolescents’ limbic areas—areas responsible for many of our emotional responses—reach mature levels before the prefrontal cortex, an area responsible for decision-making, planning, and inhibition. This mismatching maturational profile partially explains why adolescence is a time of great vulnerability, why adolescents are more drawn to rewards than deterred by adverse consequences, why they are sensitive to peer influence, and why rational decision-making is still a work-in-progress during adolescence.

In light of these developmental vulnerabilities of adolescence, how could we design better schools for teenagers? The answer begins with factors outside of school. Feelings of safety and strong adult relationships are critical for learning.  Indeed, adolescents in homes that feel safe have stronger executive functioning abilities. Using a parenting style (or teaching style) that both sets high expectations of children and provides large amounts of emotional responsiveness and love benefits students’ executive functioning greatly, and thus also their performance in school. Similarly, modeling adult relationships (e.g., between two parents) where conflicts can be resolved using calm and honest communication can offer these same benefits.

Exceptional teachers can buffer against the effects of unstable relationships at home, but there is no substitute for good parenting. To help parents employ an ideal parenting style and model a healthy conflict resolution style, schools should provide night classes to parents to help them learn to create more stable relationships at home. A complementary change would be for high schools to require social-emotional learning initiatives that include a sequenced progression through skills, active application of skills, and a focus on a few critical social skills (e.g., empathy). These programs have been linked to students doing better in school and enjoying it more.

Age fourteen is the peak onset of mental health disorders. High schools should be designed to help navigate the mental health challenges that arise during adolescence. For example, while fewer than 20% of teenagers spend more than 20 minutes a day in physical activity, exercise has been linked to cognitive skill, academic performance, and cerebrovascular density in key brain areas. Most importantly, exercise is about as helpful as antidepressants in treating depression. Medina argues that a gym should be the center piece of a school and sitting time should be replaced with walking time.

Starting school later in the morning to align with the natural shift in sleep patterns that occur during adolescence could help improve mental health and academic performance, and actually save districts money in the long run. Electronic and social media use, and especially the stimulation of electronic multi-tasking, may be contributing to high rates of anxiety in adolescence.  Mindfulness exercise can be an antidote, helping to regulate emotions and mood, improve focus, and reduce pain. Medina calls for the integration of mindfulness practices into schools and the creation of mindfulness rooms.

As exemplified throughout this book, Medina makes an argument likely to resonate with Learning and the Brain readers—cognitive neuroscience and education typically are studied separately from one another, but to support adolescents’ success and development, we need to consider multiple forms of development together. Indeed the neuropsychologically derived principles that Medina suggests are likely to improve adolescents’ learning and well-being. Parents, teachers, and school administrators would do well to head his advice.

Medina, J. (2018).  Attack of the Teenage Brain!: Understanding and Supporting the Weird and Wonderful Adolescent Learner. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

 

 

 

Reach for Greatness: Personalizable Education for All Children by Yong Zhao
Rebecca Gotlieb
Rebecca Gotlieb
July 12, 2018

Reach for Greatness: Personalizable Education for All Children by Yong Zhao

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Yong Zhao, University of Kansas Professor of education, has published over 30 books, including a few reviewed here at Learning and the Brain about the importance of entrepreneurship and  creativity  for producing a well-educated citizenry, even though the educational culture is test-obsessed and is increasingly standardizing procedures. In his newest book, Reach for Greatness: Personalizable Education for All Children, Zhao revisits these important themes and emphasizes the need for an educational shift away from trying to mend students’ deficits and towards supporting students’ strengths and passions.

One problem with our current educational model is the expectation that all students will gain roughly the same skills and knowledge at roughly the same pace.  We measure extensively whether this is happening. In spite of extensive efforts to regiment and assess student learning, certain groups continue to systematically receive lower quality education and all students’ are exposed to an educational system that is not focusing on real learning. Zhao calls for a dramatic shift towards developing students’ strengths and interests, ceasing to fix students’ weaknesses, and supporting the development of a broader range of skills, especially creative and entrepreneurial skills.

It is rare for students to be rewarded in school for their passion. Students are rewarded for being well-behaved and competent, regardless of what they are learning or how they feel about it. Our meritocratic educational system determines each students’ merit relative to other students’ ability on a narrow set of skills. Since not all students can be the best at those few skills, many are held to low expectations. These expectations can be damaging, and those who hold them ignore the fact that while not all students will be outstanding at everything, all students can learn and can be great at something.  Students have “jagged profiles”.  That is, there are a myriad of human qualities, and each student excels at some unique combination of those qualities. Each student has his or her own set of strengths, interests, experiences, and relations, and this diversity is what can allow each student to be great in his or her own way.

Indeed, it is natural  for people to need to feel as though they are great and to be able to realize their full potential. In fact, the more the need to feel great is met the more it grows.  Focusing on and developing that which is unique about each student can satisfy each students’ need for greatness.

Zhao calls for “personalizable education.” He explains how we can bring it about—by focuses on enhancing students’ strengths, developing the broad spectrum of human talents that are important for our changing economy, and capitalizing on students’ motivation to contribute to the world. Personalizable education is premised on the idea that students can organize their own learning. To implement it schools need to give students substantial agency over how they spend their time, allow for shared governance among administrators, teachers, and students, create a culture that believes change and flexibility are good, and encourage students to engage in authentic work where they make a contribution.Notably, personalizable education is substantially different from personalized learning, which, paradoxically, does not give students control over what they learn and focuses on fixing what students have not learned well-enough.

Realizing personalizable education will require governments to move away from telling educators what and when students should be taught. Instead, governments should focus on providing adequate and equitable funding as well as investing in educational innovation. Business should stop profiting from counter-productive “personalized learning” tools and instead lead the charge to move schools towards personalizable education. Parents and the public too should advocate for personalizable education.

Higher education institutions can help bring about personalizable education by changing admission standards to value diverse skills and by making the higher education experience itself more personalizable to prepare students for the workforce. Finally, educators are key to bringing in an era of personalizable education, but the current model of treating teachers as merely the deliverers of content, rather than the co-constructs and guiders of sophisticated learning needs to change. Personalizable education will require educators to develop the ability to identify students’ strengths and passions, inspire change in students, show empathy towards students, have a broad/long-term perspective on education, demonstrate management and leadership skills, and demonstrate resourcefulness and collaboration in shaping students learning. With action from each of these stakeholders we can help all students’ realize their greatness and create more fulfilling and useful educational experiences.

Zhao, Y. (2018). Reach for greatness: Personalizable education for all children. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

The Power of Different: The Link Between Disorder and Genius by Gail Saltz
Rebecca Gotlieb
Rebecca Gotlieb
June 19, 2018

The Power of Different: The Link Between Disorder and Genius by Gail Saltz

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Gail Saltz, author of The Power of Different: The Link Between Disorder and Genius, argues that given the heterogeneity in human brain functioning “the very phrase brain differences is a redundancy.” This book describes traits and gifts associated with seven broad categories of brain differences based on Saltz’s research and experience as Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill-Cornell School of Medicine. Saltz strives to mitigate the weaknesses that come with brain differences and amplify the strengths. She reduces stigmas around these brain differences by showing that they relate also to genius, creativity, and high achievement. The Power of Different is filled with inspiring stories of people with brain differences who have accomplished tremendous feats because of, not in spite of, their brain differences.

Learning differences (LDs), such as dyslexia, typically result in students having an uneven profile of academic performance. Students with LDs can feel ashamed, anxious, and overwhelmed because of their LDs, but they may also demonstrate tremendous creativity, determination, and empathy. Although not a learning difference, ADHD—characterized by difficulty with inhibiting responses and controlling focus—affects school performance for the approximately 8% of children who have it. Saltz recommends allowing students with LDs and ADHD to specialize in their areas of interest early on and providing them extra time to complete tasks. For students with ADHD, decisions about the use of medication should be made carefully.

Anxiety, which is closely related to self-discipline, can serve a valuable function, but in excess it can paralyze. Relatedly, profound melancholy, depression, or dysthemia can interfere with daily life. In fact, depression is the leading cause of medical disability among people ages 14 to 44 and levies a substantial financial burden on our country. Although individuals may have biological predispositions towards anxiety or depression, early life stress can exacerbate these conditions and regular exercise can help reduce them. Typically around a decade elapses before people with anxiety symptoms seek treatment. Doing so sooner could be helpful. Similarly, those with loved ones with depression should help the depressed persons seek treatment, and encourage self-care.

Saltz profiles people with bipolar disorder—those who cycle between depression and mania. Just like the disorder itself, the benefits and drawbacks of bipolar disorder are extreme. It is associated with the ability to see interesting connections where others cannot and the ability to produce prolifically. However, the toll of extreme mania or depression can be severe. Unfortunately, the psychological and psychiatric communities have made only modest advancements in the treatment of bipolar disorder. Although attention to routine, preferably with a healthy amount of sleep, is extremely helpful for people with bipolar disorder (especially when paired with lithium medication), this consistency is challenging for people with the disorder to implement in their lives. Currently there is societal stigma around having bipolar disorder. This leads to people with the disorder receiving suboptimal treatment and may cost society the opportunity to capitalize on these folks’ creativity.

Many people who have varieties of the aforementioned brain differences acknowledge that, although such differences present challenges for them, they would not rid themselves of them completely. Conversely, most people with schizophrenia, a disorder that can make it difficult to distinguish that which is real from that which is not, would like to rid themselves of their brain differences if they could. Schizophrenia can lead to social isolation. As devastating as it can be, the divergent thinking that characterizes schizophrenia also makes possible creativity. To reduce the adverse impact of schizophrenia on the 3.5 million Americans who have it, we should stop stigmatizing it (e.g., stop using words like “crazy” and “psycho”) and help these individuals get proper treatment. Consistent routine, sleep, overall physical health, and avoiding mind altering drugs are important for people with schizophrenia.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are characterized by cognitive and linguistic impairments, difficulty in social interactions, perseveration, rigidity, impulsivity, and extreme interest in obscure topics. Today, about one in 68 children receive an ASD diagnosis. The difficulty with social interactions can make school and work challenging, but with proper support these individuals can lead fulfilling lives in which the gifts of their brain differences allow them to contribute.

Given that nearly one fifth of the population has a mental illness, ignoring brain differences is not an option. Instead, we should intervene early for those who need it, cultivate students’ strengths, reduce the stigmatization of differences, encourage self-care, support opportunities for creative expression, and continue to research brain differences. With an understanding of how brain differences manifest, the diversity in brain functioning, and the fact that treatment should strive to amplify strengths rather than diminish differences, we can move towards benefitting from the gifts that people with brain differences possess.

Saltz, G. (2017). The Power of Different: The Link Between Disorder and Genius. New York: Macmillan.

You, Your Child, and School: Navigating Your Way to the Best Education by Sir Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica
Rebecca Gotlieb
Rebecca Gotlieb
May 22, 2018

You, Your Child, and School: Navigating Your Way to the Best Education by Sir Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica

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Sir Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica previously argued in their 2015 book Creative Schools (reviewed here) that we should pursue individualized and holistic learning.  The duo have now written a sequel of sorts, for parents of school age children. In You, Your Child, and School: Navigating Your Way to the Best Education Robinson and Aronica: 1) review the ways society is changing and the implications for education; 2) note several challenges related to ensuring students receive a quality education; and 3) help parents analyze how to overcome these challenges so that their children get the education they need to live fulfilled lives.

Great parents create the conditions that support their children’s growth.  They work to ensure that the needs in Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs– physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, self-actualization—are fulfilled for their children.  They recognize that there are, as Howard Gardner has argued, multiple types of intelligence, and they help their children identify their talents. Great parents recognize that different aspects of development (e.g., cognitive, emotional, physical) co-occur and impact one another.  They encourage a lot of play, especially outside.  Finally, great parents encourage healthy sleep and exercise habits to help mitigate the substantial stress that students experience. Great teachers help students stay excited about learning, build students’ confidence, demonstrate passion, focus on relationships, and are experts in knowing how people learn.

Quality education supports students in becoming fulfilled and engaged adults by supporting the development of the eight competencies Robinson and Aronica detailed in Creative Schools: curiosity, creativity, criticism, communication, collaboration, compassion, composure, and citizenship. These competencies help students develop socially, emotionally, and culturally. Quality education is practical, showing connections between theory and practice to help engage students.

Quality education also prepares students for the future. Today’s typical education may not be the best way to prepare kids for the future because it is difficult to know what jobs today’s students will hold. Robinson and Aronica argue that a college degree, which has become increasingly expensive, is no longer a guarantee of a good job. The emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and math fields not only leads to some students being less engaged in school, but it may also be ignoring ways in which the arts and humanities help students develop important workforce skills. They argue that we are doing a disservice both to students and to society by not offering more vocational education courses in high school and not endowing vocational tracks with more respect. One out of every three jobs requires non-college professional training, and yet only 12% of people have that training. These jobs can be fulfilling and even pay commensurate with jobs that require a college degree. Parents, children, and schools should work together to find the best educational and career path for each child.

Robinson and Aronica suggest several factors for parents to consider when determining whether a school will fit their child’s needs. They suggest parents look for schools with a broad, balanced, and dynamic curriculum that teaches not only the academic disciplines but also physical education, arts, and social and life skills. Parents should consider whether teachers flexibly modify their practice to students’ needs. Parents should seek schools that use assessments that are open, informative, and ongoing. School schedules ideally are flexible and varied. The environment should be safe and stimulating.  Schools should capitalize on and contribute to the wider community.

When the local public school does not have these elements, Robinson and Aronica argue that parents can change the schools from within them or from outside of them. They can also take their children out of the school system. They draw on the work of Jerry Mintz to list indicators for homeschooling or “unschooling” a child. They suggest that parents can try to connect more with their child’s teachers, get involved with the school (e.g., volunteering in the library), participate in school governance (e.g., parent teacher associations), or advocate for changes to education policy. They offer advice about how parents should behave when raising a complaint and what parents should expect from their child’s school in addressing their concern. Robinson and Aronica offer advice also about common problems that kids face in school, e.g., homework, stress, bullying, and attentional issues.

Consistent with a message these authors have shared previously, the main theme in You, Your Child, and School,is one that is not new to parents and yet is reassuring to have affirmed: every child is unique, one type of education is not appropriate for all students, and life is not linear. Parents and educators alike can better serve children when bearing this in mind.

 

Robinson, K., & Aronica, L. (2018). You, Your Child, and School: Navigating Your Way to the Best Education. New York, NY: Viking Penguin.

Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness by Rick Hanson with Forrest Hanson
Rebecca Gotlieb
Rebecca Gotlieb
April 30, 2018

Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness by Rick Hanson with Forrest Hanson

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Rick Hanson, senior fellow at the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley and a New York Times best-selling author of several books, has teamed up with his son Forrest, a writer and editor for the website Eusophi, to write a book to help us heal from our past and develop resources to cope with the present and future. Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness draws on neuroscientific and psychological research to help readers cope with adversity.

Rick and Forrest Hanson argue that people have three basic needs—safety, satisfaction, and connection. We meet those needs in four ways: recognizing the truth, building our resources, regulating thoughts and feelings, and relating to others and the world. The book is structured such that Hanson and Hanson describe twelve inner strengths we can develop to become resilient. Each of those twelve strengths—compassion, mindfulness, learning, grit, gratitude, confidence, calm, motivation, intimacy, courage, aspiration, and generosity—corresponds to the combination of one of the three aforementioned needs with one of the four aforementioned ways of meeting those needs. With stories to bring the twelve strengths alive and exercises for the reader to practice enacting these strengths, this book is intended to be a useful guide to help the reader build resilience at once and develop habits that will encourage the strengths to bring about lasting change.

The first of these strengths is compassion, or recognizing pain and wanting to relieve it. Hanson and Hanson emphasize that compassion for oneself, not only for others, is critical. For example, given that certain neurotransmitters in the brain respond to pleasurable activities, by focusing on enjoyable aspects of a task we can make it easier for ourselves to engage in the task. Attending to the present moment all the time, can be hard to do; yet this skill of mindful attention shapes who we become. Hanson and Hanson offer guidance for engaging in meditative practices, letting go of negative thoughts, and seeking out experiences to restore and maintain psychological balance.

Our ability to learn is also key to our resilience. We learn when we have beneficial experiences, enrich them, absorb them, and link them to other ideas and experiences. The authors argue that our neocortex, the size of which distinguishes us from other species, enables us to exercise strengths such as compassion, mindfulness, and learning that make us resilient. Three strengths that allow us to build our internal resources to support resilience are grit, gratitude, and confidence. Grit means finding a way to be resourceful, even when one feels depleted. It requires having a sense that one has agency to make things happen and determination and patience to see them through. Accepting oneself and maintaining health habits can build one’s reserve so that he can demonstrate grit when needed. Giving thanks, seeking pleasurable experiences, feeling personally successful, and experiencing joy for others can lead to greater gratitude. Gratitude, in turn, is associated with greater satisfaction and physical health. Early life experiences (e.g., patterns of parental attachment) and recent experiences with rejection can lead to feelings of insecurity and heightened self-criticism. Regardless of one’s past, we can develop confidence by building a coherent narrative of our life experiences, being mindful of their self-criticism, and nurturing a supportive inner voice.

Calmness, motivation, and intimacy require us to regulate our thoughts, feelings, and actions. To experience calm Hanson and Hanson advise relaxing deeply each week, slowing down, harnessing the power of breath, drawing on the support of loved ones, and recognizing that anger hurts the person who feels it at least as much as it hurts the object of his anger. Motivation can help people pursue opportunities even when doing so is challenging. It can also lead people to perpetually experience want. Hanson and Hanson argue that one way to relieve suffering is to try to want less and be satisfied with what one has. They explain that dopamine is released in response to novelty and reward, which impacts motivation. Support, rather than criticism, can help individuals stay motivated. Being known by others and connecting with them helps us build resilience. We can experience this intimacy with others when we recognize that being strongly autonomous actually facilitates, rather than diminishes, intimacy. Empathy, compassion, and kindness also help people develop intimacy.

The final way in which people seek to satisfy their needs is by relating to others. Courage, aspiration, and generosity are skills that help us relate to others. Specifically, Hanson and Hanson focus on the courage to speak one’s own truth, share experiences, and negotiate fairly with others. They remind their readers that, while each day may pass slowly, years seem to pass quickly. As such, we should strive to use each day to bring us closer to achieving what matters to us. When we are willing to fail in achieving our goals and cease comparing our accomplishments to those of others, we become more likely to succeed.

Hanson and Hanson conclude with a call for generosity. Giving without expectation of reciprocity, enjoying the experience of giving, forgiving ourselves and others, and expanding the circle of people with whom we feel similar can help us build the reserve we need to face the challenges we may encounter. With its diverse strategies and exercise to practice implementation, Resilient is a useful read for those currently in need of strong psychological resources to navigate a challenge as well as for those who hope to engage in a reflective exercise and strengthen their psychological resources.

Hanson, R. (2018). Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness. New York, NY: Harmony Books.

The Neuroscience of Intelligence by Richard Haier
Rebecca Gotlieb
Rebecca Gotlieb
March 14, 2018

The Neuroscience of Intelligence by Richard Haier

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The Neuroscience of Intelligence explores intriguing ideas about the neuroscientific and genetic bases of intelligence such as that genes play a more critical role than does environment in determining intelligence, that there are neurological markers of intelligence, and that we may be able to apply neuroscience to increase individuals’ intelligence. Author Richard J. Haier is professor emeritus at the University of California, Irvine, a former president of the International Society for Intelligence Research, and a pioneer in the use of neuroscientific methods to study intelligence. He writes in both a scientifically accurate and detailed way and in a manner that comprehensibly situates scientific findings in a broader perspective. Thus, the book will appeal both to neuropsychologists interested in a survey of the last several decades of intelligence research as well as to a general audience interested in understanding the implications of intelligence research as we build a better society. Haier addresses misconceptions about intelligence, explains how it is measured, and discusses the genetic-, epigenetic-, and brain-bases of intelligence. He concludes by discussing ways we can increase intelligence (and why we should be leery of many claims about increasing intelligence) and the policy implications of doing so.

Haier explains that intelligence is a general mental ability. Individuals vary in their ability to learn, remember, and deduce. This variability is measureable to assess intelligence. The common factor governing performance on all tests of mental ability is called “g,” the general factor of intelligence. IQ, measured with tests like the Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrix, is different from g, but often used as a reliable proxy for it. Haier emphasizes that one of the shortcomings with IQ scores is that they are intelligible only relative to other people. They are not scored on a ratio scale with a true zero value. Nonetheless, IQ scores, Haier claims, are unbiased and do predict academic and life success. He reviews several studies suggesting that IQ measured early in life can predict success, longevity, happiness, and health much later in life. As such, in considering changes to the educational system, he argues that we need to consider the real limits IQ exerts on the ability of some individuals to achieve.

Drawing from a body of research, Haier argues that the vast majority of variability in intelligence is due to genes, rather than environmental factors. It is likely the case that many genes influence intelligence. He says that finding the genes involved in determining intelligence has been and will continue to be difficult, and that an even greater challenge is understanding how, why, and when certain genes influence intelligence.

Early research into the brain-basis of intelligence provided evidence for the idea that brain efficiency, rather than overall brain activity, is related to intelligence. It also provided evidence for the idea that not all brains perform the same functions in the same way. While anatomically it is difficult to distinguish between brains from high and low IQ people, there are observable differences in brain functioning and connectivity related to IQ. For example, the thickness of the corpus callosum (which connects the two brain hemispheres) is related to IQ, and the density and organization of white matter tracts in the frontal and parietal lobes of the brain differ as a function of IQ. Haier and his colleague developed the parieto-frontal integration theory of intelligence, which suggests that the integration of and communication between certain frontal and parietal areas is especially important for intelligence. Recent brain imaging studies have added evidence that supports this theory. Haier reports that scientists are working towards identifying neuromarkers of intelligence as unique as our fingerprints that may lead to more personalized educational programs.

Haier is optimistic about the potential for neuroscience and especially genetic research to boost intelligence. Although confident that we will be able to boost intelligence, Haier discusses several high profile studies—about listening to Mozart, training working memory, and playing computer games—that inappropriately claimed to increase intelligence. One of the largest roadblocks to advancing the study of intelligence enhancement is that psychometric testing of intelligence lacks a ratio score. Chronometric testing, which assesses the speed with which people reason, may be a way to measure intelligence using ratio scores.

Wading into some of the most controversial and important work related to intelligence, Haier argues that “poverty and near-poverty for [low IQ people] is a condition that may have some roots in the neurobiology of intelligence beyond anyone’s control.” That is, genetic determinants of intelligence may partially explain why some people live in poverty. Although this seems concerning, Haier argues that there is reason for optimism because we may be able to treat “neuro-poverty.” He argues that because intelligence is rooted in genetics, and thus subject to limited control, it is wrong for society to avoid protecting individuals from the consequences of their cognitive weaknesses.

As a careful scientist, Haier reminds his readers repeatedly that the brain is complex, no one study of the brain is definitive, and it takes time for truth to emerge from a body of literature about the brain. He has carefully synthesized and analyzed what he sees as the truth in that body of literature. With enthusiasm he urges young scientists to continue to pursue vigorously the study of intelligence, as we may be on the precipitous of great advances in the field.

Haier, R. J. (2016). The Neuroscience of Intelligence. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

The Yes Brain: How to Cultivate Courage, Curiosity, and Resilience in Your Child by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
Rebecca Gotlieb
Rebecca Gotlieb
February 16, 2018

The Yes Brain: How to Cultivate Courage, Curiosity, and Resilience in Your Child by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson

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In their new book The Yes Brain: How to Cultivate Courage, Curiosity, and Resilience in Your Child, Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson offer parents guidance about how to support their children in “say[ing] yes to the world.” They argue that raising truly successful children who can create for themselves a life of connection and fulfillment means raising children who are not impulsively reactive but instead have the sense of balance, resilience, personal insight, and empathy for others to be receptive to the world around them. In the vein of making this book comprehensible to neuroscience novices, some scientists may note a lack of specificity about the neurological characteristics of the “yes brain.” This book includes cartoon animations of key concepts, prompts to build a “yes brain,” and a summary sheet of key characteristics of a “yes brain”, all of which makes it an accessible and useful tool for parents.

Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, the founder and co-director of the UCLA mindful awareness research center, and executive director of the Mindsight Institute. Bryson is a pediatric and adolescent psychotherapist, director of parenting for the Mindsight Institute, and a child development specialist. Both Siegel and Bryson are New York Times bestselling authors, including of two books they previously co-authored, “The Whole-Brain Child” and “No Drama Discipline.”

According to Siegel and Bryson the “yes brain” is able to overcome challenges, remain flexible, and receptive to the world, while the “no brain” is reactive, and quick to attack, reject, or remain stubbornly fixed. The authors claim that the difference between a “yes brain” and a “no brain” is not merely a difference in mindsets but a difference in the brain’s response to situations. They draw an analogy between a brain and a house such that brainstem and limbic regions, which are fast-acting and supportive of life-sustaining functions, are the bottom floor of the house and the cerebral cortex, which supports complex thought and emotion, is the upstairs part of the house undergoing construction after the bottom floor has developed. They argue that balance, resilience, insight, and empathy are all supported by the prefrontal cortex in the “upstairs brain.” To suggest that there is not prefrontal cortex activity in reactive responses may not be accurate, but the authors are right to argue that there are neurological differences associated with being receptive versus reactive. Their “yes brain” construct may be best understood as a set of psychological and behavioral skills and mindsets.

Siegel and Bryson argue that balance or emotional stability and flexibility is important for finding success. It is natural for children to become imbalanced by acting out in a hyperaroused state or by shutting down in a state of hypoarousal. To help them regulate themselves, parents should remember that children do not like feeling imbalanced; they need a loving, soothing, understanding presence to help them return to feeling in control. Free play, diversifying the way one spends his time, prioritizing quality sleep, and receiving instruction about balance can promote balance.

Building resilience, or the ability to bounce back after failure, requires allowing children to feel the sting of failure so that in the long-run they can rise above setbacks. Parents need to allow kids opportunities to stand up for themselves as well as to intervene on their children’s behalf when challenges are too big to face alone. To build resilience, Siegel and Bryson argue for making it clear that reasonable risk-taking and failure are okay and for making children feel safe, seen, soothed, and secure.

Siegel and Bryson argue that children need to develop insight to understand themselves and have control over their social and emotional lives. One strategy to promote insight is taking well-timed pauses to act as a spectator of one’s own life. Parents can develop their own insightfulness by building a coherent narrative of who they are as a parent and a person and acting in a way that accords with who they want to be.

The final component of the “yes brain” is empathy. Siegel and Bryson remind parents that empathic abilities develop over the course of childhood and adolescence; so it is natural if youngsters do not always seem optimally empathic. Modeling empathic listening, perspective taking, and caring are critical for developing empathic kids. Parents can help children develop empathy by reframing situations with role playing, providing children with a vocabulary to communicate care, and exposing children to the way other people live.

Helping children develop an internal sense of self, a concern for others, and curiosity is likely to lead to deep and meaningful success. Siegel and Bryson argue that for parents’ to help their children develop balanced, resilient, insightful, and empathic “yes brains” they must allow kids to grow into who they will be while being prepared to help when children are in need of practice building these key skills.

 

Siegel, D. J. & Bryson, T.P. The Yes Brain: How to Cultivate Courage, Curiosity, and Resilence in Your Child. New York: Bantam Books

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