Brain Science and the Teen Age Brain

Guest:  Dr. Dennis Coates, denny@prostarcoach.com, www.prostarcoach.com, known as the "Teen Brain Guy" writes and talks about how the teen brain develops, and the important need for supportive and positive experiences during the teen years to help them prepare the child for life as a mature self-controlled adult.  He emphasizes the need for a teen to have mentors, of which the parents are the main ones, to help them develop their brain pre-frontal cortex through experiences that properly develop their brain.

This segment was sponsored by Spring Ridge Academy, 928-632-4602, a Therapeutic Boarding School for Girls in Arizona.

Benefits of Single Sex Education

Guest:  Tim Viands, Head of School for Grand River Academy-OH www.GrandRiver.org, 440-275-2811, tim.viands@GrandRiver.org, explained how traditional schooling often does a disservice to boys by not teaching them in the ways they need.  He explained how often single sex schools can better meet boys needs (and that the same applies to girls also) by individualizing instruction.  This is helped by being in a boarding situation, with a small school with small classes as well as avoiding posturing and distractions that all too often occur in a co-ed envnironment.

Educating Young Minds/Accessing Struggling Teens

Guest: Ms. Angeles Echols-Brown, 213-487-2310, aechols@educatingyoungminds.org,  (Agent Bob Mazza, 310-934-4847, bobmazzapm@gmail.com) Founder and Executive Director of Educating Young Minds, talks about her whole child tutoring work with young teens in the Los Angeles Inner City.  Despite the poverty, these kids have similar problems to that of teens in every economic strata of society: babies having babies, negative peer pressure, and the difficulty of parents holding their children accountable.

Mentoring Teens through Life Coaching

Guest:  Ken Rabow, 416-633-4333, ken@reallifecoaching.ca, http://www.reallifecoaching.ca, lives in Toronto, Canada and is a Life Empowerment Coach and Huffington Post Blogger.  Ken talks about his work using many alternative therapies helping self-sabotaging teens and young adults, and how new communication technologies are changing so fast it seems to be creating a younger generation that seems to be adopting a new way of thinking about how to adjust to the world.

Help For When Your Child Is Lost Within

Guest:  Joel Horowitz, horowitzjoel8@gmail.com, www.friendsoffamilies.org, founder of the Friends Of Families Foundation With Children In Crisis, and co-founder and Director of Tommy Hilfiger Company.  He discussed his personal experiences that led to his enrolling his daughter in a wilderness therapy program and a therapeutic Boarding School, which eventually  led to his founding Friends of Families in 1998 to help families needing financial help for their child to finish their placement.

Failure To Launch

Guests: Doug Kim-Brown, 208-267-1111, kimbrown@coldreams.com, www.echosprings.net, Founded/Director of Echo Springs Transition Center for Young Adults.

Brandi Elliott, 909-337-8093, bmelliott@verizon.net, www.nwacademy.net, Marketing for Northwest Academy and co-owner of Powell-Elliott Consulting.

Doug and Brandi talk about the possible causes and possible solutions to the increasing phenomenon of young adults, known as Boomerang Kids, Twixters, Endless Adolescence, or Perma Kids, failing to establish themselves as mature functioning adults by their 20s and winding with little motivation and living with their parents.

Mean Girls 2.0: Cyber Bullying

Guest:  Katie Gill, actress and star of Lifeline Made for TV movie “Betrayed at 17.”  Contact Account Executive Ariela Weston, Levine Communications Office, 310-300-0950 x313, AWeston@lcoonline.com.  Katie talks about this movie that  revisits the issues in the popular movie of a few years ago, Mean Girls, updated for the age of the Internet, and discusses the role of her character and the other characters.

Educating the Adolescent Male Brain

Guest:  Kelley King, Associate Director of The Gurian Institute, Kelley@gurianinstitute.com, www.gurianinstitute.com, explains how some of the problems of boys can be traced to an inadequate knowledge of the differences in the brains of boys and girls and what parents and other adults can do to help boys.

Using Nature to Rebuild Families

Guest:  John Winton, Founder of Breakwater Expeditions, 208-263-0277, info@breakwaterexpeditions.com, www.breakwaterexpeditions, talk about how effective an exposure to nature can be toward healing families.

Co-host: Larry Stednitz, educational consultant. 

Social Media For Educators

Guests: Dr. Russell Hyken Ph.D.  Educational and Placement Specialist, in St. Louis, 314-691-7640, rhyken@ed-psy.com, www.ed-psy.com and 
Steve Walters: Social Media for InnerChange in Utah,
801-376-7225, stevenw@innerchange.com, talk about the significance
of Social Media and ways educators can use Social Media.

Medications: Are We Turning Our Kids Into Mental Patients?

Guest: Lisa Sinsheimer M.D., Clinical Consultant,
Admissions and Parent Liaison for John Dewey Academy
-MA, www.jda.org, 917-597-7814, lisa@sinsheimer.net, talks about her concerns with our society increasingly looking
to psychotropic medications to solve normal problems of life.

What Is Democratic Education?

Guest:  Jerry Mintz, Founder and Director of 
Alternative Education Resource Organization (AERO),
NYC, 516-621-2195, Jerryaero@aol.com , talks about how 
Democratic Education is based on children’s
natural curiosity and urge to learn.

Educating the Female Brain

Guests:  Jane Samuel, Head of School,
jane.samuel@sequeltsi.com, and 
Elizabeth Guamaccia, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, eguarnaccia1@me.com, Auldern Academy,
North Carolina, Therapeutic Boarding School for Girls,
919-837-2336, talk about how the growth of the female brain starts it on its unique growth pattern almost from conception which results in significant differences in what females and males need in
schools and their lives as they grow up.

The Gift of ADD

Guest: Dr. Kevin Ross Emery, drkevin@managingthegift.com,  facebook,  author of “Managing the Gift
of Your ADD/HD Child," explains how ADD/HD is not
a disorder, but part of the evolutionary progress
of expanded capability.

The Trauma Beneath Eating Disorders

Guest:  Dr. Kim Dennis M.D., 630-343-2332, kdennis@timberlineknolls.com, Medical Director at
Timberline Knolls, RTC Lemont Illinois, discusses and
explains Eating Disorders and the traumas that are
usually behind clinical Eating Disorders.

Common Sense Parenting: Boys Town Advice For All Parents

The Future of Online Education

Guest:  Doug Covey, 800-426-4952, dougc@blueprinteducation.org, www.blueprinteducation.org, CEO of Blueprint Education-AZ, talks about his experience in developing a business providing a wide variety of education opportunities largely using the developing potentials of Online Education.

Caring Confrontation

How Wilderness Therapy is Unique

Learning Disabilities and Therapy: You Shouldn't Have
to Choose

Guest:  Sanford Shapiro, Founder of the 
Bend Learning Center, 541-383-3208, sanfordmshapiro@gmail.com,
discusses the trend to integrate treatment for Learning Disabilities and for Emotional/Behavioral problems in private parent-choice schools and programs for struggling children with problems being successful.

Positive Youth Development in Action

The Dark Side of Prescription Medicine

Guest:  Carl Olding, 406-847-4400, colding@elkmountainacademy.orgFounder of Elk Mountain Academy, a Therapeutic Boarding School in
western Montana for boys with substance abuse problems.  Olding talks about how legal prescription medications are increasingly being redirected by teens into being abused and hints as to how parents and grandparents might watch for
.signs of this abuse.

Just For the Money?

Guest: Mike Watson, 256-426-8873,
tmw1950@yahoo.com,Co-founder of the recent  Three Springs treatment centers headquartered in Alabama, Watson is currently doing program consulting for schools and programs for struggling teens.  Drawing on his 39 years of experience in the field, he offers his suggestions for what parents need to watch for to find effective schools and programs that emphasize providing quality and effective services for struggling teens.

The Ocean and Struggling Teens

Guest: Matt Claybaugh, 808-235-1377 x0, matt.claybaugh@marimed.org, CEO of Marimed Foundation
and Program jDirector of SeaChange Hawaii, discussed how the ocean and a cadet being a part of a shipboard community is healing and therapeutic.

Regarding Schools: Small is Beautiful

Andy Anderson, 727-512-9144, alanderson1537@earthlink.net,
ispaaac.com, Ex. Dir. of the Independent Small
Programs Alliance (ISPA) discussed the advantages
and possible future of small parent-choice residential
schools and programs for struggling teens.

Father Flanigan’s Boys Town In the 21st Century

Guest: Doug Czyz, 402-990-5371, doug.czyz@boystown.org, boystown,org,
National Admissions Coordinator for Boys Town in Omaha, Nebraska talks about the 93 year history of Boys Town
and how it has evolved over the year as the needs
of children with problems have changed.

Connecting With the Future of Education

Guest Brandi Elliott, bmelliott@verizon.net, the Director
of Admissions and Business Development for Northwest Academy in Idaho has 19 years experience with struggling
teens and their families, and Guest Kimball DeLemar, Kimball@innerchange.com, a licensed Social Worker
is a Senior VP of Interchange headquartered in Utah with
more than 25 years experience working with stugglingteens
and their families talk about changes and challenges in society that are impacting education and speculate on what education might look like in a few years.

Our Stressed Out Children

Guest:  Robin Schafer
robinschafer@comcast.net, President of Masterful
KIds, is a Certified Emotional Intelligence Trainer and Certified Life and Career Coach.  She talks about how the stress of academic achievement is a major contributor of many
problems of children such as obesity, dropping out of school, substance abuse etc.

Raising Young Girls, Despite a Toxic Environment

Guests:  Cat Jennings, cjennings@lakehouseacademy.com,
Executive Director of Lake House Academy in NC and
Brooke Judkins Ph.D., bjudkins@lakehouseacademy.com, therapist at
Lake House Academy, a Junior Boarding School for
young girls ages 10-14.  Cat and Brooke talk about the
three intervention foundations they have found that
their young girls need to grow up healthy: Therapeutic Interventions; Ability to make healthy connections and Academic Success.  They explain the main enemies of girls growing up healthy are permissive & rescuing parenting,
lack of boundaries, and no self confidence that comes
from lack of real accomplishment.

How To Build a New School

Guest: Sharon Stricker, Head of Whetstone Academy,
a Junior Boarding School in South Carolina.  One month
after opening the doors of Whetstone Academy, Sharon
shares her thoughts and experiences of what needs to be
done to create a brand new therapeutic Boarding School.  
She talked about defining the projected student profile, importance of communication among staff, with students
and with parents, Building a positive culture and program elements to match the needs of the students and the
importance of developing good relationships with the surrounding community.

Rebuilding the Village

Guest Beth Black, Founder of Cherokee Creek Boys
School-SC, imbblack@mac.com, talks about how
the modern village (community) is failing our children
and what we can do to provide the limits and boundaries children need to grow up to be healthy adults.

Independent Educational Consultants as a
Help to Parents

Special Guests Bob Kantar-VT, RKantar@aol.com,
and Larry Stednitz Ph.D.-CA , larry@woodbury.com,
are long time Independent Educational Consultants starting
in this work in the 1970s.
The discussion revolved around when children have behavioral/emotional problems and need some kind of intervention.  It is very important that the right match is
made between the child and families needs and the
strengths of the school or program.  This can be a very
refined process and a well trained and experienced
Independent Educational Consultant can save the parents
and their child unnecessary heartache and expense.  The Consultant is not bound by contract limitations that most
public entities are bound by and have the freedom to
suggest what they feel is the best for the child rather than
just places the agency has a contract with.  Finders fees,
that is cash for kids or money paid by a school or program
to a referring agency for an enrollment, is considered
unethical and  a conflict of interest.  A professional consultant will avoid those conflicts of interests, keeping a professional relationship with the parents and child.