A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Laura Gormley, Dublin City University The education of autistic children and young people in western societies has been heavily influenced by a medicalised understanding of autism. This means considering autism as a disorder, with a focus on correcting autistic people’s perceived lacks, rather than building on their strengths. Autistic learners’ strengths, interests, preferences, goals and [...]
Nerelie Freeman, Senior Lecturer, School of Educational Psychology and Counselling, Faculty of Education Amid a sharp increase in autism and ADHD diagnoses, many schools aren’t equipped to support the diverse learning and social-emotional needs of their students. Neurodiverse girls, including autistic and ADHDer girls, are one group of young people feeling distinctly unsupported and [...]
Penny Van Bergen, University of Wollongong Everyone knows a kid who cheats at Monopoly or backyard cricket. Perhaps they have even cheated on a test at school. If your notice your own child is doing this, you may worry they are headed for a life of crime. But in developmental terms, cheating is not usually [...]
John Sommers-Flanagan, University of Montana Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching. Title of Course Evidence-Based Happiness for Teachers What prompted the idea for the course? I was discouraged. For nearly three decades, as a clinical psychologist, I trained mental health professionals on suicide assessment. The work [...]
Ian Gordon, The University of Melbourne; Mary P. Coupland, University of Technology Sydney, and Merrilyn Goos, University of the Sunshine Coast Imagine if you enrolled your child in swimming lessons but instead of a qualified swimming instructor, they were taught freestyle technique by a soccer coach. Something similar is happening in classrooms around Australia every [...]
Alison Bedford, University of Southern Queensland As Year 12 students begin term 3, they will be thinking increasingly about what to do next year. Throughout August, many universities have have open days as students investigate different courses and options for study. This is a significant time for young people as they navigate study pressures with [...]
Sam Sellar, University of South Australia This week, the national 2024 NAPLAN results were released. This was met with headlines raising alarm about one in three students not meeting literacy and numeracy standards. While these headlines may be worrying to parents, they do not say anything about individual students. Families have been receiving individual student [...]
Andrew J. Martin, UNSW Sydney and Rebecca J. Collie, UNSW Sydney Adolescence is often characterised as a time of “storm and stress”. Young people are dealing with physical and cognitive changes and, as they move from childhood, can become increasingly distant from the adults in their lives. In academic terms, this time of major hormonal [...]
Corey Bloomfield, CQUniversity Australia These long summer holidays may seem like an extra blessing to families who are dealing with a child who does not like school or who refuses to go. But even as January stretches out in front of us, parents will no doubt be thinking about the challenge of getting their child [...]
Nina Van Dyke, Victoria University and Fiona MacDonald, Victoria University As children return to classrooms for 2024, school communities will be confronting bullying in person and via technology. In-person bullying and cyberbullying affect significant numbers of children and young people in Australia and around the world. The eSafety Commission recently revealed a 40% jump in [...]
