1.British Airways Realigns Its Program to Make Big Spenders With Large Point Balances Happier (And the Rest, Not So Happy)
2.Singapore Airlines’ New Premium Economy
3.Hawaiian Airlines opens first of 6 new Premier Club lounges at Honolulu airport
4.Marriott Abandons FCC Petition for Hotel Wi-Fi Blocking
5.First SAS aircraft to feature its new-look interior will enter service next month
We welcome page Mybabyname. We appreciate the opportunity to become familiar with our practice. Mybabyname Primary Health Care was established in 2006 by Dr. Byron Cotton that has held trials in children Healthcare of Atlanta and Egleston. Dr. Cotton is well respected among his colleagues was recently recognized as one of the "Top Doctors in Atlanta Magazine" Annual 2009-2014.
Children and adolescents to basic health services, we specialize in providing medical care to patients from birth to 21 years. We strive to provide quality medical care to our patients in a compassionate manner. The office is well maintained and the staff is friendly and professional. Our patients and health professionals to develop a relationship based on trust and mutual respect because they receive doctor's advice with regard to growth and development.
The doctor encourages preventive measures to reduce the risk of illness and disease. With the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines, it is crucial to have children receive visits wells.
We provide advice for care and infant nutrition, and other resources for our health professionals and patients. And "our goal is to develop a lasting relationship with our patients, families and caregivers.
The information on this site is designed to answer some common questions. While browsing the site you will find information about the agreed medical insurance systems, forms, online bill payment, as well as links to useful information. We look forward to working with you as a partner to provide your child with medical treatment, more professional.
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i The 1939 film The Wizard Of Oz was rated G. The 2013 film Oz the Great and Powerful was rated PG. The difference? Maybe a little violence and a womanizing leading man. AP/Walt Disney Pictures hide caption
The 1939 film The Wizard Of Oz was rated G. The 2013 film Oz the Great and Powerful was rated PG. The difference? Maybe a little violence and a womanizing leading man.
AP/Walt Disney PicturesIf you're a parent with small children, summer is traditionally a time when there's lots for them to see at the multiplex. That's not untrue this summer. But if you're specifically looking for a film with a G rating, you may just be out of luck.
Two years ago, out of the more than 600 films submitted to the Motion Picture Association of America, 16 got rated G — the most in a decade. Last year, even if you counted re-releases, only 10 films got rated G. And this year, of the 250 films that have opened so far, not a single one has been rated G. Not one. Which is not to suggest there haven't been family-friendly films this year; they're just rated PG.
For instance, in Oz the Great and Powerful, based on L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz books, all it takes is a bit of digital violence, and a womanizing leading man, for Oz to become a place where parental guidance is suggested.
What's happened to the G rating? Well, let's start with what it is. In the words of the Motion Picture Association, G is for General Audiences — all ages admitted, meaning there is nothing in theme, language, nudity, sex, violence or other matters that the ratings board thinks would offend parents whose younger children view the picture.
There was a time, before the ratings system started in the 1960s, when virtually all Hollywood movies would have qualified for a G. Back then, to avoid government censorship, the film studios subscribed to the "don'ts and be-carefuls" of the Hays Code, which was drawn up in 1930.
Among its requirements: that no picture should ever "lower the moral standards of those who see it." The code banned nudity, sex and violence, as well as the mocking of religion, illegal drug use, and one thing that would be fine in a G-rated film today: interracial romance. Also banned: revenge plots, lustful kissing, the showing of a crime method in enough detail that it might be imitated, and of course, rough language. This last is why Gone With the Wind — the most popular picture ever made — stirred up controversy when Rhett Butler turned suddenly salty in his reply to Scarlett's plaintive, "Where shall I go, what shall I do?"
His "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" was startling stuff in 1939, though by the time the film was finally assigned a rating in the 1970s, community standards had loosened up enough that it still got a G. That was also true of Ben-Hur when it was re-released, despite the whippings and chariot races. And it was even true of Liz Taylor's sultry Cleopatra and a lot of pictures aimed at adults — at first. But when the ratings got better established, G films went from being marks of films for general audiences to being marks of films for children. And once children got wind of that, they didn't want to see them.
Film studios quickly discovered that for films aimed at more than tiny tots, it was wise to spice up that uncool G with a little suspense or language to get the PG that was more attractive to hip 11-year-olds.
These days, with virtually all live-action blockbusters rated PG or PG-13, the G represents a ghetto largely made up of nature films and animation. Not all animation, though. Shrek, Hollywood's biggest animated franchise and a film that makes being gross a point of style, is rated PG.
It's not that a G rating gets in the way of making money. Pixar-Disney has figured out the formula. They've had the top-ranked G-rated film every year but one in the past decade — from Ratatouille and Wall-E to The Princess and the Frog and Tangled.
But other studios aiming at kids' audiences have done just as well, if not better, without the G. Every one of the big animated franchises not made by Pixar-Disney is rated PG — including Despicable Me, Ice Age, Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar. And Pixar goes there, too — with the likes of The Incredibles, Brave and Up.
G may still mean suitable for general audiences, but parents seem to have decided it means suitable for babies. And that means even animation is trending away from the G.
Nine-year-old Logan Tosta and his sister, Avery, show a class of second-graders at Michael J. Castori Elementary School in Sacramento, Calif. how to play with a kendama. Ben Adler/NPR hide caption
At a time when young people of all ages are focused on electronics and apps, the popularity of the kendama — a traditional Japanese toy made out of wood — seems like an anomaly. It hasn't caught on all over the U.S. yet, but it's a big craze on the West Coast and sales are growing. Kendama sellers say Sacramento is a particular hot spot. That's where 9-year-old Logan Tosta has honed his skills. (That's him in the video above.)
Logan says it took him about a day to learn how to do his first trick, landing the wooden ball in one of the cups. It was a month before he could get the ball on the spike consistently. Now, he can do tricks with names like Airplane, Jumping Stick and UFO, flipping the stick to catch the ball in different ways.
i The traditional Kendama is making a splash with kids. Norasit Kaewsai/iStockphoto.com hide caption
The traditional Kendama is making a splash with kids.
Norasit Kaewsai/iStockphoto.comKendamas seem to be the buzz these days at elementary schools all around Sacramento. My kindergartener knew all about them when I brought it up. He said his friends have them. Now he does, too.
But kendamas aren't that easy to find. They're usually at comic book stores, Japanese grocery stores, or online. And they aren't cheap. The one I bought cost about $17.
Vendors are reporting an uptick in the Midwest now, especially in Minnesota and Illinois. Seems like it might be possible for kendamas to go viral, even with no batteries, no screen, no buttons ... just a wooden ball attached to a wooden stick with a string.
Once upon a time, it was MySpace. (Huh. Turns out you can still link to it.) Then Facebook happened. And Twitter. And beyond those two dominant social-media platforms, there are a host of other, newer options for staying in touch and letting the digital universe get a look at your life. And for certain kinds of sharing, some of those other options make more sense to tech-savvy teens than the Big Two do.
On today's All Things Considered, NPR's Sami Yenigun talks to a roomful of teenagers to see who uses which for what these days. (The answer, like most involving tech or teens, is subject to change like the weather.)
i When you need to illustrate a story about proliferating social-media platforms, it's good to know that an enterprising stock photographer has probably thought about it already. Anatoliy Babiy/iStockphoto.com hide caption
When you need to illustrate a story about proliferating social-media platforms, it's good to know that an enterprising stock photographer has probably thought about it already.
Anatoliy Babiy/iStockphoto.comSome takeaways:
Facebook is for finding old friends, and maybe for arranging parties. (Unless they're the kind of parties you don't want the police knowing about. "Oftentimes, parties that are all over social media get busted by the cops really easily," one 17-year-old tells Sami.)
Twitter is more for personal expression. "People be in their feelings on Twitter — they vent," says Jamal Royster, 18.
Visual communication? It's a different mode of connection. And as with text-based platforms, use cases vary among the teens Sami talked to.
Vine is where you publish (and watch) short video clips — seven seconds or so. People make all kinds of clever short films with the app. Check out Waka Flocka Elmo, a recent viral hit recommended by 17-year-old Jesse Aniebonam.
Instagram, a relative veteran in the pics-and-flicks category, is the go-to app when it comes to documenting your days and nights. "I Instagram everything," says Grace Plihal, 18. "It's kind of my way of showing myself to the world, I guess."
(Interesting, that, given how much control Instagram gives users over the look and feel of what they post. "Showing myself" is a telling way to put it.)
But the observation that struck me most, when Sami told me about the shape of his story, was this one, from 13-year-old Caroline Lamb. There are times when you want to take a back seat to the story you're telling, she suggests — and those are the times for Tumblr.
Here's how she puts it in her own words:
Caroline Lamb On Tumblr Vs. Instagram
Oh, one last entry: Snapchat is for selfies you don't want to show up later — like when a college admissions counselor goes Googling for you. Users send snapshots back and forth using a proprietary app.
What makes 'em different from the photos in the MMS messages you can send using most phones' built-in text-messaging programs? Well, you can set Snapchat images to self-destruct: They disappear at most 10 seconds after the recipient views them.
So, Snapchat? It's a near certainty that you don't want to know what the teenagers in your life are doing with it.
i Finn is in the middle, with the skinny arms. Jake is the dog. Together, they have Adventure Time. Cartoon Network hide caption
Finn is in the middle, with the skinny arms. Jake is the dog. Together, they have Adventure Time.
Cartoon NetworkCount plenty of grown-ups among the millions of fans of Adventure Time, a kids' show on Cartoon Network. Some are surely Emmy voters. (It's won three.) Others are very possibly stoners. Still others are intellectuals. Lev Grossman falls in the last category. He wrote two best-selling novels, The Magicians and The Magician King, and he's Time's senior book critic.
Grossman's critique of Adventure Time? "It's soooo smart! It's sooo intelligent!"
Hang on. He's just getting started.
"I am a little bit obsessed with it," Grossman continues. "It's rich and complicated the way Balzac's work is, which is a funny thing to say about a cartoon."
For the uninitiated, Adventure Time is set in a surreally pastel post-apocalyptic kingdom crawling with mutated candy creatures, bizarre princesses — think Slime Princess and Lumpy Space Princess — and our two heroes. They're Finn and Jake, a gangly human boy and his moon-eyed yellow dog.
The show's creator, Pendleton Ward, modeled Jake partly after Bill Murray's sardonic camp counselor in the 1979 movie Meatballs, a cooler-than-cool older-brother figure who can laugh at his charges without being mean and whose teachable moments are anything but cloying.
"Jake sees his own death in one episode," says Ward. "And Finn has to deal with that. Jake's a hip guy. He can watch his own death, and he's comfortable with it, and that's a weird thing, especially for Finn, who's superyoung, and it's really hard on him."
In the episode, called "New Frontier," Jake experiences a vision during which he's taken to an afterlife of stars and darkness by a little bananalike creature (voiced by Weird Al Yankovic).
"When I die, I'm gonna be all around you," Jake reassures Finn. "In your nose. And your dreams. And socks! I'll be a part of you in your earth mind. It's gonna be great!"
"That episode was really tough to tackle, writing it for a children's television show," Ward remembers. "It was hard for us to really not make it so sad and scary that you feel really sad and scared watching it."
Adventure Time insists on emotional honesty — even in its bad guys, usually depicted as cardboard villains in kids' cartoons.
Grossman offers the shrill, socially maladapted Earl of Lemongrab as an example. An unlikable character, his story is movingly explored and raises questions nearly every kid has wondered about: Why do I seem weird to other people? Why do I seem weird to myself?
Or take the buffoonish, bandy-legged and morally compromised Ice King. "[He's] psychologically plausible," Grossman observes. "He's an old lecherous man who has a magical crown. It's made him into this strange, awful individual who goes around capturing princesses."
The king's crown wiped his mind and warped his body. He'll die if he takes it off.
"Which is this rather moving tension, and he doesn't remember who he used to be, but other people do," Grossman says. "It's very affecting. My dad has been going through having Alzheimer's, and he's forgotten so much about who he used to be. And I look at him and think this cartoon is about my father dying."
In spite of the critical admiration, the warm feelings of fans and the prestigious awards, Adventure Time nearly never aired. "It actually felt like a great risk," says Rob Sorcher, the Cartoon Network's chief content officer. "It's not slick. It doesn't feel manufactured for kids, so who's it for?"
Um, perhaps partly for the kind of grown-up who might watch Yo Gabba Gabba with a little chemical assist?
"For me, it doesn't come from that place," says Ward. "For me, it comes from my childhood, wandering in my mind. You can't really go anywhere when you're a kid. I don't have a car, I don't have anything. I just have my backyard and my brain. And that's where I'm coming from when I'm writing it." He pauses. "I can't speak for all the writers on the show."
Ward and his mother used to watch cartoons together when he was a kid, but he claims today he's not writing specifically for a co-viewing audience of parents and kids. Still, author Grossman says Adventure Time works for him and his 8-year-old daughter, Lily, equally.
"It's really important for us to have something we can enjoy together and talk about together. It gives us in some ways a common language for talking about more important issues," he says.
Adventure Time's world used to be our world. Then it was destroyed by a war. It's strewn with detritus such as old computers, VHS tapes and video games from the 1980s.
"It takes my childhood, the shattered pieces of it, and builds it into something new, which is now part of Lily's childhood," he says, almost in wonder.
NBC's singing competition The Voice dominated the ratings game this spring and last fall. Now, the Spanish kids' version has become the top-rated show for NBC's sister network, Telemundo. The show, taped before an audience in Miami, features Latino children from the U.S. competing for a scholarship and a recording contract.
Some of the contestants still have baby fat or braces on their teeth. And some, like Cuban-American Paola Guanche, have precocious voices that you wouldn't usually hear in an 11-year-old. On La Voz Kids, pint-size contestants sing everything from Puerto Rican salsa to norteño ballads to American R&B in both English and Spanish. It's the U.S.'s only adaptation of a franchise that's done well in 55 countries, from the Netherlands to Afghanistan.
No one seems more surprised by the show's success than Daniel Cubillo, vice president of Telemundo's nonscripted shows. "In the very beginning I thought that it could be a mistake," he says. "But I have to recognize now that I was wrong — completely wrong."
i La Voz Kids' coaches include Dominican-American singer-songwriter Prince Royce, Mexican pop star Paulina Rubio and Mexican-American singer Roberto Tapia. Courtesy Telemundo hide caption
La Voz Kids' coaches include Dominican-American singer-songwriter Prince Royce, Mexican pop star Paulina Rubio and Mexican-American singer Roberto Tapia.
Courtesy TelemundoCubillo should know: He produced Spanish versions of The Apprentice, Big Brother, The X Factor and Temptation Island, none of which have the rights to air in the U.S. Still, he admits he had doubts about Telemundo creating a children's show.
"I was afraid about the kids' version because it's so different, it's so pure," Cubillo says. "Kids are providing us with some elements that we couldn't get in the adult version, for sure."
That includes endearing scenes in which cute, small children burst into tears when they're eliminated and get hugs and kisses from their tearful coaches onstage.
Host Daisy Fuentes says the children have big dreams. "They're not joking around," she says. "They want the success. They want the fame and they want the recognition. And most of them will tell you it's to help their family."
The field of contestants gets whittled down every week and the kids are coached by three celebrity judges, including Mexican pop diva Paulina Rubio, who began as a child performer. "I started at 7," Rubio says. "I got a recording deal, so no [one more] than me can understand them and their fears and their family's doubts. It is a lot of pressure."
Rubio notes that the show works with a team of psychologists to help the children. "The whole project is taking care [of] these little souls," she says.
After losing a battle round on a recent show, 7-year-old Christopher Vega thanked his coach, Roberto Tapia. He removed the rosary beads around his neck and gave them to Tapia as a gift, then asked his coach for a blessing and a little good luck kick in the behind — a Latin American showbiz tradition. (Click here to see the adorable thank you, which starts at 6:25.)
For years throughout Latin America, there have been kids' singing competitions on TV. And in the U.S. last year, Univision aired a children's talent show called Pequeños Gigantes. But blogger Laura Martinez notes that that show wasn't produced in the U.S.
"I think what La Voz Kids is doing that is really different is that you have kids that are actually born and raised in the U.S.," she says, "versus just watching a show imported from Mexico."
The popularity of La Voz Kids has already inspired Fox to begin producing a similar show for its Spanish-language network, MundoFox. And other major English-language networks may soon be knocking off the knockoff to boost their ratings with singing kids, too.
i Sue Glader wrote Nowhere Hair after finding that many children's books about cancer were too depressing or scary. Courtesy Sue Glader hide caption
Sue Glader wrote Nowhere Hair after finding that many children's books about cancer were too depressing or scary.
Courtesy Sue GladerParents steer their kids to media for all kinds of things: as a distraction so they can make dinner, to teach letters and numbers, and for pure entertainment. There are also times when parents rely on books, TV, museums and other media when they aren't quite sure how to approach a difficult topic by themselves.
Linda Ellerbee is the queen of hard subjects. Domestic abuse, Sept. 11, alcoholism and living with HIV are among the many tough issues she's covered in the 22 years since she's hosted NickNews on Nickelodeon. The show is written for 9- to 13-year-olds, and Ellerbee says her one rule of thumb is don't dumb it down.
"Our viewers are smart people," she says. "They are merely younger, less experienced and shorter." They also possess a more limited vocabulary, but Ellerbee she still uses words they might not know, like "intervention" or "hijacking."
"If I'm going to use a word that I think a 10-year-old might not understand," she says, "I either explain what the word means or use it in such a way that it's absolutely clear what the word means. I don't change the word."
NickNews is also known for letting kids do the talking: Children who've experienced all kinds of difficulties go on air to explain what their lives are like and how they're coping. Ellerbee says it's an effective way to explain a hard subject to young people. But, she cautions, don't do it too soon.
"That's why we haven't gone to Newtown yet to do a show with those kids or, you know, about what happened," she says. "It's about timing. You need to sort of let some things settle."
For the producers of Glee, meanwhile, the right time was four months after Newtown. Last April, the Fox series did an episode in which the high school goes on lockdown when a student's gun goes off. Some Newtown, Conn., residents urged people in the community to boycott the show.
The way adolescent brain works is such that 'bad things happen to other people' ... So what I think ['Glee'] did was to strike empathy and understanding amongst that age group.
- Dr. Jennifer Powell-Lunder
Psychologist Jennifer Powell-Lunder says the dangers of that Glee episode vary depending of who's watching it. "It is not a good show for kids who've been through such a trauma to be viewing," she says. "And it's very simple: Because it's too close to home, it retraumatizes them."
For teenagers who haven't experienced a similar tragedy, Powell-Lunder says, the episode was well done. "Really, the way the adolescent brain works is such that bad things happen to other people," she says. "So what I think it did is strike empathy and understanding amongst that age group and amongst all of us about the fear and the terror of the unknown."
The Right Book For Rough Subjects
In the late 1980s psychologist Jerome Singer warned, "Television is like having a stranger in the house." Most parents wouldn't want their children learning about the dangers of the world from a stranger, and that includes TV, he said when he was at Yale. At the same time, some parents need help starting the conversation. For young children, the right book can help, especially since reading together naturally lends itself to conversation.
i In When Leonard Lost His Spots, Leonard transitions from leopard to lioness. Here, Leonard is shown as a cub, dreaming of life without spots. Courtesy Happy Family! hide caption
In When Leonard Lost His Spots, Leonard transitions from leopard to lioness. Here, Leonard is shown as a cub, dreaming of life without spots.
Courtesy Happy Family!Case in point: The picture book When Leonard Lost His Spots: A Trans Parent Tail by Monique Costa addresses an issue you rarely find in children's literature — transgender. With playful rhymes and Disney-like illustrations, a tiger cub tells how he feels about his father becoming a female:
"I didn't know how to react.
Or even what to say.
I pretended not to notice him.
I wish he'd go away."
The cub feels shame, anger and fear. That openness is something publishers Cheril Clarke and Monica Bey-Clarke were drawn to. Their company, My Family!, focuses on children's books about nontraditional families. "It doesn't shy away from the fact that [the] cub is struggling inside," Clarke says. "It's a very honest story from a child's point of view."
But if a book for small children is too depressing, some adults just won't buy it. When Sue Glader was diagnosed with breast cancer, she went looking for books to read to her nieces and nephews. "I saw a lot of things that were really very sad and very scary or supertechnical for a young child," she says. So when she was going through chemotherapy, she wrote the book Nowhere Hair:
"A sparrow might have borrowed it to warm her fancy nest.
Perhaps she stuffed a pillow to help grandma get some rest.
The day I asked her where it went
She had a simple answer
'I'm bald because of medicine
I take to cure my cancer."
Glader's advice for talking to kids about hard subjects is be "silly ... in the right places."
Sculpting And Touching Tragedy
As hard as it might be to talk to a child about cancer, it's still a relatively concrete and present subject. Talking about difficult issues in the news is a different challenge. When it's the so-called "crime of crimes," many adults would rather not think about it at all, let alone talk about it with kids.
Artist and activist Naomi Natale is trying to get young people, as well as grown-ups, to understand genocide with a project called One Million Bones.
Pre-K through 12th-grade students at several hundred schools around the country have been sculpting human bones out of clay for a mass grave to be displayed on the National Mall to honor the victims of genocide.
At Georgetown Day Middle School in Washington, D.C., 12-year-old Cole Wright-Schaner made a spine. "It was kind of disturbing to make it, thinking of all the people that have died in the African countries," he says. "It really opened my eyes to genocide and what's going on in the world. We live in such a safe country."
Natale says the simple, physical process of making a bone is what makes genocide personal. "If you can think about the bone that's in your hand, and that you're using your hands to craft another bone, you know — representative of our lives and evidence we existed," she says.
i Life-size wax figures at the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum depict the grim realities of slavery. Courtesy Great Blacks In Wax Museum hide caption
Life-size wax figures at the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum depict the grim realities of slavery.
Courtesy Great Blacks In Wax MuseumAnd young people can comprehend a difficult subject better by seeing it or touching it. At the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore, they get to do both.
Joanne Martin founded the museum with her late husband, Elmer Martin. They assembled an exhibition on slavery that is both extraordinary and grim: The museum has actual slave chains and shackles that visitors can hold. The weight alone drives home the brutality of slavery.
There's also a replica of a slave ship. Narrow, creaky steps take visitors down below. It's dark and there are life-sized statues of men, women and children with chains and shackles around their legs and their necks.
On a recent trip to the museum, fifth-grade teacher Damien Samuels said his students from KIPP Middle School in Charlotte, N.C., were "significantly affected" by the slave ship. He says teaching the complete story of slavery is challenging. It's easy to find stories about escaping slavery and abolitionists but most media skirt the really difficult parts.
"Even the textbooks shy away from certain images," Samuels says. "I think this museum does a very good job at showing the graphic details. So I think this is a very, very good opportunity for [the students] to really, really appreciate what their ancestors have been through."
The Great Blacks in Wax Museum also includes many stories that celebrate African-Americans' achievements over the decades, from civil rights to space exploration to the White House. Leaving young people with a sense of hope is important whenever media tackle hard subjects, says Nickelodeon's Linda Ellerbee.
"Wherever bad things happen, you always find good people trying to make it better," she says. "And there are more good people than there are bad people."
i Walk into any bookstore or library, and you'll find shelves and shelves of hugely popular novels and book series for kids. But research shows that as young readers get older, they are not moving to more complex books. High-schoolers are reading books written for younger kids, and teachers aren't assigning difficult classics as much as they once did.
At Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington, D.C., the 11th-grade honors English students are reading The Kite Runner. And students like Megan Bell are reading some heavy-duty books in their spare time. "I like a lot of like old-fashioned historical dramas," Bell says. "Like I just read Anna Karenina ... I plowed through it, and it was a really good book."
But most teens are not forging their way through Russian literature, says Walter Dean Myers, who is currently serving as National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. A popular author of young-adult novels that are often set in the inner city, Myers wants his readers to see themselves in his books. But sometimes, he's surprised by his own fan mail.
"I'm glad they wrote," he says, "but it is not very heartening to see what they are reading as juniors and seniors." Asked what exactly is discouraging, Myers says that these juniors and seniors are reading books that he wrote with fifth- and sixth-graders in mind.
And a lot of the kids who like to read in their spare time are more likely to be reading the latest vampire novel than the classics, says Anita Silvey, author of 500 Great Books for Teens. Silvey teaches graduate students in a children's literature program, and at the beginning of the class, she asked her students — who grew up in the age of Harry Potter — about the books they like.
"Every single person in the class said, 'I don't like realism, I don't like historical fiction. What I like is fantasy, science fiction, horror and fairy tales.' "
Those anecdotal observations are reflected in a study of kids' reading habits by Renaissance Learning. For the fifth year in a row, the educational company used its Accelerated Reader program to track what kids are reading in grades one through 12.
"Last year, we had more than 8.6 million students from across the country who read a total of 283 million books," says Eric Stickney, the educational research director for Renaissance Learning. Students participate in the Accelerated Reader program through their schools. When they read a book, they take a brief comprehension quiz, and the book is then recorded in the system. The books are assigned a grade level based on vocabulary and sentence complexity.
And Stickney says that after the late part of middle school, students generally don't continue to increase the difficulty levels of the books they read.
Last year, almost all of the top 40 books read in grades nine through 12 were well below grade level. The most popular books, the three books in The Hunger Games series, were assessed to be at the fifth-grade level.
Last year, for the first time, Renaissance did a separate study to find out what books were being assigned to high school students. "The complexity of texts students are being assigned to read," Stickney says, "has declined by about three grade levels over the past 100 years. A century ago, students were being assigned books with the complexity of around the ninth- or 10th-grade level. But in 2012, the average was around the sixth-grade level."
Most of the assigned books are novels, like To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men or Animal Farm. Students even read recent works like The Help and The Notebook. But in 1989, high school students were being assigned works by Sophocles, Shakespeare, Dickens, George Bernard Shaw, Emily Bronte and Edith Wharton.
Now, with the exception of Shakespeare, most classics have dropped off the list.
Back at Woodrow Wilson High School, at a 10th-grade English class — regular, not honors — students say they don't read much outside of school. But Tyler Jefferson and Adriel Miller are eager to talk. Adriel likes books about sports; Tyler likes history. Both say their teachers have assigned books they would not have chosen on their own. "I read The Odyssey, Tyler says. "I read Romeo and Juliet. I didn't read Hamlet. Asked what he thought of the books, Tyler acknowledges some challenges. "It was very different, because how the language was back then, the dialogue that they had.
Adriel agrees that books like that are tougher to read. "That's why we have great teachers that actually make us understand," he says. "It's a harder challenge of our brain, you know; it's a challenge."
But a challenge with its rewards, as Tyler says. "It gives us a new view on things."
Sandra Stotsky would be heartened to hear that. Professor emerita of education at the University of Arkansas, Stotsky firmly believes that high school students should be reading challenging fiction to get ready for the reading they'll do in college. "You wouldn't find words like 'malevolent,' 'malicious' or 'incorrigible' in science or history materials," she says, stressing the importance of literature. Stotsky says in the '60s and '70s, schools began introducing more accessible books in order to motivate kids to read. That trend has continued, and the result is that kids get stuck at a low level of reading.
"Kids were never pulled out of that particular mode in order to realize that in order to read more difficult works, you really have to work at it a little bit more," she says. "You've got to broaden your vocabulary. You may have to use a dictionary occasionally. You've got to do a lot more reading altogether."
"There's something wonderful about the language, the thinking, the intelligence of the classics," says Anita Silvey. She acknowledges that schools and parents may need to work a little harder to get kids to read the classics these days, but that doesn't mean kids shouldn't continue to read the popular contemporary novels they love. Both have value: "There's an emotional, psychological attraction to books for readers. And I think some of, particularly, these dark, dystopic novels that predict a future where in fact the teenager is going to have to find the answers, I think these are very compelling reads for these young people right now."
Reading leads to reading, says Silvey. It's when kids stop reading, or never get started in the first place, that there's no chance of ever getting them hooked on more complex books.
At a San Jose, Calif. library, a young reader browses a shelf of books featuring a variety of main characters: ducks, hens, white kids, black kids. Libraries help drive demand for children's books with nonwhite characters, but book publishers say there aren't enough libraries to make those books best-sellers. San Jose Library/Flickr hide caption
When it comes to diversity, children's books are sorely lacking; instead of presenting a representative range of faces, they're overwhelmingly white. How bad is the disconnect? A report by the Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that only 3 percent of children's books are by or about Latinos — even though nearly a quarter of all public school children today are Latino.
When kids are presented with bookshelves that unbalanced, parents can have a powerful influence. Take 8-year-old Havana Machado, who likes Dr. Seuss and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. At her mothers' insistence, Havana also has lots of books featuring strong Latinas, like Josefina and Marisol from the American Girl Doll books. She says she likes these characters because, with their long, dark hair and olive skin, they look a lot like her.
Havana's mother, Melinda Machado, grew up in San Antonio, and her family is from Cuba and Mexico. She says she didn't see Latino characters in books when she was a little girl, so she makes sure her daughter does.
"But you do have to look," she explains. "I think children today are told, 'You can be anything.' But if they don't see themselves in the story, I think, as they get older, they're going to question, 'Can I really?' "
Only a small fraction of children's books have main characters that are Latino or Native American or black or Asian. And it's been that way for a very long time. In 1965, The Saturday Review ran an article with the headline "The All-White World of Children's Books" — and the topic is still talked about today, nearly 50 years later.
i Bad News For Outlaws tells the true story of Bass Reeves, an African-American U.S. marshal in the Old West — shown here disguised as a farmer. The book won a Coretta Scott King award and became one of Lerner Books' best-selling titles. Courtesy Lerner Publishing hide caption
Bad News For Outlaws tells the true story of Bass Reeves, an African-American U.S. marshal in the Old West — shown here disguised as a farmer. The book won a Coretta Scott King award and became one of Lerner Books' best-selling titles.
Courtesy Lerner PublishingDo White-centric Books Sell Better?
So why is diversity in children's books such a persistent issue? One theory is that it's all about money. "I think there is a lot of concern and fear that multicultural literature is not going to sell enough to sustain a company," says Megan Schliesman, a librarian with the Cooperative Children's Book Center.
But Schliesman says that belief is a myth — after all, some companies publish multicultural children's books and are profitable. For instance, Lerner Books published the nonfiction picture book Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal. The book, which told the story of a black lawman in the Old West, won awards, got attention from libraries and independent bookstores and became a best-seller for the company.
"There is an enormous amount of demand for this kind of content from libraries," says Andrew Karre, an editor with Lerner Books. According to Karre, public and school librarians try very hard to put books with a wide range of characters on their shelves.
But while librarians are influential, they can't make a book sell. "There are something like 6,000 public libraries in the country," Karre says, "And even if they buy five copies of the book for their collection ... that's not going to crack those best-seller lists of any kind, really."
Why Diverse Book Options Matter
Vaunda Micheaux Nelson wrote Bad News For Outlaws, as well as several other books about African-Americans. She is also a librarian at the public library in Rio Rancho, N.M. She says that young people need to see themselves represented on the page so that they will continue reading.
"If they don't see that then perhaps they lose interest," Nelson says. "They don't think there's anything in books about them or for them."
Nelson adds that it is also important for white children to see characters of different races. "Not only do they learn to appreciate the differences," she explains, "but I think they learn to see the sameness, and so those other cultures are less seen as 'others.' "
Nelson says she understands that publishers are going to respond to what the market demands. Right now, the vast majority of best-selling children's books are by and about white people. But as the U.S. population changes, Melinda Machado thinks the books American children read will change, too.
"I think eventually the demographics and the economic power will catch up," Machado says. "Will it catch up, you know, while my daughter's still a child? Probably not."
Publishers might want to catch up a lot sooner, though. According to new data from the Census Bureau, nearly half of today's children under 5 years old are non-white.
i Mattel executives say they did not anticipate the runaway success of the goth-influenced Monster High brand when it debuted in 2010. Mattel hide caption
Mattel executives say they did not anticipate the runaway success of the goth-influenced Monster High brand when it debuted in 2010.
MattelWe've got two words for you: Goth Barbie.
Not only does such a thing exist, but after Barbie, it's the best-selling doll in the world. The dolls of Monster High are bone-thin beauties all related to famous monsters. They come with books and Web episodes that follow their stories in that place where everyone feels like a freak — in high school.
Monster High is made by the world's biggest toy company, which also manufactures Barbie. But no one at Mattel expected Monster High to become one of the biggest retail sensations of the past several years. Last winter at Toy Fair, New York's annual showcase of top toys, Monster High wannabes were everywhere — even zombie princesses that Walt Disney could have never imagined, including zombie Snow White and a zombie Little Mermaid.
In the hopping Toy Fair compound run by Mattel, Barbie's pink displays seemed almost dowdy and passe next to Monster High's glamorous dolls, which look like the underfed love children of Tim Burton and Lady Gaga. Mattel's Dana De Celis is showing off a pretty brunette doll with flowing hair and wolfish ears: "She's our werewolf so she's gonna howl for us," De Celis says as the doll issues an electronic wolf howl. "She tosses her head back, she arches her back, she closes her eyes and she is literally howling at the moon."
"The message about the brand is really to celebrate your own freaky flaws, especially as bullying has become such a hot topic," says Cathy Cline. She's in charge of marketing for Mattel's girls' brands — and sales have surged 56 percent this year, thanks to Monster High. "And it's also one of the fastest growing brands within the entire toy industry," Cline adds.
Mattel had no idea Monster High would — in just three years — become a billion dollar brand, says Kiyomi Haverly, vice president of design at Mattel. "Honestly, it was very surprising to us. We just noticed girls were into darker goth fashion." And Twilight and zombies — but Monster High dolls are designed for girls ages 6 to 12, so they're not too terribly dark.
The characters are plugged into the same kind of things a cool 16-year-old might enjoy, like rockabilly, snowboarding and environmental activism. Draculaura, for example (she's Dracula's daughter), can't stand the thought of blood. "She's a vegan. She's turned off by meat," says Haverly. "Girls could really relate to that because that's part of what they're thinking of these days."
But that 21st century relatability surprised toy analyst Gerrick Johnson, who says he didn't take Monster High seriously when the dolls debuted in 2010. "I didn't think it would work. Why does Barbie work? Barbie works because she's aspirational. Girls want to be like Barbie." Johnson says he figured the "ghoulfriends" of Monster High would be more like Shrek. "Shrek has never worked in toy format, because no boy wants to be a green ogre from the swamp. He wants to be Luke Skywalker."
But for Rebecca Salms, Monster High, with all its fangs and fishnets, feels far more relatable than Barbie. Salms is the mother of a 9-year-old and is a self-described ex-goth. But, she says, there is one thing about them that really turns her off. Monster High dolls make Barbie look fat. "Their arms are so skinny that you need to take off the hands to get the sleeves on the arms," she says. "That's how scrawny they've made them."
That hasn't deterred Salm's daughter, Keiko, who's playing with her Monster High dolls in her sunny, lavender-painted upstairs bedroom with her friend, Jade. They have between them exactly 30 Monster High dolls, and together they play out a scene where two of the dolls set out to teach snooty mummy Cleo DeNile a lesson.
The doll that may ultimately learn a lesson is the toy world's reigning queen. Recently, Barbie sales have been dropping.
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Bullies are frequently the root of disruption, injury and violence in schools and the workplace. Learn how to change the culture of your organization in order to defuse bullying.
What is a bully? It is someone who takes advantage of another individual that he or she perceives as more vulnerable. The goal is to gain control over the victim or to gain control over a social group. This type of behavior occurs in all ages, sexes and social groups. Most adults, if they think about it, have experienced bullying too. Bullying usually involves deliberate hostility or aggression toward the victim. The interaction is painful and humiliating and distressing to the victim. Note the word deliberate.
Bullying has existed as long as there has been human civilization. However, recently our society has become more aware of bullying and its harmful consequences. In June 2002 the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association adopted a report by the AMA’s Council on Scientific Affairs that reviewed bullying among U.S. children and adolescents. It found that 7 to 15 percent of sampled school-age children were bullies. About 10 percent of the same group were victims. Between 2 and 10 percent of students are both bullies and victims. In elementary schools, more boys than girls are involved in bullying; however, the gender difference decreases in junior high and high school, and social bullying among girls – manipulation done to harm acceptance into a group – becomes harder to detect.
“Without intervention, bullying can lead to serious academic, social, emotional and legal problems,” the CSA report states. “Studies of successful anti-bullying programs are scarce in the United States but … adopting a comprehensive approach in schools can change student behaviors and attitudes and increase adults’ willingness to intervene.”
The report defined bullying as behavior that involves a pattern of repeated aggression, deliberate intent to harm or disturb a victim despite apparent victim distress and a real or perceived imbalance of power (e.g., due to age, strength, size) with the more powerful child or group attacking a physically or psychologically vulnerable victim.” (Report from AMA House of Delegates Scientific Affairs Committee June 2002)
Bullying behavior harms both the victim and the perpetrator. If a child experiences chronic intimidation, he or she may learn to expect this from others. He may develop a pattern of compliance with the unfair demands of those he perceives as stronger. He may become anxious or depressed. Finally, he may identify with the bully and become a bully himself.
The bully is also harmed. If he or she is allowed to continue the behavior, it becomes habitual. He becomes more likely to surround himself with friends who condone and promote aggressive behavior. He may not develop a mature sense of justice. If he intimidates others to cover up his own insecurities, his own anxiety may increase.
The bystander who observes the interaction may become frightened to express himself openly. He may also adopt the behaviors or either the bully or the victim.
Sadistic, narcissistic bully
Lacks empathy for others. Has low degree of anxiety about consequences. Narcissistic need to feel omnipotent. May appear to have a high self esteem but it is actually a brittle narcissism.
Imitative bully
May have low self esteem or be depressed. Influenced by the surrounding social climate. May use whining or tattling or be manipulative. Often responds well to a change in the culture of the classroom or social setting. If depressed may need other intervention.
Impulsive bully
He is less likely to be part of a gang. His bullying is more spontaneous and may appear more random. He has difficulty restraining himself from the behavior even when authorities are likely to impose consequences. He may have AD/HD. He may respond to medications and behavioral treatment and social skills training. He is also likely to be bullied.
Accidental Bully
If bullying is a deliberate act, this individual might not be included. The behavior may be offensive because the individual does not realize that his actions are upsetting the victim. If someone patiently and compassionately explains the situation, the individual will change the behavior. Sometimes social skills need to be taught. There is some overlap with the impulsive bully.
The Victim:
The Bystander:
Things school may notice.
Things parents may notice.
What are the signs that your child is the victim of a bully? One may see non-specific signs of school distress: These might include falling grades, physical complaints on school days, and lack of interest in school work or sports. More specific signs would be unexplained injuries or torn clothes, missing belongings or money, or repeated requests for more money. If someone is taking your child’s lunch, he or she may come home hungry even though he took an adequate lunch to school.
You need to know how to get your child talking about his concerns. It is best to broach the subject at a calm neutral time. Ask general questions about whether something is bothering your child. Get as detailed a narrative as possible. Avoid interrupting or judging. Try to stay calm and do not make outraged statements while your child is telling his tale. Avoid offering premature solutions. You may not get the entire story on the first telling. Be patient and bring up the topic again later. Finally, if you feel that something is going on and suspect that your child is withholding information, call his or her teacher.
How can you help your child deal with the bullying? First, help teach him to avoid being an easy target. Start with posture, voice and eye contact. These can communicate a lot about whether you are vulnerable. Practice with a mirror or even videotape. Tell your child to avoid isolated places where no one can see or hear him. He should learn to be vigilant for suspicious individuals or for trouble brewing. If bullying starts, he might be able to deflect it with humor or by changing the subject. He should run over a list of positive attributes in his mind. This reminds him that he is worthy of something better than bullying behavior. Teach your child not to obey the commands of the bully. Often it is better to run away than to comply. The parent may help the child make more positive friends. If he or she sticks around with a group, he is less likely to be a target. Finally, if the child sticks up for other children he sees being bullied, people may get the idea that he is not someone who tolerates bullies.
Target The Students:
Involve students from different cliques, ethnic groups and neighborhoods. Peer mediation training, student government projects and conflict resolution training are helpful.
Target the Faculty and Staff:
Faculty and staff should discuss the social atmosphere at the school. Ideally, coaches, bus drivers, aides and janitorial staff should be included. Make sure that staff is aware of the long-term consequences of intimidation. Teachers and administrators could either brainstorm about ways to integrate this into each class or use a curriculum. Once a curriculum or an approach is chosen, parents or PTSA should meet with staff. When bullying behavior is seen, the teacher or guidance counselor can intervene at different levels depending on the severity of the incident.
Characteristics of Organizations with Bullying Problems:
High rates of sick leave, dismissals, disciplinary suspensions, early and health-related retirements, disciplinary procedures, grievance procedures, and stress-related illnesses. This company may be more likely to hire security agencies to gather data on employees.
Types of workplace bullying
Adapted from www.successunlimited.co.uk
Stressed, impulsive or unintentional bully
Occurs when someone is under stress or an institution is undergoing confusing, disorienting changes. This is the easiest to redirect.
Cyber bully
This includes hateful emails and cyber stalking. Some feel that employers who monitor employees’ email are using intimidation but this position can be debated. If it is used unfairly, it can be seen as intimidation.
Subordinate bully
Bullying perpetrated by subordinates (such as boss being bullied by an employee, nursing staff being bullied by a patient.)
Serial bully
An individual who repeatedly intimidates or harasses one individual after another. A victim is selected and bullied for an extended period of time until he leaves or asserts himself and goes to Human Resources (HR) The bully deceives HR by being charming while the victim appears emotional and angry. Since there are often no witnesses, HR accepts the account of the senior staff member, possibly a serial bully. The bully may convince the organization to get rid of the troublesome victim. Once the victim is out of the organization, the bully usually needs to find a new victim. This is because the bully needs someone on whom he can project his inner feelings of inadequacy. The bully may prevent others from sharing negative information about him by sowing conflict. If the organization eventually realizes that it has made a mistake, it is difficult for them to publicly admit this. To do so might make them legally liable.
Secondary bully
Others in the office or social group start to react to bullying by imitating or joining in on the behavior. This can lead to institutional bullying. Even if the primary bullying individual is removed, the secondary bullies may fill in the gap because they have learned that this is how to survive in this organization.
Pair bullies
Two individuals, sometimes people who are having as affair, collude to intimidate others. The participation of the second individual may be covert.
Gang bullies
The primary bully gathers a number of followers. He may be a loud, highly visible leader. If he is a quieter sort, his role may be more insidious. Some members of the group may actively enjoy being part of the bullying. They like the reflected power of the primary bully. If the primary bully leaves the organization, and the institution does not change, one of these individuals may step in to fill the shoes of the primary bully. Others of the gang join in because they feel coerced. They fear that if they do not participate, they will be the next victims. Indeed some of these individuals do become victims at some point in time.
Personal (Assertiveness)
Confrontations between employees, HR interventions, social disputes take up a lot of energy and distract everyone from things they should be doing at work and at home. (Aikido story) It is better to prevent an incident than to deal with it later. Sometimes this is a matter of judgment for the individual. Assertiveness, humor and negotiation can often head off a confrontation and prevent further bullying behavior. A strong positive self-image can help by making it easier to ignore minor insults. The positive self-image can also make it easier for one to take action when the bullying has gone too far. Cultural misunderstandings combined with personal insecurity can lead to hurt feelings.
Institutional
Institutions can make intimidation less likely by instituting policies discouraging bullying behavior. Supervisors need help with learning sensitive ways to interact with employees. Sometimes it may be as simple as cultural sensitivity and remembering to ask employees for feedback. Other times, particular individuals may need ongoing supervision or removal. It is difficult to change old habit. Explicit directives with examples may help. Managers need to understand their management style and how subordinates perceive it. It is important to understand the line between tough but fair and imperious and capricious.
One might look at adult bullying as a mechanism of social control. Employers, government officials, and others in authority wish to retain and increase their control and authority. If power and control are central to the existence of an organization, bullying and denial about the existence of bullying may be central to the stability of the organization. Rules, regulations and clear lines of authority are not the same as institutional bullying. A person who might grow up in a family where there was covert intimidation, inconsistent demands and unfair treatment. His parents might single him out for harsher treatment than his siblings but make him feel too guilty to speak out. Paradoxically enough, such an individual might experience a strong sense of relief after joining the military. He would experience more overt yelling and more minute-to-minute control of his activities. Yet he thrives. Why? In the armed forces he would report that he received fair and consistent treatment. The rules were predictable. The expectations were rigorous but clear and predictable. His superiors shouted at him, but they shouted at everyone else. Some superiors might be excessively harsh, but everyone knew who they were and knew what to expect. Intense, highly authoritarian situations sometimes lend themselves to bullying situations. However, this is not always the case. If there are consistent predictable rules and no one is unfairly singled out, hierarchy does not necessarily mean bullying. In strict hierarchical situations, there should always be an avenue for individuals who feel that they are being treated unfairly or being asked to do unethical things.
Dealing with Bullies and How Not To Be One
Dealing with Bullies (A shorter article aimed at elementary school children-located on Kids and Teens page)
What is it like to have a parent with AD/HD? In many cases, AD/HD is inherited, so if you have it, some other family members might have it too.
Sometimes, when a son or daughter is diagnosed, the parents start remembering the problems they had when they were growing up. They may realize that they are a lot like you! What is it like to have a parent with AD/HD? I asked one of my adolescent consultants. He said that there are good and bad things about having a parent with AD/HD.
Sometimes, his mother blows up and yells. Then, it can take a while before she cools down and apologizes. Other times it is fun and exciting because she has a lot of energy and thinks up exciting things to do on weekends. It’s nice to have one ADD parent and one “normal” parent. His dad tells her when she gets too mad and vetoes some of her more outrageous ideas. He can go to his mother for some things and his father for others.
Social phobia is the fear that in certain social situations, one will be criticized or judged negatively. The individual feels a great deal of anxiety, humiliation, embarrassment or even panic in social settings. One can have either specific or generalized social phobia. The most common specific social phobia is the fear of speaking in public. Individuals with generalized social phobia are anxious in almost all interpersonal situations. If the individual is going to be judged or graded on his performance in a public situation, the fear is greatly increased.
Many people get a minor case of the “jitters” before performing in public. For some, this mild anxiety actually enhances their performance. However, this anxious reaction is massively exaggerated in the individual with social phobia. While mild normal anxiety can actually enhance performance, excessive anxiety can severely impair performance.
An anxious episode may be associated with some or all of the symptoms of a panic attack. These might include sweaty palms, palpitations, rapid breathing, tremulousness and a sense of impending doom. Some individuals, particularly those with generalized social phobia may have chronic anxiety symptoms. Individuals with social phobia may turn down accelerated classes and after school activities because of their fears that these situations will lead to increased public scrutiny.
The individual with a specific social phobia feels anxious during the feared social situation and also when anticipating it. Some individuals may deal with their fear by arranging their lives so that they do not have to be in the feared situation. If the individual is successful at this, he or she does not appear to be impaired. Types of discrete social phobia may include:
Individuals with generalized social phobia are characterized as extremely shy. They often wish that they could be more socially active, but their anxiety prevents this. They often have insight into their difficulties. They often report that they have been shy most of their lives. They are sensitive to even minor perceived social rejection. Because they become so social isolated, they have greater academic, work and social impairment. They may crystallize into an avoidant personality disorder.
Social phobia is the third most common psychiatric disorder. (Depression – 17.1% Alcoholism – 14.1% Social phobia – 13.3%. (Kessler et al 1994.) Onset is usually in childhood or adolescence. It tends to become chronic. It is often associated with depression, substance abuse and other anxiety disorders. The individual usually seeks treatment for one of the other disorders. Individuals with SP alone are less likely to seek treatment than people with no psychiatric disorder (Schneier et al 1992) Social phobia is vastly under-diagnosed. It is not as likely to be noticed in a classroom setting because these children are often quiet and generally do not manifest behavior problems. Children with SP often show up with physical complaints such as headaches and stomach aches. Parents may not noticed the anxiety if it is specific to situations outside the home. Additionally, since anxiety disorders often run in families, the parents may see the behavior as normal because they are the same way themselves. On the other hand, if the parent has some insight into his of her own childhood anxieties, he or she may bring the child into treatment so that the child will not have to experience the pain the parent experienced as a child.
Psychotherapy: There is the most evidence for cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy. Since the child or adolescent is more dependent on his parents than an adult, the parents should have some adjunctive family therapy.
Both individual and group therapy are useful. The basic premise is that faulty assumptions contribute to the anxiety. The therapist helps the individual identify these thoughts and restructure them
Exposure: Create a hierarchy of feared situations and start to allow one to experience them. One starts with situations that only elicit a little anxiety and then gradually move up to more intense experiences. This must be done in reality, not just as visualization in the office.
Group therapy: This can be a powerful modality for individuals with social phobia. A patient may need to use individual therapy to prepare for group therapy. In the group patients can encourage each other and can try out new behaviors within the safety of the group. They can get immediate feedback that may refute their fears. Patients should not be forced to participate more actively than they wish.
Recent studies have shown that some of the SSRI medications can be helpful in the treatment of SP. Paroxetine (Paxil) sertraline (Zoloft) have been approved by the FDA for treatment of SP. Other medications that may be useful include Beta blockers (propranolol, atenolol) Benzodiazepines (lorazepam, clonazepam) buspirone, and the MAO inhibitors (Parnate, Nardil.) MAO Inhibitors are only rarely used in children and adolescents because one must go on dietary restrictions while taking them. SSRI and other antidepressant medications are going to now have special cautionary statements about the potential activation of suicidal thoughts. However the SSRI medications are still useful if monitored carefully.
References:
Kessler R.C. McGonagle, K.A. Zhao, S., Nelson, C.B., Hughes, M., Eshleman, S., Wittchen, H.U., and Kendler, K.S.(1994) Lifetime and 12-month prevalence of DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders in the United States. Results from the National Comorbidity Survey. Archives of General Psychiatry, 51, 8-19.
Kessler, R.C., Stein, M.B., Berglund, P. (1998) Social Phobia Subtypes in the National Comorbidity Survey. American Journal of Psychiatry, 155:5.
Murray, B., Chartier, M.J., Hazen, A.L., Kozak, M.V.Tancer, M.E., Lander, S., Furer, P., Chutbaty, D., Walker, J.R. A Direct Interview Family Study of Generalized Social Phobia. American Journal of Psychiatry, (1998) 155: 1.
Pollack, M.H., Otto, M.W.Sabatino, S., Majcher, D., Worthington, J.J. McArdle, E.T., Rosenbaum, J.F. Relationship of Childhood Anxiety to Adult Panic Disorder: Correlates and Influence on Course. American Journal of Psychiatry. 153: 3.
Schneier, F.R., Johnson, J., Hornig, C.., Liebowitz, M.R. and Weissman, M.M. (1992) Social Phobia: Comorbidity and morbidity in a epidemiologic sample. Archives of General Psychiatry, 49, 282-288.
