Program Details

1 – 9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Stomp out Bullying in the Classroom
Julie Norflus-Good

Teachers will gain some practical strategies of how to reduce bullying in their classroom by using literature, activities and role playing incorporating diversity and tolerance.

2 – 10:45 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
Kids or Criminals? How the Law Responds to Bullying
Kathryn Krase

The legal system in the United States has always struggled to determine the best way to respond to behavior of children that would be deemed criminal if committed by an adult. Responding to bullying creates unique challenges. The legal response to bullying will be explored in this session on a local, state, national and international level, paying special attention to how the law applies developmental theory.

3 – 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
LGBTIQ: Gender Variance and Bullying
Maya Poran and Robert Sproul

The essence of this session is to examine how gender norms are at the center of bullying among young people, and how gender variant individuals are often the targets of bullying. Gender will be discussed as a social construct of normative behaviors, appearances, etc. which influence treatment of individuals within culture(s). Gender as a status variable (in regard to social power, masculinity and femininity) will also be examined. These norms will be discussed in regard to how they influence Self-Concept and Gender as a Psychological/Personal Identity as well (how one defines the self). Bullying will then be examined and discussed in relation to how gender norms influence bullying between genders (female to female, male to male) as well as cross gender (male to female, related to sexual harassment, as well as female to male). Gender variance in relation to bullying will focused on the experiences of LGBTIQ individuals, as well as individuals who simply do not meet the rigid standards of gender norms. Strategies for creating spaces safe for, and even encouraging of, gender variance will be discussed as a way to create bully-free environments.

4 – 2:15 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
Bullying, Harassment, and Educational Policy: Legal and Professional Guidance from the State of New Jersey to the Federal Department of Education
Dominique Johnson

1 – 9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Optimizing Development and Social Adjustment Through Parenting
Emily Abbey and Lysandra Perez-Strumolo

Learning to share and care for others is a major achievement for children. Disciplinary styles play an influential role in learning how to share and care for others. Developmental psychologists have outlined four unique disciplinary styles that parents (and other caregivers) may use with their children. Of the four, some of these styles support the developmental goal of learning to share and care for others, whereas others undermine this process. This presentation will review the four central disciplinary styles, and also evaluate each on the basis of how well it supports the goal of learning to share and care for others.

2 – 10:45 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
Language acquisition and learning disabilities in preschool and school aged children
Naseem Choudhury

The challenges of understanding the development of basic mechanisms that may lead to the expression of complex learning and language disorders, such as Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and dyslexia, are particularly difficult when examined in the end-state as a number of factors may have lead to either the exacerbation or amelioration of the phenotype. Until recently, studies of language disorders have mainly focused on older children and adults who may have spent a lifetime developing strategies to cope with their disability. Prospective longitudinal studies with preverbal infants, however, provide an efficient and powerful way in which to disentangle the causes of language disorders from its covariates. Studies begun in infancy, when designed with care, enable researchers to address the question of which basic mechanisms may predict to later difficulties in language acquisition. With this as our primary aim, we present data from longitudinal studies and explore age and risk related differences in development that may be associated with differences in concurrent and predictive language skills.

3 – 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
How children solve problems involving physical risk
Shaziela Ishak

Successfully completing everyday activities require us to continually decide which motor actions are possible and which are impossible. For instance, if an opening is too narrow or a slope is too steep relative to a person’s body size, strength, and balance control, motor actions are impossible. For children, erroneous motor decisions can have especially serious consequences such as entrapment and falling. This session will present research about how children solve problems that involve either entrapment or falling as the penalty for error. We will examine children’s strategies and choices in risky situations as a way to gain insight into their cognitive development and learn about implications for injury prevention among children.

4 – 2:15 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
Desert journeys and hidden griefs: Children coping with secondary losses.
Kay Fowler

Every major loss brings with it a host of other losses — changed family structure, relocation, new roles and responsibilities, shattered assumptions and lost trust, change in economic circumstances, changes in relationships with peers who withdraw, etc. This workshop will focus on ways to support a child who is coping with loss emphasizing not only the primary loss, but the many (often overlooked) ways that this changes the life and the experience of this child.