The Ghosts of War
Psychologist and ECPS faculty member Dr. Marvin Westwood works with people whose lives are, in many cases, spinning out of their control.

His program helps Canadian combat veterans manage the transition to civilian life, guiding them through the trauma and frustration of living with experiences few understand, and few wish to talk about. The program, co-directed by Dr. Westwood and Dr. David Kuhl of the Faculty of Medicine, was featured this weekend in a comprehensive Vancouver Sun article. Read full article here.

Dr. Young, and his co-authors, Sheila K. Marshall, and Ladislav Valach, are recipients of the Outstanding Career Development Quarterly Contribution Award for 2007 for their paper entitled "Making Career Theories More Culturally Sensitive: Implications for Counseling." 

This prestigious award was presented during the National Career Development Association Awards Luncheon in Washington, DC on July 10th, 2008. This paper has made an outstanding contribution to career counseling literature.

Congratulations to Dr. Richard Young!

The department is pleased to announce that Miriam Elfert and Stephanie Jull (Ph.D. students in Special Education) have been selected as trainees in the CIHR-funded Autism Research Training (ART) Program.

They will each receive a $20,000 traineeship for 2008, as well as funding to attend 1-week intensive summer institutes on autism at McGill University in 2008, 2009, and 2010. The institutes are taught by an group of top Canadian autism researchers that represent fields such as neurobiology, psychology, genetics, psychiatry, education, and speech-language pathology. ART trainees are also funded to attend the International Meeting for Autism Research annually for 3 years, where they present their own research and have opportunities to meet with internationally- recognized scholars in autism. Congratulations, Miriam and Stephanie!

The department is pleased to announce that Dr. Daniela Pacheva has won the Canadian Association for Educational Psychology's Dunlop Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation. 

Her dissertation, "College Students with Learning Disabilities: A Developmental Perspective on Conceptions of Learning, Learning Disability, and Others in Learning" examined conceptions of learning, learning disabilities, self as learner, and others in the learning environment among college students with learning disabilities.

The award will be presented at the CSSE Annual General Meeting on Saturday, May 31, 4:30 to 5:45 in the First Nations House of Learning.

Congratulations Daniela!

Dr. Lynn Miller has been selected as the successful candidate for the newly created Myrne B. Nevison Professorship in Counselling Psychology.

Dr. Lynn Miller will engage in teaching and research that will support the advancement and understanding of preventive and early intervention approaches in counselling for populations at risk. This will carry forward the good work that Dr. Myrne Burdett Nevison pioneered during her tenure as a professor and later head of the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology.

The establishment of the endowed Myrne B. Nevison Professorship in Counselling in Psychology was made possible by a $1 million gift from a generous benefactor who wishes only to be identified as an admirer of Myrne Nevison’s work. This landmark gift was the largest donation ever made by an individual to the Faculty of Education.  More information on the donation.

Software designer dad creates computer 'toy' for toddlers

UBC early-childhood expert Hillel Goelman comments on 'Clicktoy', a computer program designed to amuse toddlers and allow parents some quality playtime with them at the keyboard.

Goelman is skeptical that computers can provide the free-form play that children need. "What kids really need is manipulation of things in a multi-sensory way. That's why they love Play-Doh, Lego blocks, finger paints and sandboxes."

In praise of praising less; Unearned compliments won't build self-esteem in kids, but encouraging their efforts works wonders

UBC professor Shelley Hymel comments in a Vancouver Sun article on self-esteem. She says unearned compliments won't build self-esteem in kids, but encouraging their efforts works wonders.

"The 1970s and '80s was about building performance by building self-esteem," said Hymel, who has worked in the area of self-esteem for years. "But a correlation doesn't imply causation. Read full article here.

Infant DVDs won't mould a baby Einstein

Baby Einstein, makers of popular DVDs for infants as young as three months, has stopped billing its videos as educational following a formal complaint from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood that the Disney-owned company was making "false and deceptive" claims that it can give babies a cognitive advantage.

Hillel Goelman, an Early Childhood Education professor at UBC, said the reality is that many parents rely on TV and videos as a "surrogate parent" rather than making it an interactive activity by watching alongside their children.

"What kids need is direct interaction with other people and putting them in a passive role at a very young age is not that helpful," said Goelman, who advocates no TV or videos for children until age three. View full article from the March 1st issue of the Vancouver Sun.

Bullies thrive on violence to satisfy a craving

UBC psychologist Shelley Hymel comments in a Vancouver Sun series on bullying.
Hymel says about half of children identified by their classmates as bullies are high-status and popular.

"These are kids who have power", she says. "We as adults are telling them 'no', but to other kids, bullying looks like a cool thing to do." Read full article here.

Congratulations to Dr. Hillel Goelman who was honoured for his outstanding leadership in professional development in early childhood intervention by The Right Honourable Linda Reid, Minister of State for Child Care, Friday, February 1st 2008 at the Early Years Conference, Fairmont Hotel, Vancouver.

The award has been named after Hillel and was presented on behalf of the BC Association of Infant Development, Aboriginal Infant Development and Support Child Development Consultants and the The Provincial Steering Committee, IDP of BC.

UBC developmental psychologist Kimberly Schonert-Reichl comments in a Wall Street Journal article on Roots of Empathy, a non-profit organization that uses babies to teach grade schoolers empathy.

In studies involving more than 2,000 children, Schonert-Reichl found a drop in aggressive behavior among students who were in classrooms with empathy babies.

"I'm a scientist -- I'm very skeptical of things," says Schonert-Reichal. "I'm really surprised at how consistently the findings have been positive." Read full article here.