Entries Tagged 'Info for your children' ↓

Topics presented at Generation Next events this year include:

• Bullying and School Violence
• Body Image and Eating Disorders
• Transition from Primary to High School
• Raunch Culture and the Media
• Teen Depression
• Cybersafety, and
• Resilience

Featuring Australia’s most experienced leading experts, up to date important topics and practical advice in one event.

Speakers include:

Michael Carr-Gregg, Adolescent Psychologist

Paul Dillon, Drug and Alcohol Research and Training

Susan McLean, Cybersafety Expert

Maggie Hamilton, Sexualisation expert and author

Melinda Hutchings, The Butterfly Foundation

Angie Wilcock, Teacher and Sportsperson

Dr Ramesh Manocha, Founder Generation Next

Support us by attending!

For Education, Health and Welfare professionals:

“The Mental Health and Wellbeing of Young People 2010″

This UNIQUE multi-disciplinary seminar features leading experts who will present authoritative and practical information specifically relevant to the mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing of young people.

Date:    Friday 25th June 2010
Venue: Federation Auditorium, Reservoir St, Surry Hills, Sydney
Time:   9am-5pm

Register online by going to Generation Next or Download the brochure.

See details and running order for “The Mental Health and Wellbeing of Young People 2010″.

For the Public:

“Generation Next Public Seminars”

• Brisbane: Sunday, June 20, 12pm-5.30pm

Victoria Point High School, Victoria Point

Register online by going to Generation Next Seminars or Download the brochure.

See details and running order for “Generation Next Public Seminars”.

• Adelaide: Saturday, Aug 21, 12pm-5.30pm details available soon

• Adelaide: Sunday, Aug 22, 12pm-5.30pm details available soon

• Canberra: Sunday, Aug 29, 12pm-5.30pm details available soon

The articles and blogs by Generation Next are posted to help protect our youth. Each Generation Next newsletter goes out to over 10,000 subscribers nationally.

Subscribe to the Generation Next Newsletter.

We hope that you, your organization and Generation Next can work together to highlight the many risk factors emerging in our modern society that threaten the social, emotional, mental and physical  wellbeing of our young people. To this end Generation Next Seminars are being organised nationally.

Generation Next seminars are aimed at helping you to help our young people to successfully navigate our increasingly complex and sometimes hazardous world, so that they can make positive life choices and achieve their full potential.

Topics include:

• Sexualisation of children
• Drugs and alcohol
• Violence and cyber bullying
• Major new studies concerning children and teenagers
• Medical breakthroughs and advancements which affect children and teenagers, and
• Parenting information and advice.

Professional Speakers:

We have leading professionals who address our conferences and offer advice on the cold hard facts and the dangers in their area of expertise. They include:

• Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, Adolescent Psychologist
• Paul Dillon, Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia
• Susan McLean, Cyber safety expert, and
• Julie Gale, Founder of Kids free 2 B kids

If you or your school would like to attend or host a Generation Next Seminar please email Generation Next Seminars or phone 1300 797 794 or fax 1300 797 792.

Confirmed dates for Generation Next Seminars 2010 are:

• Canberra 29 August
• Adelaide 22 August

Proposed venues and dates for Generation Next Seminars 2010 are:

• Sydney 27 June
• Melbourne 20 June
• Perth 1 August
• Brisbane 8 August

To discuss either confirmed or proposed dates for 2010, phone 1300 797 794 or email  Generation Next Seminars

Generation Next 2011 dates and venues
We are also ready to discuss venue and dates for 2011,  email Generation Next Seminars or phone 1300 797 794 or fax 1300 797 792.

Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha, Generation Next Convenor

• 73 girls aged 15 years old or under became mothers
• 11 babies were born to 14 year old girls, and
• 57 babies were born to 15 year old girls.

There has been a significant jump in the number of teenage girls giving birth in Western Australia. The WA Birth Registry shows five girls aged just 13 became mothers in 2009. This is an increase of nearly 20% compared with the previous year. It is alarming that many of these girls are scarcely out of primary school.

In her book “What’s happening to our girls?” Maggie Hamilton makes the observation that “often girls see teenage pregnancy as a way of giving themselves the nurture they’ve missed out on. For those few short months of pregnancy, the attention is on them. One school counsellor said ‘Their expectations about having a baby are so unrealistic’.”

Robyn McSweeney, Child Protection Minister confirmed this, “(these girls) are in no way emotionally mature enough to cope with the birthing process let alone the realities of looking after the demands of a baby,”.

She outlined many organisations offering help to young WA mothers including Parenting WA which offers a 24hour helpline to young mothers, families and friends. They can also organise one-on-one support for teenage parents at home. Parenting WA has an extensive online library which covers many parenting topics and gives helpful information to teenage mothers.

Parenting WA services are free and no referral is needed. Manager Donna Legge urged parents to communicate openly to their children about sex from a young age.

“Sex education should not be confined to the school system,” Ms Legge said. “It’s a very wise thing for parents to speak to their children honestly about relationships and sexuality.”

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

It is crucial that adolescents receive the required nutrients while growing and developing. However it is also just as important to take action if a teenager is above a normal healthy weight. It is sometimes difficult to find a balance when there is so much in the media about diets and body image; when all teenage girls see are size 0 models. Below are some tips for parents and teenagers on what is an appropriate diet for a teenager.

The basics – the number of calories a person burn needs to be greater than those they consume. This does not mean eating less, but rather eating nutritious food within a balanced diet. Breakfast is important as it helps kick start the metabolism and sustains a teenager through the morning until lunch so the tempration to snack mid morning is reduced. Making  junk food an occasional indulgence and not eating late at night will also aid the digestive system.

How many calories – Teenage girls require around 2,000 calories per day, whilst boys need 2,500 per day. It is important for the body to receive the necessary calories each day in order to function properly and support growth and development. Depriving the body of calories and therefore energy can lead to poor concentration at school.

What to choose – make lower-calorie, higher nutritional choices, this is better than to take the shortcut by only reducing  food portions. Simple things like replacing soft drinks with water will make a huge difference. Have large amounts of fruit and veggies, as they are both filling and rich in nutrients.

Exercise – Social networking, computer games, assignments and watching television all mean many hours are spent sitting in one place in front of a screen. This static time needs to be balanced with some time spent in physical activities and exercise. Teenagers should  aim for 30 minutes of exercise, 4 times a week. School sports swimming and walking are easily available and fun to do.

No fad or extreme diets – Such choices affect teenagers’ growth and create health issues in the long run. Cutting out major food groups such as carbohydrates and good fats has an adverse effect on their development both physically and emotionally.

Diets to avoid as a teenager – because their bodies still need vital nutrients to fully develop, grow and strengthen, certain diets are not recommended for teenagers as they cut out too many of the major food groups vital to healthy growth. Make sure their diets are balanced and include all the major food groups.

For more information go to the government’s website “Measure Up”

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha

By Angie Wilcock.

We all learn (and teach!) in a way that suits us – we might never have thought too much about it, and most of us may never have ‘labelled’ it! If someone were to ask you about your ‘style’, you may be aware that you are not a good listener, or that you like to read information to understand it, or that you are a ‘hands-on’ person. We all go about our daily lives, thinking, communicating and learning in our own unique way.

How do YOU learn? If we stop and think about how we learn, process and understand new information we may not only become more efficient in the work place, we may also become better learners. Imagine how much easier it would be if, as parents, we can ‘tap’ into what makes our children tick and help them to become more effective learners and less effective time wasters!!

Gone are (and should be!) the days of chalk and talk in the classroom. Typically, a classroom would be quiet while the teacher spoke, with limited discussion and few interactive activities. Often, notes were written on the chalkboard and duly copied into workbooks by the students. When exams rolled around, those notes were read and re-read, and often re-copied or summarised as well. Education was fairly ‘generic’, and not too stimulating, consisting of a lot of talking by the teacher and a lot of note-taking by the student. The least catered to was the kinaesthetic, or ‘hands-on’ learner, who generally found themselves on detention for fiddling or disruptive behaviour!

Education and the whole learning process is now viewed quite differently. Some of us are good listeners, others are visual, whilst others like to be ‘hands on’ with their learning. We all have our own ‘style’, and the sooner we are familiar with what works for us, the more effectively we approach our school and professional lives. How devastating it is for parents to watch their son or daughter slave away endlessly over assignments and exams only to gain less than flattering results. Imagine how frustrating this is for the student!

Some research suggests that we don’t lock into our preferred style till mid-teens, whilst other experts provide anecdotal evidence to suggest that the earlier we recognise our ‘style’, the better we can develop techniques to enhance our learning.

When I run workshops on learning styles, parents I speak with may complain about their child ‘never sitting still’, finding it almost impossible to concentrate on a task for very long and always ‘fiddling ‘with something. It may not be that their child is ADD or ADHD – he or she may be a kinaesthetic (‘hands-on’) learner.

Other parents may be frustrated that their child doesn’t seem to listen to instructions – no, not just parents of teenagers! It may well be that their child is not a strong auditory learner, but is visual, meaning that they need to read the material or see it in graph or diagram form to process and remember it.

Finally, there are those parents who say that their child doesn’t remember information when they read or study it – it just doesn’t ‘stick’. They may like to talk about it and ask lots of questions, but they don’t seem to want to write it down or take notes. This may be an indication of auditory learning as the preferred style.

There are numerous indicators for learning styles – and once you are aware of specific indicators, you may well recognise your child as being stronger in one style than another.

We may have a dominant ‘style’ or we may be a blend of ‘styles’ – the important issue is that, as parents, the more we understand about the ‘style’ of our children, the better equipped we are to support them in their learning habits at home. It’s all about working SMARTER, not HARDER – which certainly makes more sense!

Writer Angie Wilcock, educator and speaker. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

You are sending a very strong message to your child when you agree to provide alcohol to minors. Most importantly, you are telling them to ignore the law – alcohol is an illegal drug for those under the age of eighteen. The laws are different across the country with New South Wales having the strictest laws in this area, but what you are saying to your child when you provide alcohol at an underage party is that although you want them to obey other laws, this one they can ignore!

If you allow your child to drink alcohol in your home with a family meal or even at a family get-together, that is your choice as a parent. But providing alcohol to young people at a party is very different. There are very few parents who want their children to drink alcohol to excess. Almost every parent who gives their teenager alcohol to take to a party or provides it to those attending a party they are hosting does it for the right reasons. Often parents will say to me that they make it very clear to their child that they don’t want them to drink alcohol as they’re handing over bottles or giving them money to buy it, somehow thinking that this is going to have some sort of positive outcome. In fact the only message the child picks up is ‘my parents gave me alcohol’. This tacit approval plays an important role in how your child views alcohol.

I can definitely understand some of the arguments that parents use when they agree to provide alcohol to teenage parties, particularly if they are hosting events for young adults who are close to the legal drinking age. However, many of the arguments put forward simply don’t hold up under scrutiny. Possibly one of the most ridiculous is when parents say that they are providing a ‘safe environment’ in which their teenager can drink and that if they didn’t their child would simply go off and drink somewhere else unsupervised.

I challenge any parent hosting a party where alcohol is being supplied to underage teenagers to prove that they are providing a ‘safe environment’. Even in licensed premises where alcohol is kept behind a bar and strict rules around responsible service govern how it is provided to patrons, it can be extremely difficult for staff to keep track of how much people have been drinking. However, then, can a parent hosting a party really supervise a number of teenagers and ensure that they are drinking responsibly?

There is no handbook on how to be the perfect parent, nor is there one on holding an incident-free teenage party. Without doubt, the best thing you can do to reduce the risks is to make the event alcohol-free. If you believe that this is not an option for your child at their stage of development, make sure you take every precaution to make the party as safe as possible for all concerned.

Discussion on this topic has continued in a more recent post, continue reading here.

Writer Paul Dillon, Generation Next speaker and drug and alcohol expert. Excerpt from “Teenagers, Alcohol and Drugs”. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

An American study has linked insufficient sleep to depression in adolescents. The study of over 15,000 adolescents in years 7-12 looked at the relationship between set bedtimes and sleep duration and depression.

The study found that teens who went to bed after midnight were 24% more likely to suffer from depression and 20% more likely to have suicidal ideation then teens who had bedtimes of 10pm or earlier. The study additionally found that teens who sleep for less then 5 hours a night are 71% more likely to suffer from depression then those who sleep for at least 8 hours a night.

Dr James Gangwisch, leader author of the study, noted that the link between depression and bedtimes suggested that it is not simply the case of depressed adolescents having trouble sleeping, describing instead that it appears that sleep is essential for adolescents to remain mentally healthy.

Dr Gangwisch went on to describe the factors which teens need to stay healthy. “Enough sleep, good food and regular exercise are all essential to stay emotionally healthy,” he said. “Nearly 80,000 children and young people suffer with depression, yet we are still failing to provide our young people with the help and support to cope with it and prevent it.”

“Adequate quality sleep could therefore be a preventative measure against depression and a treatment for depression.”

The article can be found in the journal Sleep.

Writer Tristan Boyd, editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

People who are depressed are not always easy to help because often they are disinterested, lack energy and motivation, can be irritable, and may not see the point of doing anything. Some people are not used to talking much – especially about themselves, so getting a conversation started can be difficult.

Useful tips for helping someone who may be depressed:

• Think about the best way to approach them – given what you know about their personality and temperament.
• Discreetly let them know you have noticed a change in their behaviour. Indicate that you are seriously concerned.
• Talk openly about depression and suggest they see a doctor, or speak to a health professional recommended by a doctor.
• If appropriate helm them to make the appointment; perhaps consider going with them – and follow up after the appointment.
• If they won’t listen to you, consider: who do they usually confide in, feel comfortable with, and/or trust? Maybe this person could make the approach and encourage them to seek assistance?
• Provide them with information about depression; refer them to www.beyondblue.org.au.
• Try to find ways to break their isolation:
  • Make an extra effort to stay in contact, preferably in person.
  • Encourage other close friends and family to do the same.
• Encourage them to exercise, eat well and become involved in social activities.

It’s unhelpful to:

• Pressure them to ‘snap out of it’, ‘get their act together’ or ‘cheer up’.
• Stay away or avoid them.
• Tell them they just need to stay busy or get out more.
• Pressure them to party more, or to wipe out how they’re feeling with drugs and alcohol.
• Assume the problem will go away.

Thoughts about self-harm and suicide are serious. Be as determined and resourceful as you can in finding a way to get a person having these thoughts to speak to a doctor or health professional.

Excerpt from Taking Care of Yourself and Your Family by John Ashfield, available for download from www.beyondblue.org.au. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

Last night I was watching TV and saw a news advertisement about young people and drug use. Over the top of an image or a group of young people was superimposed the words One third of all young people have used an illegal drug. That statistic sounds pretty scary for parents, and it is – there can be devastating consequences when anybody uses and illegal drug, and of course those risks are often greater for a young person. But why must we always be pushing the negative message when it comes to the issue? Wouldn’t it be more powerful and positive to present the same image with a statement saying that two thirds of young people haven’t used an illegal drug?

No one should stick their head in the sand and pretend that there isn’t a problem. When it comes to alcohol, it would be true to say that most young people will experiment with it at some time during their adolescence. However, the same cannot be said for illegal drugs, particularly when we’re talking about teenagers. Most young people have never tried illegal drugs, they have no interest in these substance and they never will. Study after study confirms this, yet try to get this fact reported in the media and you hit a brick wall.

Interestingly, you often hit that very same brick wall when you speak to the teenagers themselves…

Writer Paul Dillon, Generation Next speaker and drug and alcohol expert. Excerpt from “Teenagers, Alcohol and Drugs”. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

An American study has found that by the time most parents attempt to discuss sexual health with their children they are already sexually active. The study of 141 13- to 17-year-olds found that half of the teens surveyed had already engaged in sexual activities by the time their parents attempted to teach them about sex.

The study additionally found that more then 40% of teenagers had engaged in sexual intercourse before their parents had taught them about critical sexual health issues such as STDs and birth control. Boys were also found to be less likely to be properly educated about sex then girls.

Authors of the study highlighted that parents often overestimated how much they had taught their children. They suggested some tactics for parents to help educate their children properly:

• Don’t dismiss your children’s questions about sex by telling them they’re too young, however do keep conversations age appropriate – conversations should focus on what your child is capable of absorbing, and what your child asks about.
• Don’t try to educate your children in a single, long talk as you’re likely to miss important details, and they’re likely to forget – instead try approaching the topic whenever it comes up, for example when a TV show talks about issues such as pregnancy.
• If you’re uncomfortable, admit to your children that teaching them about sex embarrasses you; however explain that you’re teaching them because it’s your responsibility as a parent.

Professor Mark Schuster, one of the authors of the study, explained why many children don’t approach their parents for advice about sex. “When you tell a child, ‘You’re not old enough for that’ or ‘Ask your mom,’ their questions don’t go away,” he said. “Instead, kids learn than that there’s this whole topic that ‘I’m not supposed to talk to my parents’ about. So they will go ask their friends at school. By the time they’re teenagers, the idea that they [would] talk to their parents about sex is inconceivable, when it’s parents who are exactly who they should be coming to.”

Writer Tristan Boyd, Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.