Psychologist calls for serious teacher training to deal with behavioural issues

Nadisha Hunter, Gleaner Writer

PSYCHOLOGIST CORETTA Brown-Johnson wants teachers to be formally trained to address behavioural issues in schools, saying this was one way of seeing progress in the country's dismal literacy standard.

"Usually, because some students are not performing, the behaviour radar goes up because they are frustrated, they have low self-esteem and there are other things going on. So you find they tend to get more agitated and act out within the classrooms and they tend to be the ones that the teachers ignore," said Brown-Johnson who, in addition to her private practice, is the psychologist at Sts Peter and Paul Preparatory School, St Andrew.

"But when you take that child and get to a one-on-one and figure out what's really going on, there could be things happening at home. It could be an esteem issue and sometimes, too, when a child goes through the system and they are used to being ignorant, there is a coping mechanism," said Brown-Johnson.

She added: "So by the time they reach that teenage stage, their ego kicks in, and they don't want to do it anymore. You have to really break that down and that comes through relationship and communication so that you can really understanding where that child is coming from.

"When those children become adults, it usually takes a crisis situation for that cycle to break, and they just end up going through life that way."

Start early

Brown-Johnson said placing emphasis on the preschool is a move in the right direction. She encouraged the Ministry of Education to get on board by starting the interventions from as early as early-childhood level.

Meanwhile, irked by the lack of adequate programmes and the significant shortage of experts in the island to deal with behavioural issues affecting children, Brown-Johnson has taken the lead to address this matter.

Brown-Johnson said her efforts were prompted by a study she had conducted while pursuing studies in clinical psychology and metaphysics, which showed that there was a need for resources to address behavioural issues in children without affecting their learning and at the same time improving their educational standards.

"We really do not have any programmes in place that address behaviour to the point of retraining, breaking the behaviour, intervening and providing a real long-term therapeutic response, especially for the age group three to 18 years. Our society now tends to focus on extreme deviance and this causes our children to be placed out of school, within a centre or state agency," said Brown-Johnson.

Much enthusiasm

The expert who sat upright in a chair with a broad smile while speaking with The Gleaner recently at her office at the Old Hope Road-based institution, showed much enthusiasm about attacking the problem through various programmes in her Educational Enrichment and Behavioural Intervention Therapies Centre, which is to be rolled out next month. Additionally, she is looking to start a preschool come September in Stony Hill, St Andrew, where children would be fully assessed when entering the programme.

These programmes, she said, are an extension of a series of behaviour-modification summer camps 'The Children's World' she established in 2008, which includes the performing arts, sports, as well as other programmes to address the issues that are impacting growth.

The programmes to be offered at the centre include behavioural screening and intervention, individual learning programmes, cognitive behavioural therapy and metaphysical counselling.

"We used cognitive behavioural therapy which fuses behaviour therapy with psychology to have a long-term intervention. Now we will be adding a metaphysical component, which, from a spiritual standpoint, it looks at fusing cultural, spiritual understanding whatever context you are working with, because sometimes that is part of the problem," said the psychologist.

"To address that, we use it with the cognitive behavioural therapy and other instruments in psychology to engage, address and assist with behaviour," she explained.

Persons wishing to seek help through Brown-Johnson's various interventions, can contact her at 283-7949 or 843-7913.