Latino Children’s Mental Health: An Analysis of Risk Factors, Healthcare Access, and Intervention Strategies

Research suggests that Latino children are at an elevated risk for a variety of mental health problems (Flores, Fuentes-Afflic, Barbot, et al., 2002). Latinos are often vulnerable to the deleterious effects of poverty, institutional racism, community violence and other types of psychosocial stressors, which have been linked to negative mental health outcomes (Flisher, Kramer, Grosser, et al., 1997; Saunders, Resnick, Hoberman, et al., 1994). Furthermore, Latino children are likely to face significant barriers to accessing mental healthcare services, such as limited availability of Spanish-speaking providers, difficulty obtaining and navigating health insurance, and cultural obstacles, such as the belief that mental illness is a spiritual or religious matter. The current paper will: (1) explore specific risk factors for mental health disorders among Latino children; (2) examine barriers to appropriate mental health treatment among Latino children; (3) provide an overview of the types of intervention strategies currently used to address mental health problems among Latino children; and (4) offer recommendations for the development of additional and/or improved methods for the prevention and treatment of mental health disorders among Latino children

Latino Children’s Mental Health: An Analysis of Risk Factors, Healthcare Access, and Intervention Strategies

Research suggests that Latino children are at an elevated risk for a variety of mental health problems (Flores, Fuentes-Afflic, Barbot, et al., 2002). Latinos are often vulnerable to the deleterious effects of poverty, institutional racism, community violence and other types of psychosocial stressors, which have been linked to negative mental health outcomes (Flisher, Kramer, Grosser, et al., 1997; Saunders, Resnick, Hoberman, et al., 1994). Furthermore, Latino children are likely to face significant barriers to accessing mental healthcare services, such as limited availability of Spanish-speaking providers, difficulty obtaining and navigating health insurance, and cultural obstacles, such as the belief that mental illness is a spiritual or religious matter. The current paper will: (1) explore specific risk factors for mental health disorders among Latino children; (2) examine barriers to appropriate mental health treatment among Latino children; (3) provide an overview of the types of intervention strategies currently used to address mental health problems among Latino children; and (4) offer recommendations for the development of additional and/or improved methods for the prevention and treatment of mental health disorders among Latino children

The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change?

Coming as it does in the midst of all the palaver over political correctness within the American academic community, The Hollow Hope is, if nothing else, an opportune articulation of iconoclasm in the debate over civil rights and constitutional law in the United States.\u27 Professor Rosenberg\u27s questioning of the cult of the court provides a welcome expression of healthy skepticism towards an institution which conventional myth reveres beyond its due

Review of \u3cem\u3eGrassroots Struggles for Sustainability in Central America.\u3c/em\u3e Lynn R. Horton. Reviewed by Ian W. Holloway.

Book review for Lynn R. Horton, Grassroots Struggles for Sustainability in Central America. Boulder, CO: University of Colorado Press, 2007. $55.00 hardcover

Symbolizing Number: fMRI investigations of the semantic, auditory, and visual correlates of Hindu-Arabic numerals

Humans are born with a sensitivity to numerical magnitude. In literate cultures, these numerical intuitions are associated with a symbolic notation (e.g..Hindu-Arabic numerals). While a growing body of neuroscientific research has been conducted to elucidate commonalities between symbolic (e.g. Hinud-Arabic numerals) and non-symbolic (e.g. arrays of objects) representations, relatively little is known about the neural correlates specific to the symbolic processing of numerical magnitude. To address this, I conducted the three fMRI experiments contained within this thesis to characterize the neuroanatomical correlates of the auditory, visual, audiovisual, and semantic processing of numerical symbols. In Experiment 1, the neural correlates of symbolic and non-symbolic number were contrasted to reveal that the left angular and superior temporal gyri responded specifically to numerals, while the right posterior superior parietal lobe only responded to non-symbolic arrays. Moreover, the right intraparietal sulcus (IPS) was activated by both formats. The results reflect divergent encoding pathways that converge upon a common representation across formats. In Experiment 2, the neural response to Hindu-Arabic numerals and Chinese numerical ideographs was recorded in individuals who could read both notations and a control group who could read only the numerals. A between-groups contrast revealed semantic processing of ideographs in the right IPS, while asemantic visual processing was found in the left fusiform gyrus. In contrast to the ideographs, the semantic processing of numerals was associated with left IPS activity. The role of these brain regions in the semantic and asemantic representation of numerals is discussed. In Experiment 3, the neural response of the visual, auditory, and audiovisual processing of numerals and letters was measured. The regions associated with visual and auditory responses to letters and numerals were highly similar. In contrast, the audiovisual response to numerals recruited a region of the right supramarginal gyrus, while the audiovisual letters activated left visual regions. In addition, an effect of congruency in the audiovisual pairs was comparable across numeral-number name pairs and letter-letter name pairs, but absent in letter-speech sound pairs. Taken together, these three experiments provide new insights into how the brain processes numerical symbols at different levels of description

Mobilizing learning: mobile Web 2.0 scenarios in tertiary education

Based upon three years of mobile learning (mlearning) projects, a major implementation project has been developed for integrating the use of mobile web 2.0 tools across a variety of departments and courses in a tertiary education environment. A participatory action research methodology guides and informs the project. The project is based upon an explicit social constuctivist pedagogy, focusing on student collaboration, and the sharing and critique of student-generated content using freely available web 2.0 services. These include blogs, social networks, location aware (geotagged) image and video sharing, instant messaging, microblogging etc… Students and lecturers are provided with either an appropriate smartphone and/or a 3G capable netbook to use as their own for the duration of the project. Keys to the projects success are the level of pedagogical and technical support, and the level of integration of the tools into the courses – including assessment and lecturer modelling of the use of the tools. The projects are supported by an intentional community of practice model, with the researcher taking on the role of the “technology steward”. The paper outlines three different scenarios illustrating how this course integration is being achieved, establishing a transferable model of mobile web 2.0 integration and implementation. The goal is to facilitate a student-centred, collaborative, flexible, context-bridging learning environment that empowers students as content producers and learning context generators, guided by lecturers who effectively model th