Scottish Rite seminar on children's self-esteem

On February 3rd, I had the opportunity to attend a seminar titled "Fostering strengths and building self-esteem in children with dyslexia and related disorders". The seminar was presented by Dr. Monte Davenport, Diagnostic Services Coordinator at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital and was attended by over 50 GCISD parents and administrators. Dr. Davenport discussed the symptoms of low self-esteem and their long term impact on our kids. He also discussed what we as parents can do to break the low-self-esteem cycle in order to help our children succeed. His presentation was based on the study by the Frostig Center titled "Predictors of success in individuals with learning disabilities".

The success attributes discussed were self-awareness, self-acceptance and proactivity. According to Dr. Devenport, the goal of self-awareness is to help our child understand that his difficulties are not who he is as a person. In terms of self-acceptance, the presentation discussed steps that parents and teachers can take to help students change their negative "self-talk". "Self-talk" is what children think of themselves when facing difficult situations. Finally, Dr. Davenport encouraged parents to be proactive by establishing a support network for their children. The support group includes teachers, counselors, tutors and other parents and children with similar experiences.

For more information, you can access the whole presentation with this link.

The Frostig Center study summary can be found in this link.