Category Archives: News Highlights

LOU-23-10 EN SOL Post Contents

A Dog and A Boy

Picture

According to many academic studies, learning disorders in young children can be expressed in various forms. It is said that in the learning situation where visual and auditory skills are used, one might wonder if a child is suffering from a learning disability.

"Children who have difficulty with visual processing face problems with visual discrimination, visual memory, or visual closure of letters and words."

- Happy Dog

Happy Dog and Happy Boy

Children who have difficulty with visual processing face problems with visual discrimination, visual memory, or visual closure of letters and words. Young children’s visual processing and subsequent spelling problems are considered one of the early signs of learning disorders and pose the risk of leading to reading disorders. On the other hand, children who have difficulty with auditory processing have problems with speech recognition, auditory discrimination, auditory memory, and auditory arrangement and mixing. For children who start learning to read, the listed difficulty can pose a potential threat to reading as a whole.

Much of the learning depends on whether the language has been well acquired, and for young children, language acquisition plays a vital role in developing the ability to think and understand abstract concepts during the development process. According to researchers, language acquisition problems with which were not dealt at an early age can cause bigger problems.

The usual cases in which one can doubt whether a child is experiencing language-related learning problems include if the child speaks too little or not at all at a certain age, or has difficulty using grammar or syntax correctly, a significantly lower vocabulary related to learning, and a low understanding of verbal language. The psychological and psycho-educational approach at our “Active Learning Center” is delicately addressed based on such academic theory.

Post in Online HOW
Tagged DBT 

During the pendemic, Dr. Cho and his team in Korea reached to people who are in great psychological assistance.

아동 청소년 자살행동의 변화 양상: 인종 차이와 위험 요인에 대한 연구

양미린ㅣMirin Yang, MA

아동 청소년 자살행동의 변화 양상: 인종 차이와 위험 요인에 대한 연구

아동 청소년들의 자기파괴적 행동은 전 세계적으로 증가하는 추세이며, 이에 따라 관심도가 높아지고 관련 연구도 활발히 진행되고 있습니다. 오늘 소개할 연구는 미국의 청소년 자살 행동이 어떻게 변화하고 있는지 살펴보며, 특히 인종간 차이와 위험 요인들에 대해 이야기하고 있습니다. 특히 아프리칸 아메리칸 청소년에 주목하여 연령별, 성별, 촉발환경 등에 대해 다루며 매년 증가하고 있는 청소년 자살률에 대해 논의했습니다. 또한 “청소년 youth”이라는 표현을 사용할 때 중,고등학생을 지칭하며 5-11세의 아동을 포함하지 않는 경우가 많다고 지적하며 관련 데이터를 소개하고 있습니다.
 
5-14세의 아동은 자택에서 발생하는 경우가 많고, 주로 가족 및 학교 문제가 촉발 요인인 것으로 나타났습니다. 언쟁이 일어난 후 24시간 내로 상해를 입는 경우가 많았고, 남아보다 여아의 비율이 높았습니다. 또한 ADHD 진단을 받은 경우도 위험요인 중 하나로 밝혀졌습니다. 이에 반해 15-17세의 청소년의 경우 이성 문제 및 최근에 발생한 범죄/법적 문제가 가장 큰 촉발 요인이었으며, 유서를 남기는 경우가 많았습니다. 우울증 혹은 지속성 우울장애(기분저하증)이나 약물 남용 문제가 위험요인에 속하는 것으로 나타났습니다.
 
여자 아동청소년의 경우 대인관계 문제가 주된 촉발요인이며, 언쟁 후 24시간 내에 위험행동으로 이어지는 경우가 많았습니다. 신체건강 문제가 있거나 과거 자살 사고, 계획, 시도 이력이 큰 위험 요인이며, 현재 정신건강 문제, 현재 및 과거 심리치료 여부 또한 여기에 속했습니다. 우울증 및 지속성 우울장애, 불안장애 역시 자살행동의 위험요인인 것으로 나타났습니다. 남자 아동청소년의경우는 최근에 발생한 범죄/법적 문제가 큰 위험요인이었고, ADHD 진단을 받은 경우에 위험도가 높아지는 것으로 나타났습니다.
 
이 연구를 통해 통계 자료가 보여주는 청소년 자살행동 변화 양상의 심각성을 강조하는 동시에 자살은 예방 가능하기 때문에 교육 및 종교기관을 포함한 지역사회 곳곳에서 이들의 자살행동예방에 힘써야 한다고 주장하고 있습니다. 인도 메갈라야주에 시간이 흘러 물가를 건널 수 있는 다리가 된 나무줄기를 소개하며, 오랜 시간에 걸쳐 자연적으로 만들어진 이 나무줄기 다리처럼 지역사회내 자살예방 네트워크가 생성되는데까지 오랜 시간이 걸리겠지만, 우리 사회 안에 청소년 자살예방을 위한 연결점들(connections)이 점차 늘어갈 때 문제해결의 통로가 만들어 질 것이라는 메세지를 전했습니다.
 
그 동안 관심 주제 밖에 놓여 있던 어린 아동과 소수민족의 자살행동에 대한 관심이 높아지고 있는 점은 매우 의미 있는 것입니다. 이들에 관한 연구를 통해 더 많은 정책과 지원, 그리고 보호체계가 만들어질 수 있고, 이를 연구하는 연구자들 역시 증가하게 될 것입니다. 우리 사회에서 소수자로서 살아가고 있는 이들에 대한 진정한 관심과 협력이 더욱 증진되기를 바랍니다.
DBT NOW

DBT NOW 포스트는 전 세계적으로 진행되고 있는 최신의 DBT 치료 연구와 다양한 학술적 소식들을 나누는 포스트입니다.
people looking at laptop computer

지금, 나는 행복합니다

DBT 후기

*  더 트리 심리클리닉 치료 프로그램 참여자들의 동의 하에 솔직한 치료 후기를 공개하고 있습니다.

"다른 곳에서는 전혀 짚어주지 않았던 발달장애까지 말씀을 해주셔서 그 사건 이후의 혼란을 정리하고 진정한 나를 되찾을 수 있었던 것 같습니다."

PE DBT 치료 내담자

지속노출치료와 DBT를 약 2년간 진행했습니다. 치료 이후 트라우마 관련된 기억이 불쑥불쑥 떠오르는 증상이 사라졌고 그것과 동반되는 분노 발작의 세기가 줄어들었습니다. 

10년간 트라우마때문에 내 본 모습을 잃어버렸다고 느꼈는데 원래의 나를 되찾은 것 같습니다. 그전에는 책 읽고 혼자 있는 것을 좋아했지만, 그 일 이후로 그러지 못하게 되었는데 다시 그런 취미 생활을 즐길 수 있게 되었습니다.
 
처음에 상담을 받았을 때부터 다른 곳과 달리 성폭력 트라우마에 전문적이라는 인상을 받아서 이 곳에서 상담을 시작했습니다. 상담을 받는 중에는 오히려 전보다 더 많이 울게 되는 것 같아서 힘들 때도 있었는데, 어느 순간 증상이 많이 나아진 것을 스스로 느끼고 놀랐었던 기억이 납니다. 

또한 다른 곳에서는 전혀 짚어주지 않았던 발달장애까지 말씀을 해주셔서 그 사건 이후의 혼란을 정리하고 진정한 나를 되찾을 수 있었던 것 같습니다. 

앞으로의 미래에 대한 걱정이 없지 않지만, 지금은 행복해졌다고 말할 수 있습니다.

Post in 심리치료 & 건강
Tagged DBT 

2023 Active Learning Winter Intensive Program

“Some parents with children who have language development and acquisition delays
and/or emotional and behavioral difficulties come to our clinic,
and they say that the number of medication is growing
but the children do not get better.

I have to calmly explain to them that the children will not get better immediately.
I have to explain that it takes time
because the children have developed secondary symptoms already
on top of their initial language or learning difficulties.

Our School of Life | Active Learning Center is a special place just for those children.
Accepting the child’s current conditions calmly,
developing and implementing neuropsychological routes to treat the developmental delay.

Some of the children who came to us are now looking forward to going to college.
They have completed college preparation which seemed impossible in the beginning.

We invite parents and children who want to make small miracles
through our 2023 Winter Intensive Program."
Yong Cho | Clinical Psychologist, the Tree Group / School of Life Active Learning Center

2023 Active Learning Winter Intensive Psycho-educational Program

When the bright, kind child who was exposed to English at birth came to the clinic for the first time, he did not answer other people’s questions and showed signs of depression. According to his comprehensive psycho-educational evaluation, his English development was delayed and he showed difficulties in phonemic awareness and phonetic recognition. 

 

School of Life – Active Learning Center’s team of clinicians developed individualized psycho-educational strategies and implemented them. Consequently, the child started being aware of the sounds of different letters and the word meaning. He no longer presents with a quiet voice. His loud, confident voice echoes in the clinic. He is now happily conversing with teachers and parents without avoiding challenges and continues to develop his own strategies like a hero.

 

The Tree Group’s Active Learning Programs aim to help children’s developmental, emotional, behavioral difficulties and to improve their learning behavior by stimulating their language acquisition. The ultimate goal is to evaluate the child’s difficulties through a comprehensive psycho-educational evaluation and to develop individualized behavioral strategies, so that the child can have the problem behaviors treated and acquire independent learning habits. If you are interested in the program, please find the details below. 

Date
2022.12.13(Tue) ~ 2023.02.25(Sat) [11 weeks]

 

*The program period may vary depending on the child’s school or personal winter break schedule.

 

Schedule

• 5 days per week from Tuesday – Saturday / 5 or 6 hours per day

• Weekly program schedule

   ➞ Clinical session: 1 hour (or more than 1 hour considering the child’s condition)

   ➞ Active Learning Center: 12-15 hours

   ➞ Self-studying sessions (ABCMM): 9-14 hours

   ➞ Total of 25-30 sessions per week

 

Registration

• Due: 2022.11.29 (Tue)

• Payment due date: 2022.12.06 (Tue)

• For more information: info@thetreeg.com / 02-557-8823


• Online registration: 

2023 Active Learning Winter Intensive Program Registration

If you would like to know more information about our Active Learning program, please check the links below. 

 

Website links:

School of Life – Active Learning Center Main Homepage

https://thetreeg.com/ko/sol/

 

Active Learning Programs Choose

https://thetreeg.com/ko/sol/solprogram/

 

Active Learning Center Recent News

https://thetreeg.com/ko/lou/learninglanguage/solb/

Yekyung Kim | Active Learning Coordinator, Active Learning Center / the Tree Group

English language development and building confidence: present what I learned with a loud voice like a hero

“How does phonemic awareness and phonetic recognition influence language development delay?

The importance of developing clinical strategies for treating language development delay"
Yekyung Kim, BSc.
“I’m going to present what I learned today in class.”
 

A loud voice echoes inside the clinic. The voice comes from a bright child who can confidently present what he learned in front of teachers, parents and friends. In the past year, the child has achieved many clinical and psycho-educational treatment goals.  

 

When the bright, kind child who was born in an English speaking country to the clinic for the first time, he did not answer other people’s questions and showed signs of depression. According to his comprehensive psycho-educational evaluation, his English development was delayed and he showed difficulties in phonemic awareness and phonetic recognition, which led him to have speech therapy for several years.

 

For example, he struggled to differentiation the sounds of /r/ and /th/ in words. He showed confusion in phonemic awareness and phonetic recognition, exacerbating his English language acquisition. He needed an individualized strategy to recognize phonetics and its relation to English alphabet letters. 

 

School of Life – Active Learning Center’s team of clinicians developed individualized psycho-educational strategies and implemented them. Consequently, the child started being aware of the sounds of different letters and the word meaning. 

 

As the child started developing his English language further, he was able to learn academic contents in English and was now capable of presenting what he learned in class.

 

Although he could present confidently in front of teachers, he was passive and dazed when he was asked to present in front of other people. Our behavioral analysis discovered a certain behavioral pattern. When he was given a difficult question or a challenging task, adults around him answered the question and completed the task for him. His repeated patterns of low self-esteem and helplessness was caused by other people’s constant helping behavior. 

 

A language development delay can lead to secondary symptoms such as emotional, behavioral difficulties. Therefore, it is important that psychological treatments target both language development and behavioral difficulties at the same time. Once the child acquired the class materials, exposure therapy strategies were used for him to overcome challenging situations.

 

During his presentations, he read the English letters and words that he wrote, processed them, and pronounced them out loud to provoke his phonological awareness. Consequently, he was able to improve his problem behaviors. 

He no longer presents with a quiet voice. His loud, confident voice echoes in the clinic. He is now happily conversing with teachers and parents without avoiding challenges and continues to develop his own strategies like a hero.

Yekyung KimㅣActive Learning Coordinator, Active Learning Center / the Tree Group

Parent-Teacher Conference, the Aftermath

A considerable number of international schools hold Parent-Teacher Conference (PTC) in March/April and October/November. It is an important meeting where parents can get feedback on their children’s academic performances, social interactions, and others. Have you received comments such as the ones below from the school?

upset little girl sitting near crop woman in classroom

  • He/She finds it difficult to concentrate when studying.

  • He/she has trouble understanding basic instructions.

  • He/She has difficulty with reading comprehension.

  • He/She refuses to follow directions repeatedly and/or intentionally.

  • He/She displays signs of emotional and/or behavioral problems.

  • He/She shows poor academic performances despite seemingly studying hard.

The School of Life – Active Learning Program is for students attending international schools in Korea or abroad, as well as boarding schools or any other English-speaking schools, who currently experience difficulties in their academic endeavors. The program is most effective for students who are constantly getting negative feedback from their school because of their lack of good learning habits and motivation, as well as for parents who are struggling because of their children’s lower performance in school. The program is also suited for students whose lack of learning strategies causes them to underachieve despite their efforts.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 20190622_100834-1024x768.jpg

The Tree Group’s School of Life Program

For further information, please contact us at 02) 557-8823 or info@thetreeg.com.

Making Learning Enjoyable – Summer Intensive Program Group Classes

"In a group of 2 or 3, students are encouraged to acquire knowledge in an enjoyable manner and participate actively in learning through creative and collaborative activities."
By 전승혜 Seonghae Jeon, M.P.A.

The Tree Group’s “Active Learning Center” just began our annual Summer Intensive Program. In the Summer Intensive Program, there is a special addition that the regular semester curriculum does not have – group classes. In a group of 2 or 3, students are encouraged to acquire knowledge in an enjoyable manner and participate actively in learning through creative and collaborative activities. Let me introduce our five distinctive group classes!

Building Ecosphere (ECS) Class  

 

ECS Teacher: Seungmin Lee, B.A.

 

This class allows the student to think and discuss about Ecosphere from various perspectives, with the following question: what does it take for an individual to live and survive?   

 

ECS Class will help the student to: 

  

– Encourage creativity by approaching the current environmental issues in a friendlier way that involves hands-on activities. 

 

– Enhance critical thinking skills that will allow the student to eventually gather, organize, and present his/her thoughts based on 1) factual evidence from text and 2) personal experience. 

 

– Increase both communication and interpersonal skills through interactive group discussions. 

Mindful Trails of Expression on (MTE) Class

 

MTE Teacher: Yuyeon Kim, M.S.

Mindful State is:

 

– Clear minds

 

– Focused eyes

 

– Attentive listening

 

– Awakened body and mind  

 

– Being present in the moment

 

MTE Class will help the student to:

 

– Discover themselves and their surroundings through Mindfulness activities.

 

– Experience their five senses to express themselves. 

 

– Learn mindful breathing and focus on one thing at a time.

Project Sherlock Holmes (PSH) Class

 

PSH Teacher: Mirin Yang, M.A.

 

This class attempts to stimulate students’ critical thinking skills and intellectual curiosity through scientific and creative activities.

 

PSH Class will help the student to:

 

– Learn how to evaluate the given data and extract the essential information.

 

– Learn how to reach appropriate conclusions based on the gathered evidence.

 

– Scientifically and critically approach various topics that influence individuals and society.

Survival Geometry (SGM) Class

 

SGM Teacher: Seonghae Jeon, M.P.A

 

This class encourages students to recognize that there is more to math than simply solving textbook problems and getting good scores. Students will discover how math is deeply relevant in their everyday lives.

 

SGM Class will help the student to:

 

– Realize that like language or nature, math can be found in their close and familiar surroundings.

 

– Learn about shapes and geometry through fun activities.

 

– Discover geometry from their surroundings actively and attentively.

Time Traveller (TMT) Class

 

TMT Teacher: Seungha Lee, MSc

 

This class allows students to learn about world history and culture through creative activities.

 

TMT Class will help the student to: 

 

– Interact with different cultures by making Ghana’s Kent design, ancient Greek masks, etc. to experience various cultures and their histories.

 

– Encounter various perspectives on historical events by watching movies and documentaries and improve verbal and written expression skills.

 

– Experience the bigger world and seek for ways to solve problems that the humanity is facing as a whole.

Moreover, the Tree Group recognizes the gravity of COVID-19 and is doing its best to continue the Summer Intensive Program in a virus-free environment. Every visitor and staff must wear a mask at all times and fill out the Daily Health Checklist before entering the clinic. The Tree Group is also disinfecting the place frequently. The Tree Group humbly asks for everyone’s cooperation and will do its best to continue with the classes in a healthy environment.

“Learning Disabilities” from the Perspective of Language Acquisition

"Children who have difficulty with visual processing face problems with visual discrimination, visual memory, or visual closure of letters and words."
By 전승혜 Seonghae Jeon, M.P.A.

According to many academic studies, learning disorders in young children can be expressed in various forms. It is said that in the learning situation where visual and auditory skills are used, one might wonder if a child is suffering from a learning disability.

 

Children who have difficulty with visual processing face problems with visual discrimination, visual memory, or visual closure of letters and words. Young children’s visual processing and subsequent spelling problems are considered one of the early signs of learning disorders and pose the risk of leading to reading disorders. On the other hand, children who have difficulty with auditory processing have problems with speech recognition, auditory discrimination, auditory memory, and auditory arrangement and mixing. For children who start learning to read, the listed difficulty can pose a potential threat to reading as a whole.

Much of the learning depends on whether the language has been well acquired, and for young children, language acquisition plays a vital role in developing the ability to think and understand abstract concepts during the development process. According to researchers, language acquisition problems with which were not dealt at an early age can cause bigger problems.

 

The usual cases in which one can doubt whether a child is experiencing language-related learning problems include if the child speaks too little or not at all at a certain age, or has difficulty using grammar or syntax correctly, a significantly lower vocabulary related to learning, and a low understanding of verbal language. The psychological and psycho-educational approach at our “Active Learning Center” is delicately addressed based on such academic theory.

Special Lecture on “Bilingual Children” by Dr. Cho

"What can be called bilingual does not depend on whether you can speak both languages perfectly, but on whether you can communicate with others in both languages in daily life."
By 전승혜 Seonghae Jeon, M.P.A.

On the last Friday evening of February at the “Active Learning Center,” Dr. Cho Yong-beom, the head of Dutree Group, gave a special lecture on “Brilliant Children.” It’s time to explore in depth what challenges bilingual children can face learning, psychological, emotional and social, how to overcome, and what benefits they can have in the process of growing up.

 

Bilingual children are known to have the following advantages:

 
– Less prescriptive / more creative / more flexible and open to new ideas
– “Distributive thinking” in problem-solving – having the ability to find various, possible, and non-pessimistic solutions to a problem
– Two or more expressive(language) systems foster flexibility and creativity of thinking
– Looking at language as a single object (“meta-language recognition”), able to understand the arbitrary nature of words
– Have a rich sense of communication
– “Additional Antenna” – respond more sensitively to surroundings, pay more careful attention to conversations, and capture both verbal and non-verbal queues more delicately

 

What can be called bilingual does not depend on whether you can speak both languages perfectly, but on whether you can communicate with others in both languages in daily life. Thus, it is natural that bilingual abilities develop disproportionately according to the individual’s environment. A bilingual child can become either “Bilingual Additif” (when the child develops two languages equally and this experience of language development helps with subsequent cognitive development) or “Bilingual Sustractif” (when the child develops a second language at the expense of his or her native language).

 

It is often assumed that bilingual children are at a disadvantage, experiencing mental confusion when two languages are mixed up in their minds. However, according to academic research on brain observation, young children have overlapping regions of the brain that govern both languages, treating them as if they are a single language. All of our “Active Learning Center” clinicians use this academic and empirical knowledge to provide professional service to all of our children.

“Explore the Universe” through Seeing and Touching!

"The Active Learning Center is about to launch a space-science curriculum, called "Explore the Universe"!"
By 전승혜 Seonghae Jeon, M.P.A.

The Active Learning Center is about to launch a space-science curriculum, called “Explore the Universe“!

The “Explore the Universe” curriculum is uniquely designed by our Active Learning Program to not only educate children with scientific knowledge from textbooks but also provide them with insights that are essential for living a life full of scientific wisdom.

 

This 15-week curriculum will be offered to primary students and provide guidance in answering the following questions:

1. What is the universe?

2. What are robots and AI?

3. How are humans and robots different from each other?

 

The course will help foster Active Learners’ ability to think philosophically and make good inference by discovering the relationship between the universe and themselves. In each unit of the course, they will experience and build with their own hands the materials they are learning, and be encouraged to complete Individualized Research Project independently. The course will be an opportunity for our Active Learners to learn the space science and advanced technology at a deeper level, embracing these with an open mind and intellectual curiosity.

 

Please feel free to contact us as below for any inquiries and registration procedures. The start date of the curriculum will soon be posted.

 

Active Learning Center alc@treegroup.onmicrosoft.com 02 557 8823 l