FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)
File Name: Voices E17 Latitia Lattanzio.mp3
File Length: 00:07:44
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Introduction: Welcome to Voices, a podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District.
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Jeff Krakoff: This is Jeff Krakoff I am with Dr. Latitia Lattanzio who is a school psychologist at Rowan Elementary School and also an adjunct faculty member at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in the school psychology program. Welcome. Thanks for talking with us today.
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Latitia Lattanzio: Thanks for having me.
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Jeff Krakoff: psychologists So as we get back to school you know I think a lot of people have questions about school psychologist. What exactly do you do? So help us understand the role that you play as a school psychologist.
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Latitia Lattanzio: Absolutely. So I think most of our interactions with parents are taking place in the context of special education. But we truly are trained to do so much more than that. And I know that many of us thrive in doing so much more than that. So outside of testing and placing students we also are trained to develop some interventions, we can contribute to student support teams and also provide consultative services to school staff and parents. So we really are trained and servicing the whole child so learning, behavior and mental health.
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Jeff Krakoff: I'm sure you're hearing maybe, I'm guessing, from more people this school year because it's so unusual.
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Latitia Lattanzio: Yes.
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Jeff Krakoff: So with parents, what advice can you give parents to help them to better communicate with their children, whether they're elementary age, middle school, high school.
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Latitia Lattanzio: Yes. So the recommendations that school psychologists are really trying to communicate with parents is just to stay calm, really listen to what your child or adolescent is saying and offer some reassurance. So it really is normal at this point in time for all of us to feel a little bit worried or stressed, but being sure that we're self-monitoring and not panicking or I'm over exaggerating the circumstances. So really acknowledging the truth about the pandemic, what can we control at this point in time.
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Latitia Lattanzio: So handwashing, maintaining that physical distancing and really watching for clues that children might want to talk, if they're not openly approaching you about some of these challenges. So some of those things that I recommend parents look for is, is your child hovering around you a little bit longer than usual and kind of looking at you expectantly hoping that you're going to say something. That's certainly not an exhaustive list of the things that you could be looking for but those are just some examples.
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Latitia Lattanzio: And I really encourage parents to be patient at this point in time to remembering that we're all making adjustments. The kids and the adolescents really haven't been back to a physical school environment since March. So it's expected that there's going to be an adjustment period.
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Jeff Krakoff: Well, I'm curious. You mentioned two words; stress and worry. You mentioned a couple of signs, but are there other things that parents can look for to see if their child is stressed or worried. Maybe more than normal for them?
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Latitia Lattanzio: Yes, absolutely. So you know your children best. So recognizing some of those changes in their regular functioning is going to be so important, but also understanding that the worry and the anxiety might be different from child to child or adolescent to adolescent. So really what you're looking for is is that degree of worry or anxiety out of proportion to the current circumstances and these worries and fears can present in a number of different ways.
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Latitia Lattanzio: The physical symptoms that you might be looking for are somatic complaints like headaches, stomach aches, loss of appetite, but then also the behavioral response is refusing to do things that the child or adolescent typically wouldn't have a problem doing, some behavioral outbursts might be out of context for the child. And another category would be those cognitive symptoms. So those are things related to thinking. So poor concentration, are they expressing negative thinking like the end of the world is coming, frm something that would be uncharacteristic.
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Latitia Lattanzio: And the recommendation really is to closely monitor those behavioral changes and notice if those things persist for more than two weeks or those behaviors are really significantly interfering with the child's daily functioning and in any of those instances, it would be appropriate to contact one of the school psychologists that is assigned to your child or adolescents building or contact a local crisis hotline if you're in need of something and immediate assistance.
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Jeff Krakoff: OK. So so in this time during a pandemic, are there specific things that we can do to better respond to you know our students' needs, how to better support them?
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Latitia Lattanzio: Definitely. Parents can take steps to make themselves available which I'm sure that many of our parents already are. But it might require some additional steps like approaching your child and not necessarily forcing them to talk to you about things, but just offering a check-in, regularly expressing that you love them, giving them plenty of attention, really making them feel comfortable about talking about how they're feeling. Another piece of that would be being a model for discussing how we're feeling which would allow many people to feel a little bit more comfortable expressing their parts of things.
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Jeff Krakoff: OK, so so if I am noticing some of these signs that you mention can contact the school psychologist assigned to a particular student. How else might I find the right resources to help our children?
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Latitia Lattanzio: Sure. Certainly the nurses and school counselors would be available resources and outside of that certainly call 9 1 1 if there is an immediate danger or your needing immediate help. But Butler County also has a 24-hour crisis hotline that you can call or text and you can find that information with a quick Google search. But that information would also be available from the school psychologists or the guidance counselors. There are a number of crisis text hotlines.
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Latitia Lattanzio: One of them allows you to text the word home to the number 7 4 1 7 4 1. If the parents are more interested in a long-term type of therapy service the school psychologists and school counselors both have lists of local agencies that we could refer you to to try to get in and set up those services for your child.
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Jeff Krakoff: Very helpful thank you so much. So do you have any final thoughts to share with with whether it's students or their parents as we're back to school this fall?
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Latitia Lattanzio: Yes, my tip is remain patient, be patient with your children. Be patient with the teachers and all of the school staff, we're all working so hard to support our kids through this transition and we are here for you if you need us.
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Jeff Krakoff: Alright.
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Jeff Krakoff: Well thanks again for your time, Dr. Lattanzio And have a great rest of your day.
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Latitia Lattanzio: Thank you. You too.
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Jeff Krakoff: Take care.