Social Kung Fu’s Post

Volunteer Opportunity: Empowering Teen Girls to Navigate Conflict and Build Positive Relationships: The odds are against me when it comes to positive influences teen girls witness when it comes to resolving conflict from Bad Girls Club, Baddies, Love & Hip Hop, Housewives of Atlanta, Basketball Wives, drama between female rap artists, etc-all they see is yelling, cursing, fighting, & how to run to social media to post negative comments & bully others. The odds may be stacked against me-but I’m not willing to give up. I know there are several reasons teen girls engage in fighting so I’m taking a proactive approach this school year to reduce girl drama. I’ve taken some time to lean on my past experience in writing anti-violence education curriculum & have developed a 10 week course aimed at helping teen girls reduce conflict & develop healthy relationships. If you are a woman who would like to volunteer this school year to help deliver some of these impactful sessions please let me know. Please inbox me if you are interested in learning about our school needs & would like to be considered to facilitate a session at East Central High School. Minimum Time Commitment: 1 hour a week every 10 weeks. Volunteer Background Check-must be completed & approved prior to working with students. Thanks for leaning in & helping us change the narrative of young urban teenage girls-one student, one session at a time! https://lnkd.in/gKg9nT5K

Check out the Education, Action, and Change: Anti-Racism Resource for Schools This essential resource is designed to support educators in addressing racism within schools and preschools. The toolkit provides: ✅ Clear definitions of racism at interpersonal, institutional, and systemic levels ✅ Practical guides for conversations about racism and reconciliation ✅ Age-appropriate activities for early childhood through secondary education that challenge stereotypes and foster empathy ✅ Strategies for developing anti-racism policies and embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in school curricula. By using this resource, educators and communities can work together to create inclusive, equitable learning environments and actively reject racism in all forms. #AntiRacism #EducationForChange #Reconciliation #InclusiveEducation #ReconciliationSA #AboriginalAndTorresStraitIslander #CulturalInclusion #SchoolResources

Reconfiguring Togetherness in the Virtual Drama Classroom https://lnkd.in/gtzQaU6e

As it's Neurodiversity Celebration Week I thought I would share my own professional contribution. I have spent many, many years trying to raise awareness of neurodiversity, inclusion, and in helping people to access appropriate help. Conditions like ASD, DCD, ADHD, SpLDs, etc are very real and developmental, which means they are LIFE-LONG, they have always been present, and are not suddenly "acquired". They also present with various challenges (socially, emotionally, behaviourally, and physically) across the life-span. I was therefore extremely shocked to see a professional on Linkedin denying their existence and that the symptoms are "part of normal life"! My experience of working with both children and adults over many years has taught me how devastating it can be trying to both access an appropriate diagnosis, and help, due to a lack of awareness by professionals and an absence of trained therapists! Back in 1997 I undertook firstly, my PhD (I became the youngest Occupational Therapist in the UK at the time to hold both a PhD and Master's degree) followed by post- doctoral research in the area of neuro diversity. My research was a large scale study following up several hundred children who were born very preterm (at or below 32 weeks) alongside children who had been born at full term. Amongst the things these children were screened for included DCD (dyspraxia), ADHD, cognitive, behavioural and sensory outcomes, alongside high resolution MRI scans (if you have the time you can read about the results in my publications list which appear in leading peer- reviewed medical and therapy journals). If neurodiversity did NOT exist then we would not have obtained the results we did on either the standardised tests or the associated brain scans. Following this, I helped to develop the twice BAFTA nominated TV series Tree Fu Tom which is an INCLUSIVE show aiming to support key foundation motor and sensory skills alongside self- esteem and self- efficacy. I have met hundreds of parents who have faced continuous struggles trying to get help for their children. I am sharing an interview here I did for BBC Breakfast (with the late Bill Turnbull) where I discuss DCD, Tree Fu Tom etc, but MOST importantly I do so alongside a mother and her son, who I worked with, who battled to get the appropriate help for her child. If you are a professional please educate yourself on neurodiversity and be part of the positive change to help enable people, not stigmatise or shame them into thinking their conditions do not exist!

🚨 Joe Wicks recent comments on diet and ADHD have sparked a heated debate, but are his words being taken out of context? My ADHD brain got hooked so I spent some time looking into it  🧠😀👍 Having listened to  the interview by nihal Arthanayake on BBC Sounds, I don't think he was claiming that poor diets directly cause ADHD. What Joe seemed to be saying is that ultra-processed, high-sugar foods can negatively impact kids' behaviour, potentially causing hyperactivity and poor conduct. This may lead some to incorrectly assume those children have ADHD. I think he tries to draw a distinction between neurodevelopmental disorders like ADHD and ADHD-like behaviours that can be influenced by what we eat. ⚡🚨The danger is potentially suggesting that ADHD and other neurodivergent conditions are overdiagnosed whereas research suggests that it’s more likely underdiagnosed. As an adult, to be diagnosed with ADHD, the symptoms must have been present as a child before the age of twelve. The overwhelming current scientific opinion is that ADHD does not spontaneously occur in adults. Therefore, adults or children who eat hyper-processed food would not 'develop' ADHD from doing so. ✅ADHD is a hereditary, lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder in which the brain develops differently, especially in the earliest stages of life. The 'risk' of developing ADHD is highly genetic, and it very rarely occurs in individuals who do not have a first-degree relative with ADHD. In my view, Joe Wicks was simply observing a potential link between diet and behaviours reminiscent of ADHD symptoms, not claiming diet is the underlying cause of ADHD. While his remarks were unclear, it's important not to let negativity flood social media as a result of any comment from a famous person regarding neurodiverse conditions. ❓What do you think ⁉️ I’ve included a link to the interview recording here https://lnkd.in/e-hRNh3r but for those of you who don’t want to listen to the whole interview, this is the statement he made that I think has led to the comments on social media. "I was never diagnosed as ADHD. But I think nowadays it's this common thing that every child seems to be being diagnosed and I think a lot of it can stem back to the diet and the foods that we're eating and so when I think about my diet, it was like, cereal for breakfast. concentrated juice from the milkman, sunny delight, wagon wheels, it was sandwiches, just jam nutella with very little nutrients, pure sugar. And that's just how I ran. That's how I suppose a lot of kids this is 1980s, 1985 I was born. And I just think now it's like there's even more of it. Okay, there's even more processed foods" #adhd #adhdawareness #joewicks #neurodiversityatwork #neurodiversityawareness #diet

BBC News have done an important feature on the dangers of 'sextortion'. People with learning disabilities are more likely to be victims of sextortion, so I'm proud to have worked with SeeAbility to create an Easy Read version of the BBC article. BBC article on sextortion - easy read https://lnkd.in/eN6fZ6D4 Sextortion is when a person asks you to take personal photos of yourself and then demands money not to share them. The article features a story from a person with learning disabilities who reached out to SeeAbility for support when they were being 'sextorted'. It's heartbreaking and really important for people with learning disabilities to understand how to be safe online. BBC article: ‘I thought my life was over’: Escaping the sextortion scammers https://lnkd.in/egr954BG SeeAbility Easy Reads on staying safe online: https://lnkd.in/e_iNSTXy #EasyRead #Accessibility #Sextortion #SeeAbility #BBC #LearningDisabilities

https://lnkd.in/gumpagAf Great to hear about Lizzy Hoo's life changing adult and continuing education journey. Education is life's work. #lizzyhoo #cca #adultlearningaustralia

https://lnkd.in/ekdTQmc5 my moral lesson here is to never train any opposite gender in either school or anything, because what you will get in return will be what you don't believe or expect. you can share yours in the comments session.

From Pain To Purpose… It has taken me sixty years to find my true purpose in life and when it finally came, it was a profound realisation. In 2009, our world was shattered. My son, just 13 years old, was shot in the face on his way home from school in what should have been the safety of our leafy West London neighbourhood. The young people who did this had been excluded from education, lost on a path that led to this heartbreaking act. Not long after, my brave son, with a resilience that still amazes me, suggested we start a youth club. He wanted to create a haven for young people a place where they could feel safe, supported, and loved. A place for people like those who had harmed him that fateful afternoon. Back then, I couldn’t have imagined that 15 years later, we would be where we are today. My son is now 28, a wonderful man with a family of his own. His idea, born from pain and hope, became W4 Youth. Through it, we’ve touched thousands of lives, offering young people a sanctuary where they can feel truly at home. We live in a world where communities are increasingly divided. Young people are separated into groups and gangs based on their postcode or school. They spend much of their time glued to screens, consuming harmful content that damages their mental health. It’s no wonder they struggle. A staggering 50% of young people in London get less than an hour of exercise a week. It breaks my heart to see the obesity crisis spiralling, knowing our children are suffering. This is why W4 Youth has become my life’s purpose. I’ve realised that by starting within my own community, I can make a real difference. My dream is to turn the tide on the challenges our youth face and extend our model to other communities in need. We must bring young people back into the heart of our communities, equip them with tools to be good, respectful members of society, and hold them accountable with love and support. This is why I’m focussing my time on expanding the work we do for young people and the broader community. Our goal is to build our purpose-built centre to do even more to bring people together in joy, support, and unity. We want to give our youth the attention they need to face life’s challenges. Unlike most youth clubs, we unite young people from all corners of the community, healing divides and helping them thrive mentally, physically, and educationally. We prepare them for a bright future. And so, we are launching a fundraising campaign to build our much-needed youth and community centre, a place for young people and the entire community to come together, uplift each other, and thrive in a safe environment. If you feel moved by our mission, I invite you to join us. Whether through volunteering, partnering with us, or donating, your support can help us change lives. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. www.w4youth.org.uk

I highly recommend this BBC audio docuseries to everyone who wants to understand the pressures that #teenage #boys are under today. The episodes open a qualitative window to boys’ perceptions of what #masculinity is, to their life online, why they lag behind #girls in their education, their worries and insecurities around sex and consent, their challenges around friendships and how hierarchies are formed. One downside is that the series doesn’t examine solutions so by the time I got to the last episode, the knot in my stomach grew so large there was no space left for food in it. Here are four takeouts (of many!) that are as insightful as they are devastating. 👉🏼#Teenage #boys are scared of having #relationships because of consent concerns. They are terrified that their reputation could be destroyed momentarily by a rumour at school that they have broken consent even if they hadn’t done anything wrong. “It’s really scary”. 👉🏼 #MeToo turned into a war between teenagers from the two dominant genders. “Kill all men” is a sentiment that teenage girls shared with teenage boys at school which left boys feeling worthless. Instead of tackling the [enormous] problem of #violence #against #teenage #girls at schools, boys became defensive. 👉🏼 While society views #empathy as inherently a more feminine quality and girls as more empathic, the physiological responses to empathy-inducing images are the same among boys and girls! However, when you ask teenage boys and girls to reflect on their responses, they diverge significantly in their narratives. [This is where the patriarchal social norm delivers its blow - a gendered storytelling lens emerges]. This topic was a subject of a previous post of mine this week. 👉🏼 #Lookism is very much alive for boys too. Maxing out their looks means getting more girls and being more respected by their mates. The appearance that boys strive towards and constantly feel they fall short of, includes having a sharper jaw line and straighter nose.