Child Psychology

Why do some kids -- but not all kids -- develop imaginary friends? And how exactly do kids benefit from their relationships with imaginary companions? What do they acquire from these relationships? Our guest is Tracy Gleason, a developmental psychologist and professor of psychology at Wellesley College. She will speak about her interesting research on young children's imaginary companions at 7pm on Thursday the 27th in TU's Tyrrell Hall.

Later this week, on the morning of October 24th, the Opportunity Project -- a Tulsa nonprofit that (per its website) acts as a "citywide intermediary for expanded learning [and for] connecting youth to the world of opportunity" -- will celebrate the 20th anniversary of National Lights On Afterschool Day. This celebration begins at 8:30am at the Central Center in Centennial Park, near 6th and Peoria, and it will include a presentation regarding "What Tulsa's Youth Need to Thrive" by Karen J. Pittman, co-founder and CEO of The Forum for Youth Investment.

On this edition of ST Medical Monday, we welcome Dr. James S. Gordon back to our show. He's a Harvard-educated professor of psychiatry and family medicine at Georgetown University Medical School; he joins us to discuss his new book, "The Transformation: Discovering Wholeness and Healing After Trauma." This book grows out of Dr. Gordon's important work regarding alternative medicine at the Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM), which he founded in 1991.

On this edition of our show, we are discussing adverse childhood experiences (or ACEs) in Oklahoma. Specifically, we're talking about an in-depth series of articles about ACEs that ran in the Tulsa World earlier this summer. Our guests are Dr. Kim Coon, a Professor and the Director of Psychotherapy Education in the Department of Psychiatry at the OU-Tulsa School Of Community Medicine, and Ginnie Graham, a columnist with the World. Dr.

Our guest is William Doyle, a bestselling author and TV producer for networks including HBO, The History Channel, and PBS. Doyle is the co-author of an important new education-focused study, which he tells us about. The book is called "Let the Children Play: How More Play Will Save Our Schools and Help Children Thrive." As was noted of this work by Michael Rich, an associate professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School: "Sahlberg and Doyle whack us in the head with the reality that 21st-century skills require old-fashioned learning as children.

Our guest on ST Medical Monday is Dr. Bob Hudson, a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics with the OU School of Community Medicine in Tulsa. He's practiced general pediatrics for the past 30 years -- and has spent the past 16 years as a behavioral pediatrician, helping parents whose children exhibit behavioral or learning problems. Dr.

On this edition of our show, we learn about the nonprofit known as Connected Kids, which, per its webiste, "believes that every child needs and deserves connection. It is essential to overcoming trauma and becoming courageous, purposeful, self-directed, and independent. And it is possible! With the right tools and support, we can build healing connections with children who have been through even the darkest of circumstances." This organization was founded by Rr. Barbara Sorrels, who is our guest today.

On this edition of ST, we learn about the nonprofit Harmony Project, a long-running (and highly successful) music-based mentoring program that provides academic tutoring, instruments, and music lessons to at-risk students (in grades K through 12) nationwide. The program was begun in 2001 in Los Angeles -- as a "public-health intervention" -- by Dr. Margaret Martin, who is our guest today. There are by now several different Harmony Project Affiliates -- in New Orleans, Kansas City, East St.

Our guest is the bestselling young-adult writer Laurie Halse Anderson, who is widely known and appreciated for the brave manner in which she writes about, and advocates for, survivors of sexual assault. Her novel "Speak," which first appeared two decades ago, was groundbreaking in this regard.

Our guest on ST Medical Monday is Dr. Jordan Greenbaum, a child abuse physician who works with victims of suspected physical and sexual abuse, neglect, and sex trafficking at the Stephanie Blank Center for Safe and Healthy Children at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. She also directs the Global Health and Well-Being Initiative with the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, providing training on all aspects of child maltreatment for medical and non-medical professionals all over the globe. Dr.

The Early Childhood Education Institute (or ECEI) at OU-Tulsa last month received a $2.7 million grant from NIH's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to extend its work with researchers from Georgetown University.

The Judy O. Berry Honorary Lecture Series is an annual symposium presented by the TU Department of Psychology; the series features topics related to risk and resilience in children and in families. This year's keynote speaker is our guest on StudioTulsa: Dr. Courtney Stevens is Associate Professor and Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.

On this edition of ST Medical Monday, a conversation with Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, the founder and CEO of the Center for Youth Wellness, which is located in San Francisco's Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood. A well-regarded expert on how childhood stress can lead to adult disease, Dr. Harris speaks with us about her new book, "The Deepest Well." We also learn about how and why Dr. Harris -- a pediatrician by training -- was the subject of a game-changing 2011 profile in The New Yorker Magazine.

Women are the fastest-growing prison population group in the United States today -- and the State of Oklahoma, tragically, puts women in prison at twice the national rate. On this edition of ST, we check in with the non-profit organization known as Still She Rises, a public defender office based here in our community that's dedicated to representing North Tulsa mothers within the criminal justice system. Still She Rises, which began operations in Tulsa about a year ago, grew out of a similar group in NYC known as The Bronx Defenders.

On this edition of ST, we speak with Deborah Copaken, a bestselling author and award-winning photographer.

(Note: This show first aired back in February.) On this edition of our show, a discussion with Sue Klebold, whose 17-year-old son, Dylan, was of course one of the two teenage boys who committed suicide ­after their murderous attack on Colorado's Columbine High School in 1999. Klebold has a new book out about this incident -- and more to the point, about the behaviors that she did and did not see in her son in the months and years leading up to that terrible April day.

The transition from childhood to adulthood -- the adolescent and post-adolescent years, and all that go with them -- can be difficult, of course, for a host of reasons. Whether it's finding a job, finishing school, locating a place to live, discovering what one's goals really are, deciding on a career path, and so forth -- these can be trying experiences; relying on the aid of one's family and friends in such cases is paramount. But what if you're confronting these realities and you actually have no family? Or you have no "support network" of friends, mentors, and relatives?

On this edition of ST, our guest is psychologist and author Kenneth E. Miller, who has been working with war-affected communities since 1991 as a researcher, clinician, organizational consultant, and filmmaker. He joins us to discuss his book, "War Torn: Stories of Courage, Love, and Resilience." With 200 million people affected by armed conflict or genocide worldwide, refugees are appearing in record numbers; indeed, not since World War II have so many war-affected migrants been relocating around the globe.

On this edition of our show, a discussion with Sue Klebold, whose 17-year-old son, Dylan, was of course one of the two teenage boys who committed suicide ­after their murderous attack on Colorado's Columbine High School in 1999. Klebold has a new book out about this incident -- and more to the point, about the behaviors that she did and did not see in her son in the months and years leading up to that terrible April day.

On this edition of StudioTulsa Medical Monday, a discussion of trauma-informed therapy. Our guest is Dr. Sara Coffey, who works in the OU-TU School of Community Medicine's Department of Psychiatry as an assistant professor in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. We speak her about her wide-ranging efforts to treat kids for various kinds of trauma -- how she helps kids regulate their emotions, articulate their feelings, feel better overall, deal with all sorts of issues, and understand that the trauma at hand isn't their fault.

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we speak with two staff members at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR): Martin Paulus is Scientific Director and President of the facility, and Florence Breslin is its Psychiatric Research Coordinator. Both tells us about a truly groundbreaking new brain-development study that LIBR is participating in.

On this edition of ST Medical Monday, we talk with Alan Schwarz, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated investigative reporter who (until recently) was on the staff at The New York Times. He joins us to discuss his groundbreaking new book, "ADHD Nation: Children, Doctors, Big Pharma, and the Making of an American Epidemic." It's a detailed report on why the widespread misdiagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has become a sad yet undeniable fact of American life.

On this edition of StudioTulsa Medical Monday, we welcome Dr. Lisa Miller, an author and psychologist whose latest book, a bestseller called "The Spiritual Child," is now out in paperback. Dr. Miller -- who wrote an article for Time.com last year based on this book entitled "Why Kids Who Believe in Something Are Happier and Healthier" -- is the Director of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University's Teachers College, and she joins us by phone.

On this edition of ST Medical Monday, a discussion with Jennifer Noonan, a Texas-based mother of two who is the founder of thegfcflady.com, a website for autism parents.

(Note: This interview originally aired back in December.) We speak with the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Ron Suskind, whose bestselling nonfiction books include "Confidence Men" and "The One Percent Doctrine," among others. Suskind joins us to discuss his latest book, a memoir called "Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism." This work, first published in 2014, chronicles Suskind's family’s two-decade struggle with his son Owen's autism. As was noted of the book by the St.

This world, as we know, is rapidly becoming a more and more complicated and media-saturated place -- and therefore raising children, it seems, is becoming more and more difficult to do. On this installment of ST, we speak with Dr. Ross W. Greene, an author, speaker, and child psychologist who was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School for over twenty years, and who is also the founding director of the nonprofit organization Lives in the Balance (LivesintheBalance.org). Dr.

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we speak with Susan Senator, a writer, activist, and longtime advocate for people with autism. Senator is known for her two earlier books, "Making Peace with Autism" and "The Autism Mom's Survival Guide," and she joins us today to discuss her latest volume, which is called "Autism Adulthood: Strategies and Insights for a Fulfilling Life." As was noted of this book in a starred review in Library Journal: "Senator hits the nail on the head once again with this work that shares her continuing journey as the parent of an adult with autism.