BrainAbouts

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Welcome to Houston, PA, Houston's Public Affairs show, an iHeartMedia broadcast.
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Our disclaimer says that the opinions express on this show
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do not necessarily reflect those hell by this radio station.
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It's management staff for any of its advertisers. My name
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is Laurent and my guest today is doctor Tandra Gordon.
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She is the senior program director for brain Abouts. They're
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an online organization that is basically kind of like an
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online university for kids, is to help them manage behavioral
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problem programming. That's what it is, because you know, when
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kids are in school and they're in their parents' house,
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we're basically brainwashing them to be good citizens, hopefully, and
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when we failed to do that, we end up with
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violent kids and kids that go into other kind of
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risky behavior that is self destructive life, alcohol abuse, drug abuse,
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and even video game abuse. Will even talk about that
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some video game addiction. You've heard me say some nice
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things about some video games on this show, and I'm
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a big fan, and I think that it has its
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place as and entertainment and moderation, especially if you if
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you're there to give some contact to your kid and
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you make sure they play age appropriate games. You know,
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you don't let them play violent R rated games when
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they're eight. So it's it's that kind of thing that
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brain Abouts takes care of ironing out and they enlist
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the help of teachers and parents with an online program
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that you can find at brainabouts dot org. Brainabouts dot org. Uh,
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doctor Gordon, you have to explain to us a little
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better than I did what brain abouts does, because you'll
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you'll have a pretty extensive program that not only covers
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a wide range of subject but you're targeting it to
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kids of all ages just about especially since you have
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a new program that you're going to start for pre
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K kids.
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Yeah.
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So we are a neuroscience based high risk behavior prevention program.
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So we teach kids about various high risk behaviors as
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well as we focus on increasing executive functioning skills and
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so executive yeah, so okay, So the program is based
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on the we use the brain to prevent high risk behaviors.
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And so the idea behind that is that we have
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it's based on how our brain develops, and so from
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zero to twelve years old, our limbic system is the
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part of the brain that emerges as fully functioned, fully
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functioning and fully developed. And so the limbic system is
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responsible for our fight flight or freeze response.
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It is.
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It's what keeps us safe in emergencies. It's also there.
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It's also the emotional part of our Brain's responsible for love,
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for hate, for you know, lots all of the emotions
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that we feel. It's socially stimulus. It is kind of
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the impulsive kind of fun like, let's try something new, yeah,
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type of brain. And so that part of the brain
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is fully developed by twelve years old. Really, the part
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of the brain that kind of keeps the limpics system
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in check is not fully formed until twenty four or
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twenty five years old. And that's the frontal lobe of
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the brain.
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Can we ask mother nature how that works? It's say
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you developed the safety system after putting the engine online.
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So it's kind of like saying, we're gonna send this
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car down the hill and once it crashes at the
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bottom of the hill, will install the airbags. It's like, no,
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do the other way around.
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My mom my thought is that that's why we have teachers,
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we have parents, we have adults in the life of
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kids to help, you know, to provide that stability to
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provide that structure to help them during that stage of development.
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Oh wow, so I didn't. That's really that's an interesting perspective,
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isn't it. The fact that we are capable of all
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sorts of dangerous behaviors twice as fast as we become
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capable to measure which behaviors will kill us, right, right.
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And that's why adolescence is such a prime time for
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higherrisk behaviors all the way into college.
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Right.
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And so you think about you know, people's decisions in
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college and how that happens because the problem solving, decision making,
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long term planning part of our brain, the frontal lobe,
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is not fully developed until twenty four or twenty five,
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and so executive functioning skills are those skills of the
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frontal lobe. And so part of the program is helping
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kids to strengthen those skills and to use those skills.
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And so from a young age we tell them the
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more you use it, the more you're developing, you know,
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the neurons and that part of the brain so that
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it can get stronger earlier.
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So what kind of risky behavior are we talking about though?
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Anything?
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You can think about it, And part of our commitment
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to schools is that we are ever evolving as the
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risky behaviors evolve. So have we provide educational videos, handouts,
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activity guides on marijuana, on other types of vaping, on
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hierseexual behavior on all types of illicit drugs, alcohol, and so.
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Our goal is to teach kids about these things scientifically,
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about how they affect their brain, their body, their development.
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We also include practical strategies for coping, let's say, with depression,
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and so our videos are short, informative to the point
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middle school and high school videos are about five to
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seven minutes long. But our goal is that whenever a
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kid is tempted with alcohol at a party, or with
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marijuana or whatever may come into their life, that they
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will have all already a knowledge base of if I
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do this, then this will happen, so that when they're
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faced with it, they can make educated decisions or.
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At least have a chance to do so, right, I.
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Mean, and not just do something not knowing how it
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affects it'll affect them, you know, they will have at
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least the knowledge to know what those potential consequences could be.
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Yeah, I guess that makes it an interesting point is
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that most of most young people when they choose to
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try a drug, they find out what the drug does
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by trying the drug, which is ridiculous.
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And then the consequences can already be.
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Yes, right, so how long is it going to last?
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So you should have asked yourself that question before you
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did that. Yeah, So you're essentially opening the door to
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having discussions that a lot of students can't have with
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their parents because like that's the maybe something that you
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don't want to say out loud because it sounds rude.
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But the fact is, we do have a parental crisis
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of this country.
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And part of.
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Our mission is to when a school becomes a brain
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about school, they get access to our website that is full,
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like you said, almost the university of information about these
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various topics, and that school gets a log in for faculty,
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for students, and for parents, because we want the entire
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school community to have access to the same knowledge to
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possibly facilitate the education and conversations between parents and children,
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so that the parents are seeing what their students are
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learning and that they can all be on the same page.
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You measure, you measure somehow your success.
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We do. So we have a pre and post survey that.
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We do with schools, and it's really the CDC. They
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have a High Risk Behavior survey, and so we modify
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it a little bit and it's designed to be given
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at the beginning of the school year to assess students
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well for middle school and high school, to assess their
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engagement in certain behaviors, and then at the end of
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the school yeard to see how that has shifted. For
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our elementary our assessment looks like just how much does
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does the student know about their brain, about their body,
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about managing coping skills and managing different things, And so
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we do a pre and post with them to see
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how much they know at the beginning, how much they
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know at the end, and we see their knowledge base
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increase tremendously, which has been a wonderful, wonderful feedback for us.
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And so they're learning the information, they're learning the different tools,
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they're learning how to cope because our curriculum also addresses
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various mental health challenges like depression, anxiety, that kind of thing,
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and so they're learning the vocabulary associated with these different things,
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because a lot of times kids experience stuff but they
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don't have the words for what they're experiencing and so
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we're seeing just an increase in conversations regarding mental health
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substance of vis HIGHRIS behaviors. And we're still a fairly
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young organization, so we're looking for more schools to do,
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especially at the middle school and high school level, to
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do that pre and post regarding how it's affecting student behavior.
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Yeah, I guess you're pointing out something that's pretty obvious
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if you think about two seconds, and that is that
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if you don't have the tools to talk about something,
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it's difficult to explain to anyone what you're going through.
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But on the other hand, we just call that teenager.
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That you being a teenager anyway. So the point being
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that the program is available to anyone. You don't actually
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have to be a teacher or a school. You can
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take a look at it right well.
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So we welcome everybody to our website. We plan to
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initially make it to where parents can access it directly,
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but right now are we're targeting schools in school systems,
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and so we're looking for different schools to become brain
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about school. And when that school becomes a brain about school,
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then the parents, the faculty, the students, everybody within that
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school community have access to it.
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So you're really trying to recruit teachers to get into
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the school administrators counselors. Yes, so you can go to
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brain about dot org brain about dot org to find
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out how the program works. The website includes an application
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processor you know.
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Yes it does, and within that we also provide amazing
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assemblies like our brain about schools. They'll come to us
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and say, hey, we've been having a challenge with bullying
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or alcohol and we do amazing assemblies for our schools.
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So we really and we.
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Maintained consistent communication. Our goal is to walk alongside them,
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to work with them, to partner with them, to help
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their students have the best opportunity to make good decisions
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and reach their potential.
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You are listening to Houston, PA, Houston's Public Affairs Show.
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My name is Laurent and my guest today is doctor
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Tandre Gordon. She is the senior program director for brain Abouts.
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As I said, they're online at brainabouts or orgy. There's
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a bunch of organizations that track the mental health of
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students and the number of students who report having depressive
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feelings and dealing with depression or bullying, which will engender
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depression is higher than you can imagine. I don't know
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how you can trust anyone's numbers, but when you keep
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seeing numbers that are in you know, twenty thirty, forty
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fifty percent, you know that the range is going to
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be somewhere between there. Realistically speaking, So even if we
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only count that twenty percent of the students that have
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these these problems, they're triggered by bad behavior of other students,
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that seems catastrophic to me. Because on top of that,
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there's the natural tendency for teenagers, especially teenage girls, have
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to have problems. It's difficult being a teenager, especially for girls.
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They transform very visibly, and they transform at a different
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rate than their friends. It's it becomes really thorny.
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Yeah, I feel like.
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Being a teenager is different difficult for guys.
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But I think it's more it's harder for girls.
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I think, and and you know, there's different pressures.
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I think that girls, I think, I think guys struggle too,
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and but I think girls, for sure, girls are more
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probably more likely to express it and to reach out
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for help. I think that guys often struggle, you know, internally,
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and and and those behaviors you know, they may express
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it in their behaviors as opposed to you know, in
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conversation and talking about it. And part of it is
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how the brain develops, right, and so because when you're
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in that adolescent stage, you have big emotions, and so
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you know, when you break up with that boyfriend or girlfriend,
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then it just seems like end of the world because
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you don't have the life experience or even the frontal
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lobe development to know this too show pass like things
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can get better, and so if it can be a
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really challenging stage in development being a teenager, and depression
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is a big part of what a lot of teens experiences. Unfortunately.
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I think there's a lot of pressures, and I think
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that social media and the Internet kind of adds to that.
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There's this expectation of being this certain kind of way
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and there's or living this certain kind of life. And
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I think that teenagers really feel that because I think
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as you grow, when you get life experiences, you realize, Okay,
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everybody might not really be who they perceive to be,
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you know on the internet. But I think as an adolescent,
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like you're trying to figure out who you are, and
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there's all of these different images of who you should be,
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and it can be a really difficult time.
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You know.
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In sech hology we call that stage of development identity
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versus identity confusion. And so an adolescents job is to
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figure out who they are apart from who their parents
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told them to be. And so in that process of
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discovering who they are, it can be a very confusing process,
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a very difficult process, but that's a part of growing up.
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And so our.
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Goal is to aid in that.
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Time in development, to aid in education for faculty, for parents,
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for students about that time of development, to give students
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tools to cope during that time of development, to give
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them information that as they're faced with various temptations, that
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they would be able to make educated decisions during that
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time of development.
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How do you approach teaching some of the basics of
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the kids. You briefly mentioned that you have a new
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program for pre K through second grade. So we're talking
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about tiny little kids, right, and that seems to be
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a completely different subject to me. I see how it's related.
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Obviously, in pre K through second grade, we have taken
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the character education curriculum from various states and use that
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to create our pre K through second curriculum, So the
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students in that curriculum we'll learn about honesty and responsibility,
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and so it's kind of setting this self control, it's
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kind of setting this foundation, and that's kind of the
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beginning of our program. In elementary school, we build upon that.
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We teach them about various mental health strategies for coping.
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We teach them about self control again, about self esteem,
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about managing their emotions, about being a good friend, and
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so it builds upon that. And then as the kids
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get older in middle school in high school, they learn,
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you know, about the various highrisk behaviors that they are
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going to be faced with at some point in their development,
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and so our goal is to provide education about that
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so that they can make informed decisions.
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It sounds like you're kind of taking the place. No,
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that's the wrong taking the place, and that you're you're
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adding to the parenting. But in some kids, we know
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that some of their behavioral problems are because their parents
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are just completely absent for their lives.
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Yeah, well, I wouldn't say.
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We're We're walking alongside administrators, teachers, and parents providing information
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and our and our information is research based, like we
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you know, I might be saying it in a certain way,
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but we do not.
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Say do this, do that, do this, do that.
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What we teach kids is what the research says about
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how various alcohol and drugs affect the brain and body.
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And we don't say don't do drugs. We just say, Okay,
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when you smoke marijuana, this happens, this happens, this happens,
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this happens. This is how it affects your brain. This
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is how it affects your body, This is how it
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affects your your This is what research is about how
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it affects your future. And then at the end of
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every video, it's like, so, what decision will you make?
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So we just we're not like, just say no to
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drugs or just say no.
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To this or that didn't work.
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It's not morally you know, We're providing information so that
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they can make educated decisions.
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So do you do the kids react to For instance,
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we know that if they start smoking marijuana at a
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young age, before they're in their early twenties, basically before
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the brain is completely developed, right, that marijuana is literally
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going to stunt the development of their brain. It's like
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putting the brakes on it. It can and the more.
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And if you smoke a lot of it, then your
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brain just doesn't develop in some areas and then it's
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too you know that, right, that's I think you're right.
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So that's what we do, is.
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We give them information that when you're smoking marijuana, your
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frontal lobe turns off. It's off during that time of
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being high, right, And so if you're getting high three
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to four times a week and then it stops because
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adolescence that's the time of frontal lobe development, you know,
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from twelve to twenty four and twenty five years old.
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And so if you spend your adolescence drunk or high,
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then is that part of your brain is not developing.
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And that's the part of your brain that helps you
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to be successful in adulthood, that helps you to leave
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your parents home and be able to manage a life
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on your own, problem solving, decision making. And so our
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goal is to educate kids about how these different things
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affects them so that they know that because a lot
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of people.
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Don't know that.
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And then you know, they're grown ups and they don't
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have the psychological training, the life experience to deal with
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all kinds of things, but also their ability to understand
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how things work, and not just how things work, but
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also how relationship with other people work. That's gone forever.
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It becomes really difficult to modify that kind of behavior
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if it hasn't been properly washed out.
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And research shows that ninety percent of adults that are
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addicted to some kind of a substance started using when
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they were teens. And so if we can at least
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delay that use of those substances, you're right, there's a
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higher likelihood that it won't develop into addiction.
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You're listening to Houston PA, Houston's Public Affairs show. My
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name is Laurent. My guest is doctor Tandra Gordon. She
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is a senior program director for brain Abouts. By the way,
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she is a licensed marriage and family therapist, and she
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was also a kindergarten teacher, so don't mess with her.
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The people who developed the authority to control little people
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are the most dangerous disciplinarians out there.
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So funny, it really is cool how life happens. Because
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I started my careers in the elementary school team. Yeah,
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and then I work for the Council and Recovery where
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I work with substance abuse, and then I combined education
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and therapy. In my work, I became vice president of
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school based Health and oversalid school based health Clinics and
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now get to combine all of that in the work
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that I do at brain Abouts.
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It's really cool.
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You also worked with our friends at the Legacy Health
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Clinics I did.
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Yeah, my friends.
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They used to be called the Montrose Clinic. For those
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of us who have been around since the mid nineties,
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that's how I found out about them. They used to
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provide a free and anonymous age testing back in the
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mid nineties. Such a rich history, rich history of doing
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the right thing by people to keep them safe but
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also out of trouble, because back then that kind of
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testing could be the kind of news that might destroy
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your family relationship. I think we're mostly long past that
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from most of us, but they were one of the
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great organizations that helped to move that forward by just
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doing the right thing and then facilitized and then they
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didn't try to indoctrinate eight people, just say we're making
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this available, it's the right thing to do, it's safe,
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you can get tested, and then you know, and then
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you can stop the spread. And now we live in
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a world where being diagnosed with HIV most likely will
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not lead to AIDS. And it's not a it's not
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at all. It's well, it's a great inconvenience, and it's
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an inconvenience you've got to be really watchful about. But so,
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good job, a nice career, I would say thus far.
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Yeah, when I started with the school based health program
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at Legacy, there were seven clinics and one school system,
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and I was oversaw the program. So it's growth to
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thirty three clinics about across three school system thirty and
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so I'm really proud of that work and I'm proud
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that it continues, and I'm grateful for it. And that's
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been my career, is just really being a part of
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mission minded organizations that just want to help, and so
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I'm grateful to be continuing that with Brainabouts.
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We should give out their website if you're interested in
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getting more information about the Legacy Health Clinic. They're online
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at Legacy Communityhealth dot org. Legacy Communityhealth dot org. I
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would like to mention that you're being funded by the
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John Fontaine Junior Charity, which was started by John Fontaine's
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parents after John was killed in a car accident. You
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explained to me that he was not the one driving.
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He happens to be the victim of an accident which
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was at least partially caused by a driver who was
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highly inebriated.
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Yeah, so mission minor organizations. Brainabouts comes from a family
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a tragedy. Jack Fontaine had been sober for many years, and.
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That's the dad, the dad, and.
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Then his son John, you know, was at a party.
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He didn't know drinking, was Jack and Nancy didn't know drinking.
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What's going on? But you know, John got into a
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car with a friend that had been drinking, and within
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minutes he would they got into an accident and John
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was killed immediately. And within a month of mourning the
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loss of their son, Jack and Nancy made a commitment
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and a promise to John that they would do everything
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that they could to reduce tragic phone calls, to reduce
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other families from receiving a phone call like the one
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that they received that night. And so that is where
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brainabouts was birthed, is through a commitment to provide education.
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Because you know, if you ever talk to Jack, he's like,
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if one person at that party had said, no, not
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get in that car, y'all.
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Have been drinking.
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And so that is what brain Abouts is is providing education,
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providing conversations that people may not have without an intervention
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like this.
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You're part of your programs that you're developing is a
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new Tier three program. It's an intervention program that you're
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doing an association with a professor Stanford University. This sounds
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really cool, but that sounds like a big step forward.
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In other words, your programs are developing and evolving.
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We are, I mean we are like always on the move,
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and that's one mark of our program. It's really because
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society is always on the move, and our commitment is
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to keep up with where students are and meet them
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where they are and give them what they need and.
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So and deal with the new addictions made available by
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new technology.
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Right exactly exactly whatever's coming up, we're researching it and
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creating information and education so that everybody knows about it
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and it's how it's affecting them. So, yeah, we're very
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excited about our Tier three program Brainabouts. Overall, it's focused
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on prevention, but this program is going to be focused
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on intervention with students that may had may have.
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Gotten in trouble at school.
437
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For you know, some type of high risk behavior or
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maybe struggling with some type of high risk behavior. And
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so it's based on the work of doctor Anna Link,
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who is a Stanford professor, and she uses the acronym
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dopamine as a source of an intervention. And so our
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Tier three program is focused on that and we're really
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excited about developing that this year.
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And when you mean Tier three, those are older kids.
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No, No, so Tier three. So in terms of school
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Tier one we talk about we use that term when
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we're talking about like every student in the school, you know,
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and so prevention and then Tier three and Tier two
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is kind of maybe a smaller group that you might
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have small some type of small group intervention with them.
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And then Tier three is kind of that one on
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one you know, maybe they've gotten in trouble, they're really
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struggling in some place, and so they need that one
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on one intervention with a counselor. And what we're providing
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is a tool for those counselors to use to intervene
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with those students.
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And when you're using the word intervention, what you mean
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is that a teacher or a counselor, as you mentioned,
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will reach out to the students and make themselves available
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to them, right.
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And so a lot of times when kids get in
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trouble at school, there's just a consequence, right, Okay, you know,
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you've got caught vaping in the restroom, so now you're
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suspended or this or that.
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What we want to.
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Provide is a source of change, a source where they
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can learn and grow from an experience and not just
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be punished, but learn and possibly make different choices next time.
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And so we want to meet kids where they are
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and provide a place that allows them to make better choices.
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So an open door policy for all.
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Basically everybody has potential, and we want to help as
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many kids that are willing to meet that potential.
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I think that it's extremely useful to have something like
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bring Abouts in the school system because you can have
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an open door policy, as I mentioned, But very often
477
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the teenagers or the young kids that most need help
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won't come through that door. They're not going to do
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it voluntarily. Yeah, and it's maybe part because they don't
480
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understand what that means. You don't know what's in their head,
481
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and it's not hard to imagine that they will be
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fearful of getting in trouble if they talk to anyone
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about these problems. Yeah, So you're essentially sort of in
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a blanketed kind of way, you're saying, hey, you know what,
485
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if you're dealing with this, yes, that's not you don't
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get in trouble for that.
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Yeah.
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And if you never heard that before, it can be
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an epiphany.
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Yes, And so like a brain about So our program
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00:27:43.359 --> 00:27:46.200
is designed so like we have videos on each one
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of our topics, and so that video might be five
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to seven minutes. Along with that is an activity guide
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that fosters communication and discussion. And this is on the
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prevention side with it between teacher and students, and and
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then activities where the student might have like a journaling
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activity or something to further think about or process or
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internalize what they've learned from the video. And at the
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00:28:10.720 --> 00:28:13.799
end of every video is like, you know, this is
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what it is, and if you're struggling with this, this
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is what you can do.
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00:28:17.880 --> 00:28:20.319
And so it creates.
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Education, you know, Like we talked about earlier, kids often
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go through things, but they don't have the words to
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00:28:26.519 --> 00:28:30.079
articulate what they're going through, and then they don't know
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00:28:30.119 --> 00:28:32.200
what to do to help themselves with what they're going
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00:28:32.240 --> 00:28:35.599
through and so our goal is that all of these topics,
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00:28:35.640 --> 00:28:38.680
introducing these things to them will give them words for
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00:28:38.720 --> 00:28:43.000
what they're experiencing and an avenue to be able to
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reach out for help. And we are a mission minded organization.
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00:28:46.920 --> 00:28:50.480
We're powered by the John Fontaine Junior Charity, and the
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00:28:50.640 --> 00:28:54.799
charity is very much focused on cost not being a
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00:28:54.839 --> 00:28:58.119
barrier to our program getting in schools and so.
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00:28:58.519 --> 00:29:02.319
Well, I mean all your videos are free click whatever.
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00:29:02.720 --> 00:29:06.880
Yeah, wherever you are, as far as you know a school,
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00:29:06.920 --> 00:29:09.279
whether your school has a big budget or small budget,
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00:29:09.319 --> 00:29:10.440
brain abouts istory you.
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00:29:10.680 --> 00:29:12.839
It's awesome. It it sort of comes as a package
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00:29:12.880 --> 00:29:15.119
that works. All you have to do is turn it on,
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00:29:15.279 --> 00:29:18.480
so to speak. So just go to brainabouts dot org.
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00:29:18.839 --> 00:29:22.480
Brainabouts dot org. That's how you can find out how
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00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:24.920
the program works because you'll see and you'll get an
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00:29:24.960 --> 00:29:27.079
idea of how it works by watching it work. And
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00:29:27.359 --> 00:29:29.799
you can get in contact with them and start the
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00:29:29.839 --> 00:29:33.160
process of having them in your school or make sure
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00:29:33.160 --> 00:29:35.480
that your your your students can have access to it.
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00:29:35.759 --> 00:29:38.640
And as usual, if you have any questions related to Houston, PA,
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00:29:38.839 --> 00:29:42.400
you can just send me an email Texan from France
529
00:29:42.559 --> 00:29:45.519
at gmail dot com and you'll get an answer, and
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00:29:45.559 --> 00:29:47.599
I want to thank you for caring about the issues
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00:29:47.640 --> 00:29:49.720
I put on this show. I'll be here at the
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00:29:49.720 --> 00:29:52.839
same time next week, and I thank you for listening. Folks.
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00:29:52.880 --> 00:29:55.319
My name is Laurent I am the Texan from France
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00:29:55.599 --> 00:29:59.200
and this has been Houston PA, Houston's public affairs show,
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00:29:59.559 --> 00:30:00.480
Houston Strong