MICHAEL R. VALENTINE, Ph.D.
r. Valentine received his Doctorate from U.C.L.A. in Education
with a specialization in Clinical Psychology and Psychopathology.
He received his Masters degrees in Sociology and Counseling Psychology
and his Bachelor degree in Sociology and Psychology from California
State University at Long Beach.
Mike has served in a variety of positions as teacher, counselor, administrator and school psychologist at the elementary, junior high, continuation high school, high school and university levels. He has been in private practice. At the University level he was the Coordinator of the Adult Learning Disability Program and a Lecturer/Assistant Professor for the Educational Psychology Department at California State University at Long Beach.
Mike is a tested and experienced workshop leader. His presentations are fast moving, energetic, humorous, easy to follow, and have a lot of practical examples. He is the author of How to Deal with Discipline Problems in the Schools: A Practical Guide for Educators and How to Deal with Difficult Discipline Problems: A Family-Systems Approach. He is currently a national and international consultant on school discipline issues.
He has helped turn around many out of control inner-city schools. One of these schools went from being one of the worst schools in New York to a nationally recognized Blue Ribbon School Of Excellence. His methods have a history of success.
A SHORT PHILOSOPHICAL OVERVIEW OF THE APPROACH
ost teachers and parents want quick fix, magical-thinking cures
for children's and student's inappropriate behavior. They read
all kinds of books hoping that if they use the "right technique"
the student will stop his or her inappropriate behavior and start
doing what the parents or teachers wish. They use marbles in a
jar, time-out, counting to 10, punishing techniques, logical and
natural consequences, positive and negative reinforcements to
try to successively approximate the goal behaviors, and various
other methods in the hope that the student will become "self-motivated"
and will "choose" to act appropriate on his or her own.
My approach does not believe in magic, names on the board, and/or stars or trinkets to get children to behave. Instead, the approach believes in the inherent power and influence that parents and teachers already have. It relies on the strengths and capabilities of adults and children rather than weaknesses, assumed disabilities, or incapabilities. It is a simple truth that adults who believe in children; who have high expectations for them, both academically and behaviorally within a context of love, respect and encouragement; and who get involved and set in motion the external factors necessary to insure that the child will be successful, usually are successful in achieving that goal or stated purpose. (i.e. Marva Collins, Jamie Escalonte, Ann Sullivan)
The problem is not in creating "new methods, approaches, techniques or gimmicks;" it is getting teachers and parents to believe in themselves and children; it is getting adults to clearly make up their mind which behaviors they will tolerate and which behaviors they will not tolerate; and then getting them to take a stand to stop inappropriate behavior.
It is easy to say these things and get people to understand the concept, the hard part is getting someone to "do" something in concrete terms to make sure it happens. My approach is designed to give teachers and parents some of the concrete skills and structure they initially need to build their confidence so they can get their children and students to do what they want.
This effective and easily applied approach is based on clear, direct, concrete communications, rather than behavior modification or any psychodynamically oriented approach. It looks at what teachers and parents actually say and do in the heat of battle to try to get children to behave.
The actual words adults use in these adult-child interactions
are a reflection of either the adult's beliefs about the child
and/or their own beliefs about themselves. Therefore, the major
intervention strategies of this model focus on developing teacher
and parental skills so they can: 1) analyze teacher and parental
belief systems that have become excuses for allowing the child
to continue to misbehave and which prevents adults from taking
a stand to stop the inappropriate behavior; 2) analyze actual
teacher and parent communication patterns that are either effective
or ineffective in stopping inappropriate behavior; and 3) develop
simple but very effective non-punishing back-up techniques to
stop most inappropriate behavior immediately and to help ensure
student success. This approach is a comprehensive program with
interventions for teachers, schools, families and commuinties
whose children are experiencing difficulties.
MICHAEL R. VALENTINE, Ph.D. 23565 Via Paloma |
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