Let's Talk: Youth Psychology Podcast: Recent Episodes
SISP
As a part of McGill University's Summer Institute for School Psychology, we aim to provide professionals and the psychology community with evidence-based information on social and emotional development, health, mental health, school functioning, and education. As part of this mission, we are extending our mandate to include the production of a podcast series, which aims to share knowledge on topics related to child, adolescent, and young adult development. Our intended audience is school psychologists, educators, parents, and anyone else working with children and adolescents.
Welcome back to the first episode of Let's Talk: Youth Psychology of this 2024-2025 academic year. This episode was recorded earlier in 2024. Sam Abemayor guides this conversation with Dr. Juan Del Toro whose research focuses on how perpetrators of ethnic-racial discrimination and ethnic-racial socialization shape children’s life course trajectories to inform setting-specific policies and interventions working to improve the well-being of all youth. In this conversation, Sam and Dr. Del Toro explore spillover effects of behaviors deemed defiant by institutions, through experiences with police, discrimination from educators, and absenteeism.
Dr. Rachel Langevin is an Assistant Professor and William Dawson Scholar in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology at McGill University. Dr. Langevin is the principal investigator at the ReACT (Resilience, Adversity and Childhood Trauma) lab at McGill. Dr. Langevin’s work focuses on family dynamics and the mechanisms of the intergenerational continuity of trauma. In this episode, Community Engagement volunteer, Kennedy Ryan, discusses Dr. Langevin's research on her approach to studying childhood maltreatment and resilience cross-culturally. They discuss the differences and similarities in the incidence of and sociocultural acceptance of childhood maltreatment.
For more information visit the ReACT lab’s website, https://www.mcgill.ca/edu-ecp/rachel-langevin
Dr. Evelyna Kambanis is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program (EDCRP) at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. This episode, guided by Chair of Community Engagement, Jamie Kreidstein, focuses on Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). Dr. Kambanis shares insights from her research and clinical experience on the diagnostic criteria for ARFID, the boundaries between typicality and atypicality surrounding feeding and eating throughout development, and the treatment and recovery process for ARFID.
To learn more about Dr. Kambanis' work at the Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program (EDCRP) at Massachusetts General Hospital, visit: https://www.massgeneral.org/psychiatry/treatments-and-services/eating-disorders-clinical-and-research-program
Dr. Adam Dubé is the head of the Technology, Learning and Cognition (TLC) Lab at McGill University and the Director of the EdTech Office for the Faculty of Education. His research focuses on the intersections of child development and cognition with technology in education and learning. In this episode, guided by Community Engagement Volunteer, Kennedy Ryan, Dr. Dubé discusses how technology can augment learning and impact students' attitudes toward and engagement with learning, teachers' role in game-based learning, education-first approaches to integrating technology, and more.
For more information on Dr. Dubé's research, see the following: https://www.mcgill.ca/tlc/
Resources mentioned by Dr. Dubé:
Curriculum guides for lesson plans: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/assassins-creed/discovery-tour/curriculum-guide/curriculum-guide?isSso=true&refreshStatus=noLoginData
The Secrets of Gamification: https://engaged-learning.com/play-to-learn-the-secrets-of-gamification/
Unlocking the Power of Emotions in Educational Games: https://engaged-learning.com/unlocking-power-emotions-educational-games/
Dr. Adam Kayfitz is a clinical psychologist who specializes in Emotion-Focused Family Therapy (EFFT). Dr. Kayfitz received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Windsor in 2011, and since then has worked in the education system, private practice and a child mental health care and addictions center. As a certified Advanced Therapist in EFFT, Dr. Kayfitz has been practicing in Nova Scotia for 13 years. Guided by Community Engagement Chair and co-host Jamie Kreidstein, Dr. Kayfitz discusses the origins of EFFT, the learned process of emotional expression and regulation by breaking down emotions through a psychological and sociocultural lens, and the role of emotions during and surrounding conflict between parents and their children.
Our guest today is Professor Bonnie Harnden. Bonnie is a drama therapist, psychoanalyst, couples and family therapist, and Associate Professor in the Creative Arts Therapies Department at Concordia University, where she is the Option Coordinator for the Drama Therapy Program. So today, we will be learning about play and art therapy, who it is most useful for and why it’s effective.
Our guests today are Samantha Burns and Ryan Luo, who are PhD candidates at OISE, the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education. They are supervised at the FutureSkills research lab by Dr. Michal Perlman, who is an expert on early childhood education and a professor at the OISE in the Applied Psychology and Human Development program. The FutureSkills lab in Toronto is dedicated to examining how children develop skills, and the reasons why many fall behind, in order to identify effective, efficient ways to support them. So today, Samantha and Ryan will be sharing their expertise on early childhood education and care.
Dr. Shannon Scratch is a clinician-scientist at the Bloorview Research Institute and practicing neuropsychologist at Holland-Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto, Ontario. Her program of research as director of the Neurorehab Outcomes via Education and Learning lab focuses on developing and testing interventions for youth experiencing prolonged symptoms post- acquired brain injury and their families. Dr. Scratch joins the podcast to speak about Acquired Brain Injury (ABI), the importance of studying ABI, as well as the impact it can have on children.
Our guest today is Dr. Richard Koestner. he is a professor of Psychology at McGill University and the director of the Human Motivation Lab at McGill. Dr. Koestner has conducted research on human motivation for 25 years and published over 125 articles on this topic. In today’s conversation, Dr. Koestner will share his insights on goal setting and motivation, with a focus on new year’s resolutions.
This episode of Let's Talk: Youth Psychology is sponsored by the Autism Alliance of Canada (https://www.autismalliance.ca/) and Western Psychological Services (https://www.wpspublish.com/).
Our guest today is Andrea Warnick, she is a thanatologist, nurse, educator, and registered psychotherapist who works with children in a variety of ways to teach and counsel them through the fact that grief and loss are a part of life. In today’s conversation, we talk about the difficulties of coping with grief and death, especially for young children
Dr. Evelyn Stewart is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at University of British Columbia and is the founding director of the Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Clinic and Research Program at the BC Children and Women’s Health Centre. She is a clinical, genetic and neuroscience researcher, as well as a child and adolescent psychiatrist.
Dr. Stewart joined the podcast to share her expertise in Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Topics discussed include: OCD in the family and school context, diagnosis and treatment process, research in this field, and much more!
Nicholas Chadi is a pediatrician specialized in adolescent and addiction medicine. He is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Montreal and a pediatrician and clinician-scientist at Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center in Montreal. At Sainte-Justine, Dr. Chadi is also the co-founder and co-director of the multidisciplinary gender diversity clinic as well as the medical director of the adolescent substance use clinic.
Dr. Nicholas Chadi joins the Let's Talk: Youth Psychology Podcast to discuss substance use in adolescents, approaching the topic as a parent, and much more!