California MAP* to Inclusion and Belonging… *Making Access Possible March 2022 Newsletter
Supporting Mental Health with Resources for Social and Emotional Well-Being, Self-Care, Trauma, Grief and Positive Behavior
In the fall of 2021 the pediatricians, child and adolescent psychiatrists and children's hospitals launched Sound the Alarm for Kids urging Congress to enact legislation and increase funding to address a national mental health emergency in children and teens.
According to the Children’s Hospital Association’s press release , “We are facing a significant national mental health crisis in our children and teens which requires urgent action. In the first six months of this year, children’s hospitals across the country reported a shocking 45 percent increase in the number of self-injury and suicide cases in 5- to 17-year-olds compared to the same period in 2019. Together with the AAP and the AACAP we are sounding the alarm on this mental health emergency.”
“Additionally, many young people have been impacted by loss of a loved one. Recent data show that more than 140,000 U.S. children have experienced the death of a primary or secondary caregiver during the COVID-19 pandemic, with children of color disproportionately impacted.”
To address this crisis the state of California and the US Department of Education have released curriculum and resources to support the social and emotional well being of children, families and educators. The California MAP to Inclusion & Belonging… Making Access Possible has gathered these and other important resources to address mental health needs of the early care and education community. New resources in these areas have been added to the MAP website and are described here in the latest edition of the MAP Newsletter to give you a wealth of ideas for how you can improve the mental health of children, families, coworkers and yourself!
In this issue:
- State and Federal Resources Supporting Mental Health and Well-Being
- Taking Care of Your Staff and Yourself
- Supporting Children and Families During Times of Grief and Trauma
- Harmful Bias Toward Disability Before and During COVID-19
- Tools for Supporting Social and Emotional Learning
- Tools to Teach Social Skills and Promote Positive Behavior
1. State and Federal Resources Supporting Mental Health and Well-Being
The US Department of Education, the State of California and the California Department of Education are meeting the challenge of addressing the crisis in children’s mental health with publications, training modules and videos that examine the issues demonstrated in various age groups and present recommendations and resources for not only children, but families and educators as well. See the publication, Supporting Child and Student Social, Emotional, Behavioral and Mental Health issued by the US Department of Education; The California Healthy Kids, Thriving Minds Project developed by the State of California and the Child Mind Institute and Redirecting Grief to Growth: A Trusted Space, Video and Curriculum to Address Grief, Trauma and Anxiety During COVID-19 developed for the California Department of Education by the Public Broadcasting Station. Find these resources below.
U.S. Department of Education Releases New Resource on Supporting Child and Student Social, Emotional, Behavioral and Mental Health during COVID-19 Era
October 19, 2021U.S. Department of Education released a new resource: Supporting Child and Student Social, Emotional, Behavioral and Mental Health (PDF) to provide information and resources to enhance the promotion of mental health and the social and emotional well-being among children and students. This resource highlights seven key challenges to providing school- or program-based mental health support across early childhood, K–12 schools, and higher education settings, and presents seven corresponding recommendations. This resource includes many real-world examples (PDF) of how the recommendations are being put into action by schools, communities, and states across the country.
The California Healthy Minds, Thriving Kids Project
February 2022“A series of free, evidence-based video and print resources that caregivers and educators can use to teach their kids critical mental health and coping skills. The project was born of an innovative partnership between the state of California and the Child Mind Institute.”
“Why was this project developed? Fully 20% of our kids have a mental health or learning disorder. Covid has put every child in the State of California and the nation under unprecedented stress: Personal trauma, economic and learning loss, and continuing uncertainty. They’ve never needed foundational mental health skills more than they do right now.”
Videos are produced in English and Spanish for students, parents and educators. They teach clinically proven foundational mental health skills with different videos for elementary, middle and high school students. The elementary-age videos feature hedgehog characters in imaginative stories to teach key skills in a way that kids will enjoy watching and remember longer. Each video comes with Skill Sheets that summarize and reinforce key ideas.
Kids help to narrate and create the story, while mental health experts guide the problem-solving and discussion. The videos are well-produced and very engaging.
You might start by watching the Introduction for Parents . This 14 minute video explains the need for this important project and touches on stories from real families that will ring true in some way for all of us during the pandemic.
Redirecting Grief to Growth: A Trusted Space, Video and Curriculum to Address Grief, Trauma and Anxiety During COVID-19 (Video)
PBS | Length: 43 minsAs the nation navigates the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this film and curriculum offers tools to mitigate the effects of grief, trauma, anxiety, and other emotional stressors affecting both students and teachers. The 43-minute film features teachers, parents, students, and renowned experts including Linda Darling-Hammond and Pedro Noguera, among others. The accompanying research-based SEL curriculum provides a practical, empathetic, and scientific understanding of how trauma impacts behavior and learning, and how to manage it within any classroom setting. The curriculum shares specifically how to develop 5 core social emotional 'muscles' to help teachers improve their mental health while also creating trust with youth, to mitigate the effects of stress and open young minds to learning.
2. Taking Care of Your Staff and Yourself
Throughout the pandemic we’ve been told to take care of ourselves. We know that in order to care for anyone else we must first ensure that our own health and well-being are taken care of. Reach Out Schools of Australia offers a template for a self-care plan that might make it easier to follow-through on our good intentions.
Education leaders can support school personnel and in turn students and families by creating grief responsive teaching environments. Learn more in the article by Harvard’s Usable Knowledge, Fighting the "Hidden Pandemic": Five ways school leaders can create grief-responsive teaching environments. Read more about self-care and the hidden pandemic below.
Taking Care of Yourself: Developing a Self-Care Plan
Reach Out Schools , a website supporting the mental health of teachers and schools in Australia, developed a template for a self-care plan that can help you enhance your health and wellbeing, manage your stress, and maintain professionalism as a worker with young people. Learn to identify activities and practices that support your wellbeing as a professional and help you to sustain positive self-care in the long-term. This article will help you to understand self-care, develop your self-care plan and put your self-care plan into action. It includes a template for you to download and create your own self-care plan.
Fighting the "Hidden Pandemic": Five ways school leaders can create grief-responsive teaching environments
Useable Knowledge | February 11, 2022“In October 2021, the Centers for Disease Control named a "hidden pandemic " — that of COVID orphans, or young people who have lost one or both primary caretakers to the new coronavirus. In the United States alone, more than 140,000 children had lost a parent or guardian at the time of the study, and that number has continued to ascend in the wake of the Omicron variant.
Grief is a natural response to many types of losses, even those that do not relate to the death of a person — for example, divorce, a change in housing or socioeconomic status, or a loved one’s illness. And it transcends emotion, impacting our brain, body, and behavior, no matter our age. For that reason, it is critical to understand how best to support grieving students’ needs in the classroom, and in turn, for school leaders to apply their own knowledge of grief-responsive practices to leadership, not only supporting teachers’ wellbeing as they work with grieving students but recognizing that many teachers are grappling with grief themselves — at and beyond the workplace.”
This article describes five strategies that help to create wraparound systems of support for teachers, creating a reciprocal sense of wellbeing between students, teachers, and school leaders that centers social-emotional wellness in times of loss.
3. Supporting Children and Families During Times of Grief and Trauma
What do you say to child who has lost a loved one or a teacher? How do you help very young children cope with trauma and grief? Guidance from the Fred Rogers Center and Zero to Three may help. Find these resources and more in the resources below.
When Someone Your Child Loves Dies, A Guide from the Fred Rogers Center (PDF)
2019This guidance from Fred Rogers provides tips on how to talk to your child about death, alerts you to common reactions that you may see while your child grieves and gives strategies for how to support your child.
Also helpful is When Difficult Things Happen (PDF) , A guide from the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media for supporting children through hard moments in life.
Another article specifically addresses the loss or death of a teacher, When Children Lose a Teacher (Karen Nemeth | January 2022).
Zero to Three: Trauma and Stress
Strong, caring and loving relationships can shield children from the impact of negative experiences, and they can be mutually healing.
Children are deeply impacted by the events that take place around them. Even though they may not understand what they see and hear, they absorb and are affected by the people they rely on for love and security. Constant, unrelenting negative experiences – known as “toxic stress” – take a toll on a child’s growth and development. Parents and caregivers play a very important role in helping infants and toddlers heal from traumatic experiences.
This set of resources provide recommendations and strategies to help caregivers support young children during times of trauma. Included in this set of resources are, Mindfulness Practices for Families, Helping Your Toddler Cope with Grief and Death, and Supporting Young Children Experiencing Separation and Trauma.
4. Harmful Bias Toward Disability Before and During COVID-19
Even though the practices of seclusion and restraint are limited by law they are still used on children with disabilities and challenging behavior and cause lasting negative impact on mental health. Read the article, Trauma Lingers for Those Who Have Experience Seclusion and Restraint, to learn more.
The pandemic has brought forward the heightened health risks for people with disabilities. Emily Ladau, author of Demystifying Disability has gathered news stories about people with disabilities who have experienced inequities that have impacted their health and mental health. Read the article, We Cannot Afford to Ignore Disabled Voices, below.
Trauma Lingers for Those Who Have Experienced Seclusion and Restraint
Disability Scoop | January 25, 2022Seclusion and restraint can hurt children, said Ross Greene, a clinical child psychologist who taught at Harvard Medical School for more than 20 years and wrote four books on behavioral challenges in kids.
The practices are especially harmful because they happen at the hands of adults whom children have been taught to trust. Some students will lose trust in authority figures altogether, Greene said, or lose their desire to attend school. Others experience residual anguish long after the ordeal ends.
“The kids I’ve worked with who were most affected by it are still affected by it, even though no one’s laid hands on them three or four years later,” said Greene, who now runs a nonprofit called Lives in the Balance and travels to schools, psychiatry units and detention facilities around the world to promote alternative disciplinary approaches. “A lot of people would say that meets the diagnostic criteria for post traumatic stress disorder.”
We Cannot Afford to Ignore Disabled Voices:’ Changing the Way We Talk About Covid
Disability rights activist Emily Ladau, author of Demystifying Disability , an NPR and Booklist editors’ pick for 2021, argues that ableist language holds us back from not only having more productive conversations about Covid, but developing more effective policies to confront the pandemic.
Read on for her curated list of some of the most crucial journalism on how tangibly these oversights affect people whose lives have already been disproportionately upended by Covid, as well as tips for improving your understanding of ableism and the huge and diverse disability community.
5. Tools for Supporting Social and Emotional Learning
Understanding and managing big feelings and creating environments that facilitate friendships and social play support social and emotional development. When parents and caregivers know how to handle tantrums and when educators and parents have unconditional positive regard for their students and children everyone benefits! See the Sesame Street Big Feelings video playlist and articles that address supporting social and emotional learning in the full newsletter.
Big Feelings Play List (Videos)
Sesame Street in Communities | February 2020Playlist from Sesame Street includes 5 videos with Sesame Street characters talking about Exploring Big Feelings, Naming Feelings, Feelings Have Names, Hugging It Out, Singing It Out.
11 Ways to Encourage Friendship Skills and Social Play
September 4, 2018Friendship and social play skills are key capabilities for young kids to develop in the early years of school—they form the foundation of long-term success in school and in the community. In your inclusive classroom, you’ll probably have students who need some extra support to develop and strengthen these skills. Today’s post gives you some tips and activity ideas you can use to promote friendships and encourage social play among children with and without disabilities.
How to Handle Tantrums and Meltdowns
Child Mind Institute“The first thing we have to do to manage tantrums is to understand them . That is not always as easy as it sounds, since tantrums and meltdowns are generated by a lot of different things: fear, frustration, anger, sensory overload, to name a few. And since a tantrum isn’t a very clear way to communicate (even though it may be a powerful way to get attention), parents are often in the dark about what’s driving the behavior.” This article will help you assess the tantrum, change your behavior in response to the tantrum and model calm.
How Unconditional Positive Regard Can Help Make Students Feel Cared For
Mind/ShiftAs a teacher, I know how important it is to create clear expectations for my students and hold them to high standards. This also applies to me as I seek to build relationships with my students. The high standards I hold myself to in building teacher-student relationships come from my guiding philosophy: unconditional positive regard. This approach helps ground my equity-centered and trauma-informed work.
6. Tools to Teach Social Skills and Promote Positive Behavior
The California Teaching Pyramid and the National Center for Teaching Pyramid Innovations both support the social and emotional development of children and prevention of challenging behavior with training, resources and visual supports. The Discovery Source has teamed with the California Teaching Pyramid to produce and distribute some of the most popular tools and visual supports created by the California Teaching Pyramid. The National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations has updated their Visual Support for Routines, Schedules and Transitions. Find out more and get access to the resources in the articles below.
California Teaching Pyramid Materials Published by Discovery Source
The California Teaching Pyramid has partnered with The Discovery Source to publish and distribute the recommended resources so teachers can begin to teach Social-Emotional Development skills immediately, more effectively, and with high fidelity implementation of the California Teaching Pyramid.
California Teaching Pyramid Classroom Kit – Includes all the Individual Kits:
- Tucker the Turtle Kit
- Problem Solver Solution Kit
- Super Friends Kit
- Classroom Visual Display Kit
- Emotional Literacy Kit
National Center on Pyramid Model Innovations (NCPMI): Updated Tools
Visual Supports for Routines, Schedules, and Transitions (PDF)
“Visual supports can help children learn new skills and prevent challenging behavior. Visuals help young children learn and follow routines by helping them understand what is happening “now” and what is going to happen “next.” Visuals serve as reminders for verbal directions and help children know exactly what is expected of them.”
Transition Visual Cards (PDF)
“Transitions occur when children move from one activity to another. For some young children, moving from one activity to another (e.g., bus to classroom, centers to circle time, art time to lunch) results in confusion, frustration, and/ or challenging behaviors. Planning for transitions includes developing routines and teaching children what to expect during the transition. Transition routines help to prepare children for transitions, engages them in the change that is taking place, and helps them to move smoothly to the next activity. When children are able to participate in or lead the transition, they are excited and eager to move to a new activity. The more children can predict and participate in the schedule and activities of the day, the less likely it is that challenging behavior will occur and the more likely it is they will engage in transitions.”
Solution Kit Home Edition (PDF)
A set of visuals that can be used for children to solve their own conflicts with others.
The Resource Library
The Resource Library many more helpful visuals. Search on “Practical Strategies, Visual Supports, Families and English (or whatever language you need) for more free downloadable visual supports for various needs.
Visual Supports on MAP
More visuals and supports for positive behavior can also be found at on the Visual Supports page of the MAP to Inclusion and Belonging website.
Direct questions or comments about this newsletter to map@wested.org