 Alright, hello everyone. My name is Sonia Sokob and I am a License Mental Health Practitioner here at ESU 8 and I have been asked to present to you on Early Childhood Mental Health. This is a topic that I am very passionate about and at the end of the presentation I will make sure that you all have copies of the presentation as well as the resources that I discussed throughout the presentation. You will also have my contact information at the very end so should you have questions or want to reach out please feel free to contact me. Alright, let's get started. So throughout the presentation I would like to cover what is mental health in young children as this looks a little bit different in children than it does in adults. We will talk about the prevalence of mental health in young children and then we will also discuss strategies to support social and emotional development in children as this is really something that we want to be looking at and considering when we are talking about supporting mental health in young children. So originally this presentation was designed to be done at preschool workshop day and I wanted to know what you wanted to know that day but I still want to know so if you have questions about something or you have ideas about something that aren't addressed in my presentation today please feel free to reach out to me as I love getting feedback and hearing from you all. So why am I the person to talk to you about this? Well for starters I have six years of clinical experience working with children and families. I started my internship working with children and families and to this day I still feel like it is the best fit for me and I enjoy it tremendously. I did spend a year working with adults with alcohol and addiction issues and this was really helpful in helping me identify and learn more about family systems and also learn more about this idea that when things don't go well early on they tend to not go well later on and we'll talk more about that later. I also have six years of early childhood consultative work experience so I've done early childhood mental health consultation with NANCAP. I've done it with the Nebraska Department of Bed. Oftentimes it would happen in my work as a clinical therapist and then also I feel like currently this is something that I can offer to all of the schools that we support in ESU8. I'm also a pyramid model trainer and coach so if you're not familiar with a pyramid model it is a high fidelity model to support social and emotional learning for classrooms in preschool. So this is something that I feel very strongly about and a lot of my resources that I talk about today come from the pyramid model. Additionally I am a circle of security parent facilitator. This is a I guess you can call it a training but really it's a reflection model that is supportive of parents and caregivers to help take a deeper look at how to meet the needs of children. I am trained in providing EMDR. It's a type of therapy that is specific to supporting individuals who have experienced trauma and I find this to be particularly helpful in my work with children as this has given me a better lens to be able to understand how kids process and interpret trauma as this could be a big factor when we're talking about mental health. And finally I have experience in play therapy which I believe it's very important that when children are presented with challenges we're offering them a modality to be able to communicate with us in a way that makes most sense to them and children are meant to play and so it makes most sense that if we're trying to support children through something they have an opportunity to use tools that they are familiar with. So within this time I now know for certain that when things go well in those early years things tend to go well later on and when things don't go well early they tend not to go well later on if intervention is not offered which is why I firmly believe that early intervention is so vitally important. Okay so what is early childhood mental health? This definition is provided by the Center on the Developing Child from Harvard and I like this definition because not only does it discuss the developing brain as a foundation for mental health but also includes this idea that environment and relationships and experiences shape mental health. It also speaks to this idea that these early experiences if they tend not to go well could create problems later on. So this is a video also offered by Harvard that talks about early childhood mental health that I'd like to watch with you all and we'll have a discussion afterwards about some concepts identified in the video. What do we want for our children? What's our goal? Our goal is to have productive citizens that are going to be part of thriving communities. How do we get from here to there? As we grow up and as we move into becoming functioning members of society a mental health is an important part of how we perform our responsibilities as adults. Mental health can't be separated out from cognitive development and language development and social competence and they all have their roots early on in either a very sturdy or a weak foundation. We certainly know that infants and very young children can exhibit behaviors, emotional behaviors, motor behaviors which are predictive in certain cases of subsequent mental illness. What are the early signs of mental health problems? I think that when people look at children and think about mental health problems that they have in mind often is the kinds of mental health problems that we see in adults. They're looking to see the equivalent of a depressed adult in a child or the equivalent of a schizophrenic adult in a child and I think that because of the nature of development that when children have mental health problems they just look different. Some of the early signs of greater risk for mental health problems are usually not called mental health problems by people. They're usually called things like behavior problems or a child who has difficulty controlling his emotions. Some of these may be early signs of what might be a mental health problem later and some of which may be just differences among perfectly healthy children. So what does good mental health look like in a child? Good mental health looks like a child who's curious and interested in the world and wants to learn and can sit and reflect at times about what's going on. It's the ability to experience love, affection, emotions, get upset when things are upsetting and bring yourself back into levelness without needing intense intervention. How do mental health impairments develop in early childhood? 21st century science at the molecular level is very clear that all aspects of brain function are the result of an interaction between genetics and experience. Mental illness as most people think about it is a very heavy genetic component. Mental health, behavior, personality also has a genetic component but it's much more malleable in the face of environmental influences. Genes and experiences as far as nature is concerned are just different ways of setting up operating systems, brain systems, neurons. What happens when a child experiences what we call toxic stress, severe experiences that can be damaging to its developing architecture. Those toxic experiences essentially create this unstable environment, this unstable foundation. If sound mental health provides a foundation of stability for a child's development, mental health problems can be thought of like a wobbly table. With a child or a table there may be many reasons for instability. Identifying which factor is causing instability is the first step towards solving the problem. So how do we restore stability to a child's mental health? We can detect the early signs of instability. Recognizing what these signs are provides a child with the opportunity and to be placed with health care professionals who are trained to develop a more balanced set of skills on the emotional control side. The prescription is to provide support for parents and in that environment in order to reduce conflict and that in turn will lead to a reduction in dysregulated behavior in the infant and young child. Most potential mental health problems will not become mental health problems if we respond to them early. Providing the right kinds of supports and intervention early on will reduce the extent to which this will be a potentially more serious problem later. All right, so two factors that were really highlighted in the video. We're talking about genetics. What are you hardwired biologically for and experience? What has happened in your life? What have you come in contact with? And I find this to be a very important thing to reflect on when we do have these little people that we are engaging and interacting with and we most commonly see the behavior. We aren't able to see the genetic components and also experience that they have outside of the school. So keep in mind that these two factors both have an equal play in when we start talking about serious mental health conditions in children. Another thing that was discussed in the video that I want to highlight is that with early intervention, oftentimes mental health issues that could be present can also be treated very effectively. They mentioned how children are oftentimes very malleable, meaning that if the genetics are there, again we cannot change those, but if the child has an experience that we can in a sense help make sense of or organize for that child, the brain is very malleable and can recover and repair from whatever that experience might have been that was negative or resulted in mental health issues. So this also from Goodall WebMD suggests that a combination of factors including heredity, biology, psychological trauma and environmental stress may be involved. So again, we must consider all of these factors when considering a child is struggling. How do we go about supporting them? And a very big factor that we have to take a look at is oftentimes children get support through relationship. Relationship for children who are very young is really the medicine oftentimes that children will need to help repair or help prevent these mental health conditions from worsening. So early childhood mental health is also the optimal growth and social-emotional behavioral and cognitive development of the young child in the context of unfolding relationship between parent and child. We have to remember that as the brain is growing and adapting and learning, the people who are most responsible for that growing brain are oftentimes a child's parents or caregivers. And the relationship is what supports the unfolding and growth of brain development. So this definition comes from a report from the early childhood mental health in Nebraska that was in 2002. And I like this idea because again, we go back to the vulnerability that children are often in requires a sense of responsible relationship with a caring, loving and supportive caregiver. So it's not just pathology. When we're talking about childhood mental health, early childhood mental health, it's not pathology. We're not taking a look at giving these children a diagnosis right away. It is what are the factors, what are the key players, and what experience is this child having that could be could be leading to some of these issues to be present. So in all of these definitions, we look at social and emotional development. It's really the developmental process of children being able to experience, regulate and express their emotions. I can have a feeling, actually feel it, know what to do with it, and let others know about it. I can also form close, secure relationships with others. The keyword being secure, meaning safe, predictable, okay. The ability to explore the environment and learn, being aware, having a felt sense of comfort, and knowing more about my environment, and know that this can include family, community, and cultural expectations. We must not forget that cultural expectations are a huge part of children growing up and their experiences. Again, going back to genetics and experience both being key factors in early childhood mental health. So here I have listed some of the most common mental health conditions that are actually diagnosed in children. And again, a diagnosis must come from a doctor, a psychiatrist, a licensed mental health clinician. It's not something that is given by a parent or a relative, or because one person just has an idea, then we can start calling it that. Anxiety and depression in ADHD are the most common diagnosis that I see in children that I work with. But I would like to also recognize that ADHD oftentimes looks a lot like children who have experienced trauma. Their focus, their attention, their ability to regulate their emotions is really is really made difficult due to their traumatic experience. So for some children that present with symptoms that look like ADHD, it could in fact actually be trauma related. I also put on here the bottom attachment. So again, thinking back, early childhood mental health is also the child growing in the sense of relationship between a parent and child. So a child must know that the support is there, the love is there, that the needs can be met. And with that we have a secure attachment that child doesn't have to worry about having or not having. So when considering mental health conditions in children, attachment is also something that is always assessed for, specifically by me and should be considered a factor in the experience of the child. What relationships has this child been in that promote or may present an opportunity for a mental health condition to exist? So here's a bit about prevalence. So one in six children in the US age two to eight years old has a diagnosed mental, behavioral, or developmental disorder. So if we look at that one in six that is so very common. Boys are more likely to be diagnosed than girls and among children living a hundred percent below the poverty level that drops to one in five children. So these statistics come directly from the CDC and they're pretty good about collecting up-to-date data. With what I see in in schools and classrooms, this data seems to be pretty accurate. So thinking about this one in six children and your classroom sizes take that into consideration when you're engaging with children and again because children present different in their mental health needs it often presents as behavior. So if you are seeing children in your class that are exhibiting problematic behavior we could be looking at a child with some mental health concerns. Not saying that is that is exactly a hundred percent correct if you see a behavior that there's a mental health concern but it is possible. So what does mental health look like in children then? Well my short answer to this is it can look like a lot of different things but because I know people like to have a general idea here is a list of things that it could look like. Oftentimes when I'm asked to engage with a child or do some consultation I start asking questions about their experience. What do we know? What do we see? What do we hear? What is happening? And then I also do my best to assess for what is home like? What are relationships like? Not just with parents but with teachers and peers as well because those are all things that can lead to clues as to the context of relationship genetics and experience. So I got this list from the CDC that are risk factors for children developing mental health conditions. This list is overwhelming and this list also it just seems like a lot but as you read through it it makes sense because again if we're talking about vulnerability we're talking about connection or relationship in context with a parent and we're talking about environments and experiences all of these things are included in that. I also wanted to include a list of protective factors so you can see here that there are that are more than half that are highlighted and I pose to you that these are all things that children are able to obtain in preschool. Social networks becoming a member of a class having a teacher having people to engage with and interact with on a consistent basis a social network concrete support for basic needs this is a toughie this one has come across my my email and in person so many times this year of this child needs things that he or she may not be getting at home and school is a place where some of those things can be offered like meals and warmth and connection so nurturing parenting skills I know that everyone has parent-teacher conferences I know that information can be sent home I know that you have a platform to be able to share information with families in a non-confrontational way later on I'll show you a resource called the backpack series and there are just one page handouts that talk about specific skills to to help build in children and those are opportunities to send information to support nurturing parenting skills for the children at home. Stable family relationships oftentimes children come into preschool that you know that have siblings oftentimes you will catch children calling you mom or dad all the time because in the context of relationship they trust you you support them you meet their needs it seems a bit more to them you offer rules and expectations throughout your entire day you have school nurses possibly some social social services at your school you are those caring adults outside of the family every single day they come into your classroom you are being a role model for them and I know this because I work with little people all the time that want to play school and they want to be the teacher and I think that's something really special and then the last thing just communities that can support parents rallying behind families to help them get what they need also not turning a blind eye not deciding whether or not I have to report it but really supporting parents and families and getting what they need for that child as well so I wanted to mention this just to plant the seeds of getting you curious about this idea of genetics versus experience so there's a documentary out there called three identical strangers I think it's on Hulu or Prime I know it's on one of them and it's about three triplets that were born and taken to an orphanage and this orphanage adopted these three children out to three different families now of course ethically how could they do this this has come into question and it has come out that this orphanage was doing research that of course at the time would have been very unethical but they were doing it anyway so these three children Tim Edward and David they were all adopted by different families and these families they didn't know that that these boys had siblings so Tim was adopted to a working middle class family Edward was adopted to a middle class family and David was adopted by an upper middle class family and to just provide you some insight of the dynamics Edward he did not get along with his father they would fight a lot and they just did not see eye to eye David he had a very absent father as his father was a doctor and he just wasn't home very much and then Tim had a very involved father um he spent a lot of time with Tim and he was a grocer so I kind of have to spoil the plot to tell you more about this um but the three boys end up finding one another and they find out that they're all wrestlers they like the same colors they smoke the same brand of cigarettes and they'd each had an adopted sister around the same age so from their perspective it made sense that they were related they they had a lot of the same things they had similar personality traits but here's where it gets interesting as these men continued to grow Edward began to develop an erratic behavior about himself he was unpredictable and at times manic depressive um they theorized that their biological mother was possibly diagnosed with severe and persistent mental health illness they don't they don't know if it was schizophrenia or bipolar but they they theorized that it was possible that she had a very severe mental health illness David and Tim they were just better prepared to cope with life they still struggled they still they still had some areas and times in their life where it got really hard but Edward he seemed to really have a tough time being able to cope in life so at the very end they pose this question about nature and nurture and I think they leave you with a general consensus that it's both there's a huge genetic component to who we are but it's our experience that also helps continue to shape and make sense of our world so incredibly fascinating documentary check it out um it was really good okay so um since i am not presenting to you in person i was going to offer a break when we did this but we're just going to keep going here so how can i help how how can you all be aware and what are things that you can be doing in your classrooms every day um to either support children with possible mental health issues or or even help be curious about is this a mental health issue um so i pose that early intervention matters and we know this because of the research and the outcomes that say the earlier that we can support these children the better off they are because again they are so malleable their brains are so malleable and so highly able to repair we also know that safe loving connections help children in the development of these negative whether it be genetics or experiences um and lastly we understand that you matter to these children that you are a safe person that they are coming to every day that are going to help navigate and help guide how their lives can be better for them so um i'm a huge fan of dr bruce perry he is a um a neuroscientist that helped us understand truly the impacts of brain development um with children who've experienced trauma um and he posed this in a in a presentation one time that i just absolutely loved which is people not programs change people the effective agents of change in any successful program project or system are human beings oftentimes when i when i first meet with teachers and we start discussing problematic issues that children are presenting with um i sense the fear the fear that teachers have and it's fear of doing the wrong thing or the fear of not knowing what to do and what i would tell you is you matter to these children and you just being a safe person and imposing these really difficult questions is such a gift to them so i don't want you to worry about about not knowing what to do or not knowing what to come next um let's create a team and figure that out together it doesn't have to be on you but know that people not programs change people i love that so the first thing this foundation this the most critical and important foundation that all children need is safe loving caring relationship in that circle of security um training that i that i talked to you about before um it's posed that if children can understand that they've been picked and they've been chosen and that they are loved they'll be okay because they need to know those three things and i would also suppose that all human beings need to know those three things exist and when we don't things start to go badly so here i have a picture it's called the emotional cup so i want you to visualize that every human being in the world has an emotional cup and when it's full we're good and when it's empty we are not so this talks about what what feels a child's cup play friendship one-on-one time love affection connection succeeding doing what they love to do i would pose that the same exists for me as a grown-up and what empties the cup stress strain rejection by peers loneliness isolation yelling punishment failure fatigue doing what they're forced to do and our goal is to always have a balanced cup how do we feel when our cup is half full we can get through the day we can do what we need to do but maybe we don't have a pep in our step maybe maybe we're not giving off the vibe that anybody can come to me one thing i want you to consider are the cups of the children in your classroom look at the side that says what feels a child's cup almost all of those things require relationship safe loving connection just consider that all right now when children don't know again if children are presenting with challenges or behaviors i strongly believe that when children don't know what to do we have to teach them they don't have this experience or templates to know how to navigate we must teach oftentimes these boil down to skills learn new behavior and learn new concepts but again going back to what i said before children must know these three things i've been picked i have been chosen and i am loved i want you to think for a moment how did those three questions play out in your classrooms so for instance i have been picked does this child have a desk with their name on it does this child have a spot for their for their boots to go at the end of recess they have been chosen are there plenty of opportunities throughout the day that they get to be chosen they are interacting they are part of a group they are the preschool classroom and finally i am loved how do we communicate to these little people that we love them we're going to segue into something for a moment here so we oftentimes don't talk about love in education other than we love our jobs so let's talk about john gotman's love research if you're not familiar john gotman is a a renowned therapist who does a lot of work with couples and he created something called the love lab this was his research and what he found that if a couple came into his love lab he could predict with up to 94 percent certainty whether couples stray straight gay rich poor childless or not whether they would end up together or not and then he also kind of provides the statement that also a small number of marriages they're just doomed from the beginning seems morbid but i guess that's what he he found to be true so what was the factor what was what was it that he found that could be the predictor bids for connection turning towards one another in simple everyday interactions bids for connection i'm going to challenge you all instead of saying attention in your classrooms that child is just looking for attention or those are attention type behaviors i want you to replace that with connection because that is essentially what it is i am needing to know that i am loved so these bids for connection they can be a question a statement i contact touch bids for connection and children are quite obvious they turn to you they look at you they grab your hands they ask you to play sometimes bids for connection are not so nice kids might kick they might scream they might flirt they might be inappropriate when you turn towards those bids for connection people hear i'm interested in you i hear you i understand you i'm on your side i'd like to help you i'd like you to be with me i'd like to be with you i accept you when children are in your classroom and offer bids for connection this is what they're looking for we must not forget that every single day children everywhere offering bids for connection we just want to be loved again we don't talk about love and education but with little children and when we're talking about the importance of context and relationship we have to have a conversation about love when kids struggle when kids don't struggle they offer bids for connection and i challenge you all to not only look for what those bids are but also meet them instead of saying a child is just attention seeking we can say that child is looking for connection and how can i meet that connection how can i help how can i help that child feel like they're loved in my classroom all right so here here comes my pyramid background and i'll do my best to explain each of these interventions and how it supports positive mental health growth in children so again keep in mind when kids don't know we have to teach them we have to teach them a different way we have to teach them a new skill we may have to walk with them in every step of that new process but we have to teach them so first things first routine routine in the classroom demonstrates a sense of predictability when children know what's going to come next it inherently calms things down think about yourselves when you know what your day is going to look like it provides a sense of safety it provides a sense of certainty in the classroom with little people a routine is very very important another thing that is important to consider is little people oftentimes aren't the best at reading or recognizing letters yet but they are incredibly visual so if we can have a picture schedule of what their day is going to look like they can connect much better about what's going to happen and what's going to happen next another thing this is very important to consider is that this picture schedule must be at their height level because if they're going about their day and they need to know what comes next their first instinct isn't going to be to look up it's going to be to look around so in having a picture schedule we can help them connect things easier but also having it at their height so that they can actually see this one thing important about routine is if changes are going to occur or if we know that something is going to be different we have to prepare children for that they need to know what's going to be different about their day it helps them feel in control it helps them know what's coming next and it helps prevent any type of anxiety or uncertainty about what their day is going to bring so for example say we're going on a field trip all right we review the schedule and instead of going to recess we are going to go on a field trip today this is where we're going these are the people that are going to be there this is how we're going to get there preparation is key in helping children understand changes for children that require extra support this must be given if you have a child who you know is already having a hard time with changes maybe we give them a little bit more we give them a picture schedule for what that um that difference is going to be we give them the steps of what the field trip is going to look like and again with the routine every child must have a spot a name tag a place for their book bag responding to that need i must be picked they have a spot in the classroom so here's an example of what a picture schedule can look like and again it doesn't have to be fancy it can take a lot of work and it can take as little work if this is something that you don't have and would like please let me know and i would love to assist you in this process so because i believe in parallel process i would like you to focus your attention to us we use planners we use notifications in our phones we have some system lesson plans of helping us know what we're doing for the day think for a moment what you would feel like if all of a sudden those things disappeared i know for myself i would feel very panicked very anxious and a little bit all over the place it's no different for children they need to know what their day is going to be and they need to know what's coming next it helps them prepare and organize and this ability to know what's coming next can help reduce anxiety it can help reduce frustration it can help even reduce the excitement that comes with anticipation now we're going to move on to rules so um in my clinical work with parents oftentimes i would have a conversation about the fact that kids need rules that rules are not there to be mean or to be punitive rules are there to provide guidance to teach to provide a sense of commonality what is to be expected here so most of you i'm sure have classroom rules but if you're wondering how to take this a step further have at least three simple rules and here's the key they have to be positively stated so for instance if your rule is no running i want to challenge you to say use walking feet because of this age group their attention and focus to words and the language we use is so critical so if i say no running they might have only heard no or they might have only heard running the very thing that we don't want but if we say use walking feet i'm okay with them catching on those three words use use what walking okay walking what walking feet rules establish order provide expectations and this is the exciting part is that when children meet those expectations we can remind them of wow i love how you're using your walking feet and that promotes a sense of confidence and self-esteem and absolutely safety these are all opportunities to help grow these things in children all children need that all children need those opportunities also kids need adults to be in charge now if you have a conversation with a child they might tell you a different story but the truth is that adults need to be in charge they enforce the rules and when kids don't know the rules or break the rules we have to teach them we have to teach them the right way rules whether kids like it or not help them create a sense of order and calm even if they break them so here's an example of um some classroom rules um they have be safe be responsible and be respectful and then it looks like beneath each one of those they have some more specific rules for us man speed limits it's the one thing i think about because it's the one thing i'm being asked to follow almost every day now the next thing to consider is what do we do when rules are broken with children we have to teach them we also this is equally important we have to offer them time to practice so for instance if johnny continues to run we have to help teach him to use walking feet remind him every transition every time remember we use walking feet show him a picture of walking feet and then we have to practice with him we're going to use walking feet together now i don't know what your experience was driving but mine was i had a speed a few times and get pulled over a few times before i realized it's not worth it i don't want to pay the the speeding ticket i don't want to have to take stop class so even though uh following speed limits is more punitive than anything i'm a grown-up i was able to to take that as a learning experience that speed limits are there for a reason and they're to be followed it keeps me safe it keeps the other drivers on the road safe and even though at the time if i was speeding pulled over it would not be fun i still have a deep respect and appreciation for the speed limits and why they're there all right emotions emotion regulation is so key in in helping organized children and helping prepare them for later on in life kids can learn how to be help healthy with their feelings again emotions we just aren't born with understanding them this is something that they have to learn and we learn by the people that we're around so if we are primarily around caregivers who can talk about their feelings and know what they are and know what to do with them then that's what i'm going to do but if my caregivers aren't really certain about their feelings and and don't really know what to do with them when they have them then that's what i'm going to know also so we have to take into consideration how can we effectively teach kids about their feelings well first of all we have to create a space where they can be safe to express their feelings so for instance if i get mad i need to know that you're going to help me and not just punish me i need to know what to do with my feelings okay so i get mad oh okay well um there is this saying called deep breathing that i can try or there's actually a space in my classroom where i can go and be angry until i feel better again we have to teach emotions we do this through visuals we do this through stories we do this through in vivo as we as they have them we we we tell them what they are we validate them we say man you are mad i can see that you're mad it's okay to be mad but it's not okay to hit let's learn a different way i also want to remind you of this when feelings come into the mix things can get quite escalated but i just want you to remember feelings are just feelings they come and they go i use this analogy that they're like waves in an ocean sometimes they come in and they knock us down we don't even see them coming sometimes they're super calm like they come and they go and it's no problem at all but they don't ever last forever and that's a really really important thing when we're supporting children with really tough feelings is we have to provide them with hope this feeling right now is really tough but it's not going to last forever and i'm going to help you get through it so this is just an example of a way to help start introducing this idea of feelings to kids this is a feeling wheel um and parallel to us um we figure out all of these ways to express our feelings we we reach out we say them out loud we write them down we call a friend our ability to articulate is much higher and so we seek out supports when we need it and sometimes we don't but again remember this is just a clue we will often times express and experience our emotions in ways that our caregivers did think about that for a moment it's a very important part of helping navigate what do i do with my feelings so this is just a list of ways that we can help teach books stories visuals um having a calm down corner a safe spot in the classroom um i have an entire sheet on how to go about doing this if this is something you'd like to do i think it's a great idea role modeling with the kids discussing your own feelings as they come and go throughout the day use live emotions in the classroom it's taking a moment to pause everything that's happening and say everyone we have a friend who's feeling really sad right now what can we do to help um again i'll discuss towards the end the backpack series but it's um little little notes and articles that talk about how parents can support teaching emotions to children validating those emotions all emotions are okay that is something that i make very clear to all of the children that i work with all emotions are okay because we all have all the emotions it's just some of those things that we do when we have those emotions that aren't okay and then we practice and talk about replacement skills practice again being very very important if i show you all a video on how to knit and then a week later expect you to knit me a hat i might be very frustrated with the results but if i if we watch a video on how to knit and then i give you some yarn and say i'm going to be here with you and we're going to practice doing this together our results might be a lot better all right problem solving now i know this because i've been in and out of preschool classrooms forever problems always come up and problems always exist so kids have to first know what a problem is when things get hard when there's not a good solution when i'm in a fight it's a problem we have to help them know that there there's a way out there's a way of generating solutions but how do we how do we do that we have to help them navigate the process of identifying what the problem is how do i come up with a solution and then how do i execute that so visuals and stories again are a really great way to help children learn how to problem solve in real time real time situations are honestly the best teaching tools it's oh no we have a problem what are some possible solutions and you're there with them every step of the way helping navigate that process when kids can problem solve effectively again it promotes confidence and self esteem and now you've just created a template so the next time it happens they have a better idea of how to manage it it also promotes regulation because if i know that problems are going to exist but i know how to navigate it it's going to help me be so much calmer going into a situation where a problem might arise and finally it creates a sense of safety that there is a process to getting an end result where everyone might be okay so here i have these are the resources that i i actually just got updated versions of all of these so if you don't have them and want them please let me know tuck or the turtle it's a really great social story about problem solving having the problem solving steps how do i navigate this and then the solution kit here um are really really great skills to help children learn in navigating this the problem solving process now for us this has changed over time i don't know about you all but whenever i have like a problem like so let's say i'm driving down the road and all of a sudden i hear i hear something really funny happening in my car um i of course keep driving because why would i stop and my first thing is i google funny noise coming from car right i want instant access to possible ideas so it's not bad it it really puts quick information at our fingertips um but i think we also have to remember that um over time we have more and more experiences that help us navigate problems later on in life transitions ah man when i when i start talking to teachers about problem behavior transitions always come up so think about transitions for a moment it's it's the ability to stop what we're doing reset your focus possibly move to a different location and beginning engaging in something different that's a lot it's a lot of steps in that um so having transition strategies having things already in mind of how do i support these children going from point a to point b so i have a handout that i'm going to make sure that you all have access to it just gives some ideas of different ways to help children make transitions smoothly throughout the day but i like this acronym for move model and verbally cue for success so again telling children what the steps are doing it yourself so that again you're teaching you're showing them how to do it um organizing prepare ahead of time so again in five minutes we're going to go to snack time in three minutes we're going to go to snack time so that way by the time it's snack time everyone's already been kind of given the heads up that oh yep it's snack time that's what's coming next having visuals if needed again going back to routines what's coming next i can see it okay it's snack time i see and then use excitement so on the on the right you'll see can you move like a these are just animal transition cards we're going from the circle rug to the table um everyone walked like a monkey gosh it's exciting it's fun it's novel it's silly it gets them engaged in a in a way where moving from point a to point b is now fun and okay whereas before maybe it was an opportunity that i bump into my friends or maybe it's an opportunity where i get lost and i don't know what to do so i will make sure to get you all the um the move handout that i have it just has some different ideas on it so again transitions if children know what's to be expected what's coming next how do i get there we're reducing anxiety and we're making it very clear of what to expect so this is the part where we go back to this idea that um early childhood mental health is also considering the context of relationship between parent and child we have to be able to continue to support parents so think about what you currently do in your roles to support to support this idea of parents interacting with their children um oftentimes i hear we have an open door policy parents can come into the classroom we send home monthly newsletters all of that stuff um but i want to show you so this is the backpack series that i was talking about and they are one page little tips and the encompass addressing behavior emotions routines and schedules social skills so what i like about this is whatever you're working on in the classroom there may also be a um a handout that could be sent home to parents on what they can do to support that i hope so we'll go down um to one of my favorite ones is let's see here the ones are emotion right here how to plan activities to reduce challenging behavior again gives three or four five really great tips for parents to try at home and how you might practice this at school again if you send this home and this section is all parents read awesome we're getting them something we're getting them an idea of how they can follow through with supporting children with social emotional development at home okay so um if you would like the whole um backpack series just let me know and i can send them to you in some type of compressed file that way you have access to all of um all of the handouts so this again is from dr bruce perry this is something that i just wanted you to consider um he says that these are the six core strengths for children that's a vaccine against violence again it's if if children can have these skills chances are they will turn out good you know they'll turn out okay so attachment meaning i have the ability to have really good relationships good bonds and relationships with people um self-regulation i can control my impulses i can control my urges i'm aware of my feelings and also i know what to do with it affiliation again i am chosen being able to join and contribute in a group we are the preschool class or we are the red table or um i am proud of me in my class attunement being aware of others recognizing the needs and interests and strengths and values of others i feel like this skill comes in so much when we begin to problem solve there's a piece in there where you ask would it be safe would it be fair we're taking into consideration everyone else's perception and that is supporting in in helping attunement tolerance understanding and accepting differences and others not everyone is the same and that's okay and then finally respect finding value and differences appreciating worth in yourself and others confidence goes such a long ways in children development of self-esteem and confidence every single opportunity that we have to be able to praise a child for for a met rule or something kind that they've done i feel like should really really be highlighted all right so i feel like i i wouldn't have been doing my job if i hadn't really talked about trauma for a moment in talking about early childhood mental health so traumatic experiences in childhood or chronic stress alters brain development when children are placed in situations where they experience chronic stress the areas of the brain that are responsible for survival um get really really strong and those areas of the brain that are responsible for learning and engagement and relationship aren't very strong at all and so if children have experienced trauma or chronic stress they are going to have a harder time in a typical classroom setting however if all of the things we talked about above having a routine having transition strategies having visual um visual materials in the classroom those are all really really great ways to combat some of the behaviors that could be presented from a child who has experienced trauma because it reduces it reduces the the likelihood of unpredictability it reduces the likelihood of me not knowing what comes next um it really it it reduces the probability that i'll get lost in what i'm doing because those things happen to children who have experienced trauma um if this is something that you would like more information on these three authors Bruce Perry Dan Siegel and Bessel van der Kolk are very very great resources um Dr Bruce Perry has several books that are really great reads um Dr Siegel has called the whole brainchild that goes a little bit more into that and then Bessel van der Kolk has a book out called the body keeps score that helps um really understand the direct correlation between physiological responses and trauma so this picture that we see here um this is helping us know and understand that as a child's brain develops it develops from the bottom up so the very first thing to develop is the survival brain again when nothing else is working or kicking on that survival brain is going to be working really hard and then the next thing to develop is the limbic brain which is responsible for attachment and emotional development and again attachment is i have a safe secure connection with a loved one who gets my needs met who i can go to um that that is critically important for brain development and then lastly to develop is the cortical brain which is responsible for children um using that when they come to school thinking learning language um inhibition not having not acting on impulses now again to understand trauma a bit more when kids experience trauma or chronic stress the primitive brain gets used quite a bit the limbic brain gets a little wonky if i don't have secure attachment or something very confusing happened to me and and i can't make sense of it and my emotions are all over the place um that's where those children are going to be at in their brains most of the time so when you're asking them to come in and learn and think and interact those things just aren't online in the brain and that's where it can get frustrating so thinking about it from a brain development perspective um when children who've experienced trauma struggle in the classroom it makes sense from a biological perspective but again going back to their brains being incredibly malleable by you being able to provide a sense of safety provide a sense of safe relationship provide a sense of learning about feelings provide a sense of of movement free from from ridicule or harassment um you are helping grow those first and second levels of the brain so that they can be present and in that cortical brain in your classroom so again those interventions that i talked about before are meeting needs in the primitive brain and the limbic brain so that children can be in their cortical region while they're in your classrooms so i like this visual this is from dr. Bruce Perry also it breaks down the brain regions and again brainstem is for survival the diencephalon is mostly for sensory information it's it's helping us make sense of our environments what's coming in and what we need from our environments um the limbic area oh that that facilitates social emotional growth again such a critical critical area um that we focused on when we're looking at early childhood mental health and then that cortex is abstract that all of those things needed for school so i created this in a an attempt to help educators understand the needs of children in these different brain regions so if i was going to do this in person with you all we were going to do a game that would help kind of tie this together but i'll just briefly go over this brain based interventions page to hopefully tie it together a bit more so again the red area is the brain stem responsible for automatic survival reflexes heart rates breathing all of those things um when things get out of control we can offer support with children to take deep breaths and again children aren't going to do this on their own you have to take deep breaths with them and if they're not willing to do it you continue to take deep breaths because something happens where they have mirror neurons in their brain and if they sense you're calm then it's contagious and then they'll start to calm and um it's a really effective strategy at helping lower heart rate again if we can help lower heart rate we help communicate to the green area of the brain that we no longer have to panic we no longer have to fear things are okay there's someone here with us okay and then also establishing safety that might be having a verbal conversation about safety that might be physically showing how a child is safe in your classroom and it might be having conversations about how they stay safe or how they keep their friends safe maybe a conversation about rules and why they're important um moving up to the yellow area this is the diencephalon again working with sensory integration in the brain um offering fidget tools adaptive seating self-regulation strategies calm down strategies chewing tools organization strategies whether you know it or not this is stuff that you guys offer every single day and some kids just may need more individualized support of getting sensory needs met the limbic area again this is kind of the emotional hub of the brain as well as the the area of the brain that's constantly scanning for danger helps protect us so offer co-regulation so this is when children don't know how or what to do with their feelings we do it so that they can learn how or it's engaging in a strategy with them to help calm them down um i have an entire list of co-regulatory strategies that i'll be sending you that are broken down by age group this next one is so important being present and calm again kids sense your emotional state and being calm and present is one of the best things that you can do when children are struggling um and then support them with self-regulation if they have developed the ability to demonstrate i can do deep breaths then offering and supporting when they can again reassuring safety removing the triggering stimulus if there's something that's happening in the classroom that's inside upsetting them either removing it or stepping away so that they have the opportunity to calm naming the feeling or the sensation there is a theory by dan siegel it's called name it to tame it if you name the feeling that the child is experiencing sometimes that's enough to help start the calming process and then finally up to the cortex interventions so something out there that we talk a lot about is executive functioning skills so it's inhibitory control flexible and adaptive thinking working memory those are all skills that kids develop and we have to help them develop those skills so supporting the development of impulse control having opportunities for them to wait and think before they do offering opportunities for them to have flexible thinking being okay when i tell you know um only having one choice practice working memory learning new skills reading support problem solving which we already talked about um and then this last one again providing positive descriptive praise and encouragement kids need to know that they're doing well it is a it is a form of showing love you are doing well and i need i need i need you to know that you're doing well so this is a picture that was constructed by al more done he's an artist and i kind of fell in love with it because i see this in in children that i meet with every single day um my interpretation of this is the expectations that's placed on really young children um these days is very different than what it used to be um and so when we're engaging and interacting with with kids of all ages but specifically the younger children we need to take into account what they're actually capable of doing um what is a child this age actually able to do what do they need not only what can they do but what do they need at being this age what is important to them what can help continue to to build their brains and fill gaps and and all kinds of things like that so just take into consideration that um some children in your classroom may be ready for concepts you present and some may need a lot of practice before they can they can be good at it and be okay with it all right so this next piece collaborate when things don't go well or when you do feel like you have concern about a child i would encourage you to collaborate there's not a worse feeling in the world than being in a classroom and feeling alone or feeling like you have to be the problem solver you have to know it and figure it out so i would encourage you to turn to a team to help navigate this communicate with other professionals that that may be available to you and just remember it's not all on you to figure out it's really hard for one person to manage all of the stuff that goes into helping um problem solve what's going on with a child so just keep that in mind so what do you do if you're concerned or need more help um first step is always having a conversation with a parent or guardian because they might have a wealth of knowledge that can fill information gaps or help things make sense um getting the school psychologist involved can be incredibly helpful because they might have ideas strategies tips um or even if an evaluation is needed they can provide guidance on that um you can reach out to me if you have questions or concerns um like i said i i love offering consultation um it gets me to think outside of the box sometimes and um i i really do like collaborating with teachers collect some data this is so important um in a lot of the meetings that i attend with teachers and parents the parents are always wanting to know what is going on so make sure that you're collecting some data in terms of what the intrusive behaviors are what time of day they're happening how often they're happening um it's it's tedious at times but that information at the end can be really helpful um it can it can narrow down some patterns that might be seen um yeah it can be helpful um and then also if you have a process in your school for giving children the help that they need also obviously you'd follow that um and then also support parents and seeking outside supports if needed one of the most frequently asked questions um to me this year is should this child be in counseling and i don't always know the answer to that i'm not automatically going to say yes um but if parents and children are needing more support than what they can um offer at school or get at school then absolutely we can we can help parents navigate outside supports because it's intimidating it's it's a process um it takes their time and it takes their truly you know dedication to getting their child the support that they need that can be incredibly overwhelming and intimidating so once again we have to um form support around parents when we're looking at seeking outside supports all right if you want to know more um i did a presentation at where workshop called just strategies it's more specific to brain development and the brain based strategies that i discussed with you um we're going to be working on putting that out as a as a webinar at some point in time so you can be looking for that if you want and email me i love to hear from you guys um i just get really excited when i can engage with you whether it's with questions or celebrations or even ideas you guys are the most creative people that i know um so if you have seen some things that you're interested in creating for your classroom if you would like consultation if you have questions concerns anything please let me know and i would love to support and engage with you at that level so here are some really helpful resources um all of these are my go-tos honestly um i feel like oftentimes these are are the best the research base they're effective tools um so check them out and if you see something that you like um use it and if you're looking for different things let me know and i'll see if i can assist you well thank you all so much for um listening to my presentation and if you have any questions please feel free to reach out thank you