Wayne's Facilitation Protocol

Welcome Parents and Guardians!

Please find a seat and hold onto the colour-coded cue card until we begin.

Also, please feel free to enjoy a cup of coffee while waiting to begin!

Fact or Fiction: A Minds-on Activity

Fact or Fiction?

People of all ages suffer from anxiety disorders and their symptoms are very similar, but they describe those symptoms differently depending on their age

Fact or Fiction: A Minds-on Activity

Fact or Fiction?

Children worry most frequently about school, health and personal harm. They worry most intensely about family, friends and natural disasters.

Fact or Fiction: A Minds-on Activity

Fact or Fiction?

In a 2012 nationwide study of nearly 4,000 teachers across Canada, 79% reported that helping students to cope with stress was a pressing concern in their classroom, while 73% named anxiety disorders among their students as an increasingly important issue. Nearly 70% of public school teachers have not received professional development or training to address student mental illness in their classrooms.

Fact or Fiction: A Minds-on Activity

Fact or Fiction?

Children who are struggling with a problem are most likely to confide in a parent than a friend.

Fact or Fiction: A Minds-on Activity

Fact or Fiction?

About ¼ of all children worry a lot or all the time about the health of someone they love.

Fact or Fiction: A Minds-on Activity

Fact or Fiction?

With their parents’ help, children as young as 2 or 3 years old can learn how to use non-anxious self-talk and confront fears through gradual exposure.

Fact or Fiction: A Minds-on Activity

Fact or Fiction?

About 1 in 10 students in Ontario report having been bullied at school at least once during the school year. In nearly all the cases, the bullying has been physical.

“Educators play an important role in promoting children’s well-being by creating, fostering, and sustaining a learning environment that is healthy, caring, safe, inclusive, and accepting. A learning environment of this kind supports not only children’s cognitive, emotional, social, and physical development but also their mental health, their resilience, and their overall state of well-being. All this helps children focus on learning and achieve their full potential in school and in life.” (FDEL 2016, p.59)

Parents and Families

“Parents are the first and most powerful influence on their children’s learning, development, health, and well-being.” (FDEL 2016, p.109)

The Role of Mental Health

“Mental health touches all components of development. Mental health is much more than the absence of mental illness. Well-being is influenced not only by the absence of problems and risks but by the presence of factors, at the individual, family, and community level, that contribute to healthy growth and development. Educators help promote positive mental health in the classroom by providing children with opportunities to learn adaptive, management, and coping skills; communication skills; and relationship and social skills – the personal and interpersonal skills they need to develop resilience, a secure identity, and a strong sense of self. In the process, educators may also be able to identify children who need additional support and connect them with the

appropriate services.

What happens at school can have a significant influence on a child’s well-being. With a broader awareness of mental health, educators can adopt instructional strategies that contribute to a supportive classroom climate for learning, build awareness of mental health, and reduce the stigma associated with mental illness. When educators take children’s well-being, including their mental health, into account when considering instructional approaches, they help to ensure a strong foundation for learning. For example, when educators allow children to self-regulate – to cope with stressors, and recover – they are enabling them to develop resilience, a powerful protective factor with respect to positive mental health and emotional well-being.” (FDEL 2016, p.62)

What Exactly is Anxiety?

Many children typically experience worries and fears from time to time and these worries and fears can change as young people progress through different developmental stages. For example, young children often become distressed when separated from loved ones, and adolescents worry at times about “fitting in” with peers as they explore their identity during the stressful adolescent years. A manageable degree of day-to-day stress is essential , but too much stress can interfere with the balance of the body. (Supporting Minds 2013, p.28; Kambolis, p.19)

“Learning to cope with and adapt to stressful situations in spite of anxious feelings is a natural part of healthy growth and development.” (Supporting Minds 2013, p. 28)

According to Michele Kambolis, we must first look at Stress. Acute stress is short-lived and it is one of the greatest survival tools humans have. It focuses our attention to help us perform better in high-stakes situations such as jumping out of the way from a car or backing off when a dog begins to growl at you. (Kambolis, p.18)

So how can parents recognize when normal levels of Stress bloom into something abnormal?

*Look for symptoms that interfere with a child’s ability to cope with day-to day life*

Common Signs of Anxiety

Although different signs of anxiety occur at different ages, these are some of the more common signs for a Kindergarten-aged student:

• asks to stay home from school
• is unable to work to expectations
• refuses to join or participate in social activities
• avoids school events or parties
• exhibits panicky crying or freezing tantrums and/or clingy behaviour before or after an activity or social situation (e.g., a class activity)
• worries constantly before an event or activity, asking questions such as “What if ...?” without feeling reassured by the answers
• often spends time alone, or has few friends
• has great difficulty making friends
• has physical complaints (e.g., stomach-aches) that are not clearly attributable to a physical health condition
• worries excessively about things like everyday routines
• has frequent bouts of tears
• is easily frustrated
• is extremely quiet or shy
• fears new situations
• avoids social situations for fear of negative evaluations by others (e.g., fear of being laughed at)

(Adapted from Supporting Minds Draft Version 2013, p.30)

Strategies to Reduce Stress For All Students

•Create a learning environment where mistakes are viewed as a natural part

of the learning process.

•Provide predictable schedules and routines in the classroom.

•Provide advance warning of changes in routine.

•Encourage students to take small steps towards accomplishing a feared task.

•Provide simple relaxation exercises that involve the whole class.

(Supporting Minds, Draft Version 2013, p.32)

Balloon Buster

• Identify a negative belief that may contribute to anxiety/discomfort for a small child. For example, start with “I” (“I’m not good enough” or “I can’t do it”)

• Now “let go” of the negative belief by breathing it out of your body and into the balloon.

• Pinch the end of the balloon and write the negative feeling on the balloon with the supplied permanent marker.

• On the count of 3 we will all release the balloon and let this negative emotion "fly away". This is letting go of the stress that weighs us down.

• How can we change the negative belief into a more positive one?

• Now let's try a deep-breathing exercise.

Questions or Comments?

For more detailed information about Anxiety-Related behaviour in Children and adolescents (3-18 years) visit:

The ABCs of Mental Health

www.hincksdellcrest.org/ABC/Welcome

KidsHealth

http://kidshealth.org/en/parents/stress.html

Childhood Stress: 8 Signs To Watch Out For

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/02/06/childhood-stress-signs_n_14602626.html

Thank you!