{"id":570881,"date":"2021-04-14T16:56:35","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T20:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/?post_type=article&#038;p=570881"},"modified":"2021-06-23T10:34:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T14:34:37","slug":"resilience-amid-pandemic-sel-panel","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/article\/resilience-amid-pandemic-sel-panel\/","title":{"rendered":"They\u2019re the Resilient Generation, Not the COVID Generation: Expert Panel Helps Families Navigate Pandemic Social Emotional Challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"drop-cap\">C<\/span>OVID-19 is forcing young children to cope with stress, loss, and anxiety about everything from in-person school to pandemic-friendly playground practices \u2014 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/social-trends\/2020\/10\/29\/most-parents-of-k-12-students-learning-online-worry-about-them-falling-behind\/#majorities-of-parents-of-k-12-students-more-concerned-now-than-before-pandemic-about-screen-time-social-connections-emotional-well-being-access-to-extracurricular-activities\">most parents<\/a> say they\u2019re worried about their children\u2019s social and emotional health.<\/p>\n<p>While it\u2019s too soon to know the long-term effects of the pandemic on children\u2019s academic and social development, experts in education, health, and child development say there are practical steps families can take to support children and help them cope with stress, uncertainty, and transition.<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Student Resilience Amid a Pandemic: How Parents &amp; Caregivers Can Foster Social Emotional Wellness\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hmeNCLKERSc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Janelle Bradshaw, CEO of Public Prep; Dr. Dana Crawford, a pediatric clinical psychologist and scholar in residence at Columbia Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute; and Dr. Ryan Padrez, a pediatrician at Stanford and Medical Director at The Primary School answered parents\u2019 questions about social and emotional wellness as part of the launch of the <a href=\"https:\/\/bigheartworld.org\">Big Heart World<\/a> initiative, a partnership between Sparkler Learning and Noggin focused on helping parents, caregivers, and educators boost children\u2019s social and emotional skills and build resilience. Bekah McNeel, an education reporter at The 74, moderated the discussion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of these things &#8230; are really weighing on parents\u2019 minds,\u201d McNeel said.<\/p>\n<p>The Big Heart World initiative aims to help parents and educators address the pressing social and emotional needs that America\u2019s young children have right now during COVID-19 and to provide action-oriented tools and resources that help grown-ups support children\u2019s healthy social and emotional development. In collaboration with non-profit partners \u2014 from the National Head Start Association to the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, Big Heart World is rolling out monthly content focused on the core areas of social and emotional learning: awareness of self; awareness of others; and relationships with others.<\/p>\n<h3>How Parents Can Foster Social and Emotional Growth Now<\/h3>\n<p>Bradshaw, Crawford, and Padrez said parents can foster social and emotional wellness by creating routines, having intentional conversations about topics like kindness, and using books to focus children\u2019s attention on feelings, friendship, and other social themes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think many of our families have learned the importance of setting routines,\u201d Dr. Padrez said.<\/p>\n<p>Bradshaw said her schools have added an extra 30 minutes each day for teachers and students to focus on students\u2019 social and emotional wellness. They discuss: \u201cAre you feeling energized and tired, anxious, excited? And is that a feeling that you want to keep or feeling that you want to change?\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Talking Openly About The \u201cDifferent Pandemics\u201d<\/h3>\n<p>Bradshaw, Crawford, and Padrez said the pandemic has affected communities differently, and that families have followed different rules.<\/p>\n<p>Bradshaw saw that students and staff in her school community experienced different pandemics: Some had sick family members. Others had family members who were transit workers, security guards, or delivery people, who had to work through lockdowns. Others had reliable Internet and backyards to play in.<\/p>\n<p>She said addressing these disparities with young children needs to be an \u201congoing conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Crawford said it\u2019s important for parents and caregivers to talk about their family\u2019s beliefs and set clear rules.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the issue becomes when families aren&#8217;t clear,\u201d she said. \u201cWe all have cabin fever, and sometimes when different mandates change, folks interpret that as they can get more relaxed. I think when that happens, children get more confused. If adults aren&#8217;t clear, kids aren&#8217;t clear.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Don\u2019t Forget Parents\u2019 Wellness<\/h3>\n<p>All of the panelists said parents and caregivers need to take care of themselves in order to support their children&#8217;s emotional wellness.<\/p>\n<p>Bradshaw said she thinks of parenting self-care like the airplane safety rule of putting on your own oxygen mask before you help others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a really important concept for families whose home and work lives have been merged as everyone&#8217;s working from home to really remember: how are you feeling as an adult? And how are you managing your emotions and trying not to&#8230;transfer that to your children who are feeling their own levels of stress?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Padrez said his medical training taught him the importance of self-care<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it comes from probably all the training and residency and through the long hours you&#8217;re working in recognizing that you\u2019ve got to take care of yourself if you&#8217;re going to survive,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like this year has been the year where everyone is put through that test of long hours, and really finding those new activities for self care, I think is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Preparing Families to Go Back to \u201cNormal\u201d<\/h3>\n<p>Before a big transition like the move back to in-person school, Crawford advised parents and children to \u201cvisualize\u201d new routines and even rehearse the day in a playful way to alleviate anxiety.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe did that when my two year old was about to start school,\u201d she said. \u201cWe literally walked outside, we walked back inside, pretended&#8230;my husband was the teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said older children can benefit from this sort of pretending, too.<\/p>\n<p>Bradshaw has just reopened her schools this spring and her own elementary school-aged daughter has just returned to in-person school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChildren learned very quickly how to wear their masks and follow all of the social distancing guidelines, including washing their hands more frequently,\u201d she said. \u201cThe reason why they were so amenable is because they were so excited to be back in their community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She advised parents to talk to their child\u2019s teacher and to their children to help them prepare. This might mean helping children learn to elbow bump rather than hug, or it might mean working as a family on being more flexible to prepare for the unexpected.<\/p>\n<p>Padrez said he walks through the science and logic of in-person schools with his patients\u2019 parents to reassure them that their children will be safe in school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are some families out there that are still afraid to send their child back to school and so kids are going to pick up on that,\u201d he said. \u201cBe aware of that sort of emotion. Be okay to acknowledge that with your child. It\u2019s a good trust-building experience, but to also have confidence as a parent that this is a safe place to go back to school for your child.<\/p>\n<h3>Building a Generation of Resilient Kids<\/h3>\n<p>Dr. Padrez said there\u2019s a lot of concern about children\u2019s social and emotional health during the pandemic, but that the hard circumstances of the last year might actually foster a \u201cresilient generation of kids.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI like to remind our families that parents are always their children&#8217;s first teacher,\u201d he said. \u201cSocial-emotional growth happens at home naturally. We just happened to get it in a bigger dose this last year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Julia Levy is executive director of Sparkler, an early childhood family engagement organization.<\/em><\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline_story shortcode simple\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/newsletter\/\"><figure style=\"background-image: url(https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/the74million_logo.png);\"><\/figure><div><span class=\"sans related_tag\">Related<\/span><h4 class=\"sans\">Sign up for The 74\u2019s newsletter<\/h4><\/div><\/a><\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>COVID-19 is forcing young children to cope with stress, loss, and anxiety about everything from in-person school to pandemic-friendly playground practices \u2014 and most parents say they\u2019re worried about their children\u2019s social and emotional health. While it\u2019s too soon to know the long-term effects of the pandemic on children\u2019s academic and social development, experts in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":570887,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[191],"tags":[939,1103,1056,1118,1031,1503],"series":[1059],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/570881"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/570881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":570920,"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/570881\/revisions\/570920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570881"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=570881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}