While some students thrived during distance learning in the spring, many others struggled with the format or with other challenges, such as concerns about safety, family finances or health. Whatever form school takes, here are four ways parents and educators can help children cope with change and uncertainty as we face the new school year. Read more ›
Promoting SEL at Home is a series of developmentally appropriate social and emotional learning (SEL) resources for parents, families, and caregivers to use at home. These lesson ideas facilitate the development of SEL skills in children, from infancy through high school. Read more ›
Sensitive children are keen observers of the world, but tend to get overstimulated. They often live intense inner lives and are highly creative, but they are wary of new situations and of people they don’t know.
They also easily intuit the moods of others and feel their pain. This empathy draws their peers and sometimes even adults to confide in sensitive children. Later in life, they often go into helping professions like health care and counseling, where their natural gifts are put to good use. Read more ›
Expressive writing is associated with improvements in physical health, improvements in markers of mental health, and improvements in immune function. It’s also been shown to improve working memory in college students, says James Pennebaker, a professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Read more ›
Prioritizing your needs is important, Rachel Wilkerson Miller says, but it’s often easier said than done. “Most people think that is true for everybody who is not them. And they sort of think that they’re the exception to the rule.”
Miller is the author of The Art of Showing Up: How to Be There for Yourself and Your People, a new book in which she stresses that you can’t fully show up for the people in your life until you know how to do the same for yourself. Read more ›
This year has given many of us a whole new understanding of solitude — whether we wanted it or not.
Being alone has been on our minds — and on the minds of experimental psychologists, too. Over the past few years, researchers have devoted significant study to the concept of solitude — its potential benefits, its role in our lives, even its basic definition.
So, here are a few takeaways from their recent work — with an eye toward how you can make solitude a healthy practice in your life. Read more ›
You know that being kind to others is good for the recipient (obviously), but did you know that it’s also good for the giver, too? Yep, that’s right. Being kind to others will improve your mental, emotional and physical well-being. Read more ›
Missing social contacts and altered routines, disturbed sleep and eating habits can be particularly intense for the kids with developmental challenges. Read more ›
Diverse BookFinder (DBF) is a comprehensive collection of children’s picture books featuring Black and Indigenous people and People of Color (BIPOC). Read more ›
Positive social connections with people at all stages in life help ensure healthy development, physically, socially, and emotionally. As children transition to adolescence and start to spend less time with parents and siblings, friendships with peers become an increasingly important source of these social connections. Read more ›
