Teaching kindergarten students how to manage stress The kindergar ten students of today sure are lucky. Not only do they have access to a plethora of digital resources and innovative learning spaces, but children at the Ottawa Catholic School Board are learning under a new approach designed to encourage self-awareness. And when a child is calm and aler t, that child is ready to learn.

When children face stress on a regular basis, they’re not able to access the thinking part of their brain. They need a way to identify their stress, and be provided with a way to calm themselves and be alert before they are ready to learn.

This marks the second year that the school board has integrated Social Emotional Learning (SEL) into its primary and junior classrooms.The new, more current way of looking at behaviour focuses on prevention and self-regulation.

Mar y Gallagher, OCSB’s Chief Social Worker and the lead of the school board’s official SEL Team, helps guide classroom educators with the SEL philosophy.

This was the founding philosophy that guided OCSB staff to implementing the SEL strategy, based on Dr. Stuart Shanker’s seminal book, Calm, Alert, and Learning.

Self-regulation, typically well known in preschools and childcare centres, is a relatively new concept for school students.

“If a child is stressed, they respond in one of three ways: flee, fight, or freeze. Children need varied amounts of time in order to recoup the energy they used responding to this stress. Bringing balance back to their behaviour helps them deal with other stressors they might face during the day.”

Since children are not always the best at revealing their emotions when asked, the SEL model teaches students to recognize and label their emotional state. While taking a moment to examine their own behaviour, they are provided with a wide variety of options to help them renew a state of calmness. Children expend a significant amount of energy when they are responding to stress, particularly in the kindergarten years, when everything is new.

Erin Trudel-Best, a member of the OCSB psychology staff, says: “We’re asking educators to be detectives to determine if this is misbehaviour or if children are in that stress-response mode and are simply reacting. We’re asking educators to determine the antecedent of the behaviour; for example, hunger, anxiety, fear, tiredness.” Once the cause of the behaviour has been established, teachers, educational assistants, and early childhood educators are making concerted efforts to help children mitigate or deal with the stress.

Determining the root cause of the stress For generations, parents have been excusing their child’s behaviour with: “he’s just tired” or “she’s just hungry.” And rightly so.

Reducing the stress from the learning environment While classroom educators nurture the emotional relationships with their students, the SEL approach addresses environmental stressors as well, such as noise or light. Kindergarten classrooms of OCSB schools might be equipped with sound-absorbing materials like curtain dividers and carpets. Tables may be set up in a

non-traditional configuration. There may be a couch, a chair, and a plant in the centre of the classroom. Lights may be on a dimmer switch. There are quiet, private areas to help children develop self-regulation. There is scheduled quiet time, and much more. The Conscious Discipline Program is in its sixth year in OCSB kindergarten classrooms, as part of the approach to developing self-regulation, and it has resonated extremely well with parents. “The learning environment is to be viewed as the third teacher,” says Colleen MacDonald, OCSB Coordinator of Elementary Student Success, Early Years. “The classroom environment looks different. It is coconstructed with the children. The educators no longer decorate elaborately at the beginning of the school year. The classroom is minimally set up and children have a voice from where things are placed to creating artifacts for the walls, revealing their thinking.” The new SEL approach is helping create a positive emotional learning space for OCSB students, and aligns beautifully with the faith development that the school board offers. It is currently being used in the elementary grades, and will eventually go all the way to Grade 12. It is difficult to deny that the benefits of this new way of learning in kindergarten will have long-lasting effects on a child’s entire educational journey. This is a model where children feel that they are a part of the school family, and they are safe to take risks, fail, and try again.

Kindergarten –

Brody can retreat to his kindergarten classroom’s self-regulation space, or “The Safe Place,” at any time to identify his feelings with emoticons on a small felt bulletin board. He can then choose how he will deal with the stressor. He might choose to read a book, make a pretend phone call to someone to talk it out, or do some calming breathing exercises.

Photo: Ottawa Catholic School Board

where dreams take off Kindergarten registration opens January 16, 2017

ocsb.ca/kinder