Your Health: Schools and Your Child's Mental Health

And joining [music] us now to talk about your health are Kay Connors, a social worker at the University of Maryland Children's Hospital, and Anya Goodwin, a child and adolescent psychologist with the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Thank you both for for joining us. We're here to talk about mentally healthy school environments. Kay, what sort of environments are we hoping for for for every child, and what are we hoping to avoid? >> Thank you for having us, Jeff. It's really exciting to be here with my colleague, Dr. Goodwin. Uh we're excited to talk about three things that really are essential to children's health, and that really translates into also having a successful school year. So, when schools can really focus on reducing significant sources of stress in children's lives by really creating safe environments, uh that really sets kids up uh for success, but it also sets their brain into a state where they're ready to learn. And then they're better able to learn new skills, which is the exciting part of school, but it's also the part that can make you nervous. Um so, having your brain kind of in that zone, uh where you're ready to learn, uh is really important not just to success in school, but is actually important to children's health and their development. And then the third area is creating healthy relationships both with teachers and other kids and students, and that really helps you have a healthy relationship with yourself as well. Again, critical to children's mental health. >> Dr. Goodwin, your your perspective on this having worked in um schools as well as uh academic medicine. >> Yes. Yes. Thank thank you. Glad to be here. It is very important as Kay said to really create an environment that is safe for youth and thinking about the best ways to create that safe environment especially within classrooms and within the larger school building overall and turning more punitive practices into more restorative practices. So having safe environments even when children get in trouble. So instead of having like time out corner like a calm down corner or a trusted place for kids to go to talk about the concerns that are going on is definitely really important when you're thinking about a safe and supportive school environment. >> To To what degree do you think those practices are implemented? I mean it's it's pretty easy to have a time out corner. Go sit over there for a while and and something more restorative might also be more labor intensive, right? >> Mhm. Yep. Sometimes when you think about it it could be a little bit more labor intensive in the moment but it's definitely more helpful in the long term. Having those safe supportive environments is definitely reducing stress and having an environment where you're supporting the child's mental health and some of those punitive practices really could be a little bit more harmful or just not teaching the child what they need to learn in that moment of stress and in that moment of kind of like mental health concerns. So it is a little bit of a difference in practice but I think with time it definitely pays off. >> What age groups are we most focused on here and and whose idea was there there was a phrase of a success backpack? >> Well, I it's really these strategies are for children of all ages. And the more you can get these routines into school, particularly early on in the elementary school years, then as kids return each year and reestablish themselves in the new classroom, with the new teacher, with a new set of things to learn, they can fall back on those routines and start to manage those calm down practices themselves. And that's what really shows kind of growth in children, that they become they have the agency to know what they need to reset their clocks. >> Um if you could if you could have a few minutes with every elementary school kid in in the state, what what would you tell them? I mean, from a from a kid's perspective, what do you what do you want them to know? >> I think a lot of kids just want to be like listened to. Um a lot of the times there's this culture, I guess, sometimes where the adults are always right. And sometimes that's true and sometimes it's not. I work with a lot of children who just want to be listened to. And sometimes you are so in the routine of all of the things that you have to do and understanding that everybody is busy, but like just sitting down and actually understanding what's going on, where they're coming from. A lot of the kids are bringing in external stresses into the school and so it makes it really hard to be able to kind of understand what is going on with them. And sometimes in the elementary school age they don't have the words yet to say, "I'm sad because something bad happened yesterday." or don't have kind of like the developmental skills to bring that to you without you creating that safe space. >> That's a huge challenge. I'm even thinking about educators who have so much on their plate. We were just talking the other day about there's there's a new math instruction system and they they have all these kids and as you say they don't know everything about them and they play multiple roles in the in the classroom. Do we devote enough attention to school teachers and other professionals in the in the school system beyond a teaching certificate in terms of looking after the the kids mental health? >> Yet here at the university and um and really across this country my colleague Dr. Goodwin and others lead efforts to really focus on supporting and getting tools into the hands of teachers and educators and administrators. And I think they everyone has really the same goal in mind which is we need each teacher cuz they're unique. We need each kid in a classroom cuz they're unique. And the kids are are more than the sum of their grades or their sports accomplishments or or things like that that if we can create spaces for kids to try new things to have what we call a growth mindset so that kids are not so focused on the accomplishment but instead are are focused on the just the joy of learning something new. That really takes some of the pressure off and it lets each kid bring their skill to the classroom. I think it it allows teachers to to >> Okay, what do you what do you want Dr. Goodwin, please? >> Oh, sorry. Even when you're thinking about teachers and just promoting teacher well-being and investing as much as you can in mental health services that are accessible in schools and outside of schools so that way the onus is not just on the teacher cuz definitely understand that they already have a lot to do. Um but the more accessible that we make those ancillary supports such as the social work and outside um counseling and internal counseling and even just like peer support staff, anybody else in the building could also serve as these safe supportive role models for the kids. >> I'll ask both of you to weigh in on this, Dr. Goodwin first. What do you want parents to know so that they can be as as attuned as possible to what's going on with their their kids and what should they know about the the best way for them to help? Maybe you know, it's like standard issue playground disputes or something and as a parent you think I can't really fix this one. >> Yes, I'll start with the parents' role in the school and then I'll turn it over to Kay. I think that parents could just be um advocates for their children and what they want to see in the schools. Um I think the more that they get involved, the more that they kind of understand what's going on in the school environment and the more that they can actually speak to um the best ways to support the schools and the other way around, the schools have to create that space for the parents as well. >> Okay. >> Yeah, I agree that partnership with parents is really important and I think really helping parents build that trust with the teacher and the administrator so that they can then trust in their kid and let their kid try something new even fumble along the way so that they their kids can own their accomplishments. >> Are kids dealing with more anxiety these days than than when when I was young and how much of that has to do with the cell phone era. >> Yeah, those are two really good points. The research shows that there is an increase in um children's mental health concerns at mostly anxiety related, and some of it does correlate with the rise in cell phones, and some of it also correlates with the COVID time. So, during those times where kids were really missing those golden opportunities uh to learn those developmental skills related to social skills, um they were they really didn't have all the opportunities that that I would have had or even my kids would have had. Uh so, I think we have to pay careful attention, set up classrooms where there's more chances for kids to catch up on those social skills. >> Tell me about the concept of having a trusted adult at school, and um I imagine that's generally uh certainly for younger grades, the the home room teacher, and on day one you you probably don't have that. >> Yeah, I mean, I think it depends. Yeah, I think it depends on the age. Sometimes I think there are I think it might be harder in the high school range where there's a lot of people that you can connect with, but it's the opportunities. I've seen some schools um intentionally develop like models or like peer modeling or the senior super um models or supports the freshmen, or you have like a trusted adult program in your school. So, kind of helping to create those systems or environments, and then sometimes some kids get it as a part of their like accommodations in school, but I do think that it is important for schools to be intentional about creating those relationships the best way that they can, especially for the kids that are a little bit shyer, that won't go out and seek out those trusted adults in the building. And so, someone being able to come to them or organizing a program where it's available for all of the students, regardless of kind of like how socially in-depth you are, is important. >> Yeah, I love that idea of those intentional pathways that Dr. Goodwin mentioned, and that is also what the research has shown us for a very long time about child resilience, is that it's the children that are resilient, even children that have gone through very difficult times. Um the research shows that at least one trusted adult is what really helps them get through those times. >> How about another couple of trusted kids? I mean, the idea of a forming I mean, these can be lifetime relationships that you're forming at a very young age. Any Any words of wisdom for for parents to share with their kids on on how you overcome the little bumps in the road and and find your your group? >> Yeah, trust in your kids that they can work those things out, and give them the space to work that out. Also, the research shows that kids really need two to three really close friends. They might have other circles of friends, other people they're friends with and they do stuff with, but really having those real heart-to-heart talks with about two to three folks. So, giving them space for that, nurturing that at home, and even in a school setting, as well. >> Our thanks to K Conner, social [music] worker University of Maryland Golisano Children's Hospital, and Aja Goodwin, [music] child and adolescent psychologist with the University of Maryland School of Medicine. >> Your Health segments are a co-production of Maryland Public Television [music] and the University of Maryland Medical System.