This 2.5-hour course will introduce how emotional health is defined, why it is important, key relationships that influence young children’s emotional development, and the components of emotional health, including temperament styles.
The session will be interactive and thought-provoking, with participants actively completing activities to explore their own temperament style, and making a toolbox of activity cards that can guide children’s emotional development.
If you have children in your care who are aggressive, have sleep difficulty, under-developed play skills or difficulty managing their energy level, you likely have a child who cannot self-regulate. Young children who have developed self-regulation find it easier to take turns, make friends, adapt to routines, follow rules, and problem solve. In this course, you will understand what self-regulation is, what areas of difficulty are most frequently seen in children with self-regulation concerns, and the strategies you can implement to help children control their mood, calm themselves, and handle change.
Content Developed by: Caroline Gooden and Julie Kraska
Target Audience: Early Care and Education providers
This 3-hour course will introduce you to the general characteristics of children with Down syndrome, outline what inclusion means, and then describe how you can include children with Down syndrome in your early care and education setting.
? In this test, consider the question and choose the best response. You can complete the quiz only once, and this does not count toward your final grade.
This 1-hour course is an introduction to understanding self-regulation in young children.
Content Developed by: Caroline Gooden and Julie Kraska
Target Audience: Early Care, intervention and Education providers
This 2.5 hour course will introduce how emotional health is defined, why it is important, key relationships that influence young children’s emotional development, and the components of emotional health, including temperament styles.
This 1-hour course is an introduction to creating accessible spaces for children with special needs in early care settings. The course includes interactive, low budget ideas for successfully integrating children with special needs in all areas and activities. This course explores various ways to improve room arrangement for inclusive activities.
Content developed by: Kim Gipson and Caroline Gooden, Human Development Institute, University of Kentucky.
Sponsored by: Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Division of Child Care and the Franklin Porter Graham Institute, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.
This course will introduce you to the general characteristics of children with Down syndrome, outline what inclusion means, and then describe how you can include children with Down syndrome in your early care and education setting.
This online course includes ideas for creating an inclusive classroom, modifying the curriculum and making accommodations, developing different strategies for reading, writing, and math, encouraging independence, and incorporating technology.
Families also foster resiliency when they demonstrate high expectations.
Families also foster the development of resiliency when they expect and provide opportunities for participation.
Children that succeed in spite of their circumstances – those that survive “at risk” environments and trauma – have the characteristic of resiliency.
Like the balls that you are bouncing, these children have the ability to “bounce back.” They have the ability to recover from or adjust easily to difficult circumstances, change, etc.
Resilient children are more likely to become healthy competent adults in spite of being “at risk.”
Resilient children are less vulnerable, more stress-resistant and hardy even though they may be living in a high stress environment.
Resilient children are less likely to become involved with tobacco, alcohol or drugs.
You might be wondering, “What does a resilient child look like?” And “What makes a child resilient?”
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, 1983
Resilient children have learned to …
Like themselves
Trust themselves and others
Be autonomous
Be hopeful
Help themselves
And feel comfortable asking for help
Feel like life has meaning
Be a problem solver
Gain positive attention
A resilient child has developed specific attributes or characteristics. For example:
A resilient child has developed social competence. He/she is responsive and flexible in social situations; has empathy and understanding, good communication skills and a sense of humor.
A resilient child has also developed problem-solving skills. He/she can think abstractly and reflectively; and is willing to try different solutions for cognitive and social problems.
A resilient child has developed a sense of autonomy (independence). He/she is able to act independently and believes that he/she has the ability to exert some control over the environment; a feeling of confidence that the environment is predictable and things will work out.
And last but not least, a resilient child has a sense of purpose and future. He/she has healthy expectations, goal-directedness; a success orientation; educational aspirations; persistence; hopefulness; and a belief in a bright future
It may be easier to understand this idea of resiliency if you can identify some resilient people who have risen above the “at risk” environments of their childhood.
Using the handout:
From Risk to Resiliency – Who Am I?
The answer to this question has to do with something that researchers refer to as “protective factors.”
Protective factors can be thought of as protection from the “storm” of risks we discussed earlier.
Protective factors come from 3 sources – child, family, and community/school.
It might be helpful to think of protective factors as the items children wear to protect themselves from a rainstorm. Add slide
Some protective factors come from within the child and are like the child’s rain boots.
Some protective factors come from the child’s family and are like the child’s rain jacket.
Some protective factors come from the child’s community and/or school and are like using an umbrella.
Though these factors may not completely protect the child from getting “wet” (being negatively affected by risks), all of these factors (rain gear) combined will keep child much “drier” (e.g. protected from risks).
When the child gets wet (negatively affected by risks), the three protective factors enhance the child’s ability to dry off quickly and “bounce” back into the sunshine.
These are some of the protective factors that counteract the risk factors, tipping the scale in the child’s favor.
Insert slide of network
This network or CRADLE of protective factors help to shelter the child.
Caring/support, high expectations, and meaningful participation needs to occur in all environments (community, school, family)
We are going to focus on ways you can foster child resilience within the family.
Adapted from Fostering Resiliency in Kids, Benard, 1991
See the following resources for more information about protective factors:
Fostering Resiliency in Children: http://resilnet.uiuc.edu/library/benard95.html
Fostering Resiliency in Children and Youth: Four Basic Steps for Families, Educators, and Other Caring Adults: http://www.ccsme.org/data/monographs/HendersonResiliencyAdolescents.pdf
