Support for Parents & Educators
In this living blog, we will offer resources and tips to support parents and educators as they prepare for this unique and challenging school year. Updates will be posted to our Facebook and Instagram pages, as well as archived here for your ease of reference. Our hope is that together we can support the children we care about and support the health, safety, and well-being of our communities.
Helping Kids with Anxiety About Returning to School
In this video, Center for Connection Founder and Executive Director, Dr. Tina Payne Bryson (co-author of NY Times bestselling books, The Whole-Brain Child and No-Drama Discipline) talks about how parents can help kids experiencing anxiety about school. Also, parents might enjoy this read from the NY Times article on how to manage anxiety over back-to-school decisions.
Child & Masks: Tips for Helping Kids Who Struggle with Wearing a Mask
In this video, you'll hear from our amazing pediatric occupational therapist, Dr. Jamie Chaves, as she talks about supporting kids in wearing masks. She'll talk about some of the key factors to consider when a child is having difficulty with wearing a mask, and how to approach it from an understanding of a child's state of regulation and their relationship with you, as well as from a sensory perception perspective. It's part of a two-part discussion and we hope it helps. We'll post more videos to support parents and educators during this unique back-to-school season.
Child & Masks: Tips for Helping Kids Who Struggle with Wearing a Mask (continued)
In this video, pediatric occupational therapist, Dr. Jamie Chaves, will continue her discussion on supporting kids in wearing masks.
Seven Ways to Cope with Uncertainty
Here is a wonderful article from Greater Good Magazine: Science-Based Insights for a Meaningful Life. In it, Christine Carter (author of The New Adolescence: Raising Happy and Successful Teens in an Age of Anxiety and Distraction and The Sweet Spot: How to Accomplish More by Doing Less ) shares that uncertainty is hard. She writes that “…human beings crave information about the future in the same way we crave food, sex, and other primary rewards. Our brains perceive ambiguity as a threat, and they try to protect us by diminishing our ability to focus on anything other than creating certainty.”
Click here to keep reading and to learn more about the coping strategies she recommends (don’t resist, invest in yourself, find healthy comfort items, don’t believe everything you think, pay attention to your internal experience, and resist looking to someone else to save you).
Sending Your Teen to College During a Pandemic
In this video, Center for Connection Founder and Executive Director, Dr. Tina Payne Bryson (co-author of NY Times bestselling books, The Whole-Brain Child and No-Drama Discipline) talks about what parents can do to manage the feelings that come up when sending your kid to college in a pandemic.
Want more tips and strategies? Check back often as we’ll update this page throughout the month.
Need additional support?
Visit our Getting Started page to schedule a virtual parenting consultation from one of our team members or learn about our other services (Occupational Therapy, Assessment, Educational Therapy, Psychotherapy, Play Therapy, Speech and Language Therapy, and more—tele-health services available for most services).