A message from Melissa Sutton, one of our panel experts from our November conference event who is the Program Coordinator for Conscious Discipline and the BehaviorHelp team in Arkansas:
During times of uncertainty, it’s helpful to remember that children may be experiencing the same fears or anxieties that we are experiencing as adults. Children’s social emotional well-being can be supported by social story books and playful connecting games. These nurturing activities can help children feel safe and strengthen relationships.
The school family is an important part of a young child’s daily experience, and disruptions to this relationship and routine for any reason can be hard. We saw a need through BehaviorHelp referrals for a supportive resource and realized all children can use a social story to support them during the upcoming holidays as well as with the possibility they may be sent home in a matter of hours due to Covid-19. A number of teachers had expressed their concern about having to send their children home with no warning and no knowledge of when they would return back in March. It is our hope this resource supports these and all young children in need of a connection with their school family.
We encourage you to share this social story book with BehaviorHelp teachers, as well as other teachers, administrators, colleagues, and families. The goal is for teachers to share this social story book with children numerous times throughout the day to build that positive memory and experience for children, which the children can then take home and reenact with their family or maybe even alone.
I want to thank Leslie Corbell. We came up with the idea and she quickly made it a wonderful social story. Many thanks also to Mark Currey at UAMS for his assistance with the design of the final product.
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You can find two versions of this social story on our website via the links below:
PowerPoint: https://arkansasearlychildhood.org/my-wishing-heart/
PDF: https://arkansasearlychildhood.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/My-Wishing-Heart.pdf
We would love to hear how you use these in your settings!
BehaviorHelp: https://www.behaviorhelponline.org/
Conscious Discipline in Arkansas: https://www.facebook.com/consciousdisciplineinarkansas
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