[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]When I started working on this presentation weeks ago, I could never imagine that this topic would be so relevant today. In this presentation, I discuss how stress affects children’s’ behavior and how we, adults, could act in those situations in order to support children effectively.
My primary goal was to look at the science and provide an understanding of how our brain responds to stress and anything that is really threatening in our environment. We all have some partial understanding of stress, which is, unfortunately, largely shaped by what we read in the social media. When we think of stress, we usually think of things such as money stress, social stress, time. Those are stressors and there is no doubt about it. We are all under an awful stress load. Our children are and we, as parents, are. Reflecting on the current situation with 2019-nCov affecting the whole world, affecting our daily lives, the education systems, the economy and, undoubtedly, our wellbeing, there is no doubt that this is an additional major stressor.
While going through this uncertain journey, we should be mindful and try to understand the various connections between obvious stress and also hidden stress that our children might exhibit, that ourselves might exhibit. What might be a stressor for one child or one adult, might not be a stressor for the others, because we are all different, behave differently and respond differently to stress. We say that behavior is communication and I am sure that our children and people in our environments would express those strong emotions such as fear, agony, anger, frustration, boredom in different ways and, more now than ever before, we are called to act in our optimal parenting skills. To stand strong, exhibit calmness and help children go through this new reality. In order to do that, we should respond the new normal, pause, breathe, embrace fear and anxiety and try to connect with our children and create stronger relationships. We should give them permission to feel and experience strong emotions and we should be super brave and let them observe us navigating through our own feelings.
To guide us through this, Self-Reg, which is a powerful method for understanding stress and managing energy levels, takes us through five basic steps. Join me in this presentation to find out more about the science, the steps and effective ways to deal with stress.
Klelia Antoniou
Head of Learning Support
March 30, 2020
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