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U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy recently warned of the increased rates of depression, anxiety, ADHD and suicide attempts in today’s youth. As an elementary school psychologist, I assess students’ social-emotional needs to enhance their mental health and positive behavior. Starting my profession at the peak of the pandemic allowed me to see that children’s distress and trauma were exacerbated. Mental health stigmas persist, nevertheless it’s vital to handle children’s challenges to avoid one other crisis.

The Omicron variant threatens to further derail stability in schools, as distant learning may develop into obligatory again to quell the pandemic’s latest wave. With this, educators already sense the challenges ahead. This time last 12 months, teachers grappled with the right way to navigate latest technology, and families struggled to take care of a semblance of order.

My work, primarily with low-income children of color and youngsters with disabilities (two populations disproportionately affected by the pandemic and mental health difficulties), highlighted the systemic barriers many faced.

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Food, job, housing and political insecurity contributed to a way of isolation and stress. Inconsistent online logins impacted students’ ability to retain the curriculum, particularly those with special education services, equivalent to speech and language, students’ occupational and physical therapy and counseling.

Targeted academic interventions, geared toward students already struggling to remain on grade level, were paused. Standardized testing for specific disabilities was cautionary, but social-emotional and behavioral support for all students and their families skyrocketed. 

After months of fixing from distant to hybrid models, most students have returned full-time. Based on the National Institute of Health, greater than 140,000 school-aged children lost caregivers to COVID-19.

Some kindergartners and first graders have never been a part of an in-person class. Teaching basic social and pre-academic skills equivalent to sharing, social distancing and sitting accurately in a chair for an prolonged time period were paramount. School-based high-quality motor skills, equivalent to handwriting, coloring and cutting were difficult. Because the 12 months progressed, difficulties with emotional regulation and social problem solving escalated.

Photos Courtesy of Student Therapist M. Amal

Schools felt the simultaneous increase of disruptive behavior, struggles to remain focused and collective grief or burnout from educators who worked tirelessly over the past two years.

As children return from winter break, I reflect on how the pandemic compounds the struggles related to youth growth and development. Learning healthy social skills, problem solving and reasoning, self-advocacy and coping are fundamental elements that a secure, structured school environment can provide with in-person modeling and reinforcement. While some children thrived remotely, others’ risk of difficulties and delays intensified without the routines and expectations of a traditional school day.

School-based mental health clinicians offer students evidence-based and culturally conscious strategies to support their wellbeing. Families may implement these to assist instill the tools obligatory for all times’s challenges.

1. Acknowledge

Foremost, acknowledge that “negative” emotions equivalent to sadness, worry and anger are normal and experienced by all. State that it’s okay to feel these emotions and encourage the flexibility to make positive decisions that help us cope with them.

2. Techniques

 Teach a multisensory deep respiratory exercise as a coping strategy and approach to give pause. An example is “birthday respiratory,” where the person’s hands rest on their stomach they usually inhale/exhale while visualizing blowing out a birthday cake. One other technique is “take five respiratory,” where one hand is prolonged like a star while the alternative finger traces up and down the fingers, coinciding with deep breaths. All the time practice this while calm as a way of remembering it when stressed.

3. Encourage Critical Pondering

To have interaction in problem-solving and self-awareness, encourage serious about the “size of the issue.” Children learn that their reactions should ideally match the severity of the issue versus getting stuck specializing in the negative emotions related to it.

4. Emphasize Workflow

To assist with attention and work completion, offer motor breaks and set goals on how much work needs to be finished in a given time. Encourage using self-talk to work through the steps of an issue and designate specific workspaces devoid of distractions.

5. Check in Each day

Check in with children day by day to construct their emotional vocabulary. Have them reply in an “I-statement” form, stating how they feel and why.

6. Emphasize a Support System

Advocate to children that you simply are there for them all the time, despite mistakes and frustrations. Tell them that it’s a learning process and it will be significant to maintain trying even when our emotions change and we don’t feel 100%.

Optimistically, all children are able to constructing resilience. They take their emotional cues, from reframing negative thoughts to showing empathy and admitting wrongdoing, from the individuals around them. It’s a two-fold responsibility that adults throughout the home and college environments collaborate in, promoting a society-wide effort of positive youth mental health. It’s time to combat the negative connotations surrounding mental health and offer children the support, resources and positive role models every time needed.

Priya Deonarine

Priya D. Deonarine, M.S, NCSP, is the quintessential Pisces who has been dramatically shaped by her experiences and emotions. She believes in forming deep relationships and community, advocating for quite a lot of societal causes, and continually learning about identity. An avid lover of all things escapism from beauty to badminton, Priya knew from a young age that she desired to help others. Service quickly became the right medium to learn more about herself. Currently, she is a faculty psychologist working in an urban elementary school and is keen about areas connected to public policy, equality, and mental health.