Deeper Dive
Mental Health
Children’s Mental Health Fact Sheets
Free mental health fact sheets are provided and are free for non-commercial use. The fact sheets include information on the most common mental health disorders in youth, classroom strategies, and additional resources. Note: You will be asked to accept a usage agreement, and then you can download them in PDF form.
Trauma
How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime
Childhood trauma is not something you just get over as you grow up. Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect, and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on brain development. This unfolds across a lifetime to the point where those who have experienced high levels of trauma are at triple the risk for heart disease and lung cancer. An impassioned plea is presented for pediatric medicine to confront the prevention and treatment of trauma head-on.
Childhood Trauma and Its Effect on Health
This National Center for Safe Schools Healthy Students Report defines trauma, discusses trauma from a developmental perspective, and shares information related to risk, resilience, and protective factors related to trauma.
What Does the Flat Face Experiment Teach us About Connection
Humans are born ready for connection. How they are parented has long-term and ongoing effects on their functioning. The effects of one’s early life can trigger a cascade of changes genetically, cognitively, socially, and physically, which can have either positive or negative lifelong consequences. The “still face” experiment is a powerful study that shows the human need for connection from very early on in life. Dr. Ed Tronick developed this experiment in the 1970s. The still-face experiment gives insight into how a parent’s reactions can affect a baby’s emotional development. Early in people’s lives, they learn about other people’s reactions and how their behavior can affect others. This experiment provides insight into what it is like when a connection does not occur.
This guide provides information and resources to promote mental health and social and emotional well-being among children and students. This resource highlights seven key challenges to providing school- or program-based mental health support across early childhood, K–12 schools, and higher education settings, and presents seven corresponding recommendations. This resource includes real-world examples of how schools, communities, and states can implement the recommendations.
Mental Health America’s Back to School Toolkit, Facing Fears, Supporting Students
This resource is available in English and Spanish and contains multiple fact sheets (e.g., how trauma impacts school performance; supporting students facing trauma) and worksheets (e.g., preparing to share).
Responding to Trauma and Tragedy
Minnesota’s Department of Education resource page includes educator tip sheets and contacts that can support those in a mental health crisis.
Culture
Ending Student Criminalization and the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Black students are pushed out of school, arrested, and funneled into the justice system at alarmingly disproportionate rates, despite research confirming that Black students do not misbehave at higher rates than their White peers. This piece looks at the causes and offers solutions.
Why Black Girls are Targeted for Punishment at School – and How to Change That
Around the world, Black girls are being pushed out of schools because of policies that target them for punishment, says author and social justice scholar, Monique W. Morris. The result: countless girls are forced into unsafe futures with restricted opportunities. How can we put an end to this crisis? In an impassioned talk, Morris uncovers the causes of “pushout” and shows how people can work to turn all schools into spaces where Black girls can heal and thrive.
What Should Teachers Understand about Effective Classroom Behavior Management – Cultural Influences
Classroom Behavior Management (Part 1) Multimodal IRIS Center Module, p. 3.
Cultural Influences on Behavior
Lori Delale-O’Connor, Assistant Professor of Education at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, discusses cultural influences on behavior and explains the importance of re-examining classroom practices and perceptions of acceptable student behavior. She also discusses how demographic differences can lead to cultural gaps that negatively impact students and offers examples of how teachers can implement culturally sustaining practices to create inclusive classrooms where all students feel supported.
Cultural Considerations for Developing a Behavior Management Plan
Lori Delale O’Connor, Assistant Professor of Education at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, discusses why it is important for teachers to consider students’ cultures when developing a behavior management plan. She also explains how a thoughtful approach to student culture can help teachers create culturally responsive statements of purpose, develop unbiased rules, and deliver fair consequences.
This article highlights the value of creating an educational climate that fosters resilience, motivation, and capacity building among learners who have been marginalized. Drawing on First Nations’ teachings that encourage a holistic and affirming perspective of culturally diverse learners, the Circle of Courage model details how the four foundations of self-esteem (significance, competence, power, and virtue) can be applied in different contexts. Connecting with troubled youth positively helps them build emotional and social efficacy, and strategies that would improve teacher-student relationships are presented. The authors of this article have also published Reclaiming Youth at Risk.
Supporting Student Success
This module explores the basic principles of behavior and the importance of discovering why students engage in problem behavior. The steps to conducting a functional behavioral assessment and developing a behavior plan are also described (est. completion time: 2 hours).
Other positive behavioral interventions/supports
The following are research-based interventions and resources that could be considered for students with EBD (and other disabilities that impact behavior). Note: The need/appropriateness of the intervention should be based on FBA data
- Check-in/Check-out Behavior Intervention & PBIS
- Check and Connect: The Power of a Caring Adult in a Student’s Life
- Behavior-Specific Praise
- Group Contingencies Tip Sheet
- What is Peer-Mediated Instruction and Intervention?
- Self-Management Strategies
- Video Modeling
- Social Skills Lesson Template