~ Elementary ~ SEL & Wellness

The Struggle Is Real

It is heartbreaking and frustrating for parents to witness the struggles their children who suffer from ADHD face in school. They:

• want to move, but they're expected to sit quietly.
• can't concentrate, but they need to finish the assignment.
• have a hard time remembering instructions, and their teacher thinks they're not listening.
• have a messy desk, and they can't find their pencil or the homework they struggled to get through the night before.
• want to make friends, but that's another lesson that took place while they were distracted.
• strive to do well – but they just can't figure out how.

It seems like school asks them to be everything they are not. So what can we do to ensure our children have a chance at school success with ADHD? How can we ensure we are communicating and working with teachers?

Communicate with Teachers to Ensure School Success with ADHD

Schools can help support your children and work with them to achieve academic success. There are two supports – 504 Plans and IEPs – which offer more formalized structures that can be put into place. The key, whether your child is on one of these plans or not, is creating a relationship with your child’s teacher. It is being able to say, “What can reasonably be done in the classroom to help my child? What can we do at home to reinforce what you are doing there? How can we support him from both directions?” Get with your child’s teacher to see what you might be able to do as a team to help your child.

Realistic Expectations when Communicating with Teachers

It is important to set expectations for our children based on where they are, not where we hoped they would be. What can they do at this developmental stage, and how can we help them in the areas they struggle with? It is about raising the bar – high enough for them to strive but not so high that they give up hope. While communicating with teachers may feel challenging, and schools can sometimes seem like an adversary, they are filled with allies, professionals who can help support your child – and you – as you figure out what works best for your child so they can achieve school success despite having ADHD.

What Is Bullying?

It's bullying if:

• One person is hurting another with unwanted words or behavior, and
• the person being hurt has a hard time making it stop.
• The behavior is repeated or has the potential to be repeated.
• The kids who are doing it have more power. *“Power” can mean the person bullying is older, bigger or stronger, more popular, has access to embarrassing information or there’s a group of kids who “gang up” on someone.

The link below is from Pacer, which has excellent information on bullying. Sharing this with your child could make a difference - whether her or she has been bullied, has bullied someone else, or has just seen it happen to someone else. The second link is a quiz that your child can take to see what they have learned about bullying.

Quiz

https://www.pacer.org/bullying/classroom/pdf/kab-pop-quiz.pdf

Research shows that bullying can begin in preschool and that adults play an important role in prevention and intervention. Bullying is the repeated actions or threats, by a person or persons who are perceived to have more power or status than the targeted individuals, with the intent to cause fear, distress or harm.

Bullying occurs in various forms among young children including hitting or punching, teasing or name-calling, intimidation through gestures, social exclusion and damaging a person’s belongings. While some people may view bullying as “just a part of growing up,” this behavior can have detrimental consequences.

Bullying has the potential to escalate into more serious incidents of violence if left unchecked. The targets of bullying may be more likely than other children to have lower self-esteem and higher rates of loneliness, depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. Additionally, school attendance, academic achievement and emotional and physical health may suffer as a result of bullying. Research shows some of these emotional effects to be lasting and even carried over to adulthood.

The adults in young children’s lives can do a lot to prevent and respond to bullying. To get you started, below are some tips:

• Take the issue of name-calling and teasing seriously.
• Be a role model and do not gossip or engage in bullying behaviors. Children will interpret it as permission to behave similarly.
• Work with children to so they know all children deserve to be safe.
• When you see name-calling and teasing occurring, acknowledge it and point out that being the target of these incidents can be painful. Avoid downplaying what children say they are feeling or experiencing.
• Develop an action plan to ensure children know what to do when they observe an incident of name-calling or bullying. Help children move from being bystanders to taking action.
• Implement strategies to increase children’s reporting of bullying such as taking time to listen and letting children know you are available to talk to them and to discuss issues they want to raise. Encourage children who are involved or witness name-calling or bullying to talk to you or another adult.
• Avoid blaming the target of bullying. Reinforce that the incident is not the targeted child’s fault. Help other children offer words of kindness and support to targets of bullying.
• Provide children who engage in bullying behaviors with opportunities to discuss these behaviors and help them to develop more effective strategies for managing peer relationships such as cooperative learning and conflict resolution skills.

Red Ribbon Week is celebrated annually and highlights the importance of living a drug-free life. It presents an opportunity for parents, educators, and communities to reinforce the drug-free messages they share with their children throughout the year. Each year, during Red Ribbon Week, more than 80 million young people and adults show their commitment to a healthy, drug-free lifestyle by wearing or displaying the red ribbon.

Michael DeLeon, from the Steered Straight Program, came to Cuero on 08-14-23 and spoke with 4th-12 graders. He also presented to parents and the community that evening. Each presentation was geared toward the age specific audience.

Michael discusses the biggest threats to families including the "Tri-Fecta Gateway": marijuana legalization and commercialization, the e-cigarette and vaping trends and the digital relationship to substance use and abuse.

Michael will introduce the most underutilized medical breakthrough in America today called Pharmacogenetic testing, a scientific breakthrough that shows parents exactly how the body individually and uniquely metabolizes medications. The science will literally end trial-and-error prescribing in America.

You might ask yourself, why do I need to know about drugs and vaping, because my child is in elementary school? Well, knowledge is power, and during each of the Steered Straight presentations to 4-12th graders, a large percentage in each group raised their hands saying they knew of an elementary school student who was not only vaping but addicted to vaping.

Please click on the link below to watch Michael DeLeon's presentation on the truth about drugs. It is well worth your time. It was very eye opening for many adults watching the presentation.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IPZ_pNYtueKXM4VV3rnP2Im7fi_iV-Q5/view

Take a moment right now and think about when your family sits down together to eat a meal—is it something that happens frequently or a rare occurrence? Is a TV usually on? Do you all sit and linger or does everyone hurry in and hurry out to continue whatever they were doing?

The family meal has become a bit of a lost art in the modern age, where life moves at breakneck speed, everyone is glued to a screen, long work schedules have to be juggled, and activities and other commitments fill up the “off” hours.

Whether your family is just two people or ten, eating together at the table should be a priority because it offers more benefits than most people realize. Family meals do not have to be extravagant or consist of complicated dishes; it is less about what is on the table than who is at the table.

Why eat together?

Besides the obvious fact that family time is important for bonding, here are other research-backed benefits to eating together:

Physical health:

• Meals tend to be more balanced and nutritious, containing the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables.
• People eat slower and talk more, which allows more time for digestion and helps prevent overeating because there is more time to recognize fullness.
• Kids who eat with their family are exposed to a wider variety of foods and tend to become less picky.

Mental and emotional health:

• It is much-needed time to catch up, reconnect, and find out what is happening in your children’s lives. This builds closer bonds and you recognize potential issues your children may be having.
• Through this time together, kids build greater self-esteem and parents are able to role model healthy behaviors, whether it is choosing nutritious foods or problem solving a conflict.
• Kids and teens who eat family meals may earn higher grades in school, experience fewer symptoms of depression, and are less likely to engage in high-risk behaviors, like drug use.
• For kids in early childhood, family meals help develop language and social skills.
• One final benefit? It saves money—potentially quite a bit, depending on how frequently your family eats outside the home.

Make the most of family meals

Here are some tips for getting even more out of family meals:

• Share the responsibilities among the whole family: food prep, table setting, and clean-up.
• Let everyone choose his or her own seats.
• Keep the screens in another room.
• If they cannot happen frequently, set a schedule for which nights you will all eat together, and keep to the schedule.
• If dinners are too hard, try family breakfasts or weekend lunches.

Do you have free time this weekend? Take the kids shopping with you to help pick out items they would like to eat for an upcoming family meal—then enjoy your time together!

It is that time of the year again when we see many princesses, ninjas, witches, fairies, bumblebees and police officers walking the streets of Cuero! We want to make sure that all of our children are safe if they decide to go trick-or-treating this year. Whether you are trick-or-treating with your child or not, here are some good safety tips.

Walk Safely

• Take a cell phone when possible in case there is an emergency.
• Cross the street at corners, using traffic signals and crosswalks. Look both ways when crossing the street.
• Put electronic devices down, keep heads up and walk, do not run, across the street.
• Teach children to make eye contact with drivers before crossing in front of them.
• Always walk on sidewalks or paths. If there are no sidewalks, walk facing traffic as far to the left as possible.
• Children should walk on direct routes with the fewest street crossings.
• Watch for cars that are turning or backing up. Teach children to never dart out into the street or cross between parked cars.
• Join your children under age 12 for trick-or-treating.
• If children are mature enough to be out without supervision, tell them to stick to familiar areas that are well lit and trick-or-treat in groups of three or more.
• Never, ever go into a stranger’s home – even for candy!
• Children need to let their parents know where they are at all times.
• Children need a specific curfew and have a watch or phone to know what time it is.
• Tell your children not to eat any candy until they get home and you can inspect it.
• A good rule of thumb is to only go to people’s houses whose lights are on.

Costumes for a Safe Halloween

• Decorate costumes and bags with reflective tape and choose light colors when possible.
• Choose face paint and makeup instead of masks. Masks can obstruct a child’s vision.
• Have children carry glow sticks or flashlights to help them see and be seen by drivers.
• When selecting a costume, make sure it is the right size to prevent trips and fall.
• Make sure the costumes are not too long so the child does not trip on them.
• Make sure that children dress for the weather. They can always layer up if it gets cool.

Have a wonderful and SAFE Halloween!

TCHATT (Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine) provides telemedicine or tele-heath programs to children within Cuero ISD. TCHATT also helps to identify and assess the behavioral health needs of children and adolescents and provide access to mental health services. Cuero ISD is proud to be part of this program that helps students get access to mental health treatment and resources.

Ruby Rodriguez, M.Ed. ~ Director of Special Programs

Kathy F. Scott, LMSW ~ Elementary School Climate Specialist

Courtney Schacherl, M.S., LPC ~ Junior High School Climate Specialist

Lacy Timpone, M.Ed., LPC ~ High School School Climate Specialist

Website: www.cueroisd.org
Location: 960 East Broadway Street, Cuero, TX, USA
Phone: 3612751900
Facebook: facebook.com/cueroisd/