(-: Welcome to The Well :-)
My name is Kelly Korach and I am a School Psychologist in Eugene School District 4J. This is a
wellness resource for the whole school community, including charter schools!!
I hope you will visit now and then for timely (and timeless) tips and resources to promote
WELLness for your child(ren) - and yourselves!
ROUTINES, BRAIN BREAKS & CALM CORNERS
ROUTINES: THE HEALTHY MIND PLATTER & SETTING UP FOR SUCCESS
Some days, everything is goes well in our homes, positive attitudes abound, and we have the flexibility to respond well to our own emotions and support each other. Other days, it feels like we are fighting an uphill battle all day with conflicts and frustrations. The biggest difference between the two can be as simple as this: following a routine that is proactive in including all essential activities in our day.
- Routines have far-reaching psychological benefits, reducing depression, anxiety, stress, ADHD symptoms, and more.
- Routines help ensure you do things well. Routines are things you can do well to boost your confidence to tackle other tasks.
- Routines help ensure we make time for what is important to us.
- Routines help orient our body and mind to the activity at hand, increasing focus, engagement, and efficiency.
- Routines are typically done more than once and followed each time you engage in the same sequence of activities (routines for self-calming need to be practiced and familiar, but might not be used daily)
When setting up routines with your family, think about activities your follow within your day (i.e., getting ready for the day, when preparing to leave the house, etc.).
When developing a routine, consider the following questions:
- What steps are needed to complete the activity? Do they need to be completed in a specific order?
- What prompts or reminders may be helpful for competing the routine successfully?
The "Healthy Mind Platter," created by Dr. Dan Siegel, includes 7 mental activities that are essential for optimal brain development: Focus Time, Play Time, Connecting Time, Physical Time, Time In, Down Time, and Sleep Time. When these activities are included within daily routines and schedules, we are typically more flexible, more able to focus our attention, and better at noticing (and regulating) our emotions.
When scheduling for the entire day, think about varying between the essential mental activities from the Healthy Mind Platter, alternating between focused and play time, physical and down times. Our brain needs the less structured and focused time to organize and make sense of the focused times; our brain is doing some great and essential work during this "down-time." Schedules can be arranged by doing certain activities at set times; schedules can also be a sequence of activities or tasks to complete during the day with some choice within the schedule. Let your child be part of that decision making!
All of our children are different. We all benefit from routine and structure, but while some children are fine with more flexibility with routines, others need (and depend on) more strict adherence to a schedule, or predictable sequence of events. Try taking a collaborative problem-solving approach with your child. Lay out the "must-do's" (expectations) and then collaborate to problem-solve and create a plan that works for everyone.
BRAIN BREAKS
Elementary students are expected to sustain engagement for about 10-15 minutes at a time. Even with a 30-minute lesson in the classroom, students are allowed (and expected) to have time when their focus and mind drifts and is not specifically oriented and focused on instruction. While middle and high school students are expected to sustain attention for longer periods, their brains (just like those of adults) still need these brain breaks.
Brain breaks are short breaks or changes in mental activity and focus. Brain breaks help break up monotonous or sustained tasks which deplete our attention and alertness over time. Brain breaks help re-energize our minds, making our thinking more efficient and our focus more sustained.
For an elementary school student, brain breaks should be provided for 3-5 minutes for every 10-15 minutes of concentrated attention. They may include standing up to take a short walk, stretching, singing a song, or sharing a joke. Also, when spending time at the computer, it is important to not only give the brain a break but the eyes as well. Looking away from the screen and into the distance every 20-30 minutes is recommended.
CALM CORNERS
Feeling blindsided or overwhelmed by emotion is not the time to learn a calming strategy or calming routine. Learning and practicing calming strategies and calming routines when in a calm and content mood makes accessing (and making use of) the strategies much easier when they are needed.
Sensory boxes and calm corners are used in some schools and may be helpful to prepare in the home as well. While some items will be specific to the child, a sensory box and calm corner will have essential items that could address multiple sensory modalities, methods of expression, and visual prompts. For example, at one school the calm corner boxes included play dough, glitter jars, paper and colored pencils, calming fidgets, and a visual calm book that included calming/breathing strategies, positive statements, and mood rating chart.
Essential elements of a calm corner:
- A space considered calming or soothing: may include pillow, beanbag, weighted blanket, etc.
- Feelings check-in and strategy menu and/or prompts
- Materials to use for calming tools/strategies (i.e., stuffed animals, chart of yoga poses, stress balls, music, etc.)
How to use:
- Talk with your child(ren)/family about what calms you when stressed and what you notice in your body that lets you know when you need to use calming strategies.
- As you talk about what calms you, ask your child what calms them.
- Create a calm corner space that is comfortable, easily accessible, and allows for some privacy and includes the items you identified together.
- Practice using the calm corner and materials when in a calm and content mood.
- When entering the calm corner, use a feeling check-in (visual chart) to note current emotion and what you are feeling
- Identify possible strategies (together, if possible) to help return to a calmer mood
- Engage in a strategy
- Check in (with feelings) and determine if ready to leave the calm corner and re-engage with the previous activity, or if continued calming time is needed.
Focus on Feelings with... "The Feeling Wheel"
Do you ever find yourself at a loss to narrow down how you're feeling in the moment?
Accurately naming our feelings is often a powerful first step toward healing from trauma or for letting go of toxic stress or negativity. Conversely, it also allows us to hone in on our positive feelings.
For children of all ages, developing a robust vocabulary to better express what they are feeling in the moment is a wonderful gift that is so powerful and affirming. Gloria Willcox created 'The Feeling Wheel" to help us do just that.
The Feeling Wheel is composed of an inner circle which corresponds to six primary feelings: mad, sad, scared, joyful, powerful, and peaceful. It also has two outer concentric circles identifying secondary feelings that relate to the primary ones.
Building an emotional vocabulary is empowering for a child and will improve their communication quality and outcomes making it more likely that they will be better understood when it matters most and that needs will be acknowledged - and met!
*The feeling wheel was created for the benefit of adults as well, so I recommend creating your own unique feeling wheel by selecting vocabulary that is appropriate for the age and developmental level of the child.
