| Two
sites from the National Association of School Psychologists which
may be of some help today in your school. Children and Responding
to National Disaster Information for Children (for
educators) Helping
Children Cope with Tuesday's Act of Terrorism
In Southern New Jersey
These are general resources that can be used by parents, teachers, and other caregivers to help children through these difficult days. The following websites have useful information: *The Parent Center: *American Academy of Pediatrics: *American Psychological Association: APA's Helping web-site includes a web page entitled How Therapy Helps: Managing Traumatic Stress: Tips for Recovering From Disasters and Other Traumatic Events that contains information on What happens to people after a disaster or other traumatic event? How do people respond differently over time? How should I help myself and my family? How do I take care of childrens special needs? When should I seek professional help? and How may I use APA as a resource? *American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: Some general advice from the experts includes: 1. Continuously reassure your children that you will help to keep them safe. 2. Turn off the TV. Overexposure to the media can be traumatizing. If your older children are watching the news, be sure to watch with them. 3. Be aware that your child's age will affect his or her response. Adolescents in particular may be hard hit by these kinds of events. Obtaining counseling for a child or adolescent soon after a disaster may reduce long-term effects. 4. Calmly express your emotions, but remember that a composed demeanor will provide a greater sense of security for your child. 5. Give your children extra time and attention and plan to spend more time with your children in the following months. 6. Let your children ask questions, talk about what happened, and express their feelings. 7. Play with children who can't talk yet to help them work out their fears and respond to the atmosphere around them. 8. Keep regular schedules for activities such as eating, playing and going to bed to help restore a sense of security and normalcy. 9. Consider how you and your
child can help. Children are better able to regain their sense of
power and security if they feel they can help in some way.
Resources For Teachers, Parents And All Adults With Children In Their Lives *National Association
of School Psychologists (NASP)
*Educators for Social
Responsibility (ESR)
*United States Department
of Education
*Center for Mental Health
Services (CMHS)
*PrepareRespondRecover
*National Education Association
(NEA)
*National Parent Teacher
Association (PTA)
*The Learning Network
*National Center for PTSD
(NCPTSD)
|
For
those of you returning to school today I thought you might find the resources
below useful to talking with your students and helping them deal with this
crisis. Please note that some of the sites may not load quickly do
to the increased traffic that many news sites are experiencing.
*CNN Education Site (provides advice from counselors) *New York Times - Learning Network (lesson plans that go along with current news articles) *Education Week - School and Crisis Resources *National Education Association - Crisis Communication Guide and Toolkit In response to our recent tragedy, here are some thoughts for helping both children and adults deal with this situation. 1. Use extreme sensitivity when discussing the terrorist attacks. Depending on the age of the child, discuss the incidents at their cognitive level. Preschoolers might not understand the final nature of the tragedy. 2. Talk about what's real and what's fantasy. They may have difficulty conceptualizing what happened. Talk about things like a pet dying and not coming to life again or a plant or flower dying. Books you can share include "The Dead Bird" by Margaret Wise Brown, "The Tenth Good Thing about Barney" by Judith Viorst, "Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs" by Tomie dePaola, "Sweet, Sweet Memory" by Jacqueline Woodson and "Granddad Bill's Song" by Jane Yolen. With older children you might prefer to discuss the issue as a current event. Books to share include "One April Morning" by Nancy Lamb and "On the Wings of Peace" edited by Sheila Hamanaka. Teachers might refer to "Learning the Skills of Peacemaking" by Naomi Drew or "Starting Small" from the Teaching Tolerance Project. Log onto http://www.unf.edu/~astomfay/indexnewsletters.htm to find newsletters and references for the classroom. 3. The events are quite violent. Watch television with children but limit the amount of times they see today's events unfolding. Excessive exposure to the events is not necessary. Discuss what has happened, no matter how long it takes. Listen carefully to what the child says. Your response will be based on what you've heard. Be cautious, use common sense, and let the child know that it is difficult for adults, as well as children, to conceptualize and handle what has happened. 4. Allow children to grieve and participate as members of the community. Ask them to provide suggestions for preventing future incidents, and invite them to join organized problem-solving efforts, such as a diversity group. 5. For teachers, these events are part of social studies. Most texts focus on wars. We need to focus on the other side, talking to youngsters about peace education, peacemaking, conflict resolution, and peer mediation. We should talk about how this is done between individuals and among countries. 6. "Remember, respect
is the cornerstone of all our interactions and behaviors. We acknowledge
the dignity and worth of one another and strive never to diminish another
by our conduct or our attitudes." (Source: Mariner H.S. in Everett, Washington)
The National
Institute of Mental Health has a number of resources posted. One
of the options is a
*The Center
for Mental Health Services has a menu of relevant documents. There
you will find "After Disaster: A Guide for Parents and Teachers".
For those in need of counseling the CMHS
Mental Health Services Locator can provide links to the nearest mental
health organizations as well as addresses, phone numbers and information
on services available: See Services
*Seasame Street Workshop developed a website entitled Tragic Times, Healing Words with resources on helping children cope with disaster. The site was recommended as a useful tool for parents and teachers. *EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
RELEASES INFORMATION ON HOW TO HELP CHILDREN
The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools (CHHCS). We have gathered a few resources that others have developed to assisthealth professionals help children, their families, and school staff cope with this week's tragedy. One of the resources is in Spanish. *National Child Care Information
Center (NCCIC)
*UCLA School Mental Health
Project / Center for Mental Health in Schools
*Talking with Kids About
Tough Issues
*KidsHealth
*Parents can find practical guidance, grade-specific information about their children's school experience, strategies to get involved with their children's learning, free email newsletters. FamilyEducation brings together leading organizations from both the public and private sectors to help parents, teachers, schools, and community organizations use online tools and other media resources to positively affect children's education and overall development. *KIDSNET the educational non-profit clearing house of information on electronic media has posted a special Media Alert, "TV Helps Kids Deal with Terrorist Attacks" on the website. To date six television networks have announced special programming or public service initiatives on-air and/or on-line that are specifically targeted to children and youth. KIDSNET is a nationally recognized education and media resource that has, since 1985, encouraged medial literacy in young people and their families and a commitment to educational excellence in the media industry. |