MAPS is collaborating with SELWEB to support students and grow safer schools

Our children are starting to emerge from many “COVID” related stresses.  The pandemic impacted homelife, access to elder adults, and created a very different school environment.  In response, Manistee Area Public Schools has been increasing access to health care through the Child and Adolescent Health Center, as well as taking time in the classroom to talk about emotional stress with SafeNet workers Tracy Shimel and Scott Solberg.

To help educators understand student stress levels, MAPS turned to SELWEB.

“The words ‘social and emotional learning’ are finding themselves in more and more district strategic plans and school improvement plans. Student social and emotional development and school climate are becoming key performance indicators alongside academic skills.”  states Clark McKown, SELweb.

SELweb is a web-based system designed to assess key social-emotional skills that are associated with success in school and life and that are the targets of evidence-based social-emotional learning programs. SELweb directly assesses children’s understanding of others’ emotions and perspectives, their social problem-solving skills, and their self-control.  

“Last year I participated in a training through the Mason County ISD to learn how to administer the assessment and evaluate the results.  We conducted a pilot last year with a couple of classrooms in Kindergarten and 2nd grade to test the program out and review the results.  This year we fully launched a K-5th assessment in February to get an initial baseline of where students were in regards to their social emotional understanding,” Tracy Shimel, Safenet, Jefferson Elementary.  “We administered a post assessment in May and saw an 11% improvement in overall scores, this is exciting news for our district,” Tracy reports.

Students showed growth in five areas:

Emotion Regulation -understanding what you are feeling, and being able to adjust your thinking in response

Social perspective taking –  understanding what others are feeling

Social problem solving – the ability to think through social challenges

Self Control – the ability to control and change thoughts and feelings to achieve a goal

225 students at Jefferson participated  in February, and 212 students in May.  

“This information helps teachers prepare for their students in the Fall.  Students who feel ‘listened to’ and understood by their classmates have better school attendance and stronger academic performance.  SELWEB lets us know how we can address student’s individual needs with fairness and compassion,” says Jefferson Principal, Julia Raddatz.  “We look forward to a more normal school year coming up, but with our eyes open to the fact that growing up in a pandemic has been stressful for our little ones.”

In consideration of recent events, we have assembled some resources for helping a child in distress and for talking with your child/children about stressful events.  In prompting conversation, we can learn more about what they understand and provide answers about things that might concern them.

Should you or your child need to talk with someone regarding stressful events or concerning behaviors Centra Wellness offers a 24-Hour Crisis Hotline @ 1-877-398-2013.

What to Watch For:

Some signals that the child is having a difficult time with (event):

• Day/night routine is “off” 
• Abnormal anxiety about going back to place of event
• Child is describing upset stomach, headache, tiredness without any real illness
• Behaves/communicates repeatedly that (event) will happen again 
• Easily startled, more on edge, not wanting to eat, wanting to be alone more, withdrawn

Tips for Talking with Your Child About a Stressful Event:

 Setting:  Talking to your child immediately following a stressful event may be necessary if they are very upset.  Otherwise:

• Wait until your child (and YOU) are feeling calm and ready to talk.
• Find a time during your regular household routine to introduce the topic, rather than interrupting the routine for “a talk about ______.”
• Adult reactions are important influences on a child’s willingness to share. (DON’T call your child “silly” or challenge their fearful reactions; DO recognize a wide range of reactions as normal.)

1) Introduce the topic in a way that kids do the talking 

For example: 

• “I know this (event) doesn’t happen very often, so I wanted to check in with you about it.  Tell me what happened . . .”
• “Hey, this (event) can be pretty stressful for people.  What are your friends feeling right now?  Do you feel the same way?”
• “What do you think might happen with (event)?”

As your child is talking, listen without interrupting.  Watch their body language and tone of voice. Reflect on what you hear and respond with open ended questions or noticings.

• “You sound like you are (worried, concerned, nervous, not really affected by) this.”  
• “Hmmmm, I was wondering about when you said,’_____.’  What did you mean?”

2)  Help separate fact from rumor

Discuss what happened (factually).  What rumors have you been hearing? Discuss what makes rumors take a life of their own.  

3) Return to the event by asking about their related experiences

For example:

• “Where were you when you heard about (event)?”  
• “What did you think was going on?”  
• “What did you notice as the day went on?”

4) This is a normal feeling

• Assure kids that they are not alone.  Their reaction is a normal response to a (stressful event.)
• Even if they are not personally close (to the event) it is normal to have a lot of emotions OR not a lot of emotions about it.

Questions to ask: 

• “How did you feel about (the event) itself?” 
• “Have your feelings of _____ been growing?”
• “How can I help?”

Let kids know that with time, for most people, reactions will become manageable.  

5)  Help child to pick out a coping skill

For example:  

• “You must have been worried when this (event) was going on.  What helped you make sense of it?”
• “If you could go back in time, what would you do differently to help people feel safe?”
• “What good came out of this experience?  

6) Closing:

Reassure your child they are safe.  Remind them you are there if they ever need to talk.  The adults responsible have a plan in place in case this happens again.  Be positive about moving on and ask permission to “check in” together again in a week.  

Should you or your child need to talk with someone regarding stressful events or concerning behaviors Centra Wellness offers a 24-Hour Crisis Hotline @ 1-877-398-2013.