Mindful Moments Blog
Mindful Moments Blog
Helping Traumatized Children Learn – Trauma-Informed Schools Act of 2019
by Ashley Patek
The Trauma-Informed Schools Act of 2019 helps to define trauma-informed practices within schools with goals to decrease school-to-prison pipeline and create a safe learning environment.
Mindful Moments Blog
The Trauma-Aware Classroom: We All Need Compassion
by Guest Author
I am a teacher. In order to associate with the trauma of my students, I become aware of my own trauma.
Mindful Moments Blog
How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Outcomes
by Ashley Patek
Childhood trauma isn’t 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 the development of the brain.
Mindful Moments Blog
Nurturing Our Adult Relationships By Repairing Our Childhood Ones
by Ashley Martin
Parenting is like a perpetual garden of personal growth, where the seeds of learning and development continue to flourish without end. Our parenting and family dynamic plays a major role in the future of our children.
Mindful Moments Blog
This Numbed Out World Needs Sensitive People Like You
by Suzanne Tucker
By: Suzanne Tucker
Have you ever worried that your feelings are too big or "too much" to be acknowledged... much less shared out loud with another human being?
Today I'm sharing a personal story and a practice I use for sharing my emotions despite this fear so many of us adopted in childhood that our feelings are not valid and thus, not worthy of being shared.
I call BS.
The truth is that our feelings are data. They are not "right" or "wrong" so much as they are information -- a glimpse into our inner world.
So many of us grew up having emotions like sadness, grief, confusion, jealousy, and rage dismissed or denied by often well-intended but misguided adults who were never taught how to listen to, empathize with, and/or regulate emotions themselves.
Like the majority of adults on the planet, the friend I wanted to share my emotions with was raised in a family system that believed emotions were:
weak
not valid in and of themselves
and thus, NOT safe to feel
In this video, I share my experience of having my adult friend dismiss and deny my emotions when I shared my feelings, and how I responded.
In the above 12-minute video, I walk you through:
A short centering exercise (1-3:00 min)
My experience of being dismissed (3-4 min)
How this tied to my childhood (5-6 min)
Feelings as sacred (6-6:45 min)
How I "permitted" myself to feel (6:45 min)
A mantra to help us hold space for our kids (8:45 min)
We can learn to acknowledge ourselves and validate our own emotions. And, in modeling these things, we can teach others how to affirm and validate emotions as well --- making it safe for the next generation and for ourselves to feel.
JOIN THE REPARENT YOURSELF MEMBERSHIP
We don't control the people in our lives or how they react to our sharing --- but we DO control our thoughts, words, and actions.
I hope my experience helps you feel more confident in expressing your feelings regardless of how they will be met. Because this numbed-out world needs more sensitive people.
If you believe every child deserves to learn about their emotions, please check out our Reparent Yourself Membership, a community for change-makers like you, where we do not view the past as our destiny, but rather, our curriculum!
Join us!
About the author
Suzanne Tucker is the founder of Generation Mindful, a physical therapist, a parent educator of 30 years, and a mom of 4 (including twins!). Suzanne has been studying the art and the science of connection-based parenting for decades. Her life's work is to help families around the world find more joy and connection in their relationships.
Why Being a Sensitive Parent is a Good Thing
5 Ways To Nurture Emotional Intelligence For Kids
10 Simple Mindfulness Activities For Kids To Build Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence is More Than Naming Emotions
The Ultimate Guide To Building A Calming Corner And Using Time-Ins At Home
How do you say goodbye to time-outs and introduce time-ins? This is the ultimate guide on the do's and don'ts for building and using a Calming Corner.
"Ready-To-Hang" Time-In ToolKit
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The Time-In ToolKit® playfully teaches kids 2-9+ how to navigate big emotions through social emotional skill-building games. Created by child-develo...
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trauma-informed co-parenting Break Shame Cycles model to learn Triggers boundaries self love Communication emotional regulation emotions Breaking Generational Cycles positive self talk emotional intelligence mental health regulation self-compassion self-love
Mindful Moments Blog
Empowering Families: Trauma-Informed Coaching for Mindful Parenting
by Leselle Theus
Understand the principles of trauma-informed coaching and its role in promoting effective communication and client well-being.
Mindful Moments Blog
How My Five-Year-Old Taught Me Empathy
by Selina Armstrong
This year, as parents we have had to level up our game as we navigate a global pandemic, racial injustices being brought to the forefront, civil unrest and so much more. At any one given moment, it’s hard to know whether I am thriving or just getting by. My daughter’s kindness came on a day where I was just skating by.
Mindful Moments Blog
Culturally Responsive Social-Emotional Learning
by Suzanne Tucker
In her work as a school counselor with young children and tweens/teens, Dusha Cecil wishes her district had used Generation Mindful social and emotional learning (SEL) materials years ago, to develop the language and “permission to feel” for a diverse population of students starting in preschool when they were ages three
and four.
In this video, Ms. Cecil shares her experience of using GEN:M tools for early emotional education in the classroom setting:
Among other experiences, Ms. Cecil shares her experience of working with young students, and the many black male teens she supports in therapy that struggle to be sensitive or express their feelings.
Using Generation Mindful tools to "have these conversations and create safe spaces for children makes them feel safe at school, makes them want to learn from their teachers, makes them want to do better, and encourages them to start envisioning their future."
She has tremendous hope for GEN:M tools to lessen the school-to-prison pipeline by giving children of color, particularly boys, a voice and the permission and space they need to express their feelings starting in preschool.
Colby Heckendorn, the former principal of Patrick Henry Downtown Academy in the City of St. Louis, and the Executive Director & Co-Founder of Atlas Public Schools oversaw the implementation of GEN:M products and curriculum with his diverse staff of
early childhood and elementary educators and students at Patrick Henry Downtown Academy.
In his letter of support for Generation Mindful, Heckendorn shared how his diverse team of 11 K to 5th-grade educators felt the tools seamlessly embedded SEL into their everyday classroom activities.
"Generation Mindful provides amazing programs and tools that can help educators seamlessly embed SEL into their everyday practices. I have seen first hand how easy it was for our teachers to utilize these resources and have been astonished by our
results."
- Colby Heckendorn, Executive Director & Co-Founder Atlas Public Schools
Diversity, equity, inclusion, and amplifying voices of color are priorities for Generation Mindful.
There is a connection between punishment-based discipline, lost class time, and the many inequitable early childhood education suspensions happening on a daily basis that fuel the school-to-prison pipeline.
GEN:M tools educate rather than punish children who are still learning to regulate, strengthening social-emotional skills for a lifetime of health and well-being. They are inclusive, easy to use, and foster a supportive classroom climate for caring teachers to establish trusting relationships where students can feel emotionally safe, motivated, challenged, and have a sense of belonging.
The tools complement the Collaborative and Proactive Solutions Model developed by Dr. Ross Greene - driven by the belief that “kids
do well if they can.” When maladaptive behaviors occur, educators use time-ins to identify and build lagging skills rather than punitive methods such as time-outs, or being sent out of the classroom.
To learn more about using GEN:M tools to support social and emotional learning (SEL) in the classroom with the opportunity to bridge the learning into the home, visit here.
Classroom Time-In ToolKit® Bundle
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GENM's social-emotional learning (SEL) tools take a positive, relationship-based approach to nurturing emotional intelligence in the classroom. Our ...
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trauma-informed
restorative discipline
inclusion
emotional intelligence
classroom management
Mindful Moments Blog
Building Resilience Through Connection
by Ashley Patek
Children are wired to bounce back from trauma when they have protective factors in place. Through connection with a supportive adult, and through increasing their social-emotional skills, a child's health and development can tip towards positive outcomes.
Mindful Moments Blog
Why Am I Grieving? 3 Tips For Coping With Ambiguous Loss
by Guest Author
Learning to cope with a global pandemic creates a widespread level of ambiguous loss. It’s been within this paradox of embracing the innovation of “the new normal” while grieving “the old normal” that I have felt it most.
Mindful Moments Blog
Resilient-Informed Care Removes Stigma From Trauma
by Ashley Patek
When we label those with adverse experiences as “traumatized” we can create a stigma that there is something to fix, which shadows the wholeness of the individual. The resilience-informed approach is a strength-based framework that shifts the question of “What happened to you?” as seen in a trauma-informed approach to “What is right within you?” Here are 3 ways to mindfully become more resilient after trauma.
Mindful Moments Blog
School to Prison Pipeline: New Bill to Diminish Willful Defiance Suspensions
by Ashley Patek
With efforts to keep children in school and out of the school-to-prison pipeline, teachers and administrators within California school districts will no longer be able to suspend elementary and middle school students for willful defiance, as part of a Senate Bill signed by Gov. Newsom.
Mindful Moments Blog
by Ashley Patek
What would happen if we taught our children to empathize with the "bully"? Here are three ways to love the person who is bullying.
Mindful Moments Blog
5 Signs Of Toxic Discipline And What To Do If You're Using It
by Ashley Patek
Do you use toxic discipline when raising your child? Here are 5 signs that you may. Learn how your childhood influenced your parenting and gain tips for healing both the relationship you have with yourself and the one you share with your child.
Mindful Moments Blog
A World Where 250 Preschool Students Are Suspended Every Day
by Suzanne Tucker
A world where 250 preschoolers are suspended per day in the US alone is a world that needs a course correction.
You read that right -- according to 2017 data from the National Survey of Children's Health, 250 kids in the US are suspended or expelled from preschool each day. What’s more, the rate of expulsion is much higher among Black boys.
Researchers found that half of the 17,000 preschool students who were suspended or expelled in 2021 were Black boys even though they represent about 20 percent of enrolled children.
The impact of expulsion and suspension on children, families, and society
Recent research on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) informs our increasing awareness of the impact of early trauma on a child's healthy development and the relationships between early trauma and compromised physical and mental health conditions later in life.
Expulsion and suspension practices in early childhood settings are stressful, negative experiences for young children and their families. Here are just a few of the negative impacts on our children and families.
Per findings from The Institute For Child Success, preschool expulsion and suspensions:
- Interrupt the child’s sense of security, social acceptance, and academic routines.
- Put added stress on the child’s parents who are often left to find immediate childcare or another early childhood setting, frequently without support or facilitation by the previous program of attendance.
- Are often delivered by early childhood programs that have not performed adequate developmental assessments of the child before removing them from the classroom.
- Are predictive of expulsion or suspension in later school grades.
Young children who are expelled or suspended are up to 10 times more likely to drop out of high school, experience academic failure and grade retention, hold negative school attitudes, and face incarceration than those who are not.
Variables including larger classes, a higher proportion of 3-year-olds in the class, and elevated teacher job stress were found to increase the likelihood of expulsion.
One study that assessed the quality of 65 discipline policies from state-licensed early childhood care programs found that most of the program's discipline policies fail to sufficiently address essential features known to reduce challenging behavior and promote pro-social behavior in young children. (Longstreth, Brady, & Kay, 2013)
This same study confirmed the importance of positive teacher-child interactions in reducing rates of preschool expulsion, validating the importance of providing program support in the areas of social and emotional development as well as focused interventions for children with special needs and/or mental health issues.
Students perform better when they feel supported by the adults in their lives.
If we are to protect our youngest learners, and families impacted by racism, poverty, and learning differences, we need to invest in early and inclusive social-emotional learning initiatives.
Our school systems are failing to protect already marginalized student populations that, statistically speaking, are disproportionally more likely to receive punitive disciplinary actions than their counterparts.
With the right instruction and support, every student can thrive and excel, in and out of the classroom. We do this when we:
Invest in building stronger school-family partnerships.
Incorporate strengths-based discipline practices into the classroom.
Involve families, early and often, in their students' learning.
Preschool expulsions and suspensions are a national issue. It's time for us as a society to implement positive, relationship-based practices in the home and classroom to meet the social and emotional needs that challenging behaviors often represent.
With early emotional education, tools, and support that bridge home and school, we can support children, families, and educators, lower stress levels in the classroom, and prevent preschool expulsions and suspensions.
If you are interested in how Generation Mindful is addressing the school-to-prison pipeline by making social-emotional learning inclusive and accessible, you can learn more here.
Supporting Equitable Early Emotional Learning
Time-In Activity Mat & Card Set
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The Time-In Activity Mat & Card Set playfully walks children through the process of emotional regulation with tangible tools to support learning fro...
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trauma-informed
restorative discipline
inclusion
Break Shame Cycles
model to learn
Breaking Generational Cycles
mental health
classroom management
Neurodiversity
Mindful Moments Blog
How To Support Your Child Through Grief
by Guest Author
Grief is a universal human experience that can affect anyone at any time, and at any age. By acknowledging and processing our grief, we can help our children cope, too. Learn how children of different ages may express their grief and tools to support them through it.
