Trauma Informed Care

Mind-Body Skills Part 2: Movement

Posted on April 26, 2023 by alisakaczorowski in Parenting, Social Emotional Learning, Trauma Informed Care

**This is Part 2 of a 7 part series on Mind-Body Skills. Check out the introductory post here or follow along on my YouTube channel.

Many of us regularly use movement strategies as one of our go-to tools for calming down or relieving stress. Think about it. When you are stressed, anxious or overwhelmed, do you go for a walk…hit the gym…take the dog for a run? Maybe not, but if you’re anything like me, you can identify with this strategy.

Not only does movement keep our body healthy and in tip-top shape, it does the same for our brain. Two good reasons to encourage movement as a regulation strategy for kids, right?

Here are a few of my favorites:

Sensory Path: If you work in a school and don’t have a sensory path, I’d encourage you to check out this website and consider it. Not only are they so cute and kid-friendly, they are a fantastic way to get kids moving in a different way. They can be used by individual kids or the entire class!

Brain Gym: I was introduced to Brain Gym by a teacher at a school I was consulting with. While I had not heard of Brain Gym specifically, I was familiar with the power of exercises that encourage kids to cross the midline. If you’re a newbie, learning more about Brain Gym and the corresponding exercises is a great place to start.

5 Senses Nature Walk: Get outside and work those 5 senses, along with your body! What do you see…hear…smell…feel…taste (well, maybe not this one!)? There are so many benefits to walking in nature. Think you don’t have nature around you? Remember, it certainly doesn’t have to be a forest to count as nature so get creative!

What Time is it, Mr. Fox?: This is a fun (and multi-disciplinary!) game for younger elementary students.

Color Search: Go on a color search. Whether it’s around the house, the school or outdoors, get kids moving and identifying objects of various colors.

Tape Jumping Game: This one is so simple and has a million different versions. While it is more geared toward younger kids, you can certainly amend the rules (and distance between tape pieces) for older kids.

Mind-Body Skills Part 1: Breathing

Posted on April 19, 2023 by alisakaczorowski in Business, Parenting, Social Emotional Learning, Trauma Informed Care

**This is Part 1 of a 7 part series on Mind-Body Skills. Check out the introductory post here or follow along on my YouTube channel.

Mindful breathing strategies are a great place to begin when teaching kids mind-body skills. Why? Because when we mindfully breathe, our brain sends a message to our heart, telling it to slow down. As a result, our heart rate slows and we can begin to calm down and better regulate. Additionally, breathing strategies are some of the easiest to learn, especially for young children.

Below you will find some of my favorite breathing techniques and other resources…

Five Finger Breathing (sometimes called Mountain Breathing): this is my all-time favorite breathing technique for kids because it’s simple, easily understandable and lends itself well to a simple visual reminder on the wall.

Box Breathing: another favorite for all the same reasons as above. Definitely, my own go-to breathing technique!

Other Deep Breathing Exercises: this post has SO MANY great breathing exercises that kids will find fun to do!

Sesame Street Belly Breathe Video: best for 1st grade and younger!

Alphabreaths and Alphabreaths Too: these are great picture books with lots of breathing techniques.

Breathing Makes It Better: another great book for connecting deep breathing and the emotions we feel. Best for younger kids.

Breathe Like a Bear: another picture book best suited to younger kids.

Breathing is My Superpower: great book of breathing techniques for elementary-aged kids.

Let me know what other breathing exercises you enjoy using with kids! I’d love to hear from you!

Mind-Body Skills for Self-Regulation: An Introduction

Posted on April 12, 2023 by alisakaczorowski in Social Emotional Learning, Trauma Informed Care

Not too long ago, I announced my newest training – Brains on Stress Can’t Learn: Mind-Body Skills to Destress Your Students (and Yourself!).

In the next several posts here on the blog (and over on my YouTube channel), I am going to dive a little deeper into the different categories of mind-body skills and share some great resources.

First of all, what are mind-body skills? In a nutshell, they are strategies that can be used to help us de-escalate or cope with big emotions. We can explicitly teach them to kids as part of a daily mindfulness practice so that they can learn the strategies while their brains and bodies are calm. Then, when their brains and bodies AREN’T calm, they know how to use them to reach a more regulated state.

Why are these strategies important for kids to know? Well, if you are teacher, you might have noticed a shift in our students over the past several years. Many of them have parents who are external regulators, meaning THEY are regulating their child’s emotional state in negative ways. Parents are doing this by giving in to tantrums and demands, working overtime to soothe kids and doing everything they can to ensure their kids DON’T fail or encounter any sort of difficult situation. They are sheltering their children from challenges and solving their problems for them. The result is a generation of kids who are struggling to problem solve, effectively communicate with others, self-regulate and more.

Not only do we need to take a good, hard look at the social-emotional skills we are instilling in our kids, we also need to begin providing a more solid foundation for them to become their own regulators. We do that by teaching kids how to recognize, identify and label their emotions and giving them the tools to manage those emotions themselves.

That’s where mind-body skills come in.

Mind-body skills can be categorized into 7 groups:

Breathing
Movement
Mindfulness
Visualization
Expressive Art
Music
Writing & Journaling

Over the next several posts, I am going to break each of these categories down even further and provide specific strategies and resources that can be used to explicitly teach that strategy to kids. Whether you are a teacher, a parent or just someone who cares about kids, I hope you’ll join me for this series!

school safety drills are here to stay: empowering educators with best practice tools and strategies for lockdown and active shooter drills

Posted on April 5, 2023 by alisakaczorowski in Social Emotional Learning, Trauma Informed Care, Uncategorized

For the past week, I have struggled with what to say about the school shooting in Nashville. Not because I don’t have any thoughts or feelings on it, but because I’m not sure I have anything worthwhile or new to add to the conversation.

As an educator and mom, it’s frightening how numb our society is becoming to these mass shootings. But I suppose, as is the case for many scary things, we learn to compartmentalize in order to go on living and sending our kids to school each day.

For the past week (and if I’m being honest, for many more months prior to that), I have mulled over a myriad of thoughts about this school shooting, as well as all the others. Because my passion is kid’s social-emotional health and well-being, most of my thoughts center around that topic, and I have found myself returning over and over again to the same question.

Do the benefits of active shooter and lockdown drills outweigh the risks to our students and teachers?

The answer seems to be that no one knows for sure.

As a school administrator, I remember announcing these drills and walking the building, jiggling classroom door handles to ensure they were locked, peering through classroom windows to ensure the kids weren’t visible from where I was standing and admonishing teachers whose class “failed the test.”

I cringe now to think of the psychological damage being done to the students and teachers I loved like my own family, and I wonder how many hundreds or thousands of other schools in our country are doing the same.

As a mom of three kids, I feel outrage when I hear about active shooter and lockdown drills being conducted, not from the school administrators, but from my kids when they return home in the afternoon.

While I certainly don’t have all the answers (and from my research, it appears no one does), I do know that we can do better. We MUST do better.

So, rather than focusing on all that’s wrong (because that list is too long to think about), I am choosing to focus on empowering educators with tools and resources to reflect upon, share with administrators and use with students.

Here we go.

National Association of School Psychologist’s “Best Practice Considerations for Armed Assailant Drills in Schools” – this is a very comprehensive manual that should be used by school or district administrators as part of their emergency preparedness plan
Your Local Epidemiologist’s “Active Shooter Drills: Do Risks Outweigh Benefits?” – a quick and easy read for anyone
National Association of School Psychologist’s “Mitigating Psychological Effects of Lockdowns” – a great fact sheet of tips and to-dos for before, during and after a lockdown drill
National Association of School Psychologist’s “Talking to Children About Violence: Tips for Parents and Teachers” – a fantastic infographic of tips for talking with children of all ages about violence, includes specific talking points and is available in Spanish
National Education Association’s “Unannounced Active Shooter Drills Scaring Students Without Making Them Safer” – a great article on what NOT to do when conducting active shooter drills at school
NPR’s “2 Big Teachers Unions Call for Rethinking Student Involvement in Lockdown Drills” – the case against lockdown drills
Everytown’s “The Impact of Active Shooter Drills in Schools” – a whitepaper that includes loads of data and anecdotal evidence
National Association of School Psychologist’s “School Safety Drills and Exercises for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): Tips and Resources for Educators” – best practices and specific strategies for a population of students often forgotten about during school safety drills

What other resources have you found helpful? Please share them in the comments.

The 6 types of Self-Care…A new youTube Series

Posted on February 22, 2023 by alisakaczorowski in Business, Parenting, Trauma Informed Care

If you follow me over on YouTube, you probably know that I’ve started a new series all about the 6 different types of self-care.

The idea for this series came about after I took a self-care assessment, and much to my dismay, found that I had failed 5 of the 6 types of self-care. I was honestly shocked. As someone who does what I do, I suppose I thought I had it figured out better than the average person. Clearly, I was wrong.

So what can you expect from the videos in this series?

Each video will take you through one of the types – what it is and what it looks like if you’re doing it well.

I promise that this will not be a series of videos of me telling you to light a candle, take a bath and eat some chocolate. It will be me giving you the tools to build self-awareness and understanding of how you’re caring for yourself well and how you aren’t.

If you’re someone who cares for everyone around you and winds up with an empty fuel tank for yourself, this series is for you. Come on over here and join me!

My New Favorite picture book for teaching kids about conflict resolution

Posted on February 2, 2023 by alisakaczorowski in Literacy, Social Emotional Learning, Trauma Informed Care

There’s a new favorite book in our house.

It all started about a week ago when I snagged this book at the library while searching for books to use in an SEL project I’m working on. I read it, liked it and then decided it didn’t exactly fit the section I intended it for so I set aside to return to the library the next day.

That night, my youngest asked me to read him some books before bedtime. He spied this book sitting on the end table so we sat down and read it. As soon as we finished, he asked me to read it again. Since that evening, I have probably read it to him 5-6 times.

Here’s the thing about this book…it doesn’t have fancy illustrations or rhyming text. Heck, it was originally published in 1973 so it’s even, dare I say, a bit outdated. What it does have, though, is a premise that is a bit silly and a bit ridiculous. More importantly, it has several great underlying themes and messages. It’s even great for kids who want to flex their logical-mathematical muscles.

So what is this magical book that captured the attention of my 5 year old? It’s The Brownstone by Paula Scher.

It’s all about 6 different families of animals that live in a three-story brownstone, and just as in real life, sometimes conflict arises between these neighbors. It’s Mr. Owl’s job, as the landlord, to help them all figure out how to live harmoniously in the brownstone.

The book really hits, not only on conflict resolution, but also on the themes of friendship, kindness, social problem solving and acceptance and diversity. There’s a LOT to pull out of this short, easy to read picture book! Plus, as I mentioned, your kiddos that enjoy a good puzzle or problem to solve will get a kick out of trying to solve the puzzle before Mr. Owl does.

Enjoy!

my 5 favorite picture books for teaching kids about friendship

Posted on December 14, 2022 by alisakaczorowski in Business, Parenting, Social Emotional Learning, Trauma Informed Care

Friendship is a theme that you can find in a whole host of children’s books which is fortunate since it is a topic that often needs revisited with kids. Whether you have students finding it difficult to be a kind friend or your own children are experiencing friendship struggles at school, I’m sure you’ll find a book on the list below that could be helpful in talking to younger kids about the concept of friendship.

When Glitter Met Glue by Karen Kilpatrick

This wonderful picture book is all about what to do when one person in a friendship feels invisible. Find out how Glitter and Glue team up to help Glue shine like some of their other friends.

Peanut Butter and Cupcake by Terry Border

This witty picture book with awesome photo illustrations is a great one to turn to when kids are feeling lonely and struggling to find friends. Read to find out how Bread searches and searches for his perfect pairing.

The Circles All Around Us by Brad Montague

This is one of my absolute favorite picture books for so many reasons. There are so many wonderful themes that can be extracted from this book. If you’re looking for a book about friendship, kindness or inclusivity, this is the one!

This book is all about how the circles of people around us (our relationships) grow as we get older to include, not only family, but also friends, neighbors and other people from our community with whom we connect and feel safe. This book serves as a great springboard for a conversation on how we grow those circles through kindness and by being a good friend.

Dude! by Aaron Reynolds

If you have a child who feels excluded or students making snap judgments about another student, this book is for you!

This book is about platypus and beaver, friends who just want to go surfing. Unfortunately, they are afraid to surf because they share an ocean with shark. As he approaches and they get to know him, though, they find out that maybe there’s more to shark than what they originally thought.

You Will Be My Friend! by Peter Brown

This is the perfect book for those kiddos who just aren’t sure how to go about making friends.

In this story, we learn from Bear just how hard it is to make friends, how persistence is the key and how sometimes, we find the best friends in the most unlikely places.

I hope you have a chance to check out these wonderful books! In the comments, let me know what other books you like for the theme of friendship.

8 Steps to Building a Trauma-Informed School: A new youtube series

Posted on December 7, 2022 by alisakaczorowski in Business, Consulting, Social Emotional Learning, Trauma Informed Care

I’m excited to announce my brand new YouTube series – 8 Steps to Building a Trauma-Informed School. This series of 9 videos will begin with an overview of the 8 steps, and then subsequent videos will dive deeper into each step individually.

In each video, you can expect to learn more about each step and what it takes to accomplish it. This series is great for administrators, school counselors and educators who are interested in learning more about the steps needed to create cultural change in the school environment. Even if you aren’t prepared to tackle a huge, new initiative, I encourage you to check out the videos to gauge your own schools’ strengths and areas of need.

If you are ready to tackle a trauma-informed school initiative, send me an email at akedconsult@gmail.com. I will soon be opening up registration for 1 and 2 year partnerships that will kick off in August 2023 and spots will be limited!

My 5 favorite picture books for teaching kids about self esteem

Posted on November 11, 2022 by alisakaczorowski in Social Emotional Learning, Trauma Informed Care, Uncategorized

Self-esteem is something many kids (and adults!) struggle with. It’s the ability to see the good in ourselves, be proud of ourselves and believe in ourselves, even when we may not, at first, succeed.

This is a daunting task for many kids, though. Does this scenario sound familiar? Your child (or student) makes a simple mistake or is redirected by an adult and immediately starts beating themselves up, berating themselves for messing up or calling themselves ugly names. Despite your best efforts to the contrary, this is a trap many of our kids fall into, and it’s not healthy for a lot of reasons.

According to the American Psychological Association, having high self-esteem is critical to our mental health and well-being. In fact, studies show that low self-esteem is highly correlated to depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, eating disorders and suicidal ideation.

So how do we help kids beef up their self-esteem? It’s all about changing thought patterns. Remember, our thoughts determine our feelings and behaviors or actions (see the Cognitive Triangle below). If the cycle begins with negative thoughts, it’s more likely that the feelings and behaviors that follow will also be negative. However, if the cycle begins positive, then positive feelings and behaviors are more likely to follow.

So how do we encourage kids to engage in positive self-talk (or teach them what that even means!) or springboard a discussion on self-esteem? Check out my list of favorite picture books on this topic below.

Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae

This is the story of Gerald the giraffe. He has dreams of dancing, but his knobby knees and spindly legs make it hard for him UNTIL he gets some encouraging words from a friend.

Fiona Flamingo by Rachael Urrutia Chu

Fiona gets made fun of for being the only flamingo with different colored feathers. Find out how she finally learns to accept being different than the rest of her flock in this wonderful story that also has a great message about emotional intelligence.

Ricky, the Rock that Couldn’t Roll by Jay Miletsky

Ricky is the only one of his rock friends who can’t play around and roll. Why? Because he has one flat side. Determined to include their friend, the other rocks set out to help Ricky roll.

Elmer by David McKee

There’s something different about Elmer, and although, the other elephants love Elmer for those differences, he just wants to look like everyone else. Find out how Elmer learns to love himself and be celebrated by all his friends when he sets out to look like all the other elephants.

Pink is for Boys by Robb Pearlman

With a group of very relatable characters, this book sets out to bust gender stereotypes by encouraging boys and girls to do what they love and express themselves in every color of the rainbow.