Play, Regulation, and Resilience: Comprehensive Strategies for TK Educators

This comprehensive 6-hour series, divided into six 1-hour modules, is tailored specifically for Universal Preschool educators, with a particular emphasis on TK teachers working with 4-year-olds. The program is designed to enhance developmentally appropriate practices and addresses the needs of all children, including those affected by toxic or traumatic stress, special needs, and mental health challenges such as ADHD and anxiety.

Participants will gain practical skills in teaching social and emotional competencies and implementing strategies to support optimal regulation. The series also emphasizes the importance of adult self-awareness and self-care, ensuring that educators are well-equipped to support their students. Additionally, the modules highlight the vital role of play in early childhood development, offering insights into how play can be used as a powerful tool in the classroom.

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-Exploring Young Children's Brain Development and Behavior

Delve into the intricate workings of young children's brains in this enlightening training session. Participants will gain insights into the neurobiology of key brain regions—the hind/survival, limbic system, amygdala, and cortex—understanding their critical functions and impact on behavior. Discover effective strategies to guide children towards the optimal zone of regulation, fostering abilities in thinking, reasoning, engagement, and learning, while promoting well-regulated behavior. Educators will grasp the pivotal role of being brain architects, nurturing children towards an integrated brain development that builds essential resilience skills.

-Regulation through Relational Strategies

Discover the transformative impact of relational strategies on children's emotional regulation. Relationships serve as the cornerstone for creating a sense of safety and facilitating a return to calm when children experience dysregulation. In this workshop, participants will delve into a variety of relational strategies designed to foster a safe environment for both adults and children in the classroom. When children feel secure, their prefrontal cortex becomes primed for optimal engagement and learning, laying a solid foundation for their development.

-Creating Environments that Support Children's Regulation in the Classroom

Welcome to the influence of the "third teacher": the environment itself! A well-crafted environment that emphasizes predictability, prioritizes safety, and is intentionally designed to foster regulation can significantly enhance children's ability to maintain an optimal state of arousal. Join us in this workshop as we explore various strategies for designing environments that promote optimal regulation for young children.

-Intentionally Teaching Social-Emotional Skills that Build Resilience and Grow Humane Beings

Consider that in schools, we have emergency earthquake, tornado, or active shooter safety drills. We also need to do emotional emergency drills where we help educators and students to prepare for stressful physiological reactions or emotional emergencies. This can only be done through intentionally teaching and practicing such skills as self-awareness, self-regulation strategies and healthy problem-solving skills. Until students and adults practice these skills over and over when their nervous systems are calm, they will not be equipped to handle challenging situations in optimally healthy ways. As a result, schools committed to reducing stress make time for teaching self-awareness and practicing skills for regulating the nervous system on a regular basis. Schools that prioritize reducing stress for students will ultimately have fewer dysregulated behaviors and will increase students’ capacity to learn academics and social emotional skills as well as reflect more readily on the consequences of their choices and behaviors.

-The Importance of Play and Somatosensory Strategies to Promote Regulation

Play is the innate language of children and the fundamental context in which they learn, explore new ideas, and develop their understanding of the world. Through play, young children cultivate essential skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, and leadership. It is within the realm of play that children learn to solve problems, develop self-esteem, and forge positive relationships with peers and adults. Contrary to being a diversion from learning, play is the very conduit through which young children acquire knowledge and skills essential for their growth and development. In this workshop, we will explore the various ways children can be extended an offer to learn through play and we will learn the side-benefits of how play can promote regulation.

-Strengthening Adult Self- Awareness and Self-Care to Reduce Burnout

In this module, participants will learn about how cultivating self-awareness and self-care can buffer and protect you from long-term adverse effects of chronic, toxic or traumatic stress. Self-awareness and self-care also will allow one to have the restored energy reserves to prevent burnout. These concepts are foundational to trauma-informed work as providers cultivating these practices respond to children's dysregulated behavior with regulation, compassion and trauma-responsive strategies versus reactive and trauma-inducing. It also results in more protective factors for you and more joy in living in the present moment.