This school counselor wants to focus on healing

Plus: No child in Ukraine is unaffected by the war

View this email online Meredith Draughn uses "feeling centers" to teach emotions to kindergarteners and first grade students. In this lesson, first graders illustrate what different feelings look like using Play-Doh. Meredith Draughn Feb 26, 2023 This week, prioritizing emotional learning, Ukrainian parents raising children in a warzone and West Virginia passes a bill allowing guns on college campuses.  Meredith Draughn uses "feeling centers" to teach emotions to kindergarteners and first grade students. In this lesson, first graders illustrate what different feelings look like using Play-Doh. Meredith Draughn Hey everyone,   Jonaki Mehta here. I’m normally a producer at NPR’s All Things Considered, but I’ve gotten to hang out at the Ed Desk this month as a reporter. It’s a pleasure to meet you! I come to you this week with some breathing exercises and other coping skills to help young people–and honestly, adults–get through anxious feelings.   We’ve been talking a whole lot about the youth mental health crisis in our newsroom, especially since U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory about it back in 2021. (Recent congressional testimony, reported on by NPR Ed’s Cory Turner, also looked at the role social media is playing in all this.) It’s been a scary few years for kids — even traumatic for some — so I wanted to think about what can help as we continue our transition into post-pandemic times. School support staff — including counselors, social workers and psychologists — play a critical role in meeting youth mental health needs. So, I spoke with 2023’s School Counselor of the Year, Meredith Draughn, and she had some words of wisdom that might help you see the times we live in as an opportunity. "A lot of people focus on trauma changing the brain...but what they miss is that healing changes it as well,” she said. Draughn shared helpful tips for caregivers, educators and young people. Like she says it’s important to help kids identify their anxious feelings. Are they fidgeting more than usual?  Maybe complaining of stomach aches? Help them describe how they’re feeling, and then get all that “extra energy out” by letting them fidget in their chair or do physical exercises like jumping jacks. And when jumping through the energy doesn’t quite work, visual breathing exercises work well. Draughn likes telling children to “smell a flower, and blow a candle,” or try this 4x4 breathing exercise. We know kids have lots of big feelings beyond anxiety. And Draughn told me to think of each behavior as a story. “Every behavior communicates a need,” she said; use that communication to address those needs in appropriate ways, some of which she lays out in this story. I wish I had access to these kinds of tools as a kid!   — Jonaki Mehta, Producer, All Things Considered  Newsletter continues after sponsor message A big anniversary …  Elissa Nadworny here. It’s been a year since Russia invaded Ukraine. I’m an education correspondent, but I’ve spent months in Ukraine covering the war.  I’ve interviewed dozens of children and their families there, and I’ve been reflecting on the fact that no child in Ukraine is unaffected by the war. More than 5 million children have been displaced from their homes, and many have lost loved ones, witnessed violence and, in some cases, experienced it firsthand.  Kids are acting out; they’re angry and sad, clingy and regressing (sucking their thumbs). In the central city of Dnipro, Vera, 10, told me she watches YouTube videos about people traveling. "I just watch people live a peaceful life, not like this." Anna Mordiukova gave birth to her baby Victoria with a Russian doctor while her village was under occupation at the beginning of the war. Claire Harbage/NPR In Kharkiv, a 9-year-old named Sasha told me he “takes 3 deep breaths and then 3 normal breaths” when he feels scared or uncomfortable. It’s a tip his father taught him when the war started. He says it helps. Other children “play” war and dream about driving tanks. They are scared. “My son grew up in an instant,” one mom of a 6-year-old in Lviv told me.  "The trauma of war can present itself in many ways," says Yuliia Luchnikova a school psychologist in Dnipro. "This state-of-being in Ukraine isn't normal."  My latest story from Ukraine is about the country’s persistently low-birth rate, an issue that’s been happening since the 1990s.  As one researcher told me: "Ukraine had one of the lowest birth rates on the planet. And then a war broke out." Fewer people means lower tax revenues, a smaller labor force and greater difficulty in rebuilding the country after a devastating war. You can read more of my reporting in Ukraine here.  — Elissa Nadworny, Correspondent, NPR Ed Now onto this week's news from your faithful intern…  West Virginia bill would allow concealed guns on college campuses A bill that would allow people to carry concealed weapons at public college campuses in West Virginia passed by a landslide in the state's House of Delegates on Tuesday. It now heads to Gov. Jim Justice for his signature. College presidents, students and professors — including some who say they support the Second Amendment — have expressed concern around the safety challenges the bill presents.  Childhood obesity guidelines could harm kids Eating disorder treatment specialists are expressing dismay over a push by the American Academy of Pediatrics to get pediatricians to diagnose childhood obesity with greater urgency. They say that emphasizing Body Mass Index — which uses predetermined weight-height ratios to predict health problems— doesn't actually gauge one’s health and runs the risk of making kids feel stigmatized. A new study in the journal JAMA Pediatrics found that kids with a higher BMI are more likely to develop disordered eating.   And before you go, a little heart balm for the road 🔥💫... Growing up in a small Guatemalan village, Neudy Rojop regularly saw the people around her get sick, sometimes gravely so. Today, she’s a nurse who coordinates community-based research aimed at improving public health. Read her story to learn about the research she’s been carrying out at FunSalud, a state-of-the art clinic and research lab started by a pediatrician and researcher from the University of Colorado, also from Guatemala.       Here’s to forging a path through the stubborn and thorny thickets 👉 — Abē Levine, Intern, NPR Ed   Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WBEZ (edit station). What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: npred@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Music, Politics, Code Switch and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Education emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy