11 Ways to Help Students Relieve Stress During COVID-19
Here are 11 ways to relieve stress during this time:
1. Establish Routines
Begin each day at the same time. For consistency, have your student wake up at 8:00 each morning, get dressed and have breakfast. This should feel like a relaxed environment to set the tone. Have a plan for how the day will look regarding school work and free time. The most crucial part of a student’s routine is their sleep. Stick to normal bedtime routines.
2. Food for the Brain
What we put inside of our bodies plays a crucial role in how we fuel our brain. Some great food to fuel our brains are fish, berries, nuts and whole grains.
3. Prioritize
Preparing students with their biggest task of the day first will help decrease anxiety as the day progresses.
4. Movement
Our students are used to moving around all day, even if that means walking from one class to another. However, right now we need to create movement for them. Such as, transitioning from one subject to another, stretching or running in place. Exercise reduces stress hormones and releases endorphins.
5. Stay Present
It is easy while being home to allow our minds to drift. Try some breathing and grounding exercises to help remain focused.
6. Don’t Forget about Breaks
Make sure when you are creating your schedule you set your timer and take breaks.
7. Find ways to Disconnect
It is so easy to get lost on our phones either surfing the internet or talking to friends. However, it is important to find times to get away from the screen and interact with family.
8. Stay Active
Social distancing is in effect but that does not mean you have to stay inside all day. Go in your backyard, go for a run or try an in-home workout.
9. Dedicate a Work Space
With both parents and students at home it may be difficult to get work done. Create a space that is dedicated only to work!
10. Dress for Success
Studies have shown that the way we dress affects the way our day flows. For example, if you are dressed in pajamas all day it is going to make you feel relaxed and unable to complete work. Students should wear clothing that they would wear to school to set the tone.
11. Be Intentional
With working from home, it has allowed for a lot of free time. Be intentional during this time. This means, reviewing material for difficult subjects, preparing for high school/college essays and standardized tests.
How to Support Your Student from Home
We are now in a new phase of life where “work from home” is the new “normal.” This can cause a great deal of anxiety and difficulty focusing. We are a routine driven society and now that our routines have been “thrown out the window” a lack of focus is expected. However, there are ways to help with regaining focus and attention, whether students have learning differences like ADHD or not.
As a parent or educator, it is essential to develop habits and routines to allow students to perform their best. Please see below for tips on how to help your student stay focused and support them during difficult times.
Think about your feelings working from home and the challenges and uncertainty it has brought up for you. Allow yourself to express that with your student which will encourage them to tell you how they feel. Empathizing with them and helping them feel understood will allow them to come up with a solution with your guidance.
Here are a few things we we recommend:
Set a routine and schedule for every day. Have this posted where the student is working as well as other places in the home to ensure they stay on schedule.
Sometimes time can “get away” from us. Help them use a visual timer to be mindful of their time.
Have all their materials ready and in reach.
Allow short breaks frequently.
Give clear instructions on your expectations.
Break projects into smaller, more manageable chunks.
Always stay calm and encouraging, we are all trying to navigate this tough time and it is overwhelming for everyone. When giving feedback ensure it is always positive which will help with motivation. Use phrases such as:
“I see how hard you are trying. You can do this.”
“Let’s set the timer. I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out when you are finished.”
This time gives us the opportunity to practice and strengthen their executive functioning skills. With our guidance and leadership, they are becoming more independent by completing things on their own. Since children are not born with these skills, the adults in their lives create the opportunities and environment to practice these skills. We hope this advice helps you support your students. For more information on finding a one-on-one academic coach, please visit our website.
What are Executive Functioning Skills?
Written by: Coach Lauren Bachand
Executive functioning skills are those higher cognitive skills that are required to successfully plan and carry out various actions during the day. They include attention, planning, prioritizing, and organization. They are used for memory, reflection, and inhibition control. But what exactly is the big deal with executive functioning? And why get a tutor that focuses specifically on planning and organization instead of your child’s “problem” subjects and poor grades?
Well to start, the reason for academic failure normally has little to do with a lack of understanding the information and more to do with the processing and storing of the information. Executive functioning skills, or EF for short, are those skills controlled by the frontal lobe of the brain. This is the last part of the brain to develop and mature, but it is also the most influenced during childhood development. Just like academic subjects in school, EF skills are learned, however they are not necessarily intuitive.
Let’s take a look at our lives as adults to help conceptualize what they are, and role our EF skills play in our daily lives.
For many of us, our day actually starts the night before. We might set an alarm, or check to ensure our alarm is set for the right time. (And, if you are anything like me- set a second, and a third. Just in case.) The next morning when you wake up, you prioritize the first things to do without much thought. Maybe one child struggles with getting up in the morning, or has to be to school earlier than the others, so you wake them first. You get dressed, set out breakfast, create your children’s lunches, or pull aside cash for hot meals. When you arrive at work you check your emails. You effortlessly categorize and prioritize which ones to answer before your 10 o’clock meeting. That afternoon you use Google Maps to determine the best route to get to your children’s school in time for pickup. You notice there is an accident, adjust your route and call the school to let them know you may be late. Once you arrive home you realize you are out of milk and write a memo to pick more up the next day. You look in the pantry, problem-solve, and cook dinner. You usher your children to bed, and then it is time to start all over again.
As an adult, you used your EF skills naturally and unconsciously. You adapt, problem-solve, and overcome obstacles with little second-thought. A child, especially once with learning differences which create EF deficits, may run into numerous bumps in the road during your day. They might forget to set their alarm the night before and wake up late, take too long answering emails and miss the morning meeting, see an accident on the route and not adjust or call the school to warn about being late, or they might forget to write the memo for milk.
If we were to translate this information to your child’s everyday life in an academic setting, you might notice that they forget to write down the deadline for an upcoming project. They might spend too long working on a homework worksheet that is only worth five points, instead of studying for a test that is worth 50 points. They might pick a topic to research that is too challenging, but they do not adjust the subject or ask the teacher for help. Or, they might forget to bring their textbooks home to complete their homework.
While your child’s academic coach will work with them on developing these skills during their sessions, it is also important they are developed daily around the house. So what are some things you can do to help your child develop and mature their EF skills, maximizing their future success? Well, to start the best (and easiest) way is to model the behavior yourself.
Here are four easy ideas to do together with your child:
Create a wall calendar for you and your child
Calendars are a great way for anyone to stay organized and on top of their game. It is the perfect way to foster planning, time management, scheduling skills, and foresight.
Begin with buying one large dry erase calendar (22in by 18in) for yourself and one for your child. These can be found on Amazon. Then, set aside one night at the end of the month, like the last Sunday, to sit with your child and schedule out the month in advance. Add work deadlines, appointments, and reminders on your calendar, while encouraging your child to fill in the deadlines for large assignments, tests, and extracurricular activities such as sports practices and tournaments on theirs. Then, create the habit of marking off each day together before going to bed. Children are visual learners, and being able to see approaching deadlines help them prioritize and schedule appropriately.
Create a nightly checklist for you and your child
Checklists are a great way to foster organization and other skills needed to prioritize tasks. It provides a sense of accomplishment, and help reduce stress and anxiety.
Begin by having you and your child create two or three goals you would like to complete by the end of the next day. These goals can be work/academic related, or they can be broader goals like remembering to wash the dishes or making a doctors appointment. At the end of each day, sit with your child and mark off which goals were met. For goals that weren’t met, ask questions such as “what prevented me from doing this goal today?” This tip can be used to foster a sense of accomplishment, be used as an incentive for “screen time” or another “fun” activity your child enjoys. If you and your child are competitive, this can become a fun game to see who can complete all of their goals each day.
Set out clothes for the next morning with your child
Preparing for the morning the night before fosters skills related to time management and organization. It reduces stress, anxiety, and frustration during morning routines.
Begin by checking the next day’s weather with your child. Now, with smartphones and in-home devices such as Alexa and Google Home- this step couldn’t get any simpler. Once you have determined the weather, work with your child to put aside an outfit. If your child has a uniform, this is the time for them to ensure all of the parts are washed and accounted for. If your child does not have a uniform, this is their chance to put together a cohesive, dress-code and weather appropriate outfit that matches their personality. While they put aside their outfit, you also have the chance to ensure you have everything you need for the next morning, potentially putting a small load in the washer and dryer before bed or ironing a pair of slacks. Once each of your outfits are picked out, you can each place them on the back of the bedroom doors using a hook.
Involve your child in cooking or meal preps
Cooking uses every EF skill there is. It fosters organizational, time management, working memory, and attention skills. Children must learn to use foresight and create grocery lists, gather and organize ingredients, time manage and prioritize what to cook when based on varying cook times, and attend tasks while cooking. Even better, it develops self-confidence in your child and a sense of accomplishment when they serve the meal to the family.
Begin by scheduling one day a week that your child is responsible for making dinner. I encourage parents to have their child make dinner since it is a meal the entire family can enjoy together. Once the day has been scheduled, help your child select meals you know they can accomplish with minimal assistance. Encourage your child to do as much of the meal independently as possible. These do not have to be complicated meals. Spaghetti with meat sauce, club sandwiches, baked ziti, hotdogs, or hamburgers are all examples of simple meals children can create with minimal assistance.
For more information about Executive Functioning, click here: https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/child-learning-disabilities/executive-functioning-issues/3-areas-of-executive-function