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How to Reduce Back to School Stress

by on 21 August 2017in Health & Wellbeing, Lifestyle, PipLife, PipSchools

The long days of summer are drawing to a close. The new school semester can bring with it excitement but also some stress for the whole family. Here we give you some tips to help.

 

Organisation is key: Our minds do not like having unfinished tasks. Much like an app running in the background of a smartphone will drain the battery, having a huge list of unfinished tasks will drain your mental ability to complete tasks [1]. One way to help you focus is to write down what you are going to do and when. Have to buy uniforms? Write that down in the diary for Wednesday. Stocking up on food for school lunches? That’s a task for Sunday. The simple act of planning exactly when you will do something turns off that background fretting leaving your mind clear and focused [2].

 

Give them some control: Feeling in control of your life is a big predictor of health and happiness [3]. Children and teens don’t have much control over the big things but you can give them control over the small things. Let them choose what pencil case they want for the year or what healthy lunch they want on the first day back. This will make them excited about using their new things, and therefore about going to school, as well as giving them a stress-busting sense of control over a big change in their lives.

 

Adjust to regular bedtimes: Sleep is important for everyone but it is particularly crucial for children and teens. Sleep disruption is more damaging for children and teens than for adults. Children under 12 need as much as 10-12 hours of sleep per night and teenagers need 8-9 hours to be able to concentrate at school and to help their brains develop [4] (See our earlier blog on tips to help sleep). Start earlier bedtimes a few days before they go back to school to help children adjust to a new schedule after a summer of freedom. This will avoid sleepy tears (both yours and theirs!) on the first day back and help them to enjoy their first day of a new school term.

 

Children are very attune to emotions and can pick up on your stresses and anxieties without you realising so don’t forget to look after yourself as well. Take some time out to relax and enjoy the last days of summer as you prepare for the new school term.

 

1. Masicampo, E. and R.F. Baumeister, Unfulfilled goals interfere with tasks that require executive functions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2011. 47(2): p. 300-311.

2. Masicampo, E. and R.F. Baumeister, Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2011. 101(4): p. 667.

3. Lachman, M.E., S.D. Neupert, and S. Agrigoroaei, The relevance of control beliefs for health and aging. Handbook of the psychology of aging, 2010: p. 175-190.

4. Dewald, J.F., et al., The influence of sleep quality, sleep duration and sleepiness on school performance in children and adolescents: a meta-analytic review. Sleep medicine reviews, 2010. 14(3): p. 179-189

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The Fixed vs Growth Mindset: Help your Child Succeed in School

by on 16 September 2016in PipLife, PipSchools

‘You’re so smart’, ‘you’re a natural’ and ‘you’re the top of your class’ are phrases we often say to children when they do well. But this kind of praise, if repeated often enough, can be harmful.
Carol Dweck, a psychologist in the United States, has spent years studying what she calls ‘fixed’ and ‘growth’ mindsets. A fixed mindset is the belief that abilities and social traits are fixed and permanent (e.g. the belief that you are smart or not smart and that this can’t change). A growth mindset is believing that abilities and social traits can be changed and built upon. Dweck and her colleagues followed children over 2 years and found that those with a growth mindset improved in school while those with a fixed mindset stayed the same or even declined [1].

 

One reason for this is that children with a fixed mindset believe they have no control over how they do. If a child thinks that they are not smart they won’t have the confidence or motivation to try and, every time they do badly as a result, their belief that they are not smart will be reinforced. Similarly, if a child thinks that they are smart just because they are they won’t have the ability to cope with a situation in which they do not do well because they won’t be able to explain why.

 

The growth vs fixed mindset is even important in social situations. If a child thinks that social traits are permanent and unchanging they are more vulnerable to social challenges such as exclusion and bullying. Children who believe that social traits change over time and situation build up greater resilience and ability to cope with these types of challenges [2].

 

The good news is that growth mindsets can be taught. As the new school year kicks off try to foster a growth rather than a fixed mindset in your child. Use phrases such as ‘wow, you worked really hard and look how it paid off’ or, when they don’t do as well as they wanted to say ‘every time you learn something new your brain gets smarter, let’s figure out what you can do to improve’. Avoid telling children that they are good or bad at something and instead help them to see failures as challenges and important learning experiences. This will not only help them improve in school but give them an important set of resilience tools to cope with life challenges in future.

 

1. Blackwell, L. S., Trzesniewski, K. H., & Dweck, C. S. (2007). Implicit theories of intelligence predict achievement across an adolescent transition: A longitudinal study and an intervention. Child development, 78(1), 246-263.

2. Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). Mindsets that promote resilience: When students believe that personal characteristics can be developed. Educational Psychologist, 47(4), 302-314.

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Meet a school using Pip in the Classroom

by on 5 July 2016in Case Study, PipLife, PipSchools, PipUse

McFarland School District in Wisconsin, US, have been using Pip with great success to assist students learn to better manage stress. They have found the Pip particularly useful to help students identify what helps them calm down and learn to self-regulate.

 

Their Special Education teacher, Colleen has been using the Pip with students since November 2015 and has seen very promising results with her students.

 

‘The Pip is particularly useful to help students know what helps them calm down by trying different strategies when they are calm and not in distress. It allows students to use whatever strategy they think works for them. Then if their Pip score disagrees, there is not a power struggle to move on to a different calming strategy.

 

 

She also noted that  she ‘also found when a student is too upset to talk, they can hold the pip, watch the app, and be aware of their own stress levels.’

 

Colleen’s students also agree and have found using the Pip an enjoyable, and educating, experience

 

“I love it because it can track my stress. It helps me figure out how to calm down.” 5th Grade student

“The Pip really helps you calm down when you are really mad and frustrated. I like the music and the changes to the Enchanted Forest in the Loom app.” 5th Grade student 

 

Kim,the school’s Assistive Technology Coordinator, said that

 

‘the Pip is very valuable for all our schools to help our students center themselves when they are not in a good place. Using Pip has helped our teachers develop some great strategies to help students be more self-aware of their emotional state and apply what they learn from the Pip data.

 

Interested in using the Pip in your school. Contact us to find out more about our Schools Wellness Programme.

 

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School Wellness – Classroom Activity – Calm Breathing

by on 31 May 2016in PipSchools

Calm Breathing

Equipment:
(Optional) – Toy bubble container

 

Activity Instructions:
This is an activity to help children learn to recognise and regulate their breathing. Often when children are stressed or anxious they will complain of physical symptoms such as tummy pain or a sore chest. This is because they are not able to understand or articulate their feelings well enough to tell you that they are anxious. Children are also unlikely to notice that their breathing is quick and shallow when they are anxious, something that only further increases a feeling of panic. This exercise gives children a technique to use when they are feeling worried to help them relax.
You can do this with a small or big group. Stand at the front of the group with the children at desks or on the floor facing the leader. You can amend the script to suit the group or use this text:
Today we are going to practice our calm breathing. This is a special trick to help you feel calm if you are worried or scared about something. We are going to learn how to do it today and then you can keep practicing it yourself.

 

I want everyone to sit comfortably on their chair. Keep your back straight and your head facing the front. You can close your eyes if you want but you don’t have to. Now, I am going to count to 3 and we are all going to take a slow breath in. I want you to make the breath last until I get to 3 and after that I want you to breathe out just as slowly while I count to 3. Don’t gulp the air in, just breathe in slowly and feel yourself fill up with air.

 

Are you ready? Ok,

 

Breathe in 1 —- 2 —- 3 —-. Now breathe out 1 —- 2 —- 3 —-.

 

Did everyone feel themselves inflate like a balloon and then deflate again? We’re going to try that again and we’re going to do it a few times in a row.

 

Breathe in 1 —- 2 —- 3 —-, breathe out 1 —- 2 —- 3 —-.

 

Repeat this for a minimum of 5 breaths in and 5 breaths out. A good number to aim for is 10.

 

Optional Extras:

 

Depending on the age of the children some may have difficulty with the concept of breathing slowly. If this is the case you can use the toy bubbles to help them get the idea. Show them that when blowing bubbles they have to breathe out very slowly or the bubble will burst. Once they have got this concept you can remove the bubbles and get them to repeat the sensation without the prop.
Another option is to get them to feel their stomachs move in and out as they breathe. This is often good with older children. You can ask them to feel their stomach move out as they breathe in and imagine a balloon inflating inside them. When they breathe out they should imagine the balloon deflating.
It can also be good to put this activity in context for children by allowing them to discuss how the breathing made them feel. Ask them if they could feel their air going in and out, if they felt relaxed afterwards and to tell you anything else they may have observed. When they are actively engaged in the activity they will be more likely to remember to use it later if they are feeling anxious or worried.
This is also a good technique to use with the Pip. If you have Pips available ask them to try calm breathing versus quick breathing and see how this changes how fast their dragon flies on Relax and Race or how the graph changes on Stress Tracker. This will show them in a very visual way how calm breathing can help them to relax. You can have some children use the Pip while others practice breathing and then switch.