Due to the pandemic, aspects of learning, play, friendships, family relationships, the home environment, and a sense of safety and security have all been affected for children. Yet, children are not well supported in dealing with these impacts. We created this intervention to provide a safe, shame-free space to children to share, listen and learn to process ongoing events in constructive ways.
We partnered with a leading edtech company in India, and using the train-the-trainer model, trained their teaching faculty in conducting live, online sessions on Zoom with groups of 5-10 children.
We addressed pertinent topics such as toxic positivity, gave children tools to name and identify intensity of their emotions, make sense of conflicting perspectives and deal with catastrophic thinking. We also provided tools to rebuild connection, routine, and creative and physical play.
Between the pre- and post- assessments, we have data to show an increase of 24% in the number of students willing and able to talk about their tough emotions like sadness and anger, 91.4 % students now understand the reasons behind others’ emotional states, and 75% students would recommend the intervention to their friends.
The curriculum for these sessions is proprietary. Pedagogical elements such as differentiated instruction, peer dialogue and tools such as Yale's Mood Meter were used.
In the absence of safe and supportive conversations with adults, processing and coping with pandemic-induced stressors had been challenging for children. In our intervention, students experienced a safe, shame-free space where they shared their often conflicting emotions, concerns, and in one case, grief of losing a friend to covid.
The main achievement of this intervention is that student participation was high, and students asked for more sessions even after the intervention ended. Here are quotes from teachers: “Every single student was eager to share their thoughts openly, I never had to ask someone to start. "
Our goal for the next 2 years is to provide such a safe space to 1M students through the partner's expansive student outreach and SEL certification of the teaching team.
Please contact vrinda@csel.in for partnerships.
