Sesame Street and APA Offer Youngest Kids Emotional Wellness Tools
In the midst of a mental health crisis amongst America’s youth, Sesame Street and the American Psychological Association (APA) are working to address the wellbeing of the youngest Americans, giving tools to help kids and caregivers develop emotional intelligence and resilience, the APA reports.
The pandemic exposed a longstanding existing need for youth mental health resources. According to new research released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 15% of U.S. kids and teens were treated for a mental health disorder in 2021. While teen girls were especially negatively impacted by the pandemic, mental health concerns affected increasingly younger children, the CDC reports. In March through October of 2020, emergency room visits for kids ages 5-11 rose 24%.
As younger and younger children are being affected by the youth mental health crisis, growing attention is being paid to the mental health of grade school students, but early childhood needs have been largely ignored. In response, Sesame Street and the American Psychological Association have partnered to develop a set of free resources for parents, teachers, and pediatricians to promote the emotional needs of this age group (up to age 7).
Attuning to children’s emotions
Parenting is much more than simply providing for a child’s physical needs. Research shows that positive parent-child relationships are built on “parents’ ability to ‘tune in’ to the thoughts and feelings of their young children. According to an article on the Sesame Street website, “Research has shown that attunement — noticing, recognizing, and responding to your child’s emotions and needs — helps your child feel accepted, understood, and safe.”
“Attunement is really where it all begins,” said Lauren Sommers, APA’s deputy chief of psychology in the public interest. “As children come to understand their emotions and develop some emotional regulation, it sets the stage for adults to help them understand what they are experiencing, understand what emotions look like, and how to appropriately respond so that they’re better able to respond and engage. All of this sets the pathway for lifetime learning and success.”
Resources to help kids build emotional awareness
Emotional awareness – defined as “the ability to notice, label, and regulate a range of emotions” – is at the heart of mental wellbeing. When kids can identify their emotions, they can learn to regulate them or respond appropriately.
On its website, Sesame Street offers a series of resources, including videos, articles, storybooks, interactive games, and printable worksheets based in psychological science.
In the video “I Notice, I Feel, I Can,” Elmo and his dad, Louie, show kids how to manage challenging emotions. First, kids learn to notice the bodily sensations that accompany an emotional reaction, identify the emotion they are feeling, and figure out what they can do to manage those feelings and share them with someone else. In the video, Elmo’s dad becomes worked up while having trouble assembling a bookshelf. He models the three-step process: first noticing he is feeling shaky and out of breath, recognizing that he feels frustrated, and then choosing to take a walk to calm himself down rather than losing his temper.
“This emotional awareness is the building block to emotion regulation, and we know that is key to social interactions, developing friendships, and also school readiness and the ability to engage in structured environments with others,” Sommers said.
Read the full article here. Or check out the resources at Sesame Workshop.
Novotney, Amy. “Sesame Street Muppets Abby Cadabby, Elmo, and APA help parents and kids with emotions.” APA.com, 22 June 2023, https://www.apa.org/topics/parenting/nurturing-relationships-families-sesame-street?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=apa-parenting&utm_content=sesame-street-nurturing-family-relationships.
Images from Sesame Workshop