Little kids love using slime, so this week Baldwin psychology students will feature it and other materials in lessons they will teach preschoolers about emotional regulation strategies.
Students in David Dunaway’s psychology classes, with help from Chill Room educator Jerad Smith, have created activities to introduce some basic psychology concepts to the preschoolers. Junior Bethel Emmanuel, a student in Dunaway’s class, is looking forward to the activities and lessons.
“We’re going to help them make slime, introduce some stress balls, find different ways to deal with their emotions, and try to introduce psychology to them in a child-like way,” Emmanuel said.
Preschool teacher Virginia Pfatteicher is looking forward to the lessons. It will be the second time for such a program at Baldwin.
Years ago, when the Chill Room first came to Baldwin, the Allegheny Health Network team that runs that program introduced preschoolers to different techniques to relax, including a singing bowl and head-to-toe relaxing videos, Pfatteicher said.
“The students really embraced it. I think that really helped them to learn how to regulate themselves,” she said.
This time, the lessons will include more psychology elements, and it will be led by high school students in the psychology class. Smith and Dunaway started collaborating on this idea toward the end of last school year.
“We were like, let’s figure out a plan and kind of try to get these psychology kids doing more cool things,” Smith said.
The high school students have created their own activities, reflecting their personal interests. The lessons will total 20 to 25 minutes long per day during this week and next Monday.
“Each (high school) group is going to do a different type of activity with the class that they’re in – anything from art and painting to scavenger hunts, to possibly reading a story, or some sort of hands-on activity,” Dunaway said.
Sophomore Laila Hockenberry, another student of Dunaway’s, has her activity planned for the preschoolers.
“A technique I have been looking into for the event is the behavioral perspective, which focuses on observable behaviors based on changes in the environment,” Hockenberry said. “For our event, we are going to give the students coloring sheets and change the music during it to see how the coloring changes with the students.”
Smith, from the Chill Room, plans to bring more activities to the lessons.
“We have an AHN show project, a YouTube series called Kai and Kate. We have this little short video about bubble breathing and eight different basic mindfulness activities that the kids can pick from,” Smith said.
This experience will benefit both groups of students, giving the psychology students real-world experience and teaching the preschool students about mindfulness. Dunaway hopes to see the preschool students learn to manage their emotions, especially when they become stressed.
“It’ll help them deal with different issues that they have in their life, different stresses that come out. I think that through some of the techniques, if they’re thinking about lashing out, using some of these will help them find maybe a better way to do something,” Dunaway said.
Pfatteicher agreed, saying she is confident the young students will be able to understand the lessons.
“I’m hoping to see activities that will help students, the little kids, learn how to control their emotions, especially when they’re escalated,” Pfatteicher said. “You will be surprised how well they’ll understand it. Four and five-year-olds are really quite smart and really ready to learn.”
To prepare, Smith has brought some of UPMC colleagues for the psychology students to meet.
“So we’ve had some of my colleagues, like a psychologist, a trauma therapist, come in and give little presentations for the students,” Smith said.
This opportunity gives psychology students, like Emmanuel, real-world experiences in working with different age groups. Although Emmanuel does not want to go into psychology, she knows it will help her in the future, as she wants to be a nurse.
“It will definitely help me on how to work with kids properly and understand things from their point of view,” Emmanuel said.
Another overall benefit from the program is the connections between the high school and early elementary students. Smith feels that by having the high school students teaching the lesson, the younger students will be more inclined to participate.
“I think parents and adult figures kind of tell kids the importance of emotional regulation in an age appropriate way and kind of try to teach them certain things. But I think when they hear it from a different source, like a cool high school teenager saying, ‘Hey, actually, you should take some deep breaths to calm down,’ I think the message can be received a bit more strongly,” Smith said.
Smith and Dunaway plan to bring the lessons to McAnnulty and Whitehall on Dec. 10, as a way to expand the psychology concepts and strategies beyond Baldwin High School.
“I personally feel like every student, K to 12, could use five or 10 minutes at the beginning of each day to do something like this – some sort of mindfulness activity to quiet the mind, calm themselves down, put themselves in a good space to learn and just be present at school,” Smith said.
If all goes well, Smith hopes to continue the program and even include more students.
“I’d love for it to be a bigger thing where as many high school kids as we can get to do something like this with the elementary students and the preschool kids,” Smith said.
