Thirty hands-on lessons provide students opportunities to learn and practice self-regulation strategies. Students today face many challenges that did not exist a generation or two ago, and rates of emotional disorders (including anxiety and depression) have increased steadily over the years. Students must also manage an overwhelming amount of information. With today’s reliance on technology and social media, they have fewer opportunities to develop effective self-regulation strategies and interpersonal and stress management skills. Helping students understand their emotions (...) and behavior when they’re young will set them on a path to being successful learners and empathetic people throughout their lives. With thirty easy-to-implement, skill-based lessons and activities, Teaching Kids to Pause, Cope, and Connect provides educators with strategies to help students: manage and reduce their anxiety with healthy coping skills understand and regulate physical responses to stress separate emotions from actions respond mindfully (rather than impulsively) to difficult situations improve social skills, social awareness, and self-regulation develop empathy and compassion Digital cont(more...). (shrink)

Kids are experiencing stress at unprecedented levels. But helping them understand their emotions and behavior when they're young will set them on a path to being successful students and empathetic people throughout their lives. With more than seventy easy-to-implement lessons and activities, this book provides educators proven techniques to help students: manage and reduce their anxiety; separate emotions from actions; stop impulsive reactions and respond mindfully to difficult situations; improve social skills, social awareness, and academic performance; and develop empathy.

Alexithymic traits, which entail finding it difficult to recognize and describe one’s own emotions, are linked with poor trait emotional intelligence and difficulties in identifying and managing stressors. There is evidence that alexithymia may have detrimental consequences for wellbeing and health, beginning in adolescence. In this cross-sectional study, we investigated the prevalence and incidence of alexithymia in teenage girls, testing the statistical power of TEI and student burnout to discriminate between high- and low-alexithymic subjects. A sample of 884 female high (...) school students attending three Italian academic-track high schools completed self-report measures of alexithymia, school burnout, and TEI. Main descriptive statistics and correlational analysis preceded the discriminant analysis. The mean alexithymia scores suggest a high prevalence of alexithymia in female adolescents; as expected, this trait was negatively correlated with TEI and positively associated with school burnout. Participants with high vs. low alexithymia profiles were discriminated by a combination of TEI and burnout scores. High scores for the emotionality and self-control dimensions of TEI were strongly associated with membership of the low alexithymia group; high scores for the emotional exhaustion dimension of school burnout were indicative of membership of the high alexithymia group. These findings suggest crucial focuses for educational intervention: efforts to reduce the risk of emotional exhaustion and school burnout should especially concentrate on enhancing emotional awareness and self-control skills, both strongly associated with low levels of alexithymia. (shrink)