{"id":171234,"date":"2021-04-13T07:10:38","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T11:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=171234"},"modified":"2021-04-08T15:53:00","modified_gmt":"2021-04-08T19:53:00","slug":"bringing-behavioral-vaccines-to-school-5-ways-educators-can-support-student-well-being","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2021\/04\/bringing-behavioral-vaccines-to-school-5-ways-educators-can-support-student-well-being\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing ‘Behavioral Vaccines’ to School: 5 Ways Educators Can Support Student Well-Being"},"content":{"rendered":"

As many schools in the U.S. figure out\u00a0how to safely and fully resume in-person instruction<\/a>, much of the focus is on\u00a0vaccinations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s another type of \u201cvaccine\u201d that may be beneficial for some returning K-12 students that could be overlooked. Those are known as \u201cbehavioral vaccines<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Behavioral vaccines are not some sort of serum to help control how children behave. There are no needles, shots or drugs involved. Behavioral vaccines are simple steps that educators and parents can take to help support child well-being throughout the day.<\/p>\n

Those actions can be as easy as offering students a warm welcome when they enter the classroom. Studies have shown positive greetings can\u00a0reduce disruptive behavior and increase academically engaged behavior<\/a>. Written notes of praise from teachers or other students \u2013 such as a thank-you note for helping someone with a math problem \u2013 are another example of a behavioral vaccine. These sorts of notes have been found to\u00a0reduce problem behavior during recess<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Behavioral vaccines<\/a>\u00a0can also entail activities like breathing exercises to help students feel calm or aerobic play to reduce stress. Each simple action can be used alone or in combination to deliver supports that promote well-being.<\/p>\n

Challenging Times<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a concept, \u201cbehavioral vaccines<\/a>\u201d have been around for centuries. Intended to prevent disease and promote public health, a behavioral vaccine is a simple action that can lead to big results. Think about hand-washing or seat belt-wearing \u2013 behaviors to promote physical well-being and prevent larger problems for individuals and within communities.<\/p>\n

As a\u00a0school psychologist who focuses on matters of student mental health<\/a>, I believe behavioral vaccines can help improve the social, emotional and behavioral well-being of students. I also think these vaccines are especially important as schools seek to fully resume in-person instruction.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the pandemic, there have been reports of increased\u00a0teen stress<\/a>,\u00a0negative states of mind<\/a>\u00a0and even more\u00a0suicide attempts<\/a>\u00a0as students struggle with\u00a0isolation<\/a>,\u00a0disruption<\/a>\u00a0of their routines and\u00a0remote-learning fatigue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since schools can play a\u00a0critical role<\/a>\u00a0in child development, they represent an\u00a0ideal venue<\/a>\u00a0for public health interventions. With those things in mind, here are five ways that schools can offer behavioral vaccines to returning students:<\/p>\n

1: Build Strong Connections with Every Child<\/strong><\/p>\n

Positive relationships are\u00a0key drivers<\/a>\u00a0of healthy development. Strong social connection\u00a0buffers against other risks<\/a>\u00a0present in young people\u2019s lives, such as belonging to a group that is seen as a minority, living in poverty or having family members who fall ill. When school provides supportive social connection, it can help reduce vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n

Teacher support and connection<\/a>\u00a0has been shown to help students feel better about being in school. Behavioral vaccines focused on supportive connection can involve offering an enthusiastic hello when meeting, building confidence about assignments by giving\u00a0wise feedback<\/a>\u00a0and encouraging students to ask questions. It can also involve taking interest in life outside of the classroom, and adding a daily routine of sharing appreciation for others.<\/p>\n

2: Foster Positive Emotions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Positive emotions such as joy, pride and interest\u00a0affect learning<\/a>. Experiencing positive emotions helps children be more aware, focused and ready to solve problems.<\/p>\n

A fancy curriculum or a lot of time is not needed \u2013 adults can embed simple, easy-to-do strategies throughout the school day. These strategies can include helping students\u00a0visualize their best possible selves<\/a>\u00a0or practice calming breaths.<\/p>\n

Figure out which techniques help children be their best. Some students may need to be physically active to boost positive emotions, whereas others may benefit from just being quiet and sitting still.<\/p>\n

3: Include Adults<\/strong><\/p>\n

Behavioral vaccines can apply across the entire school system \u2013 including for every teacher and adult in the setting. Just as with students, teachers can benefit from opportunities to choose and incorporate\u00a0strategies for reducing stress<\/a>\u00a0and bolstering well-being. Peer-to-peer written praise notes, for example, have been found to work for\u00a0teachers<\/a>\u00a0as well as students to increase positive feelings and connection.<\/p>\n

Student well-being is connected to teacher well-being. Since the classroom is the\u00a0primary place<\/a>\u00a0for nurturing child well-being in school, prioritizing each teacher\u2019s well-being is critical.<\/p>\n

4: Be Mindful of Disciplinary Practices\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

As students return to fully in-person classes, they may bring social, emotional and behavior challenges. Recent estimates suggest over 37,000 students have already\u00a0lost at least one parent<\/a>\u00a0to COVID-19. Students also have missed time to learn and practice classroom skills, such as how to take turns, understand others\u2019 perspectives or even work quietly.\u00a0Being empathetic<\/a>\u00a0toward student experiences will be critical to reducing reliance on suspensions and expulsions.<\/p>\n

School teams must carefully monitor their use of exclusionary discipline to make sure it does not\u00a0disproportionately<\/a>\u00a0affect certain subgroups, such as\u00a0Black students<\/a>,\u00a0boys<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0students with disabilities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

5: Recognize Different Student Needs<\/strong><\/p>\n

In typical circumstances, children\u00a0develop at different rates, times and ways<\/a>. Every student will enter school with a different set of risks, some that were previously present and some magnified.<\/p>\n

As British writer\u00a0Damian Barr<\/a>\u00a0stated: \u201cWe are not all in the same boat. We are all in the same storm. Some are on super-yachts. Some have just the one oar.\u201d Each child\u2019s boat is different. Some will need more than others to keep moving in the right direction and stay afloat.<\/p>\n

Schools need to be prepared to deliver different types and \u201cdoses\u201d of behavioral vaccines. Having a variety of behavioral vaccines at the ready can help schools more quickly bring about well-being for all students.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Simple steps that educators and parents can take to help support child well-being throughout the day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":171235,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2231,1855,2235,2225],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1902],"class_list":["post-171234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-well-being","category-neag","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-storrs"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 13:52:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171236,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171234\/revisions\/171236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/171235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171234"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=171234"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=171234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}