- [Narrator] The following presentation was made possible by PNC.

- [Narrator] Mental wellbeing, the state of viewing life in positive terms and feeling good about it, has been tough to maintain during the pandemic, especially for teachers, students, and their families.

- If mom and dad aren't okay, the kiddos aren't okay.

- [Narrator] Tonight we explore the challenges teachers and families have faced while navigating life through these uncertain times and solutions to support their mental wellbeing on this Living St. Louis Special.

♪ If you're happy and you know it, shout "Hurray!"

♪ ♪ Hurray (upbeat music) - [Narrator] One good thing to come out of the pandemic is that it reduced the stigma around mental health.

We're all feeling the stress.

We're all way more aware of it, and that's made it okay to talk about it.

- Mental health awareness means that we recognize that our emotional wellbeing, how we're feeling, how our mood is, how our thoughts are working, is just as important as how our body is functioning.

That we really shouldn't be separating out physical health from mental wellbeing.

They're really part of the same thing.

They're different aspects of a healthy life.

- [Narrator] The COVID-19 pandemic brought changes to how we live our lives.

Our daily routines were upended.

- Let's hand.

Let's look at our hands really quick.

- [Narrator] Social isolation became a norm.

Concerns about getting sick or getting a loved one sick, were a constant burden to many, especially children.

- The stress and trauma that we as adults feel and experience children are not immune to that.

The trickle down effect does go to them.

And sometimes we're naive in that, that we think that children are resilient and are going to bounce back.

And the reality is that they need support too.

- [Narrator] Our youngest learners, those under five, are working to develop their social-emotional skills, like learning self-Control, expressing feelings through words, forming healthy friendships, attaining conflict resolution, all while being socially isolated, spending more time on screens, learning virtually, as parents and teachers navigate their own stress and pressures.

- When they were stressed, we had to recognize that we were stressed too, and let it be okay for them to feel what they feel.

- Adults call it emotional intelligence.

Now studies are showing and more employers are saying that that above educational attainment and degrees, the social and emotional intelligence is the number one indicator of whether someone's going to be successful - [Narrator] In October, 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics announced that the pandemic-related decline in child and adolescent mental health has become a national emergency.

And while the pandemic may be subsiding, the negative mental health impact on young people will be around much longer.

- COVID 19 disrupted early childhood education and supports that were already scarce for many families.

Even before the pandemic, childcare and preschool access did not cover everyone who needed it.

During the pandemic, only 13% of children living in poverty and 38% of children living above the poverty line received in-person preschool education with limited access to people and a high number of early education programs closing permanently.

Many children have been deprived of both social and cognitive stimulation beyond their homes.

But the good news is, there are organizations whose missions are to make children and their mental wellbeing a priority.

In this next story, Brooke Butler introduces us to a group that provides high quality supports to educators so they can meet the needs of the children and families they serve.

♪ Good morning.

♪ Hello, and how are you?

- The importance of a childcare provider to the village that it takes to raise a child well is so important.

And that is one of the reasons why United 4 Children exist.

- [Narrator] Deanna Finch is the executive director for United 4 Children, a non-profit organization in St. Louis that provides support to childcare providers and afterschool programs.

- All of our programs work together to ensure that children have safe places to learn and play, that they have healthy foods and snacks, and they also have inclusive services for children with challenging behaviors, special needs like diagnosed or undiagnosed disabilities, or even social and emotional developmental delays.

- [Narrator] When you think about what kids learn in preschool, you probably think ABCs, counting, maybe some finger painting and don't eat the paste, but then there's sharing, following directions, cooperation, emotional regulation.

And while maybe that term is too complex for the average six month old to grasp, the concepts are vital to incorporate at the earliest stages in development.

- We all know kind of the process of teaching children to walk, or teaching children to be potty trained, or teaching them to spell their name.

And so with the social and emotional part, it is much harder because the children developmentally are only able to manage so much at certain ages.

But it also is something that we don't spend a lot of time really thinking about and knowing how to break down - [Narrator] And just as it is a social expectation to be potty trained, going into adulthood, so is managing your emotions.

Seems obvious, but we all know someone, or are even guilty ourselves in the occasional outburst.

So, that's why there are programs to guide childcare providers in teaching these skills - At very early ages, from zero to five, we're seeing increased anxiety and depression, and misbehavior, outburst, loneliness, afraid, fear to be alone, fear to be away from parents.

the stress and trauma that we as adults feel and experience children are not immune to that.

And the reality is that they need support too.

- [Narrator] And that support is exactly what United 4 Children's Social Emotional Early Childhood Project aims to provide.

- One of my favorite things actually is, it's called the expressions.

And so it's got little eggs that's got different faces on it.

If I came up to you and said, well, my kids don't know how to wait patiently.

What would your response be, right?

I don't know how to teach them that either.

Really just focuses on what (speaking indistinctly) - [Narrator] Becky Vogel is an inclusion specialist for United 4 Children.

And after 14 years training childcare providers with the social emotional project, she can definitely give you some pointers on how to have your kids wait patiently.

- So one of the great parts of the project, we use the pyramid model, which is considered universal precautions.

- [Narrator] The Pyramid Model for supporting social emotional competence in infants and young children, is a tiered framework of interventions that promotes healthy development.

In other words, it's kind of a flow chart for childcare providers to use when teaching social-emotional development.

The first tier called universal promotion ensures children are being raised in a safe and caring environment.

Having predictable routines, stimulating play, and constructive communication, is key for both the child's family and teachers.

The second tier includes a more targeted support, which is for the children who might need a little bit more focused approach to learning these skills.

- So if a child's not sharing the behaviors that they're needing to learn is to be able to ask for a turn, or to be able to wait patiently.

We're not gonna put a child in time out because they can't tie their shoe, right?

We're not gonna put a child in time out because they can't write their name, but we're very quick to put children in time out if they don't know how to self regulate.

- [Narrator] The third tier is when a child has persistently challenging behaviors and hasn't responded to the general positive support techniques in the other two tiers.

These children need a highly specialized plan of action to help change the trajectory these behaviors can cause.

- So we do know that if we can get them, especially at that three to four age, which is why we focus so much on the early childhood component of it, that they can learn those skills, that they have a much better success rate in entering school, that they have a much better success rate in completing high school and going on to college, that they are able to get and maintain jobs.

But they also just are much better people, you don't get somebody that's like getting road raged driving down the highway, that's gonna shoot at you that has gotten some of these interventions.

All right.

So I know that you've been doing a lot with breathing techniques, and that you've been doing Tucker the Turtle with them, so I just brought these also, so that you can share with the parents 'cause I know you have- - [Narrator] This is one of the many coaching sessions that Becky has with childcare providers, where she gives insight to solutions and age specific resources to help children and their families who might be experiencing some difficulty in managing their emotions.

- Those first five years of early education is very critical.

And if those kids don't have those social and emotional abilities at that age, as they grow older, it's hard for them to express them.

They suppress them.

They don't let them out.

They don't understand how to let them out and how to be vocal.

How does Louis feel on this Tuesday morning?

You feel silly Louis?

How does silly look to you?

How does that look?

- Silly.

How does it look?

- [Narrator] Dana Lester, although having worked with young children for about 20 years, is fairly new to her home daycare having opened just a couple years ago.

But it's safe to say she found her calling.

- It brings life to me.

It's almost like a soul connection.

Wait, can I say that?

Okay.

- [Becky] Yeah.

- If you don't mind, if I give a quick story.

- [Becky] Absolutely.

- Okay.

A year, maybe like last year I had preschoolers and we went on a walk and there was this stick in front of us.

Of course, as an adult, I walked over the stick.

Kids, not so much.

So they stopped and they talked about the stick, and they asked me, could they bring it back?

So we brought it back, I set it on the floor, and I allowed them to talk to each other about what they can do with the stick.

One of the kids well said, "Let's just paint it."

And I was like, okay, well fine.

The kids said, "Yeah, we can do rainbow colors."

Once the stick was done and painted, they was like, now this is a masterpiece.

- [Narrator] So in other words, let kids be kids.

A very simple interaction with a stick, built creativity, collaboration, and confidence.

And if we don't let that happen, Dana believes it will lead to deeper emotional issues down the road.

- Anger, frustration, not forgiving, not understanding kindness, no empathy.

- Adults call it emotional intelligence.

So the earlier that we start building and improving those skills, the better off every single person will be.

- My name is Tarah M. Williams.

I have three sons, they are 10, nine, and eight.

I've always been pretty structured with them on a schedule of things, keeping a pace going, but all three of them are on the autism spectrum.

I found a way to balance those things out prior to the pandemic.

Well, they're black and they're boys, and they're going to be teenagers, and they're going to be men, especially with them being black men and on the spectrum, I do concern myself with law enforcement or anything, if anything happens because any of their triggers in terms of the autism, then they could be mishandled or mistreated because of that with mental health.

For me, that's heartbreaking.

So we try to avoid it.

I didn't feel okay.

I didn't feel okay to feel bad.

I did not like to feel bad.

I was actually like this, this was the face of chronic depression, this face.

And I was functional.

It's important to tell people you can still be functional and hurting at the same time.

And it's okay to fight through that.

'Cause my therapist made me do stuff I just didn't want to do.

She actually forged me into making sure I take care of myself even more than the one hour.

She forced me to hang out with friends every week and I fused about it every week.

Like, why do I have to go be with people?

I'm an introvert, I don't want to hang out with people.

And not just mothers, most parents just don't find that one thing they can do for themselves and let it be okay.

Eating a full meal by yourself is okay.

I had to learn all of those things and I had to continue.

I still have to continue to remember it's okay to do that.

- The emotional wellbeing of children can be directly tied to their caregivers and the families in which they live.

Parents taking care of themselves and addressing their own stresses is in the best interest of the children.

The same can be said for teachers.

Teachers being overworked and underpaid is nothing new, but things have gotten even tougher since the pandemic.

There's longer work hours, remote learning, in-person instruction, hybrid learning, policing masks, and social distancing.

They went from heroes on the front lines to politics taking over the classroom.

This has made a tough situation intolerable for many teachers.

And nearly four in 10 reported that working during the pandemic has made them consider changing jobs.

To avoid a great resignation and further disruption in the lives of children, the mental wellbeing of teachers needs attention.

- I'm Cara Hiripitiyage.

I'm the director of Secondary Education in the Pattonville School District.

I was also an assistant principal previously, and I started as a high school English teacher in the Lindbergh School District.

Teaching has always been a challenging career.

It's a career that's of the mind and of the heart.

And so teachers bring a lot of themselves to the work they do every day.

They are looking to connect intellectually with their students, whether we're talking about small children, or high schoolers, or even beyond.

But there's also the work of the heart, and building the relationships, and making the connections.

And that's hard work in itself - When your mind is hurting, when you're under this stress, it's hard to work from the heart.

What's the reality?

Is this real?

Is this true that so many teachers are choosing to leave the profession because it's too hard and strenuous?

Not hard in that they can't teach children, but the circumstances around it.

- I definitely have seen some very talented, very impressive teachers who are choosing to go into other fields.

Now that happens from time to time, that's not unusual.

But I am seeing more than maybe I would've in the past.

And in some ways that's very heartbreaking because I know they're fantastic educators and they've done great work with kids, but I also respect that people have to do what they need to do for their own personal growth and their own personal health.

So, yeah it's a challenge.

- Have you heard, why?

What are some of the reasons why some of them are leaving that might surprise you, that you thought would stay longer?

- I think sometimes it's additional opportunities.

We're also in a place right now just economically where there are a lot of great jobs that are available.

And when anyone's in a position where they're having challenges, and meeting the needs at work, and supporting their families at home, I think sometimes exploring other opportunities, I mean it's something they might do.

So it's a real concern, but I think it's not unlike healthcare workers or any other workers that were uniquely taxed during this time.

- Also at that time, everybody thought, well, this is just gonna be for now.

- That's right.

- And so, it's a lot easier.

And I think all of us, regardless of what we do or how our lives are, was like, well, we can do this because this isn't gonna be very long.

But during a pandemic, when there's masks and you can't communicate as well.

- Right.

- You're always worried about your students and how they're learning, but then you put that on top of it.

It's more than what was in the job description.

- Oh, absolutely.

And everyone had to pivot and learn very rapidly.

And teachers are learners, that's I think partly natural, but the speed, and the changes, and the concerns, and the way in which we were all just adjusting and not sure about the level of health and safety made it very, very challenging.

And I think it was a huge stressor.

And then of course it endured.

- When it all started, teachers were considered the heroes and they were doing all of the work and they were on the front lines taking care of our kids.

But then as that endured, they weren't as supported as maybe they were at the beginning.

And that has to hurt.

- I think teachers were in tough spots because families were used to leaning on them and they couldn't lean on them in those same ways.

And then teachers of course, many of which are parents, so they have their own children at home learning, while they're also trying to teach and support other children.

So, the challenges and layers I think were almost impossible at times.

Schools already have a lot of rules and a lot of those rules are for safety and for health.

But this was new and there were mixed feelings about some of these rules.

And so that provided levels of challenges too, because schools are trying to maintain safety, and you have students who are coming in with various feelings about whether they wanna comply with mask wearing or whether they don't.

And it created one more level of a challenge for teachers to be kind of watching that and trying to maintain the safety.

Also good classroom instruction usually means moving around, trying unique classroom setups, and having kids in groups.

All of those things that we know are best practices in education also went out the window.

We had to keep kids spaced apart, we had to make sure they didn't interact too much.

They didn't interact too much with different kids.

We couldn't do that creative grouping work.

So teachers couldn't rely on the usual practices that we know are good in education.

- Two years of going to school like this for kids adds on more educational challenges for them, whether that's social-emotional, whether it's academic, when you've got kids starting kindergarten on zoom, well, guess who has to fix that?

The teachers.

- Right.

And I know a lot of teachers feel a lot of pressure when they're seeing students who are behind academically or behind socially, emotionally.

So that is another piece of this absolutely.

- That's stake.

What's at stake for the kids if we, as a community, as a state, don't take better care and make their mental wellbeing a priority?

- Well, you said before we lean on our teachers as extensions of our families.

I remember when I was a teacher, I had a parent reach out to me and said, "I think you see my daughter more than I see my daughter."

And that really caught me.

And it really made me realize these are the people whose young people are spending most of their time with.

And so we need the most caring, compassionate, engaging people to be in these roles.

And I would hate for people, especially future educators to perhaps not want to come into education, or go another direction.

And for some of these fantastic people not to enter the field and have the impact on students that they could have.

I think that's the risk.

We need to make sure that this is a career choice that's sustainable, and that people wanna be a part of.

It's for the sake of our kids, and for their education, and their futures.

And I don't know too many people wouldn't think that's something is more valuable than that - During this ongoing pandemic, there is a belief that long term school closures and an abrupt transition to virtual learning may have had a disproportionate negative effect on children with special needs.

Disruptions to daily routines are particularly stressful for children with autism.

Ruth Azel, shouts to the story of a young boy and his family and how he is thriving with the help of Easterseals.

- What is this?

- Sea horses.

- Sea horse.

Good job.

- What is this?

- Turtles.

- Good job - [Narrator] Exchanges like this between 10-year-old, Katie Jane Bean, and her eight-year-old brother Benjamin, warms the heart of their mother Marissa.

That's because for years, Ben did not speak.

- What's that?

It's a puppy dog.

- [Narrator] The St. Charles youngster has come a long way since being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

- Good job.

You found orange and green stars.

- Mama.

- Yes, sir.

- [Narrator] Autism is a complex developmental disability that affects the nervous system, and typically appears in early childhood.

- Is Katie gonna get you?

Here she comes.

- [Narrator] People on this spectrum face challenges with communication and social interaction, and often display repetitive behaviors.

- I knew something was different about him.

- [Narrator] Marissa being described, what she noticed about her son within the first few weeks of Ben's life.

- When babies are first born, they're very needy, and you wanna spend a lot of time snuggling.

He didn't wanna be held.

He didn't wanna be touched and cuddled.

And within the first six months, he didn't babble, he didn't make eye contact and hold it with you like a lot of kids will do, as they're typically developing.

- [Narrator] As Ben got older, he received speech and occupational therapy, but it wasn't until an extensive evaluation conducted when Ben was four years old, that he finally received an autism diagnosis.

And that led to his mom and dad being referred to Easterseal's Midwest and a special parent training course.

- We learned about what it was, how to recognize it.

We worked through a lot of different behaviors that each of our kids had.

We had a trainer that we worked with directly with our child, and they would give us tips.

And here's how you're supposed to do this, here's the step by step instruction on how to teach and parent your child.

You don't get a manual when your kids are born.

No one ever says, "Oh, it's easy.

Just do this, this and this."

With Easterseals, they broke it down to the point where it almost was easy because we did have a manual, and they put in so many supports for you that it's almost impossible not to have your child succeed at that point.

- [Ruth] What is it like when you see with each step that you've made a little breakthrough?

- It's Christmas every day.

It's Christmas every day.

The first time Ben made eye contact with me and said, "Mama," I cried for three days.

I didn't think we were ever going to get that.

I didn't know if we were ever going to get that.

I didn't know if we were ever going to have that kid who would sit on my lap and read a story with me.

And now that's our favorite activity.

- Autism experts say children on the spectrum often benefit from the consistency and continuity of being in school and interacting with classmates and teachers.

Of course, that all came to an abrupt halt in the spring of 2020, when the pandemic forced teaching to go virtual.

Luckily for Marissa and David Bean, their Easterseals' parent training took place the year before.

So they already had a toolkit to help their son cope during a period that left many young people, autistic or not struggling.

- [Narrator] The training for parents is intensive.

Monday through Friday, eight hours a day for two weeks.

- Like I said it's- - [Narrator] Melanie Mills is Easterseals' director of Autism Services.

- It's a very small program.

We only take up to four families at a time because we want those families to get as much as they can out of it.

We want it to be very individualized so they can ask as many questions about their particular situation and their family as possible.

You wanna know how to handle your child's behavior in your home with your family.

- [Narrator] And the Bean family has tailored its approach to helping Ben be his best self.

- There are times when I'm not on the same wavelength with Ben, that dad is, and dad will come into the room and be like, "Buddy, what's up?"

And they just bro out and they are best friends and they are just so darn cute together.

And they'll just sit and it's funny, their mannerisms are almost identical.

So when they're both really relaxed, and if we're watching TV or just having like down family time, I'll look over and they both have a hand behind their head and they're just chilling, and they are just the bestest of friends.

And it's so, so sweet.

It's so cute.

And there are definitely days that dad comes in and saves the day.

And dad has hung the moon for Ben.

He very much wants to be like daddy, and follow in dad's footsteps and be this guy who's this, maybe my husband's a very larger than life character.

20 years in the air force, he's up for chief, he's just this big boisterous man.

And then Ben comes in and he's like, "Yeah, let to do that."

So it's really fun to get the two of them in a room and running back and forth.

It's really silly.

There are still times that mom and dad are like, what did he say?

We call our daughter the little translator, because she just gets him.

- Says bunny face.

- If he's getting really frustrated with us, because we are just not getting what he wants, he'll look at Katie and be like, "Katie, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah," "Mom, he wants chocolate milk again."

Oh, well, why didn't you just say that?

But it is really cute.

They get along really well and they play together great.

- Our main goal for this program is not to teach the parent how to be a therapist for their child.

That's not what we want.

'Cause that's not really a parent's job.

But we want them to know what good therapy is, we want them to know how to figure out what works for their child, and we want to empower them to be the best advocate that they can be for their child moving forward.

'Cause they're the ones that are gonna be with them for the rest of their lives.

Not us.

We wanna be able to take a step back and let them be a family.

That's what this program does.

It really helps to empower the family as a whole - That's all the time we have tonight.

To learn more about what Nine PBS is doing to support the mental wellbeing of children, families, and teachers, visit NinePBS.org/learningtoolkit.

For Living St. Louis I'm Anne-Marie Berger.

Thanks for watching.

Goodnight.

- [Narrator] Living St. Louis is made possible by the support of the Betsy and Thomas Patterson Foundation, the Mary Ranken Jordan and Ettie A. Jordan Caritable Trust, and by the members of Nine PBS.

(upbeat music)