Welcome to Kids Have Stress Too! Preschool and Kindergarten Program
Overview of the program
The KHST! program is designed to influence young children’s social and emotional development.This program teaches practitioners to help preschool and kindergarten children enhance their physical, mental, emotional and behavioural coping skills, thinking styles and key abilities during the important window of opportunity of these years.
Why focus on the early childhood education environment?
The experiences of young children form the foundation for their later social and emotional functioning, and each environment they spend time in has a powerful impact on what they learn about themselves and the things around them. The warmth and support of the teacher/practitioner in an early learning setting influences the development of important capabilities in children, including greater social competence, fewer behavioural problems, and enhanced thinking and reasoning skills at school age. The early learning and care environment is one of the key places in which young children develop relationships and learn about their world. The quality of early childhood education environments is highly dependent on the presence of responsive, empathetic adults; the relationship between practitioners, preschoolers and children in kindergarten has a significant impact on young children’s developing brains.
By implementing the KHST! program in your setting, you will help children to:
• Gain a sense of control. When children realize they have choices, especially in difficult situations, they feel less helpless. Making choices involves engaging cognitive processes, which change brain chemistry and reduce stress hormones.
• Learn how to relax. When children learn ways to relax, they realize they can help themselves feel better by becoming less tense or upset.
• Develop a “can-do” attitude. Children can begin to focus on what they can do in a situation rather than on what they cannot do.
• Build capacity for self-regulation. Learning age-appropriate strategies for dealing with stress (including receiving support from caregivers) supports children’s emerging capacity for self-regulation: the ability to regulate emotions, social interactions and actions in ways that help them respond to people and situations.