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Teachers & Professionals
KHST! Preschool and Kindergarten

Providing Stress Management & Social-Emotional Skills for Early Learners

The Kids Have Stress Too! Preschool & Kindergarten program equips early childhood professionals with practical, psychology-informed tools to support healthy development and resilience in young children. Grounded in the science of early childhood and brain development—and shaped by the day-to-day realities of early learning environments—this program promotes effective social-emotional development and stress management strategies. It helps professionals nurture children’s physical, mental, emotional, and behavioural coping skills, as well as their thinking styles and key abilities, during this critical window of growth.

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.

The program includes 7 toolbox activities to support professionals to:

  1. Understand how stress impacts a child’s physical, mental, and emotional coping abilities, and how it affects behavior.
  2. Apply concrete strategies to help children reduce and effectively manage stress.
  3. Adapt stress-management techniques for use in early learning environments.
  4. Recognize your own stress response and coping skills, and modeling effective stress management in your work with children.
  5. Share key information and stress-reduction activities with parents and caregivers.
Explore Toolbox Activities!

By Implementing the KHST! Preschool & Kindergarten program, professionals 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.

Professional Development Training: For Educators & Child-Serving Professionals

We offer professional development training to help educators and child-serving professionals confidently implement the Kids Have Stress Too! (KHST) program. Led by a Stress Management Expert Trainer, our training sessions provide a comprehensive overview of the lessons, tools, and resources needed to integrate KHST into classrooms effectively.

Explore our Training Options!

Explore our KHST! Preschool, Kindergarten & Parent Program Guides!

BONUS: Check-out our KHST! Parent & Caregiver Facilitation Guide! Designed to compliment the Preschool and Kindergarten Program, it offers additional resources to help professionals effectively engage parents and caregivers.