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Throughout the 2021 - 2022 school year, RHES mental health providers have noted a significant increase in the number of students who are expressing thoughts of self-harm or suicide at school. These students are often feeling angry, sad, and/or frustrated but don’t know how to identify and discuss these emotions with adults or classmates. Some students are also watching media on YouTube, Netflix, or elsewhere that may address self-harm and suicide in problematic and/or unsafe ways.

We take thoughts and discussions of self-harm and suicide very seriously as a school staff. We want all students to learn healthy and safe ways to cope with difficult feelings. It is important for our school and community that we work together with families to support the mental health and social/emotional well-being of all students.

As caregivers, some ways that you can support your student at home include:

• Pay close attention to the media that they consume. Be aware of how or if the YouTube videos, TV shows, movies, and/or social media that your student engages with address topics like self-harm, suicide, or death. It is not an inherently bad thing for students to interact with media that addresses these topics; however, it is important that they are addressed in sensitive, responsible, and age-appropriate ways and that the child has adult support to process the information and their emotional response(s). HERE, the Child Mind Institute has compiled a helpful list of Media Guidelines for All Ages.

• Teach them to identify and name their feelings. Teaching your child to use “I”-statements to express their feelings (e.g., “I feel sad because I can’t play with my friends today”) helps them to build their emotional vocabulary and understand the reasons behind their emotions. CLICK HERE for a simple chart showing how to help your child construct an “I”-statement.

• Help them to discover what coping strategies work best for them. Practice different techniques with your child when they are calm to help them figure out what might work for them when they are upset. Examples of coping strategies that you and your child might want to try are included HERE.

• Encourage them to seek help from a mental health provider or an adult at school when needed.

Again, I want to reiterate that if your student is experiencing a mental health crisis, they should always reach out to an adult for help. We want to make sure that every student feels safe, respected, and supported at Rodeo Hills!

If you or your child are experiencing a mental health emergency, please call 911 or contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (English: 1-800-273-8255; Spanish: 1-888-628-9454).

All the best,

Ms. Pivirotto-Britton (Ms. Lexie)

Adapted from a resource by Jenny Ponzuric

CA Licensed Educational Psychologist (LEP) #2779

What is Response Inhibition?

Response inhibition can best be described as keeping yourself from acting impulsively in order to achieve a goal and the capacity to think before acting. Response inhibition also encompasses the capacity to delay responding based on the ability to evaluate multiple factors. Children and even some adults have great difficulties with delaying gratification because their time horizon is short, and they tend to think only of the here and now. If you have ever talked yourself out of eating a piece of cake or resisted the temptation to purchase an item that’s more of a “want” than a “need”, you have practiced response inhibition.

Assessing the Degree to Which Your Child Shows Response Inhibition Challenges:

1. My child has always acted impulsively from an early age.

2. My child tends to react first and think later.

3. My child struggles to think about and follow “if-then” concepts (i.e., if you finish your homework first, then you can play video games).

4. I am constantly reminding my child to turn off screens (computer, tablet, phone, tv) when they are supposed to be completing homework.

5. My child struggles to think and understand consequences to their behavior.

6. My child makes a lot of careless mistakes when completing homework, no matter how many times I remind them to slow down and take their time.

If you checked three or more responses, your child may have difficulties with response inhibition.

What Can I Do to Help My Child?

• Children and adolescents with response-inhibition issues might be impulsive when they read, causing difficulties with fluency and overall comprehension. Reading out loud can sometimes be helpful, as it slows them down and helps them hear when they make mistakes.

• Review rules and expectations just before entering a situation where challenging behaviors typically occur (e.g., the grocery store, a family gathering, playing at the park, etc.)

• You can build your young child’s inhibition skills in a fun way by playing games such as Simon Says or Red Light, Green Light. These games teach a child to stop and think before acting.

• It is important to teach children and adolescents what to do, instead of what not to do. This can be done by changing your language slightly. Instead of saying “Don’t interrupt me,” you can say “Say excuse me when I am talking” or “Please wait until I am finished talking”. This will help your child understand the desired behavior.

• Teaching procedures for ensuring accuracy is one way to help children with impulsivity. For example, when completing a math word problem:

  1. Read the entire problem out loud.

  2. Draw a picture of the problem.

  3. Circle key words for clues about the math operations (i.e., more than, less than, fewer, equal to, etc.).

  4. Set up the problem.

  5. Complete the problem.

  6. Check your work. Does the answer make sense?

• Build in frequent, short breaks when your child is working at home. For example, after approximately 10 minutes of work, provide a break with a duration of 5 minutes.

• Even in the midst of frustration, have empathy for your child, be non-judgmental, and communicate the faith you have in their ability to meet their personal goals.

Additional Strategies:

• Help your children learn to delay gratification by using formal waiting periods for things they want to do. Learning to wait for something is the foundation for strengthening response inhibition. An easy way to do this is by using a timer. Set the timer and let your child know that, when the timer rings, they can have or do a preferred task. Make the time lag small to start and gradually increase the time delay. Start with 30 seconds and build up.

• Require your child to earn some things they want. If this is difficult for them, give them a visible means to mark their progress toward the desired object, such as a graph or sticker chart.

Information shared here was gathered from the following sources:

• The Everything Parent’s Guide to Children with Executive Functioning Disorder by Rebecca Branstetter

• Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents: A Practical Guide to Assessment and Intervention by Peg Dawson and Richard Guare

• Smart but Scattered Teens by Richard Guare, Peg Dawson, and Colin Guare

• Smart but Scattered by Richard Guare and Peg Dawson

Hello, Rodeo Hills Families!

I will be posting on this blog periodically throughout the school year with articles and resources that you may find helpful in supporting your child. I will cover topics including mental health and wellness, executive functioning skills, and supporting academic skills.

If you have any questions, comments, or requests, please reach out to me at kpivirottobritton@jsusd.org.

All the best,

Ms. Pivirotto-Britton (Ms. Lexie)