As a former teacher now dedicated to studying child emotional well-being and improving mental health options for students of all ages, I think we should pay attention to one very easy and effective support system for our students: Each other.
In the urgency to develop social-emotional learning and mental health programs, we have overlooked how elementary-aged students — even those in kindergarten — can help. Young students are a significant part of the social support system for the emotional well-being of other students and can be a part of peer-to-peer support networks. Studies have even found that elementary-school children in peer-to-peer support programs on average have increased attendance, increased social interactions and decreased disruptive or inappropriate behavior. See this series on SEL and Student Success from the SmartBrief 2022 SmartSummit.
Peer-to-peer support is not new to high-school students. Programs like NAMI on Campus (from the National Alliance on Mental Illness) and Sources of Strength train teens and pre-teens how to assist their peers. Yet, we have very few resources to mobilize younger students in this way. It isn’t surprising that there is a dearth of programs for them, perhaps because of some entrenched myths.
Myth: P2P support is complicated and requires significant action
In fact, peer support can be found in the smallest of actions like a pat on the back and a direct look into the eyes of a sad friend, which young children do well. Verbally expressing support, sympathizing with a worried classmate or alerting a teacher to a friend in need are all simple yet effective methods of peer support. P2P for young children can begin here and, when it’s labeled as peer support, we establish a foundation students can carry through their later school years.
Myth: Children need significant training before being encouraged to provide peer support
In my experience, formalized training for young children isn’t so critical because we don’t ask them to engage on a deep level. Giving them the basics to provide support and the encouragement to do so is what matters. Mechanisms can be as uncomplicated as using kind words, or employing simple apps and tools to encourage communication with their teachers and perhaps sharing the name of a student who needs help. Lots of simple check-in apps are available on the market, including WellCheq, and while they all differ slightly, they are effective because they provide a safe, secure space for students to communicate with their teachers — even to remain anonymous if desired.
Myth: Only teachers should be relied on to recognize and support a child in need
While it is true that only trained adults should provide support in difficult situations, children can also be helpful. Children can and are being taught emotional literacy skills, such as how to recognize and label their own emotions. Once they understand the terminology and labels, children are highly effective at recognizing how their peers are feeling. With a shared language and the recognition that students can give kindness and express empathy to help their classmates, everyone feels a little less alone.
The question then is, if we are going to bring P2P into the younger grades and start creating educational programs to formalize its use, where do we start? Based on my research into creating learning environments where students can thrive, P2P programs in grades K-6 can be based on three foundations.
- Tap into a child’s innate ability to sense distress. Children know when their friends are sad. Encourage this by teaching them emotional literacy skills. Then, provide a conduit for children to tell their teachers when a classmate needs support. The communication conduit can be informal — such as a teacher being open and responsive when a child comes to them to talk about themselves or a friend. It can also be more formal, such as having a safe dedicated place to put written notes or by using an app made for this purpose.
- Establish a secure relationship between the student and teacher so that it is safe for children to express such needs. Students are more likely to share their own feelings and trust their teacher to take the right action on behalf of a friend when a secure relationship has been established. In our classrooms, we find that also providing a method to remain anonymous can overcome the trepidation of sharing that a classmate might need help. This is where technology comes in. While I feel strongly that we need to have fewer tech-mediated interactions between students and teachers, in this particular instance, technology is a big help. With it, students can more easily and securely express their feelings.
- Create a culture where emotional literacy, kindness and inclusivity come first, shifting away from the competitive culture. In many cases, inspiring a little competitiveness can drive motivation, and I agree that competition can be healthy. All too often, however, we overemphasize competition between individuals and the idea that being first is best. This is when we first start to dismantle a child’s innate ability to support their peers. The general efforts in classrooms to teach emotional literacy, kindness and inclusivity are critical to students’ emotional well-being, but we also need to be more intentional about toning down the competition narrative, especially for young students.
Not everyone will agree with these points. However, my purpose here is to point out that we need to use all available resources in helping our students. There is alarming evidence that points to a diminishing sense of well-being among our students on nearly every measure. It is equally true thats no single contributing factor is wholly to blame. Cellphone bans, social media bans, restrictions on black clothing and similar initiatives are well-intended efforts to improve emotional well-being, and some may work for some students, but most are Band-Aids to a larger, more entrenched problem. Our youngest students are the bright and untapped resource in the struggle to stem the well-being crisis.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
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