“Everybody has mental health. It is the same as our physical health, there is no difference. People are healthy, have health issues, or are unhealthy, then there’s different layers within each of those, and our minds are the same as our bodies in that area. The true ability to self-regulate comes from understanding who we are and what our triggers are,” Misty Dodson explained.
Dodson, the attendance officer and social work supervisor at Poplar Bluff Early Childhood Center, emphasized “everybody” includes the children who walk in their doors. As more children come to school dealing with traumatic events in their lives, ECC is incorporating curricula with healthy coping strategies, emotional regulation and productive self-expression.
“Children, especially at the early childhood level, kindergarten up into our elementary (schools), are in their formative years cognitively, emotionally and physically. If we are not supporting their emotional and social wellbeing at a school level... We’re not giving them everything that they need,” Dodson said.
Mental health can be categorized as good, average or unhealthy, based on how a person reacts in periods of stress versus security. Someone with good mental health predominantly expresses their feelings and needs in constructive ways. Average mental health is seen in a combination of positive and negative expressions. Meanwhile, someone in an unhealthy headspace will likely react negatively and out of proportion with the situation, because their sense of security is being challenged.
Dodson emphasized all of these definitions are subjective — one person’s average mental health can be another’s good mental health, et cetera. Another subjective experience, and one frequently connected to poor mental health, is trauma.
“Trauma is any event that creates significant emotional distress. Trauma could look different for everyone,” she said.
Trauma is why more children are arriving at ECC with average or poor mental health.
Dodson cited a years-long increase in children entering foster care as well as a cultural feeling of powerlessness exacerbated by the pandemic.
“I think COVID triggered a huge reaction but we were headed this way before COVID,” she said.
For children just learning how to process and express emotions, trauma and distress most frequently appear as behavioral outbursts or social withdrawal.
ECC staff always try to avoid “knee-jerk” reactions to these signs, said ECC Principal JoAnne Westbrook.
“Why did this happen? Why did you make this choice? Was it a great choice? Okay, maybe not. So what can we do better next time?”
These are questions teachers ask, Westbrook said. “You know, everything’s a teachable moment here. So we really work on that.”
These teachable moments are especially valuable for kids struggling with trauma, since trauma goes hand-in-hand with shame. Shame can convince a child he or she is inherently unworthy or bad, according to Dodson.
“When in any kind of trauma, the first thing a person does, by nature, is ‘coulda, woulda, shoulda.’ And when you start that path of ‘could have, would have, should have’ in your heart and in your mind, it exacerbates the negative reactions. It exacerbates your stress levels and it demolishes your security,” explained Dodson.
She added children lacking support after traumatic events often forget how to be happy and carefree.
The remedy to this is love and support.
“It’s recognizing the strengths within ourselves and helping children to learn that you don’t have to be perfect, because nobody is. You have to be who you are, and accept who you are, and love who you are, because we love you,” Dodson said.
ECC has always put students and families in touch with emotional and physical resources as needed. They also share a counselor with the Poplar Bluff Kindergarten Center.
Recently, the facility has incorporated another layer of behavioral health into its curriculum, thanks to librarian Paula Mittermeyer and teacher Heather Swift. They are teaching a series called “10 Simple Lessons for Better Behavior in the Classroom” by Dan St. Romain, which shows young children how to express their needs and cope with rejection, disappointment and other stressors.
Westbrook confirmed the lessons are having a positive impact. Since they began, fewer students have been called into the office for behavioral issues.
“I think it helps kids understand how to process better and thus reduces incidents in the classroom and playground,” she said.
Staff also teach good mental health by modeling vulnerability. Though vulnerability carries an association with weakness, Dodson stated it is a sign of emotional health and a necessary step in improving one’s situation.
Westbrook agreed, “We all went through things in the last two or three years that none of us have ever experienced. We’re learning to react and they’re watching us. So we have tried to take extra steps and add in layers where we’re really focusing on that to help our students.”
The last several years have brought plenty of hardships and tragedies. In fact, Dodson said she remembers very few years without them. But Poplar Bluffians always come together in crises to provide for each other, and this gives children another excellent example to follow.
“Our community and our district have been able to come together and give to people, it’s important to showing our children how to respond (to tragedy),” she said. “...That is something that is just natural and God-given, and we have it in our community. And it gives me great hope for our children in the future.”