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Fundamentals of
Supporting Mental
Health in the Classroom
January 15, 2016
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Promoting Mentally Healthy Students
 Building
Protective Factors:
A
sense of belonging
 Accomplishment
 Adapting to change
 Recognition
 Making a difference
 Resiliency

Whelley, Cash, Bryson, 2003
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Sense of Belonging
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•
•
Build a connection to the school
Establish trust with the parents
Create a welcoming environment
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Building Connectedness
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School connectedness is “the belief held by students that
adults and peers in the school care about their learning as
well as about them as individuals” (CDC, 2009, p. 5)
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Connectedness is associated with improved decisionmaking, resiliency, and better academic performance (King,
Vidourek, Davis, & McClellan, 2002).

Tends to decrease with age, so need to focus on efforts at
secondary level (Chung-Do et al, 2013; McNeely,
Nonnemaker, & Blum, 2002)
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(CDC, 2009, p. 11)
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Building Connectedness
Consider:
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Mentoring programs (King, et al., 2002)

Teachers as student advisors (CDC, 2009)
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Creating smaller learning communities (CDC; Chung-Do, et al.,
2013)
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Student-led parent-teacher conferences (CDC)
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Tutoring programs (CDC)
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Engaging students in service learning activities (CDC; Chung-Do,
et al.) and extra-curricular activities (McNeely, Nonnemaker, &
Blum, 2002; Rowe & Stewart, 2009)

Providing instruction in social skills (CDC) and career skills
(Chung-Do, et al.)
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Engaging Families

Engaging families means that parents are:
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Regarded as the “expert” about their child
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Seen as an integral part of the school community
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Greater parent engagement = greater academic success,
attendance, and mental healthiness (Epstein & Sheldon, 2002)

Engaging families is similar to the enrolling process in
instructional coaching
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Engaging Families
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Consider:
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Representation on school-wide leadership teams
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Positive communication (both verbal and written)
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Invitations to school events
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Special school events
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Parent trainings
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How to access community supports
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How to support behavior and social skills (DeRosier & Gilliom,
2007)
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How to support academic content (Kyle, 2011)
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Create a Welcoming Environment
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CDC (2009, p. 9) identified the following components:

“Caring and supportive interpersonal relationships”
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“Opportunities to participate in school activities and decisionmaking”
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“Shared positive norms, goals, and values”
Important to have classroom management that includes clear
routines and guidelines, as well as fair consequences (CDC).
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Creating a Welcoming Environment
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Consider:
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Welcome signs in each language spoken by school members
(Padak & Rasinski, 2010)
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Greeting students when they arrive
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Knowing students’ names and greeting them by name in the hallway
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Bulletin board in the hall for students and teachers to share
important events
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Clocks in different time zones
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Fair consequences without routinely expelling students (Barrett,
Eber, & Weist, 2013; McNeely, Nonnemaker, & Blum, 2002: Rowe
& Stewart, 2009)

Relaxing seating areas for students (Hansen & Childs, 1998) and
parents (Padak & Rasinski)

New Student orientation or lunches before school begins
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Back to School Welcome
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Accomplishment
Help students develop selfefficacy or self-determination
•
•
Students need to learn that their
success comes from their own actions
Relevant to academics and social
functioning
Process:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Define a goal
Identify strategies and personal
resources
Measure progress
Determine a realistic time period
Identify when they need help
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Bulletin Board—Growth Mindset
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Helping Students Set Goals
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Accomplishment
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Consider at the Universal, Targeted and Intensive Levels:
 High expectations for all students (Tsakalis & Sourlou,
2011)
 Weekly Pride videos
 Proud boards
 Check-In, Check-Out interventions
 Self-monitoring interventions
 Progress monitoring graphs
 Student-led parent-teacher conferences (CDC, 2009)
+ Adapting to Change
 Equally
important to
following a routine is
establishing the ability to
adapt to change
 Add
accommodations to
help students adjust:
Advance warning
 Have students take part
in the change

 Help
students develop
flexibility
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Adapting to Change:
Social Problem Solving
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Social problem solving involves the analysis and interpretation
of social situation.

Many children and adolescents struggle with interpretation
and analysis of social situations due to:
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A lack of self awareness
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Failure to read nonverbal and contextual cues
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Difficulties with perspective taking
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Failure to understand social rules, both written and unwritten
Social Problem Solving can and should be taught
Bernard et. al., 2001; Bellini, 2006
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Steps Involved in Social Emotional
Problem Solving
1. Description of social scenario, setting, behavior, or
problem (what’s happening or what has happened?)
2. Recognize Feelings/Thoughts of Participants (How does
he/she/you feel? What is he/she thinking?)
3. Understand Feelings of Participants (Why is he/she/you
feeling/thinking that way? Ask child to provide evidence)
4. Prediction of Consequences (What do you think will happen
next? What will be the consequences of this behavior?)
5. Selection of Alternative Behaviors (What could he/she/you
have done differently)
6. Prediction of Consequence for Alternative Behaviors
Bellini, 2006
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Recognition
Positive feedback
 Academic accomplishment
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
Recognized through grades, sharing student
work in class, awards
Also should recognize mentally healthy
behaviors
 Always try to recognize the appropriate
behavior first (3 students) before
attending to the inappropriate behavior
 Devise situations where the student will
be successful and then praise him/her
 Even when a student is in trouble, try to
start the interaction with something
positive
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Example—Recognizing Mentally
Healthy Behaviors
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On-going Monitoring and
Acknowledgment of Appropriate
Behavior
 Every
faculty and staff member acknowledges
appropriate behavior
 5 to 1 ratio of positive to negative contacts (Sugai &
Horner, 2002)
 Acknowledgement
students and staff
 Different
behavior
system is easy and simple for
strategies for acknowledging appropriate
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Recognition: Tangible Reinforcement
vs. Bribery

Bribe |brīb|verb
 Persuade someone to act in one's favor, typically illegally
or dishonestly, by a gift of money or other inducement

Reinforce |ˌrē-inˈfôrs|verb
 Strengthen or support, esp. with additional personnel or
material
Definitions from New Oxford American Dictionary
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Making a Difference
 Create
a variety of
developmentally appropriate
opportunities to contribute:
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Putting work in folders
Helping with a bulletin board
Reading morning announcements
Being a buddy for younger students
 Help
students get involved in
after-school activities or
community projects
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Making a Difference

Consider:
 Community outreach projects
 5th grade buddies
 Farmer’s market project – donate proceeds to homeless
shelter
 Meals from the Heartland school-wide project (students
raised the money for it and packaged in the foyer)
 Partner PE/Art
 Drives for families (meals, coats, etc.)
 Silver Cord program
 Volunteer day at community high school
Resiliency
Definition: “Ability to
bounce back from defeat
by resetting our compass,
redefining goals, and
continuing on course.”
Whelley, Cash, & Bryson, p. 2
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•
Educators need to take on
the role of “encourager”
Help student refocus or
find new ways to
accomplish a goal
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Factors That Promote Resiliency
1.
Supporting positive relationships among students
and adults
2.
Encouraging positive attitudes and emotions in
students and staff members
3.
Promoting students’ self-control
4.
Fostering academic self-determination and
feelings of competence
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Resiliency
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Consider:
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“Famous Failures” research project
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Classroom management Red Light/Yellow Light/Green Light
system that allows students to move up and down
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References

Mash, E. J., & Wolfe, D. A. (2002). Abnormal Child Psychology (2nd
ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth.
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Whelley, P., Cash, G., & Bryson, D. (2003). The ABC’s of children’s
mental health: Information for school principals. Bethesda, MD:
National Association of School Psychologists.
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UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools, Department of
Psychology, UCLA. (2011). Retrieved from
http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/.
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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Services Administration. (2003). Child and
adolescent mental health. Retrieved June 10, 2014, from
http://www.nkhs.org/documents/ChildandAdolescentMentalHealth
.pdf
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Fleming, C.B., Haggerty, K.P. Catalano, R.F., Harachi, T.W., Mazza, J.J. &
Gruman, D.H. (2005). Do social and behavioral characteristics
targeted by preventive interventions predict standardized test
scores and grades? Journal of School Health, 35, 342-249.
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References

Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D.,
Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social
and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal
interventions. Child Development, 2011, 405-432.
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2009). School
connectedness: Strategies for increasing protective factors among
youth. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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King, K. A., Vidourek, R. A., Davis, B., & McClellan, W. (2002).
Increasing self-esteem and school connectedness through a
multidimensional mentoring program. Journal of School Health, 72,
294-299.
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Epstein, J. L., & Sheldon, S. B. (2002). Present and accounted
for: Improving student attendance through family and community
involvement. The Journal of Educational Research, 95, 308-318.

DeRosier, M. E., & Gilliom, M. (2007). Effectiveness of a parent
training program for improving children’s social behavior. Journal of
Child and Family Studies, 16, 660-670.
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References

Kyle, D. W. (2011). Families’ goals, school involvement, and children’s
academic achievement: A follow-up study thirteen years later. The
School Community Journal, 2011, 9-24.
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Padak, N., & Rasinski, T. (2010). Welcoming schools: Small changes
that can make a big difference. The Reading Teacher, 64, 294-297.
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Barrett, S., Eber, L., & Weist, M. (Eds). (2013). Advancing education
effectiveness: Interconnecting school mental health and school-wide
positive behavior supports. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of
Education, Office of Special Education Programs.
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Hansen, J. M., & Childs, J. (1998). Creating a school where people
like to be. Educational Leadership, 14-17.
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Tsakalis, P., & Sourlou, E. (2011). School resilience-building key
experiences: Greek in-service and student teacher assessments.
The International Journal of Learning, 17, 95-109.