PATHS Training – Social and Emotional program
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All feelings are ok
Some behaviours are ok
Some behaviours are not ok
Separate the idea of emotions and behaviour; you can feel angry but choose to do
something other than lashing out
Research
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Acceptance
Developed in US
Significantly reduces aggressive behaviour, depression, anxiety
Use conflict resolution
Understand emotions more
PATHS in Fitzroy and Collingwood
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Teach PATHS for one hour each week in every classroom
Fitzroy primary
Collingwood college
Sacred Heart Primary
St Joseph’s primary
Model this behaviour to families/parents/carers
Offer crime prevention with this supportive program
Brain Regulation
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Stroopt test
o Impulse control (block the impulse so we don’t read the word but say the colour
instead)
o Use the skills for this test to teach and apply with the children to control their
negative impulses eg. Slowing down to read the colours = slowing down in the heat
of the moment to make better choices
Dan Siegal – hand model of the brain (which is taught to kids in schools)
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Psychiatrist
Emotions: flight, fight or freeze – limbic region of the brain
o Works together with the brain stem
Impulses are innate, learned reactions driven by sub-cortical (limbic region) areas of the
brain
Pre-frontal cortex most developed in humans and enables us to pause and gain insight into
what is going on, sense of morality, think of larger social good (mindfulness)
o Beyond survival
o Analytical/problem solve
o Emotions, empathy, mindfulness
Pre-frontal cortex regulates our sub-cortical area
Connection between limbic and pre-frontal cortex is weakened after being repeatedly
exposed to traumatic situations, analytical pre-frontal cortex is not used as much, rely solely
on limbic region for flight/fight/freeze response (flip their lid)
Impact of frequent trauma
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Less neural pathways to regulate behaviour
Reduced window of tolerance
o Slightest things will set you off, can’t regulate behaviour as easily
PATHS Curriculum
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5 parts, Cubbies focuses on the first two
Self-control
o Important component of healthy development
o Not set in stone, self-control can be taught
o ‘How Little Turtle Found His Shell’ book, used to teach self-control in schools 4-7
year olds. Three steps to calm down:
 Stop (arms crossed over chest)
 Deep breath
 Say problem and how you feel
 Stay there until you calm down and feel better
o For older kids, standing on coloured dots
Emotional understanding
o Diagram: all emotions are ok, some behaviours are not ok, some behaviours are ok
o Understanding difference between emotions and behaviour
o Connect different emotions with a name (‘feeling faces’ hand out)
 Moves the emotion from the right side of the brain to the left once it has a
name
 Good morning. How are you feeling today? (to take the roll)
o Don’t force kids to talk about their emotions
o Focus on the child’s emotion rather than your own (eg not ‘You made me feel
disappointed when you behaved like that’)
Building self-esteem
o Teach kids how to complement one another
Peer Relations
o Promote empathy
Problem Solving
o When we have a problem we stop, calm down, say the problem and how we feel,
how does the other person feel, what could we do to solve the problem, which
solution will we try first? Act it out
Scenarios/Skills Practice
Still Face Experiment – youtube it
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Children learn to regulate by watching others
Imitating their body language helps them co-regulate
Share a similar scenario about yourself so they can normalise their emotions
Get the child to come up with possible solutions so they can do this of their own accord
The Emotion Detective
Handout, finding adult equivalents to children’s emotional situations