​Parents and caregivers play a huge role in supporting their young person's mental health and well-being.  But, there's no handbook!  Being open to talking about those challenging aspects of life can be one way to promote positive mental health and identify difficulties early so support can be sought.  

The following links include community resources to help families:

• What is Mental Health?
• What is Social Emotional Learning?
  
• How Ontario’s Schools Support Children and Youth Mental Health and Social-Emotional Learning
  
• What Is your role in supporting your child’s mental health and well-being?
  
• How to talk with your child when you feel concerned they may be struggling with a mental health problem.
  
• What resources are available in our community?

 

Information for Caregivers - Taking Care of Yourself

Special Education Remote Learning Support Strategies for Caregivers to Support Students with Digital Learning

During this time,you might be taking on a more active role in your child’s education and this may be difficult. The most important thing to do is to go easy on yourself. Recognize that we are all in this together.

These are meant to be tips that offer some basic advice and help your child have their best chance for success while learning at home.

•  Help your child to put the work into context. Support your child to do their personal best.
• Gamify the learning.Offer points, levels, challenges, visible markers of progress, etc. for work completed.
• It is acceptable to write your child’s answer for them (using their words). Alternatively, have them type or voice record their answer for the teacher. •It is okay to help your child read the information, whenever possible take turns in doing so.
• Use a schedule but be flexible.
  
• Encourage your child to initially reach out to the teacher if they are unsure of the assignment. They may need your support in doing this.
  
• Ask your child questions to help guide them rather than giving them the answer or answering for them. 
• Learn together. Make it fun! 
• Encourage independence; sometimes an assignment may be late or less than “perfect”. Let this be a teachable moment.
• If your child is struggling to complete the assignment,ask the teacher for an alternate. For example, if the class is learning fractions, ask if an assignment can be cooking/baking together?
  
• Keep the experience positive.
  
• When it is time for a break, take it together. Engage in exercise, meditation, deep breathing, colouring, a walk, etc.
• Work through frustrations together. Model –it is okay to feel frustrated, now how are we going to problem solve? 
• Use a timer. For example, have your child work on their assignment for 20 minutes in the and then take a 10-minute break to re-energize.
  
• Break down the assignments. Explain to your child how they can chunk or organize the assignment to complete the entire task by the due date. It is not always necessary to complete everything on the first day.
  
• It is okay if your child does not want to join the classroom through video chat. Ask them if they would rather just speak with the teacher or another staff member. Do whatever is most comfortable for them. 
• For children in Primary (FDK, Grades 1-3) and Junior (Grades 4-6) be sure to help your child to check their G-mail accounts. Their teacher can provide this information if you are unsure of their account information.
• For Intermediate (Grades 7-8) and Secondary (Grades 9-12) students, caregivers please encourage your students/child(ren) to check their G-mail account daily. 
• Help your child to understand what has been taught, whether that is through discussion, demonstration, watching a video, etc.
• Help your child or encourage them to organize their physical learning environment (e.g., ‘office’ space, binders, etc.) and their digital learning environment (e.g., desktop, folders, email inboxes, etc.)
• If possible, have them set-up a personal workspace.
• If siblings need to share devices, use a timer for the amount of time to work, during one student’s work time have the other student play a game, build with Lego, go outside, watch TV, etc.
• If accessible, make use of YouTube videos and apps to help with learning. (Math: Photomath app, mathantics.com) 
• Remember: Through all this change and uncertainty it is critical that you take care of yourselves. We have provided a short newsletter to support you.