Program helps children manage stress

Wyman

inding a way to help children develop skills needed to resolve conflicts and manage stress effectively is the focus of a pilot program co-directed by Peter Wyman, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine and Dentistry and in the Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, and Isaac Koilpillai of the New York State Office of Mental Health.

The program, developed in collaboration with the Rochester School District and implemented in two city schools, will now expand with the support of a $400,000 grant from the National Center for Mental Health Services.

"A preliminary evaluation suggests that children in the program had fewer referrals for discipline problems such as fighting and reductions in school suspensions," says Wyman. "Reducing school suspensions is particularly critical for young children because suspensions disrupt learning and frequently initiate a cascade of problems contributing to serious conduct problems. More work is needed to determine how lasting the program benefits are and how those benefits can be extended into the future."

The program pairs children from kindergarten through third grade with an adult paraprofessional for three to four months in the school setting. The goal of the interaction is to help children develop skills for dealing with distressing experiences such as family disruption, violence, and poverty. Each child's experience in the program is individually tailored to build on existing strengths and address unique life circumstances.

This work, in part, draws on more than 15 years of research about resilience and wellness by Wyman and late psychologist Emory Cowen. Their research detailed how some children are able to cope successfully with major life trauma while others, exposed to comparable adversity, are vulnerable to problems.

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