It is inevitable that we experience stress at every stage of our life. In fact, we need a certain level of stress to drive action. But, when stress is too intense, frequent or sustained, it can become toxic. For both children and adults, stress creates not only an emotional response but a physical response in the body. With young children, whose communication skills are still not well-developed, adults often mistake behavioral signs of stress for “bad behavior.” Because of this, parents might miss an opportunity to address the source of the stress, whether it is a traumatic event or a more ordinary challenge in the home or classroom.
Tune in to learn all about stress and resilience in this 3 part series brought to you by St. David’s Center for Child and Family Development (SDC).
❉ STRESS & RESILIENCE PART 1: STRESS, TOXIC STRESS AND HOW TO ADDRESS IT. Melissa Williams, therapist and program director at St. David’s Center for Child and Family Development, joins Marti & Erin for this first podcast of a three-part series that will help you learn how stress affects your child and you. Melissa discusses the stress response in children, toxic stress and its effect on children’s development, and how we can respond to the effects of toxic stress.
❉ STRESS AND RESILIENCE PART 2: PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS AS A BUFFER TO STRESS. How do you know when your baby or young child is experiencing ongoing stress? And how does the way you manage your own stress affect how your child learns to handle stress and build resilience? Therapist and Senior Program Director Paula Frisk highlights the importance of the early parent-infant relationship as both a buffer against toxic stress and a powerful means by which young children learn to regulate emotions and reflect on their own feelings and actions.
❉ STRESS AND RESILIENCE PART 3: HOW STRESS SHOWS UP IN THE BODY. Megan Appelwick, an occupational therapist at St. David’s Center for Child and Family Development (SDC), helps unpack the way stress can manifest in the body. She also discusses how to identify behaviors that may be tied to stress and outlines strategies for helping children who are struggling. Her tips include healthy stress-management skills to last a lifetime.
