Working with children presents challenges. Resources devoted to address these challenges tend to focus on strategies. But what about understanding the “why” behind the challenges? More specifically, why this challenges comes for this particular child. This type of thinking demonstrates two important skills: mindful learning and critical thinking.
In this training, Laura guides participants on a journey of the mind and brain to understand children’s behavior. In particular how does mindful learning and critical thinking promote their health, learning, and development? To start, let’s consider what each of these skills entails.
What to expect
With mindful learning, children and adults engage focal attention while remaining open and receptive to what they notice. This promotes the brain’s ability to stay balanced physically, emotionally, and cognitively as learning unfolds.
Participants learn to define, demonstrate, and experience the mindful learning. From there, they explore “updating their software” i.e., their beliefs, about how children learn to support integrate this new learning. The change starts with the adults.
Benefits of this training
Next, participants explore critical thinking from a brain perspective. Meaning, how does this important skill shape the brain and subsequently behavior? The answer includes a decrease in challenging behavior! Specifically, focus on how mindful learning and critical thinking actually enhance social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Together, the two concepts help children and adults link what “is” to what “might be.”
This training includes theory, practical strategies, and experiential exercise to help convey the benefits of teaching with the brain in mind for both the adult and the child. Laura combines science with storytelling to make the theory come to life for participants! The result? Adults gain the conceptual underpinnings of the strategies, allowing them to teach based on science, not habit.
Please visit my You Tube channel for more clips on this important topic or visit my Resources page.