An area of student need characterized by chronic sadness and feelings of inadequacy. Students may have low moods that negatively impact their thoughts, feelings, behaviours, views and physical well-being.
• Develop a student profile and use differentiated instruction targeted at the student’s preferred learning method.
• Increase student engagement with advance notice of upcoming topics of interest to the student.
• Provide positive reinforcement for any proximity towards the desired outcome.
• Chunk large tasks into parts.
• Frequent teacher check in’s.
• Offer breaks from tasks.
• Develop a warm and supportive rapport with the student. Find out his/her likes and dislikes and engage in friendly conversations.
• Provide positive feedback whenever possible.
• Provide positive re-framing and rational responses to self-critical statements.
• Teach talking back to self to combat self-critical thoughts to a more realistic self-evaluation.
• Boost self-esteem by giving special role that highlights strengths.
• Challenge mistaken beliefs (often deep rooted and not recognized as beliefs) and replace with functional beliefs.
• Provide lessons on coping with criticism.
• Teach visualization of success: positive outcomes for an action/goal, list of positive consequences, visualize self in favourite spot with all five senses.
• Teach examine advantages and disadvantages to a particular behaviour or cognition.
• Provide lessons that focus on metacognition where students become aware of strengths, hobbies, interests and what makes them happy.
• Limit negative influences.
• Teach and monitor healthy diet and exercise.
• Teach healthy sleep habits and duration.
• Teach setting limits and exposure to media.
• Teach positive relationship skills.
• Share observations with parents, school team and/or mental health professionals
• Don’t criticize or make negative/sarcastic comments.
• Improve classroom climate. (Hyperlinked to this page that will be developed soon!)
• Consider the development of an IEP with an Alternative Program Plan focused on the student developing improved self-esteem.
• Consider the development of an IEP with a Transition Plan, aimed at supporting the student in developing a greater comfort in the school environment.
• Collect data on student behaviour and mood, via tracking.
• Consider and collaboratively problem solve for issues involving lack of food, transportation, inadequate clothing for the weather, lack of clean clothes, bullying, substance abuse issues, etc.
• Encourage the student to become involved in extra-curricular activities.
• Meet regularly with parents and the school team to discuss concerns and strategies.
• Make a referral to a Child and Youth Worker (CYW), Social Worker and/or Counsellor.
• Provide resources on depression (below).
• Provide instructional, environmental and assessment accommodations as required
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• Ask the student and allow him/her to sit in a location where they are comfortable in class.
• Consider close proximity to the teacher for more frequent positive interactions.
• Be aware of any potential negative peer influences and try to have the student situated in a different area.
• Be aware of any sensory issues that could be reduced to optimize learning.
• Offer working in an alternative location for parts of lessons (resource room, library, etc.).
• Offer the student choices for demonstration of learning and assessment.
• Extend time limits for assessments to reduce pressure.
• Offer another location or time to write tests (resource room, at recess, etc.).
Depression and chronic sadness are often brought on my long durations of anxiety. Moods are created by thoughts and students who are depressed and/or sad often have thoughts that are dominated by pervasive negativity with gross distortions, leading to cognitive distortions (all or nothing thinking, overgeneralizations, jumping to conclusions, disqualifying the positive, mislabelling, personalization, magnifying or minimizing, should statements), caused by disturbances in brain chemistry. Depression/chronic sadness is often related to learned helplessness, where the student has had little opportunity to obtain rewards from the environment and/or a history of anxiety issues. Students who are depressed/chronically sad often engage in negative self-talk.
The student with this area of need often has three core beliefs that are difficult to break: he/she is inadequate, the world is a bad place and the future is hopeless.
The worrier – promotes anxiety
The critic – promotes low self-esteem
The victim – promotes depression
The perfectionist – promotes chronic stress and burnout
Resources
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition
Used by non-teacher medical and/or psychological professionals to diagnosis various conditions.
