News

Penn GSE’s Dr. Marsha Richardson shares her insights on how parents and teachers can help children process the complex thoughts and emotions associated with watching war unfold.

Marsha Richardson discusses how to explain the realities of war to children. “When it comes to issues like this, sometimes we can find it hard to connect the dots between a child’s behavior and the events unfolding in the world around them,” she says. “This is about being in tune with and understanding, developmentally, the ways in which these stressful situations might manifest for children.”

Speaking to an audience of Penn GSE alumni and friends, three mental health professionals shared ways in which they’re responding to students’ mental health during transitional times.

In the 2021 Constance E. Clayton lecture, Dr. Courtney D. Cogburn points to the critical need to imagine Black futures in the metaverse and describes her work on an immersive virtual reality experience in which viewers become a Black male encountering racism.

Mike Nakkula comments on the development of LGBTQ student support programs in the Philadelphia public school system. “Being closeted and hiding are major risk factors,” Nakkula said. “Creating spaces in schools where students feel like they have a chance to voice their concerns, that’s a critical developmental act.”

Howard Stevenson offered tips for how parents can address racist or insensitive comments made by children. “Get a sense of what they understand it to mean from their perspective,” he said. “Where did they hear it from? How is it being used in the social context they’re in? Then you have a better angle to how you can speak to it.”

This spring, Garrett became Assistant Dean for Student Affairs in Yale’s Office of Gender & Campus Culture and the Alcohol and Other Drugs Harm Reduction Initiative.

Penn GSE students preparing for counseling careers have strived to deliver mental health services to vulnerable populations via virtual internships while studying remotely themselves.

"It’s going to be a sort of an identifier for folks who lived through this, and we don’t really know what the mental health impacts are on us,” Ariane Thomas said.

Parents can help their kids prepare to go back to school in person. Focus on sleep. Talk about fears. And maybe get a new outfit.

Writing in Diabetes Daily, Penn GSE alum Tara Bryant-Gray encourages parents to embrace the flux of pandemic parenting a child with type 1 diabetes.

Amid a global pandemic and perhaps the largest civil rights movement in U.S. history, Penn GSE is embracing the shift to virtual education, providing resources to educators and leaders in the field at large, and addressing issues of race, equity, and access throughout the School’s work.

Hint: What you do is more important than what you say.

A nationally sought expert on racial stress and racial trauma, Penn GSE’s Dr. Howard Stevenson discusses the national landscape and how racial literacy can help create a better future.

Michael Nakkula and Andy Danilchick have suggestions for how parents can navigate the challenges of the COVID-19 era.

In their new guide, Michael Nakkula and Andy Danilchick show educators how to cultivate an "uncertainty mindset."

PBS NewsHour’s Amna Nawaz recently joined Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher on The Parent Scoop podcast to talk about introducing kids to the news.

Howard Stevenson and Frances Jensen spoke about how young people view the threat of COVID-19 and the effects of police violence on their mental health.

Howard Stevenson spoke about how parents can best address race with children. “They’re listening to you, but they’re also watching how you say it,” he said.

Howard Stevenson spoke with Vox about how parents can teach their children about racism. He explained that simply being a good person is not enough. To teach their children, parents need to understand how racism works and how to fight it.

Leading an EDTECH WEEK Masterclass, Marsha Richardson said educators need to take care of their own wellness needs, as well as those of their students.

Howard Stevenson said, “We underestimate the negative effects of swallowing our feelings during racial moments. Research is showing more and more that if we don’t manage racial stress and trauma, it comes out in our health and bodies and sleep.” To make progress, people need to start having hard conversations about race to improve racial literacy — the ability to read, recast, and resolve a racially stressful moment.

A Q&A with Howard Stevenson on how parents and guardians can find a balance between two questions: Do we try to explain the strife our child sees on television? Or should we try to shield her from such “grown up” problems?

Give each other space. Create norms. And remember, you can play ping-pong on your dining room table.

Parents and kids avoid the counselor’s office because they are afraid they, or their child, won’t be seen as “normal.” It's time to break the taboo.

Penn GSE’s Michael Nakkula and Andy Danilchick are at the forefront of research into possibility development, an emerging field in the study of human development.

In the latest issue, we look at how families can help kids develop the skills to conquer kindergarten.

Marsha Richardson offers ways to help a teen struggling with anxiety

Linda Leibowitz gives parents ideas to prepare for going back to school.

By taking a gender conscious approach, educators develop and display an awareness of how gender bias, roles, and expectations play into their teaching practice, and ultimately move towards more equitable teaching.