All Saints Episcopal School has made it a priority to address anxiety in its classrooms.
When school started back up in January, they began implementing new methods and tools to target classroom anxiety, experimenting primarily with the younger age groups, grades first through fourth.
Some of the new occupational therapy methods they’ve been using include switching out regular seats for “Kore Stools” and yoga balls, and attaching bands to the bottom of desks for those students with “busy feet,” just to name a few.
Lindy Long, Head of the All Saints Lower-School Division, says she realized the need for some way to address the issue when she noticed more students weren’t able to sit still at their desks.
“I interviewed two different therapists and they said that our students just don’t have the core strength that we had when we were younger,” said Long. “They’re not climbing trees, and running around barefoot and doing things like that, so we’re seeing that affect students in the classroom.”
Since the addition of the new tools in the classrooms, Long says she’s seen very positive results in the children.
“Oh, they think it’s so exciting and fun and you know after a little while if it doesn’t work for them, they realize that and they just don’t use that anymore,” said Long. “We’re trying to find out what works best for individual students.”
Other teachers and faculty say that they are also greatly impressed by the feedback and results in the classroom. They believe the new tools are helping students hone in on what makes them anxious in a comfortable way to where they won’t feel insecure about being fidgety in front of their fellow classmates.
“We started using them right after Christmas,” said Vicki Teakell, an All Saints third-grade writing and grammar teacher. “We had been doing a lot of writing and what I saw was when we have our ‘Creative Time,’ when they’re getting that time to just sit and write, that they’re able to concentrate a little bit better because they’re able to wiggle, they can move. They’re not sitting in a really stiff chair. They move their feet around, so it really just gives them a chance to focus on the paper.”
Even some parents who have seen the benefits in the classroom have implemented some of the new methods at home.
Mary-Kathryn Strong, a parent of an All Saints student, says since incorporating some of the tools used at school in her home, she has seen great improvements in her daughter’s overall coordination, developmental skills and strength.
“If she’s watching TV, she sits on the yoga ball, or if she’s playing with her friends they practice the ‘wheel barrel,’ walking in and out, or just laying out on top of the ball to stretch,” said Strong. “We’ve kind of made it a more fun tool instead of ‘OK this is an exercise thing you have to do.'”
Ms. Long advises that if you think your child may be struggling with some form of anxiety in his/her classrooms at school, to speak with an occupational therapist for their opinion, and to even adopt some of the tools and methods All Saints uses in your home as well.
