AN EARLY CHILDHOOD
 EDUCATION PROGRAM ON:
    Mental Health
 Violence Prevention
 Substance Abuse
Prevention

 Stress Coping Skills
Adapted for use with children with disabilities.....
The PSSRP is the recipient of the 1990 Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) Exemplary Award.


WHAT IS
 PR E - SCHOOL
 ST R E S S RE L I E F ?
The Pre-School Stress Relief Project (PSSRP) is a substance abuse prevention and mental health program developed to provide training, consultation and educational resources in stress management for Head Start, day care, and public school teachers. The project's goal is to enable teachers to instruct pre-schoolers and elementary school students living in high risk environments in developing positive coping skills for reducing and managing stress in their lives. The project provides workshops for parents on stress reduction techniques for families.(The PSSRP Model has been adapted to enable teachers and parents to support preschoolers with disabilities to develop positive coping skills for stress reduction. This innovative approach is suitable for public school pre-school special education programs, traditional and specialized, centerbased and in-home child care settings.)



O B J E C T I V E S
    To provide training, consultation and educational services
    To provide a Training of Trainers (TOT) program to lead teachers in rural and urban communities
    To increase self-concept, coping skills and anger management skills in pre-schoolers
    To increase knowledge of stress management and the concept of wellness
    To increase awareness of the wholistic approach to stress management
    To develop and distribute educational resource materials and referral information


S E R V I C E S

CHILDREN

The PSSRP teaches young children positive coping skills for dealing with "stress" or "changes" in their lives. The program serves pre-schoolers, ages 3-5 years and the primary grades, kindergarten, 1st and 2nd.

Young children today are living in and inheriting more stressful conditions than ever before. Most children are not prepared to cope with large amounts of "changes" or "stress" experienced in their early years of development. Some of these stressors may be due to family instability, lack of nurturing, family history of substance abuse, illnesses, family violence and othe daily stressors. By learning coping skills early, children will be equipped to deal with life's stressful events in a healthy manner that produces wellness in themselves and in their communities.
The six week PSSRP curriculum covers:
A positive self-conceptI AM A GOOD PERSON
ALL FEELINGS ARE OKAn awareness of feelings
An understanding of body changesTENSE AND RELAX
BREATHE IN AND OUT Stress coping skills
Appropriate releases for angerPUNCH A PILLOW

TEACHERS

The teachers participate in a 2 day workshop that covers:



PARENTS

Three workshops are provided for parents to help them understand ways to reduce their stress levels and increase their understanding of coping with the child's stress. The titles of the workshops are:

Adult Stress Management
Reducing Stress in Children
Family Stress Management



The PSSRP has produced original culturally relevant videos for the adult population in "Stress Management" and "Parenting and Stress".


What Parents Say About
The Stress Relief Project


"I plan to learn to deal with stress a little better by exercising, eating nutritious food, thinking and doing pleasant things which include the kids."

Atlanta, Georgia


"I really learned new things about different kinds of stress."

Seattle, Washington


"This training helps people to control and handle their feelings."

Cincinnati, Ohio


T H E
C U R R I C U L U M

Each teacher uses a 6 lesson curriculum in educating pre-schoolers in the classroom on stress education. The topics of the 6 lessons are:


Additional educational materials used to supplement the curriculum are:

  • Puppet Videos
  • Cassette of Songs
  • Posters
  • Worksheets
  • Puppets
  • Stickers


What Teachers Say About
The Stress Relief Project

"This program should be taught in schools all over the United States."

Atlanta, Georgia


"This program is great! I can understand the children better now. It has a currciculum kit to use while teaching the stress lessons to the children in the classroom."

San Jose, California


"This is one of the best training sessions I have ever attended. We need more workshops on how to help our children deal with stress at school and in the home."

Washington, D.C.


B A C K G R O U N D

The Pre-School Stress Relief Project is sponsored by the Wholistic Stress Control Institute, Inc. (WSCI) and funded through a federal grant from the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). The project is in its second round of funding. The initial PSSRP project was under the auspices of the National Council of Negro Women.


STAFF
Jennie C. Trotter, M.Ed.
Executive Director, WSCI

Gloria S. Elder, M.A.
Project Director/Educational Trainer

Gillian Royes, Ph.D.
Parent Trainer


For more information, contact:

Wholistic Stress Control Institute, Inc. (WSCI)
2545 Benjamin E. Mays Drive, S.W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30311-0481

Phone: (404) 755-0068
FAX: (404) 755-4333

Internet e-mail: wholistic@mindspring.com



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This Page Was Modified By
Neco Pines; DeVry Graduate
necopines@hotmil.com