50% of Children Will Not Be Able to Cope. How to Make Sure Yours Will.

Fifty percent of our current population of children will be diagnosed with anxiety, depression or a mood disorder by the time they are 18. While all children will experience stress and anxiety, half of them will not be able to cope! This is an alarming trend that can be shifted with the right educational environment.

Why are our children so anxious? It is an anxious world. The amount of information, technology, toxins and trauma in our children’s world can be a complete assault on the senses. Children are physical beings and learn everything through the senses. The increase in sensory processing delays correlates to the increased anxiety and inability to cope.

Trust and safety are at the core of a child’s ability to develop the skills and self-confidence to navigate their world. Only when a child experiences the world as a safe place will they be able to fully develop their own integrity, ethical thinking, initiative, compassion and higher thinking skills.  At school, children learn best with structure, warmth and encouragement. Schools must be unwavering in the task of providing an emotionally safe environment for children.

Caulbridge School resists the trend to skip over this essential childhood brain development for more short-sighted goals. It may seem logical that exposing children to as many different experiences as possible would foster curiosity in children; however, we find it can have the opposite effect of overloading the senses and destabilizing children. Instead, we pay attention to fostering healthy development through movement of the body, time in nature and respectful social interaction. When children develop a foundation of trusting themselves and their world, curiosity and learning naturally unfolds.