Free Resources

This book helps children PreK-3 learn about feelings, size of emotions and ways to help their body find calm, regulation and to feel safe again.

A FREE downloadable booklet with multiple activities to teach middle and high school age students social skills.

A tool we developed in our Harvard Education Press book, Reducing Stress in Schools. This tool helps folks cultivate the muscle of the "PAUSE". The STOP tool was developed to support adults to learn how to interrupt their reactivity and cultivate a pause. Each letter in S.T.O.P. stands for an action we can take to help create an intentional pause that increases our self-awareness, disrupts our reactivity and allows us to respond productively in stressful situations. When an educator or adult pauses, they allow time for the cortex to be engaged so they can draw upon their capacities to listen, problem solve, consider different perspectives and to respond with empathy vs in a harsh and harmful manner.

Free downloadable list of books for middle and high school youth.

“Children have a built-in voice recorder. What you say to them each day, they record and say to themselves for a lifetime. The feedback you provide must be meaningful and move from sugar praise to nutritional praise so that it sustains them and helps them understand the “why” behind their behavior.” – Julie Kurtz Our brains evolved to notice more naturally the negative than the positive. It is a primitive trait that evolved to protect us from danger and to keep us alive. In primitive times, if you saw only the positive you would be eaten by a wild animal or be unprepared for the unexpected attack on your village. Today, it takes practice and more effort on the part of the adult to intentionally scan for positive traits with our children. Most adults scan predominantly for the negative in working with children. How can you shift to acknowledge children by noticing what they are doing that is right? The more we focus on what is right, the more their brain will record that information and be incentivized to want to do more of that behavior. That relational dose of positive connection/acknowledgement and naming what the child did well brings it to the forefront of their attention and provides them with a dose of connection.

This is our top list of recommended books for early childhood ages toddler to 8. We list topics from social-emotional, grief and loss, race and equity, LGBTQ and for kids who have been through scary things. Don't by shy, check out this free downloadable resource.

In Spanish, a social story to help kids PreK-3 identify feelings and to find pathways to regulation.

Several free and downloadable resources on play to share widely in your community.

Free and downloadable list of books and resources for adults.

Free downloadable list of books and resources for elementary age youth.

This document in both English/Spanish helps folks understand the difference between trauma-informed and responsive curriculum and a social-emotional curriculum and why this is so crucial to understand.

A free downloadable resource to use in your middle school classroom to help students practice identification of feelings and emotions.

Tuning in and understanding what you individually look like in each zone of regulation can help you become more aware so that you can be your own FIRST RESPONDER in emotional emergencies. Do you have your own built in warning system? Can you practice now? Some have difficulty with one or more areas and that is okay. Be patient as you take time to notice and cultivate the awareness. Let’s build awareness and then create an emergency first aid kit so that you can be the first responder in your own life.

Tuning in and understanding what you individually look like in each zone of regulation can help you become more aware so that you can be your own FIRST RESPONDER in emotional emergencies. Do you have your own built in warning system? Can you practice now? Some have difficulty with one or more areas and that is okay. Be patient as you take time to notice and cultivate the awareness. Let’s build awareness and then create an emergency first aid kit so that you can be the first responder in your own life.

This tool translated to Chinese has been developed from our book Culturally Responsive Self-Care and is used widely in our Module 300 training on Strengthening Self-Awareness and Self-Care Practices.

This tool has been developed from our book Culturally Responsive Self-Care and is used widely in our Module 300 training on Strengthening Self-Awareness and Self-Care Practices.

This tool translated to Spanish has been developed from our book Culturally Responsive Self-Care and is used widely in our Module 300 training on Strengthening Self-Awareness and Self-Care Practices.