Why Skill-Based Education Is Key To Kids’ Future Mental Health
If you have ever had anxiety or depression, you know that it is like an unexpected guest who overstays their welcome. At first, you accept their visit and handle it with as much grace as possible. Nodding to every annoying comment and subtly looking at the clock hoping they will leave soon. But, eventually, your emotional energy drains with your capacity to manage the stay, and you begin to crack. Perhaps slowly. Perhaps all at once. The “cracking” looks different for everyone, but generally, it is something like racing thoughts, a pounding heart, sweaty skin, shortness of breath, a painful stomach, and if you’re really lucky - all of these lovely little reminders of fragility. Sometimes, anxiety’s buddy, depression, even pops in - making the concoction ultra intense and frankly, scary. When this happens, you can feel totally out of control and lost for answers.
This is the case for millions of adults struggling with mental wellness.
Now, let’s back up a couple decades and enter into childhood.
Imagine if during childhood, along with routine check-ups and dental appointments, that same future anxious/depressed adult first had regular lessons on how to thrive. How to be more than just okay. How to…
Create inner-joy and protect its boundaries
Be resilient and bounce-back when challenges arise
Persevere when the odds are stacked against them
Control their mindset and choices instead of others’
Interpret physical symptoms as signals to listen in
Like anything, these skills take practice. Practice of thoughts, beliefs, and choices. The question is, how do we teach them?
How do we go from concepts to application?
The answer is education. Skills-based education to be exact.
Educating our youngest learners about these big concepts and teaching them how to apply them at an early age will give them the tools they need to help navigate life’s challenges and to create a sense of personal well-being as they grow older. Not only will this help them become thriving adults, it may also help equip them against mental illness, such as anxiety and depression, by helping them cultivate intentional, constructive responses to life. It is a subtle, yet powerful shift from reactive to proactive learning.
That is at the heart of Apple Pie’s curriculum.
Teaching children the resources they need to reach their highest sense of well-being.
Using a multi-disciplinary and research-based approach, every book and resource published is thoughtfully created to be constructive and application-oriented. Our mission is to develop enriching and empowering resources that teach powerful skills your children can add to their life toolbox, serving them for their entire lives.
Our first book, A Pocket for Pinelly: Meeting Pinelly, is part of a series where your reader will learn big things they are capable of by making small shifts in their mindset and choices. Using adventure and nature in each story, young readers will relate and be elevated by each read. A superb choice for parents, teachers, OT’s, and anyone working closely with kids!
Thanks for tuning it and stay tuned for more books!