Sunrise Artist Novitiate Assembly

If you have a few minutes to invest, this might be of interest to you. Hirschl Ballet - February 2021 Challenges Our Kids are Facing during These Times... The pandemic certainly is an unusual, unexpected event that is causing many to worry and even panic. That worry and panic can lead to really debilitating psychological reactions. With that in mind, here is what parents should know about children and COVID-19 trauma, and what to look out for in their own families. The coronavirus pandemic has been challenging for parents and children in ways both big and small, but for a smaller subset of children, it hasn’t just been hard; it has been traumatic. There are not good estimates of how many children in the United States or abroad are grappling with traumatic stress and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of the pandemic. But experts say there’s reason to believe both are on the rise as millions of families have lost loved ones, lost jobs and faced constant fear over the past year. When most people think of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) they likely picture an adult who has been in combat, a serious accident or experienced violence. Children can also have PTSD either from experiencing trauma directly or witnessing it. Childhood trauma can be from a specific event like a car accident or dog bite, but it can also include witnessing domestic violence or enduring neglect or abuse. Children diagnosed with PTSD are more likely to react strongly to change in their life, to have more trouble managing their emotions and to have less ability to tolerate the disruption and unpredictability. On top of that, these children are significantly affected by the loss of their routine and social connections. As you might imagine, COVID-19 is not helping. Research has shown that traumatic experiences impact the developing brain. New fears can develop and old triggers for children can reappear or be exacerbated by the current pandemic. Children who have been diagnosed with PTSD typically exhibit symptoms that fall into four main categories: 1. Body headaches, stomach aches, sleep problems 2. Brain thinking, concentrating, memory problems 3. Emotions feeling unsafe, having trust and attachment issues, always on edge, having trouble expressing feelings, low self esteem 4. Behavior overly reactive, irritable, aggression, difficulty with impulse control Things can you do as a parent to lessen trauma; Respond calmly. Parents who are calm reduce the tendency for children with PTSD to overreact with emotions or behavior. It is important to remember that your child is not a bad kid, but that bad things happened to them. Helping your child stay in the present will make it easier for them to concentrate and manage their everyday life. Talk to your child about what triggers their stress and anxiety, and plan ways they can calm themselves when they become anxious. Children with PTSD react with a fight or flight response, even when that is no longer helpful or necessary. Being aware of the specific triggers sounds, smells and emotions can help minimize PTSD symptoms. Write down your child’s triggers on one side of a paper and specific solutions or distractions on the other side. For a child who was bitten by a dog for example, the trigger might be the sound of a dog barking or seeing a dog outside. They might need to know that you are close by, need to see the size of the dog or to be distracted by music or a movie. Reading stories about dogs or looking at puppy videos might help them feel less fearful of dogs. Keep your child occupied with hobbies or things that will keep their mind and bodies busy. Having them do things they love and enjoy are things that should continue if at all possible. Taking these out of their life during this time will cause more stress and anxiety. Having them write in a journal or use breathing techniques until the feelings of panic pass. Some children want to talk things through, while others just need a quiet place to read a book or watch a movie. When they find a coping strategy that works for them, encourage them to use it again. With many months of the coronavirus crisis behind us and still more uncertainty and stress ahead, life is tough right now for kids of all ages. Many parents seeing their children experiencing anxiety, sadness and behavior challenges are wondering how all of this will affect kids in the long term. While this situation is difficult for everyone, the good news is that kids are resilient and parents can help foster that resilience. Even though the coronavirus crisis is stressful and could lead to long-term struggles for some kids, what you do now can make a big difference down the road. What is trauma? To understand how the coronavirus crisis might affect your child, it’s helpful to know what exactly trauma is and what it isn’t. A traumatic event happens when someone is physically threatened or they witness that happening to someone else. There is physical harm and danger involved in a true traumatic event. Examples of potentially traumatic events include serious accidents, natural disasters and experiencing violence. Long-term stress like ongoing neglect, abuse or discrimination can also be traumatic. It’s important to note that the event itself doesn’t define whether or not something is traumatic. Trauma is really about the individual’s reaction to the upsetting event. Just because a child goes through something that could be traumatic, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll be traumatized. Two kids might be the same car accident, and one might experience it as trauma while the other doesn’t. It really depends on the child’s interpretation of the threat. One child could feel like they almost died, while another might say, Wow, it was wild that we spun around and then just move on. Will my child be traumatized by the coronavirus crisis? There’s no easy way to predict if a particular child will be traumatized. For a lot of people, the pandemic is certainly a significant stressor but not necessarily a trauma. And then for some people, it is a true traumatic event. Children who have gone through the death or hospitalization of a loved one due to COVID, or who have been very sick themselves, may experience those events as traumatic. Kids who have been quarantined in a violent or abusive situation are also at high risk for trauma right now. If your child hasn’t gone through any of those especially stressful experiences during the crisis, they’re less likely to show signs of trauma. That said, the stress that children have been experiencing over the past few months might have other significant consequences that don’t meet the clinical definition of trauma. This is where the idea of adjustment comes in. Trauma vs. adjustment disorders; Sometimes an event or situation that isn’t an immediate physical threat can still trigger emotional or behavioral changes in a child. When a child has trouble adapting to a new stressor in this way, it’s often called an adjustment disorder. Stressful life events like a divorce or a move to a new home can sometimes cause adjustment disorders in kids. It’s not the same as experiencing a traumatic event because the child isn’t in danger, but it can still lead to challenges like anxiety, depression or disruptive behavior. So while the coronavirus crisis may not exactly be traumatic for many kids, it can still lead to issues with adjustment. There’s chronic loss happening right now. So much of what kids have lost recently - the end of the school year, celebrations, and indoor activities like ballet classes - is related to real developmental milestones. These things might seem like niceties to parents, but they really matter to kids. What can we do help children bounce back from the stress of the coronavirus crisis? As parents, we can’t completely protect our children from the stress of this situation, but there are strategies we can use to support their mental health now and as the challenges continue. Adjust your expectations. It’s normal to not be yourself when so much is taken away from you. A lot of kids won’t bounce back entirely until the crisis has passed. Empathize with their feelings. Clearly validating your child’s emotions can make a big difference, even when you can’t solve the problem. You might say, It seems like you’re really sad about how this summer is looking. I know how much camp means to you. Give your child space to talk about what’s upsetting them, and don’t rush to fix their difficult emotions. Find opportunities for practice. Once you know what areas of growth to prioritize, see if you can find small ways for your child to work on these skills. Maybe it’s rewarding cooperative play between siblings, working up to 20 minutes of reading independently or practicing doing chores without help. Don’t sweat the rest. Right now, keeping up with these major skills is plenty for most kids and families to deal with. Resilience means putting one foot in front of the other and meeting your developmental milestones. It doesn’t mean learning new languages and reorganizing your whole house, and it doesn’t mean that your kids need to be doing everything you might have expected before the coronavirus crisis. Letting go of the idea that everyone should be on their best behavior can make things a little easier on you and your kids alike. When it comes to trauma, you can be on lookout for signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Some common signs of PTSD include being constantly on guard for danger, being preoccupied with thoughts of the traumatic event and persistent extreme emotions (or lack of emotions) that linger long after the event. With adjustment disorders, the big difference is that kids generally don’t show exaggerated signs of fear. Instead of being jumpy or fearful, your child might experience persistent anxiety, sadness, restlessness or irritability. Whether or not clinical trauma is involved, the main thing is to look out for significant changes in your child’s feelings or behavior that don’t go away over time. If a child is withdrawn from the family or has stopped caring about interests and activities that they used to enjoy, those are red flags of something going on. It could be adjustment or it could be trauma. If you do think your child would benefit from mental health support, look for a provider who offers trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT). TF-CBT is an evidence-based treatment designed especially for children and teenagers and it can generally be provided effectively via telehealth, so your child can get treatment while following social distancing guidelines. Fear, anxiety, trauma and PTSD are not all the same. When trying to gauge how your child is coping emotionally, it’s helpful to keep in mind the often subtle differences in anxiety and depression versus trauma versus full-blown PTSD. Though the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, the experience of trauma, traumatic stress and PTSD are all related, but they’re not necessarily the same as anxiety and depression. For example: When experts talk about traumatic stress, they’re generally referring to a stress response to a particular event (or events). But a person grappling with traumatic stress does not always develop PTSD. With PTSD, an adult or child will start to experience symptoms like intrusive memories, avoidance, negative changes in their thinking and mood, or changes in their physical and emotional reactions that last for at least a month. And again, children might be experiencing fear and anxiety or depression during the pandemic that isn’t necessarily the same as traumatic stress. COVID in itself isn’t a trauma. It’s causing a lot of stress and disappointment for many of us, but not all children are experiencing a trauma. Ultimately, it’s up to mental health professionals to make these important distinctions. The role of parents and caregivers is to be on the lookout for signs that children are having a hard time coping, so they can lend support and help connect them with outside resources as needed. Parents should consider what traumatic circumstances their child faced. One way mental health experts determine if a child is struggling with traumatic stress is to consider the specific events or stressors they’ve experienced. A child who has lost a loved one to COVID-19 particularly if they were unable to grieve that loss through normal rituals, given the restrictions around social distance and gathering may be more likely to be coping with traumatic stress. Children whose families have experienced significant economic hardships as a result of the pandemic may be at greater risk for trauma, particularly if it has led to major changes in their environment or living conditions. Experts are also concerned about children who’ve encountered multiple stressors: Maybe they lost a loved one, their parent lost a job, they’re not going to school, and they live in a part of the country that has been affected by a recent disaster, like wildfires. Some kids have adjusted well ... but some have not. They’re feeling isolated, disconnected, withdrawn. Those experiences have caused additional trauma for kids. That’s not to say that only children who experienced one or more major traumas are having an especially difficult time coping right now, but those children are certainly at higher risk for serious mental health outcomes like PTSD. Be on the lookout for unwanted thoughts, avoidance and physical changes. The length of time a child’s symptoms last is an important barometer for mental health professionals, who generally won’t diagnose someone with PTSD unless those symptoms have lasted for a month or longer. (Sometimes, PTSD can take years to appear.) As a parent, you want to be on the lookout for things like unwanted thoughts (which can sometimes surface as nightmares), avoidance of things or places associated with the trauma, or even just everyday tasks like schoolwork, changes in how quickly and easily they startle, and physical symptoms or changes in appetite. Noticing changes in your child’s behavior that are getting in the way of their ability to function, that’s a red flag, regardless of whether that flag signals they’re dealing with traumatic stress or something else. Monitor kids’ depressive levels and anxiety. Some have adjusted well ... but some have not. They’re feeling isolated, disconnected, withdrawn. Also, don’t forget how important it is to talk to your child. Ask them what they know about the pandemic, and be honest with them about what you’re feeling so they know they are not alone. If you have any concerns, absolutely reach out to their pediatrician or school right away. Thank you to: By Dr. Lauren Barry, Director of Clinical Initiatives and Data Analytics Jamie Howard, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute Adam D. Brown, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at NYU. Melissa Brymer, of the UCLA-Duke University National Center for Child Traumatic Stress

I would much rather get paid for teaching my wonderful students, however I need more funds than are currently coming in just to pay for the school overhead. Visit the website and link up to an interactive online class! My gratitude to you for your patronage and assistance during this time- Mr. H Here is the link to the studio Gofundme page: gf.me/u/ygzvun

Here's one of the websites I check every day.

To all HSDA Patrons: Strength in numbers. You're part of the HSDA Family. Together we can get through this more easily. We're spending too much time in front of... a screen. Give your eyes and brain a break. Every 20 minutes, take 1 minute to look at something further away. Another healthy thing (for your physical and emotional health) would be to take a dance or stretch class with your school. Yeah, you're still on the computer, but you need to be at least 5-6 feet from the device- so no eye strain. I have complete beginner adult and teen ballet and the "Bedtime Routine" passive stretch class, which is reserved; only for people who sleep at night. Orange County is still in the purple tier: Dance schools are not allowed to teach classes inside. If you're confused, go to OCGov.com. To anyone wanting to send me a Valentine, my address is: 1012 north Tustin Avenue, Anaheim, 92807. If you or your child want to dance, but finances are tough, please contact me. Doing something fun? At home or on the road? Please send me photos! My sincere gratitude and appreciation to you for your support and patronage, especially during this time. Mr. H