Raising Kids in the Digital Age webinar series for parents starts January 25, 2022.
Being a kid—and a parent—today really is more challenging than in past generations. Join us for the first of a series of ten webinars on “COVID and Beyond: Raising Kids in the Digital Age,” presented by Jeff Levin, of Jeff Levin Coaching and The Reconnection Project, and Retired N.H. Chief Justice John Broderick, now Senior Director of External Affairs for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, for a discussion of the cultural factors that are the primary cause of student stress and no-cost practical tips on how we all can start to reduce our childrens’ anxiety.
As we all know, COVID has exposed another, more insidious epidemic that is affecting almost every school in the country—a mental health crisis of previously unimagined proportions.
School administrators and teachers are aware of the student mental/emotional health epidemic, but it is rarely discussed because of the stigma that still surrounds these issues, the worry that schools are going to be blamed for the problem if they bring it up, and, most importantly, the apparent lack of broad solutions.
Many parents are also extremely concerned about the mental well-being of their children, but they, too, don’t think there are solutions. And they are looking for help.
This student mental health crisis is no one’s fault. It’s a cultural problem, and it has come on us so fast, no one was prepared for it. These cultural circumstances affect children direct
ly, but also cause parents to parent differently.
Because of these cultural changes, there are emotional skills previous generations (we!) learned by osmosis that today’s children aren’t learning. The result is an entire generation of stressed and anxious kids, and adults are stressed, too. Naturally, this seems overwhelming and unfixable.
Thankfully, kids are hard-wired the same way they’ve always been, so all we have to do is teach these emotional skills, even remedially, and the kids will get better. And there are many things parents can do to help their children learn these skills. That is the focus of this webinar series.
The webinars will be live from 7–8 P.M. on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month starting on Tuesday, January 25th, and running until the end of the school year. All the webinars will be recorded so will be available on demand for parents, teachers, and school administrators to watch anytime.
“Raising Kids in the Digital Age” is a Reconnection Project program.
To sign up
For schools:
Email Jeff to tell him you would like to sign your school district up for the free first webinar.
Forward the webinar email we send you to your parents (staff are welcome, too).
If you’d like to continue beyond the first webinar, the cost is $250. Payment information is here—contact us to send you an invoice if you need one. Then just continue to forward the twice-monthly webinar email announcements we provide to your parents.
That’s it!
For individuals:
Email Jeff to tell him you would like to sign up for the free first webinar.
If you’d like to continue beyond the first webinar, please send $50 to Jeff—payment information is here.
Webinar Series Topics
January 25
- Understanding why these kids feel so much pressure from “Outcome Fever.”
- Educate parents to see the “crisis” of stress and anxiety among their kids and their classmates; Help them see the digital age “elephants” that are affecting their kids (and themselves).
- Develop a felt sense of the granular difference between our childhoods and the students’.
- The importance of working with the truth: develop a full understanding of the Digital Age and what we call “Digititis,” as well as a discussion of the iceberg of student anxiety.
February 8
- Discussion of child development, select psychological theories (most notably Erikson’s Eight Ages of Man and Winnicott’s Holding Environment), and why they are so important today.
- The New Parenting Playbook, which can have negative effects on kids.
- A discussion of what trauma can do to mental health.
- The five signs of mental illness; when to seek professional help.
February 22
- Talking to Your Kids about Elephants and Gremlins—The art of active, undistracted listening.
- How to have difficult conversations with children.
March 8
- Understanding how Outcome Fever Affects your Family.
- Reducing Outcome Fever: changing focus from what children do to who they are.
- The importance of building working collaborative relationships between parents and teachers, coaches, and administrators.
March 22
- Unplugging from Screens as a Family.
- The critical importance of modeling, especially modeling and enforcing disconnecting from devices.
- How parents’ emotional baggage is exacerbated by devices.
April 12
- The Six I’s: Imagination, Independence, Integrity, Intestinal Fortitude, Intimacy and Identity—How to Give Your Kids Those Gifts.
April 26
- Finding a balance between preparing children for adulthood and protecting them from harm.
- Help them learn that vicarious parenting, the diluted attention they’re paying to their kids, and the lack of participation from kids on everyday chores around the house are hurting kids.
- The benefits of failure.
- The importance of vulnerability and accountability.
- Concrete skills for building stronger connections between parents and children.
- Techniques to respond to a child’s struggles without “rescuing” or enabling.
- Specific skills for parents to positively respond when their children test them.
May 10
- Giving children agency so they can develop an internal locus of control.
- The gift of two lives: how parents’ rediscovery of their own lives can allow their children to discover their lives.
- Teach parents the importance of modeling constructive conflict resolution for their children—and learning when to let their children resolve their own conflicts and when to step in.
May 24
- Household tasks and self-care: the emotional importance of teaching your children practical skills so they can take care of themselves.
- Helping your child be in the moment and get out of their own head.
- The three types of focus: multi-tasking/device work, deep focus, and mindless tasks.
June 14
- The importance of fun.
- Finding the Time: Understanding and defeating the “time famine.”
Bios
John Broderick was Chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Now, as Senior Director of External Affairs for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, he is well known in the school community for his work on mental health awareness. Justice Broderick has spoken to almost 90,000 middle- and high-school students at 300 schools about his own family’s journey. He might have already spoken with your students (if he hasn’t, he is well worth having, especially now), but he is equally effective speaking with parents. Although we work independently, we share similar goals and approaches and have co-presented to school groups and parents. We respectfully suggest that if you hire us, you also bring the Judge in for a forum and/or parent program as well as presenting to students. There is no additional cost, because John’s work is underwritten by Dartmouth-Hitchcock. The five signs referred to in the photo above are from John’s work on Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s R.E.A.C.T. Awareness Campaign.
Broderick can be reached by email.
Jeff Levin grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, and is a graduate of Dartmouth College, Boston College School of Education, and the Smith College School for Social Work. He began his professional career as a middle-school English teacher in Carlisle, Massachusetts, back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth, and then was a school social worker and a practicing psychotherapist for over twenty-five years.
For the last 15 years, Jeff has been a life coach who works with both individuals and groups. He has helped schools, families, teams, and individuals all over the U.S. His workshops are fun, inspiring, and practical. He tries to find balance in his life by playing and singing blues and rock and spending as much time as possible outdoors.
Jeff’s contact information can be found here.
Justice Broderick and Jeff often co-present to groups to help school leaders and parents address and solve the new mental health challenges that we’re all facing.