At a time when parenting can seem overwhelming, there are science-based tools to help. That was the message delivered by APA Chief Diversity Officer Maysa Akbar, PhD, to a standing room only crowd at the Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festivalopens in new window highlighting how a new partnership with Sesame Street can help parents raise psychologically healthy children.
During a wide-ranging conversation with Rosemarie Truglio, PhD, Sesame Workshop’s senior vice president of curriculum and content, they discussed how APA and Sesame Workshop are partnering to equip parents with tools to safeguard the emotional well-being of their kids through a multiyear initiativeopens in new window to provide engaging mental health contentopens in new window.
During the session, Truglio and Akbar discussed how young children are often left out of the conversation on youth mental health and how Sesame Workshop’s initiative aims to address the ongoing youth mental health crisis (PDF, 1.1MB)opens in new window. A newly released Surgeon General advisory on social connectionopens in new window shows young people have the highest rates of loneliness, raising their risk for anxiety and depression. Parents and other caregivers provide the caring connections children need and can build their capacity to manage their emotions from an early age. These skills can help them become more resilient in the face of future stress and trauma.
“These emotional regulation strategies are learned during the early years as the brain is developing. But it needs to be modeled,” Truglio said. “We, the adults, play such a huge role in the lives of children, because we have to have a better understanding of our own emotional well-being and the strategies that we could model for our children.”
[Related: Sesame Street Muppets Abby Cadabby, Elmo, and APA help parents and kids with emotions]
As a research-driven educational media company, Sesame Workshop’s model incorporates experts into the development of all of its content. Last March, Akbar represented APA at a children’s mental health roundtable to establish a framework for the initiative’s content. Earlier this year, various APA members and in-house reviewers contributed to parent-focused articles, which will be published by Sesame Street in the coming months. These science-driven materials will empower parents of young children who need information they can trust amid misinformation about mental health.
“We have a lot more work to do. And we can’t do it alone,” Truglio said. “Which is why the partnership with the American Psychological Association and other experts is critical in the content development, but also the distribution to get the word out about these wonderful resources.”
Akbar said she sees the initiative’s efforts as an opportunity to transform society for the better. “We want to be able to make a difference and build a generation that is able to have conversations about their emotions instead of acting them out in a way that’s dysfunctional,” she said. “So, this is an opportunity to do that and to really change our society in a more positive way.”
On a final note, she cautioned parents to avoid self-criticism as they work to support their kids’ mental health. “Let’s give ourselves a little grace because we’re not always going to get it right,” she said. “But show up for your kids. Be there. They will always remember that you showed up and were able to have tough and courageous conversations about feelings. Even feelings that they don’t understand yet.”
[Related: How to help kids understand and manage their emotions]
As part of the continuing partnership between Sesame Street and APA to protect the mental health of young children, an interactive virtual workshop was held on June 20, 2023. During the workshop, participants learned more about the partnership and Sesame Workshop’s new resources connected to children’s mental health. They also watched practical demonstrations of effective ways to use those resources with children and their caregivers.
Watch and share this recording of the virtual workshopopens in new window.
