Gateway Regional MS/HS, 12 Littleville Rd., Huntington. ( File Phot
HUNTINGTON – It Takes a Village and the Gateway Regional School District’s Special Education Parents Advisory Council are hosting a special workshop for parents on Resilience and Growth Mindset. The talk Jan. 29 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Gateway Regional Middle School, 12 Littleville Road, is free and open to the public. Food and childcare will be provided, and the information will be geared to parents and caregivers of children of all ages.
Resilience and Growth Mindset are emerging as important topics in education and child development. Resilience is the ability to recover from mistakes, failures, and mishaps, and to succeed despite previous trauma or adverse experiences. One of the strategies for developing Resilience is having a Growth Mindset – the understanding that talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching, and persistence. Growth Mindset focuses on the effort a child makes at tackling a problem, instead of their ultimate success or failure. Many studies show that children who have a Growth Mindset respond differently in challenging situations and do better in school over time.
The interactive workshop will be led by Sean O’Neill, the Autism Specialist at the Gateway Regional School District, and Joyce Hanousek, the district’s Adjustment Counselor. O’Neill has been an autism consultant in Massachusetts schools for the past 22 years, and has created and presented over 50 different workshops for district staff on topics including social skills development, cognitive behavior therapy, social stories, and social emotional learning in the classroom.
Hanousek has worked in the Gateway Regional School District for the past 30 years, with the local community psychiatric crisis intervention team and the Department of Mental Health, and she is an Adjunct Professor in the Psychology Department at Westfield State University.
“Raising Resilient Children through Growth Mindset” will be the first in a series of three workshops for parents on social-emotional development in children. Workshops later in the spring will focus on navigating friendships and self-control. The workshop is part of It Takes a Village’s Parent Support and Education Program, sponsored by The United Way of Hampshire County, and is also funded in part through the Coordinated Family and Community Engagement Grant from the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care through the Hilltown Community Health Centers.
RSVP to Karen Malinowski at [email protected], and visit www.hilltownvillage.org for more information.
