Dyslexia Mental Health Support On Demand
We’re excited to announce that Happy Made Easy is partnering with Dyslexia On Demand to offer Social Emotional Support Groups for children.
Groups will be led by a mental health professional trained in working with children and adolescents, covering all pertinent topics related to the critical mental health of a child struggling with dyslexia and related disabilities.
The goal is empowering students with dyslexia to turn to accessible, positive coping skills when faced with daily challenges, stress, and anxiety.
What To Expect
Over the course of eight 60 minute classes, your students will experience:
- Small group learning for individual attention
- Building a community centered around celebrating our differences
- Fun & engaging exercises to learn and practice new skills to use when faced with stress and/or anxiety with real time feedback and peer support.
Cost
$480 for 8 full hours of group therapy over 6 months.
Age Groupings
- 8-10 years
- 11-13 years
- 14-16 years
- 17-19+ years
Framework for Foundations Program For Students With Dyslexia
Building Trust
Community and team building exercises to introduce everyone and begin to develop a bond around our learning differences.
Dealing With Anxiety
Many students who have dyslexia may be anxious because they don’t know how the day will go. They are constantly questioning:
- “Will I understand what’s going on in my classes or get frustrated?
- Will I fit in with the other kids?
- Will I say the right things?
This can lead to living each day in uncertainty and not knowing how to feel good and calm. We will discuss anxiety and why humans get anxious.
- Why do students with learning difficulties experience anxiety?
- What happens in our bodies?
- How do I feel when anxiety is coming up?
- What good could come from anxiety?
We’ll learn fast-acting exercises to reduce anxiety when it’s feeling overwhelming and not beneficial – as well as exercises to practice daily to feel more calm and peaceful energy in order to slow down. These exercises can be done in the classroom or any situation, without being noticed, and done within minutes.
Recognizing Our Unique Gifts
Many times, students with dyslexia feel what they call “stupid”, “slow”, and they feel like they will never succeed in life. Many even say things like “Why try anymore, I just can’t seem to do anything right”. As adults, we know there is more to our children than the learning difficulty and they have special talents and skills that can contribute greatly to our world.
Building Self Esteem
We will discuss self-esteem and the important role it can play. We will discuss things like:
- What makes me happy?
- What brings me joy?
- I feel myself when/I love it when I’m doing…
- Why is it important to do these things daily?
- What does it make you feel?
- How can this help you to feel important in the world?
Recognizing Negative Thought Patterns
We all have negative thought patterns and, for students with learning difficulties, it is even more pronounced. We will see how negative thinking can physically affect your body and learn how blaming, shaming, and complaining keeps you in a negative cycle. Once we can notice our patterns, then we can begin to move into more productive choices and advocate for our best interests.
Addressing Limiting Beliefs
Students with dyslexia begin to tell themselves at a young age, limiting beliefs such as “I can’t learn that – I’ll never be good at …”. This can keep them from using their assistive devices, their accommodations, and they give up before they even start.
We will discuss limiting beliefs and how they can affect a person. We will ask questions like:
- What are some limiting beliefs you say to yourself?
- How does that feel in your body?
- Where did those beliefs start?
- Do you think they are true now?
- If we said the opposite was true, could you find evidence?
- How does this make you feel?
Our program also includes exercises to learn how to practice advocating for yourself in many different scenarios – as well as access to audio recordings to practice these exercises.
