Building Community While Balancing Bruises (K-4th)

Laura Gray, PhD is returning again this year to share her wisdom about building community while balancing bruises. Parents and teachers are aware that children can exaggerate stories, misinterpret social interactions, make social mistakes, and tell tall tales. It is a challenge to strike the balance of validating children’s emotions and challenging them to both identify and portray the truth. It’s far more complicated to seek truth, fairness, and relationship building with interpersonal conflicts between kids, while trying to build and maintain your school community. This talk will review developmentally appropriate (and inappropriate) behaviors for children, helpful parent responses, and strategies to approach teachers, other parents, and administration in a collaborative and effective way. It will include practical strategies to avoid outsized reactions that can harm relationships and practical strategies to navigate challenging situations while intentionally building community.

Host or Publisher University School of Nashville