Welcome to week 4: Coping with change and transition

Hi everybody. Welcome back. In this unit, we’re going to learn about the ways we can support children through change and transition. We all experience big and small changes throughout life. But as we’re learning for the children in our lives, the support that they receive from adults is particularly helpful in making sure they move through those changes in a healthy way. In this unit, I will be joined by members of the Easel Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Director, Dr. Stephanie Jones, assistant director Rebecca Bailey, and research assistant Aashna Poddar. Hi Carly. Hi everyone at home. We’re so happy to be here. Today, we’re going to talk about consistency, routines, predictability and relationships, as a cornerstone of healthy development.

And they are cornerstone because they set a foundation for children to explore the world. They set up a sense of trust and safety in the world. Hi Carly, it’s so nice to be here. Hi everyone at home. I’m really excited to talk about the role that adults play in children’s lives. Both in terms of the relationships that they build with young children, and in the ways that they can support children during times of change or transition. OK, I am excited to dive in. But just one thing for everybody at home to remember. In Unit 3 we learned that resilience or the adaptive capacity is dependent on individual’s own coping mechanisms as well as the support system that surrounds them.

So just keep that in mind as we learn about the ways that adults can support children during transition. Let’s get started.