Lonely Kids in a Connected World: What Teachers Can Do

Lonely Kids in a Connected World: What Teachers Can Do provides classroom teachers and specialised school professionals with a toolkit of research-based strategies for reducing or preventing the harmful effects of childhood loneliness. Children who lack close relationships with peers in school risk encountering personal and social obstacles that stand in the way of their achievements. Early intervention can help prevent negative outcomes linked to childhood loneliness—low self-esteem, depression, isolation, disconnectedness, alienation, lack of motivation—and stop even more serious problems from developing. The issue of childhood loneliness has been especially highlighted by students' prolonged absence from schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lonely Kids in a Connected World presents a variety of interventions in an instructional format called Action Strategies, which are practical, easy to implement in the classroom, and not overly time consuming. Each strategy is designed to have a positive impact on students by providing increased opportunities for socialisation, teaching critical peer relationship skills, and supporting students as they learn to identify loneliness, constructively cope with it, and reframe their outlook toward social events and settings. The Ready, Set, Go Action Steps include reproducibles, as appropriate, so lessons are easy to implement.

Help your students make meaningful connections, improve social competencies, and engage in productive thought patterns that positively impact their lives now.

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