The pandemic lifestyle is something many young children perceive as normal. Staff at the Genesee Street Children’s Center have noticed a change in kids since the start of the pandemic.

Staff are working with children, starting each day with meditation and teaching them ways to self-regulate their emotions at a time when the only constant seems to be change.

Genesee Street Children’s Center Executive Director Alison Mundschenk Watson said they’re trying to keep things as safe as possible for kids while letting them socialize.

“We have no shortage of normalcy here in terms of play and friendship, hugs and love and things that you would think are totally normal, commonplace in preschool, but we’re also doing so in the safest way possible,” Mundschenk Watson said.

She said she’s noticed a change in young kids since the start of the pandemic, and the center is doing their best to adjust.

“The most important part about being ready for kindergarten is social and emotional development, which so many of these kids are lacking, so we’ve tailored our program to be care-first, and then we go into those academics,” she said.

Teachers at the Genesee Street Children’s Center have worked with a behavioral specialist and a psychologist, implementing that advice and passing it on to parents.

“We sat down over Zoom with a behavioral specialist with lists, each teacher, of what they were experiencing with kids, whether it was behavioral, whether it was delays, whether it was things that we just wanted to address to make them feel more whole and comfortable while in care,” said Mundschenk Watson.

Center staff are trying to help kids understand other peoples’ emotions, and be able to express and control their own feelings, having the tools to calm themselves down.

“We start with a meditation, where together, we recite affirmations. We work on deep breaths. We work on all these self-help and mindfulness strategies, and with that, they can later use them when they’re experiencing emotions if they’re upset or angry,” she said.

Mundschenk Watson said they teach self-affirmations to children in which they tell themselves they are kind, confident and respectful.