Miss Penny: Hi, Dr. Hart.
It is so nice to see you.
Dr. Hart: It's so wonderful to have you here, Miss Penny.
Thank you so much for coming to help us spread the news about positive mental health.
Miss Penny: I'm so excited to learn about mental health.
A lot of people I know, including myself, have a lot of different feelings lately and
aren't sure what they mean or how to express them.
Dr. Hart: A lot of kids feel different emotions when they come here for the first time.
And this is a safe place that children and their families can come to to get help from
someone who understands.
Miss Penny: I would love to be shown around.
Dr. Hart: Come with me.
Miss Penny: Okay.
Dr. Hart, I'm so happy to speak to you.
What is mental health?
Dr. Hart: Well, mental health is really the way that we think, respond, and feel in the
world around us.
And it's just as critical as our physical health.
When we're mentally healthy, our bodies also feel healthy too.
You have to take care of your brain, which really does so many important things.
Miss Penny: I'd really like to know what the difference is between emotions, mood, and
therapy.
Dr. Hart: Emotions are things that we can feel when situations come up.
Like when your friend isn't sharing with you, you might feel angry or sad.
And it's typically pretty short term.
Moods are things that are a little bit more long term.
Miss Penny: What does a therapist actually do?
Dr. Hart: I like to say that I'm a helper, first and foremost.
Just like anything else, like learning your ABCs, you also have to learn strategies that
help you recognize the emotions that you might be feeling in your body.
So when you're feeling mad or upset, first, you have to recognize even the facial features.
What does a mad face look like?
And so your forehead might be scrunched up and your lips might be turned down.
And then you have to recognize how that might feel in your body.
So you might feel really tense and stressed.
And what we do is help kids recognize that, break it down, and figure out ways that we
can use some coping skills that might help them feel better in those situations.
Miss Penny: I'd love to see some of the therapies that you do with children.
Dr. Hart: I'd love to show you.
Let's go check it out.
Are you ready to learn about positive mental health?
Charlie: Yes.
Penelope: Yes.
Dr. Hart: All right.
We are going to learn about different feelings that we can feel.
So I'm going to bring out my feelings chart, and there are so many feelings that we can
feel.
And sometimes, you can feel lots of different feelings at the same time.
Would you like to help me?
Okay.
So we have feelings that might make us feel red hot, like feeling mad and angry or maybe
scared and afraid.
And then we- Penelope: That's sad.
Dr. Hart: And then there's feelings that might make us feel blue, like feeling sad.
We can also feel tired.
We might feel happy or excited or calm or proud, maybe thankful.
So we're going to see how we're feeling today.
How are you feeling, Charlie?
Charlie: Happy.
Dr. Hart: You're feeling happy.
And you know how I know you're happy even if you're wearing a face mask?
Because your eyes kind of go up and you can see that, even through your mask, you're smiling.
How are you feeling, Penelope?
Penelope: Sad.
Dr. Hart: You're feeling a little sad.
What's making you feel sad today?
Penelope: Because I miss my brother, Julian.
Dr. Hart: You miss your brother, Julian.
That's right.
Sometimes when we miss our family members or we're away from them, it makes us feel
sad.
And Miss Penny, how are you feeling today?
Miss Penny: I'm feeling really excited to learn about mental health.
This is really exciting.
Dr. Hart: Well, so now we know how we're feeling today.
Should we learn about something else?
Charlie: Yes.
Dr. Hart: Okay.
We are going to learn a special way that we can breathe when we're feeling mad or sad
or maybe we feel a little bit excited and we want to calm our bodies down.
So can you show me your hands?
All right.
This is a technique called five finger breathing.
And when we go up, our finger like this, we're going to breathe in.
We're going to go through our nose.
And then when we go down our finger, we're going to it out through our mouths.
And we'll do it again.
Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.
Excellent breathing, everybody.
Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.
How do we feel?
Charlie: Good.
Dr. Hart: Good.
Miss Penny: Yes.
This is great.
Sometimes we feel overwhelmed by our strong feelings and emotions.
We can do this breathing exercise and feel more relaxed.
Dr. Hart: When we use our breathing, it helps us to feel calm.
So we're ready to learn.
Are you guys ready to learn some things about positive mental health?
Charlie: Yes.
Miss Penny: Yes.
Dr. Hart: Okay, everybody.
I'm going to have you all have one of my friends.
All right.
So now, our puppets are going to teach us about ways that we can be good friends, because
being a good friend is really important, not only for making friends, but it also helps
us feel really, really good about ourselves.
Miss Penny: Now that we know how we are feeling and are calmer, it's really important to learn
how to communicate with our friends and loved ones.
Dr. Hart: Charlie, you have Polly the Polite Parrot.
He's going to teach us about using kind words.
So what are some kind words that Polly can use with his friends?
Charlie: Please.
Dr. Hart: Please.
That's right.
Can everybody say, "Please"?
Charlie: Please.
Penelope: Please.
Miss Penny: Please.
Dr. Hart: Please.
Charlie: Thank you.
Dr. Hart: Thank you.
Let's say it together.
Thank you.
Charlie: Thank you.
Penelope: Thank you.
Miss Penny: Thank you.
Dr. Hart: That's right.
That's a great other kind word.
All right.
And now, Penelope, you have Shelly the Sharing Sheep.
And she teaches us about sharing with our friends.
How do you think that she might ask her friend to share with her?
Penelope: Actually, I was sharing [inaudible 00:06:57] building a block, but [inaudible
00:07:01] paint, but then I gave it to my Dad to share.
Dr. Hart: That's right.
You were playing with the blocks and you gave the blocks over to your dad and you were sharing
with him.
That is so nice.
Let's give Ms. Penelope a big thumbs up because that is a great example of sharing with her
friends.
And Miss Penny, you have Monty the Merry Monkey.
And he loves to have fun with his friends.
How do you think he might have fun with his friends?
Miss Penny: You want to dance with me?
Would you like to play with me?
I'm going to tickle you.
Hello, hello.
Let's play hide and seek.
Dr. Hart: You can play hide and seek.
You can dance with your friends.
Those are all super fun ways that you can play with your friends.
Charlie: You can't find me.
Dr. Hart: He can't find you.
That's right.
That's a great way to play hide and seek.
And this is Ellie the Eager Elephant.
And she likes to teach her friends how to listen with her big elephant ears and take
turns talking.
Because when we talk with our friends, we have to wait and listen until it's our turn
to talk.
Do you think you can practice that with me right now?
Yeah.
Okay.
Let's try.
Hello?
Charlie: Hello? Dr. Hart: Hello.
What's your name?
Charlie: My name's Charlie and I have a pet [inaudible 00:08:30].
Dr. Hart: Your name is Charlie.
And you have a pet called Polly.
Charlie, how are you feeling today?
Charlie: Really happy.
Dr. Hart: Really happy today.
It's an awesome day.
Okay.
So now we're going to share like Shelly would want us to share with our friend Penelope.
So let's have Penelope take a turn.
Hello?
Penelope: Hello? Dr. Hart: Hello, Penelope.
How are you today?
Penelope: Good.
Dr. Hart: Good.
I'm so glad to have you here.
Hello, Miss Penny.
Miss Penny: Hello.
Dr. Hart: Welcome to FIU.
Miss Penny: Thank you for inviting me.
Dr. Hart: We are so happy to have you here today to learn about positive mental health.
Miss Penny: Oh, it's so important.
Dr. Hart: It is.
Well, we are going to play some more games with our friends.
So let's say goodbye.
Miss Penny: Goodbye.
Penelope: Goodbye.
Charlie: Goodbye.
Dr. Hart: Goodbye.
This is called Guess How I'm Feeling.
Charlie: Happy.
Miss Penny: Happy.
Charlie: Angry.
Miss Penny: Angry.
Charlie: Sad.
Miss Penny: Sad.
Good job, everybody.
Thank you for your help, Shiny.
Dr. Hart: All right, boys and girls.
We're going to learn another coping skill.
It is called the five people who can help me.
Because when we need help with something, it's important to know who we can ask for
help.
Penelope, can you think of one person?
Penelope: [inaudible 00:10:06] my moms help.
Dr. Hart: You can have your mom help you.
That is excellent.
How about you, Charlie?
Who's someone you can go to for help?
Charlie: I call my dad for help.
Dr. Hart: You could call your dad for help.
That's right.
Miss Penny, is there someone that you could call for help?
Miss Penny: I call my grandma.
Dr. Hart: Grandmas are great to call for help.
Absolutely.
So maybe you'd ask a friend for help.
We can ask our teachers.
We can ask our mommies and daddies or our grandmothers and our aunties, our uncles,
maybe our cousins.
So we have talked about breathing and our five finger breathing, our feelings, how to
be a good friend, and how to use our social skills, like using kind words, and how to
share and how to have fun and how to listen and take turns talking, the five people who
can help us.
And so now, I think we need to take a little dance break playing our game freeze dance.
Does anybody know how to play freeze dance?
Penelope: I know.
Charlie: Me.
Dr. Hart: Yes.
When the music is going, we're going to be dancing.
Let me see those dance moves.
Nice dance moves.
And then when the music stops, we will freeze.
Penelope: Freeze.
Dr. Hart: And what's important about this is that this actually really teaches us how
to also have positive mental health, because when we can control our bodies and our emotions,
it helps us to be better friends.
It helps us to learn and play better, and it helps us to practice these skills because
all of these things take practice.
Sound good?
Are you ready to play?
Miss Penny: Yes.
Charlie: Yes.
Penelope: Yeah.
Dr. Hart: All right.
Miss Penny: Okay, everybody.
Get ready to dance.
Dr. Hart: And freeze.
Miss Penny: Thank you, Dr. Hart.
We really learned a lot today about emotions, about moods, and particularly about mental
health and the importance of mental health for everyone.
Dr. Hart: Thank you so much for coming, Miss Penny.
We're so happy to get the word out.
Bye.
Miss Penny: Hi, boys and girls.
It's Miss Penny.
Put on your thinking caps.
It's time to learn a new word: mental health.
Mental health is the way our minds or brains think, respond, and feel in the world around
us.
It is as important as the health of our bodies.
What was that word?
Speaker 5: Mental health.
Miss Penny: Good job.
Emotions.
Emotions are the ways we feel when something happens to us.
For example, feeling happy when we dance or shy when we meet someone new.
What was that word?
Speaker 5: Emotions.
Miss Penny: Good job.
Therapist.
A therapist is a person whose job it is to help people and families take care of their
mental health.
What was that word?
Speaker 5: Therapist.
Miss Penny: Good job.
Coping skills.
Coping skills are things that can help us feel better when we're having a hard time.
For example, taking deep breaths or using our words to ask for help.
What was that word?
Speaker 5: Coping skills.
Miss Penny: Good job.
See you next time.