Stress for children today is unlike what we’ve seen or dealt with in the past as they’re bombarded with social media, tech devices, bullying, and lots of external forces and challenges – and children need the tools and support to help them deal with it all. A survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that high school students’ mental health is declining. Of those surveyed, 4 in 10, or 40%, had persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and 2 in 10, or 20%, seriously considered attempting suicide. Additionally, EdWeek recently released a series of articles all related to the overarching point that students today struggle with regulating their emotions.
A recent article from the Hechinger Report highlights how these challenges manifest even among the youngest students. Nationwide, elementary teachers describe a rise in disruptive and increasingly severe behaviors in preschool through early elementary grades—children biting, kicking, hitting classmates or teachers, wandering classrooms uncontrollably, and showing defiance that interrupts learning.
These “Covid babies”—children whose early years were disrupted by the pandemic—are now struggling with body control, expressing feelings, and sustaining attention, leading to more physical outbursts and emotional dysregulation at younger ages than previously seen. With a growing reliance on technology and the disconnectedness that comes along with it, children are becoming less equipped to deal with heightened emotions.
Not only is this bad news for children’s mental health, but it’s also bad news for their academic success.
In a 2025 survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, 76% of elementary school leaders agree that the pandemic continues to negatively affect students’ behavioral development. Difficulty managing behavior remains a top reason teachers quit, and only about half of teacher preparation programs require practice in addressing serious misbehavior.
But what do our emotions have to do with learning? It involves brain science. Brain function is the interaction between genetics and environment. A child’s daily experiences and social environment directly inform and shape their brain’s architecture and future development. The quality, repetition, and consistency of these experiences influence the strength of the brain’s neural pathways, laying the foundation for a child’s ability to retain information, focus attention, control impulses, and make plans.
When the brain is overwhelmed by dysregulated emotions, it interferes with and impairs the ability to think, attend, reason, and problem solve – the necessary executive functioning skills needed for learning. Children who are emotionally dysregulated can’t learn, and teachers can’t teach when unable to manage their own stress – not a good combination for any real learning to occur.
There are many contributing factors to students’ declining mental health. One of which is a lack of preparedness and training provided to educators to teach them how to manage behavioral issues. Federal data shows that the percentage of elementary schools where educators say they need more training on classroom management rose from 51% in 2022 to 65% last year in 2025, underscoring that many teachers feel underprepared for these intensified challenges.
The greater question is “What can we do about it?” How do we build children’s self-esteem and confidence and teach them how to manage their emotions to strengthen the brain’s neural pathways that enhance executive functioning necessary for learning?
Caregivers and early childhood educators play a significant role in this process. A strong caregiver-child relationship shapes a child’s emotional and cognitive brain circuitry, helping them acquire stronger social and cognitive skills while promoting overall well-being.
When we can strengthen the emotional center by helping children learn how to manage their emotions and understand the emotions of others – the skills of emotional intelligence, which in turn strengthen the thinking center – the executive function skills necessary for learning. The skills of emotional intelligence provide tools for developing and regaining control of one’s emotions, thinking, and behavior–not just for the moment but for months and years to come.
But what is needed to help children learn how to deal with and manage their big emotions?
Human connection is key and fostering strong bonds and nurturing responsive relationships bolsters mental health AND academic achievement. Nurturing empathic responsive relationships supports emotional competence and self-regulation, which form the brain pathways essential for learning and good health.
However, it’s important to note that high school students don’t suddenly wake up depressed and experiencing suicidal ideation – the foundation for their mental wellbeing and emotional intelligence is laid much earlier in life–starting from birth.
Early responsive relationships are the central catalyst for healthy cognitive and social-emotional development, they are crucial for both preventing future difficulties and enhancing a child’s potential. By modeling and guiding children on how to identify, understand and manage emotions, children develop the lifelong emotional intelligence skills necessary to succeed in every facet of life.
But children cannot learn these skills from an emotionally dysregulated adult. The adult must first embody the emotional intelligence skills necessary to model them to children.
We’re dedicated to giving adults–teachers and parents–the tools and support they need not only to help children regulate their emotions, but also to better learn how to understand and regulate their own emotions. If we don’t support the key adults in children’s lives, then we cannot adequately support children’s mental health and emotional intelligence.
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