What You Will Learn

• How chronic stress can impact on a child’s ability to control behaviour
• How stress is often misidentified as poor behaviour and wrongly disciplined
• Ways to support children to self-regulate at home and in the classroom
• How to reduce the effect of stress on a child’s performance

Bio of Presenter: Dr. Elana Wolkoff

Dr. Elana Wolkoff is an Associate Professor in the Department of School Psychology at William James College, Boston, United States. She is a licensed school psychologist and licensed educational psychologist. Dr. Wolkoff earned a bachelor’s degree from Hampshire College, a Master of Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a Doctorate in School Psychology from Northeastern University. Prior to her doctoral training, she worked as a high school special education teacher. Dr. Wolkoff has engaged in a wide range of professional roles, including: 15 years as a practicing school psychologist; Founding Member and Director of Student Support Services at a Boston area charter school; and clinical and special education consultant to K-12 schools. Dr. Wolkoff has presented at the regional, national and international levels. In addition to her passion for teaching children to self-regulate and to develop executive functioning skills, areas of research and clinical work include: developing trauma sensitive classrooms; increasing resilience for vulnerable youth; having difficult conversations, including, but not limited to those about race; and increasing educational equity.