The Positive Living Skills initiative is currently supporting.....
511
Early Childhood Communities
150
Primary School Communities
and growing everyday....
Founder of PLS, Catherine Shaw
The Positive Living Skills Initiative aims to empower educators with comprehensive resources for teaching children foundational skills that contribute to their social and emotional well-being. Through this initiative, educators can help children not only enhance their existing strengths but also refine their skills, fostering self-awareness, self-management, and resilience.
Our approach to mental health education
When does true 'prevention’ begin when it comes to mental wellbeing?
Our belief is that prevention MUST begin with children as young as 3 years of age,
learning habitual skills for wellbeing BEFORE there are signs of mental challenges,
and because school is the universal location where children learn,
this is the platform to begin emotional intelligence education.
Our approach is aimed to support educators, children and families.
Our Vision
Our vision is to significantly and positively impact the alarming statistics of anxiety,
depression and suicide within one generation.
Young children are building neural pathways every day,
as they learn everything from washing their hands to reading and writing.
The evidence based Positive Living Skills programs have been developed based on a range of practical
and universal tools and proven concepts, which when applied with the principles of priming and distributed practice,
can help young people build long term positive and practical habits to help them look after their mental health,
and maximise their ability to learn and achieve, and cooperate with others as they move toward their potential.
The teacher-led Positive Living Skills program help children build a lifelong skillset to self-direct their own thinking processes, emotions, actions and outcomes.
The Positive Living Skills Story
Positive Living Skills was founded in 2013 by Cath Shaw, based on lived experience with anxiety and
depression and a driving need to support young people, their educators and families.
Co-founders of the initiative, Cath Shaw and Jo Devin, collaborated with psychologists, teachers and performance excellence professionals to create ‘resource pool’ style programs, professional development opportunities and family resources, with concepts backed by decades of research, and the programs are evidence based in their
own right thanks to PLS’s partnership with Charles Sturt University.
Positive Living Skills is an inclusive and truly preventative evidence-based initiative designed to support children to learn skills for maintaining mental wellbeing AND to support educators to promote positive behaviour within learning community, while supporting educators and families.
March
Our Vision
Our Values
Positive Living Skills is committed to the following values (in no particular order):
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Carly Fisher is a passionate and accomplished Psychologist who has worked for over 15 years with children, adolescents and adults in individual and group settings. Learn why she is a passionate supporter of the Positive Living Skills Initiative To learn more about Carly and her work, visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/carly-jayet-b0682615/
The application of the Positive Living Skills programs is based on the principles or theories of:
Priming
An implicit memory effect where exposure to one stimulus influences a response to another stimulus. All scripted learning experiences within the Positive Living Skills programs are worded and phrased intentionally with positive language patterns, and the concepts within the Positive Living Skills program relate to and therefore ‘prime’ participants for the other concepts.
Distributed Practice
Also known as spaced repetition or spaced practice, distributed practice is a learning strategy where practice is broken up into a number of short sessions spread over a longer period of time, rather than fewer longer sessions. The aim is for educators to make Positive Living Skills a regular part of their daily teaching practice for at least 15 minutes at least once each week.
Long Term Habits
With repetition and practice the brain can change itself through neuroplasticity.
We can rewire our brains, for better or worse.
Combining priming and distributed practice, as children complete and practice Positive Living Skills activities, eventually all their relevant neural systems can work together to create long term habits for mental and social fitness.
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