TORONTO, Aug. 29, 2024 鈥� With students returning to the classroom next week, experts from 91亚色鈥檚 are available to talk about how public education is increasingly relying on private dollars and how to help kids tackle math anxiety. 

The privatization of public education shows itself in a number of areas, says , 91亚色 Research Chair in Policy Analysis for Democracy and the author of Unequal Benefits: Privatization and Public Education in Canada. Privatization undermines the public school system and perpetuates inequalities, says Winton. 

Winton is available for comment on: 

• How policy plays a role in supporting or undermining public education 
• How school fees, fundraising, school choice, and specialized programs can all contribute to the increasing encroachment of privatization
• How increasing privatization can affect kids, families, communities, and democracy
  
  

says the idea that there are some kids that are just good at math and others that are not, is simply not true. Parents and teachers can implement a number of strategies that can help give kids the confidence they need to succeed when it comes to dealing with numbers. 

Rapke, who works directly with students and teachers in classroom settings, is available for comment on topics including:

• Why and how to focus on students鈥� ideas to enhance math education

• Strategies for classroom teaching and math learning at home

• How kids develop mathematical ideas

While young students definitely benefit from phonics-based learning for early reading and spelling acquisition, implementing such policies needs to be done thoroughly and in an evidence-consistent way, says Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Education聽. Savage, who has published 100 research articles in international peer-reviewed journals exploring children鈥檚 early reading and spelling, emphasizes that changes need to be age- and needs-appropriate and be introduced in ways that consider both foundational skills and how phonics is situated in wider literacy practices.聽

Savage is available for comment on: 

• Curriculum changes to early learning and reading intervention strategies

• Cognitive processes in reading and spelling

• Strategies for different age-groups when learning how to read and spell

• How dyslexia and other learning difficulties affect reading and spelling

About 91亚色

91亚色 is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change, and prepare our students for success. 91亚色鈥檚 fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario鈥檚 Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91亚色鈥檚 campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contacts: Emina Gamulin, 91亚色 Media Relations and External Communications, 437-217-6362, egamulin@yorku.ca

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TORONTO, Sept. 2, 2021聽鈥� Given the continued unpredictability of Delta鈥檚 impact in the school environment and changing safety guidelines, what can parents do to help kids get excited about going back to class and help them manage uncertainty? Heather Prime, an assistant professor in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health in the department of psychology, is currently studying how the COVID-19 pandemic is posing a threat to family well-being and child adjustment. The overarching goal of her research program is to provide evidence to inform public health policy and clinical practice aimed at supporting vulnerable children and their families.

She says, it鈥檚 important for parents to help kids understand that disappointment may happen and that鈥檚 okay.

鈥淚t can be unnerving for parents to face another transition to September filled with questions,鈥� says Prime. 鈥淲e all wish that the months ahead held some predictability. At the same time there are small, but important, things parents can do to empower themselves to help their children weather this storm.鈥�

Heather Prime is available for interviews and can speak about:

• How do we build resilience within families so they can help children weather the uncertainty?
• How can families聽manage聽fear and anxiety, sustain peer relationships and parental well-being as we get ready for another school year?
• What are the strengths and protective factors families have to draw on when facing challenge/adversity?
• What are the roles of communities and policies to support families, especially those who are facing more challenges during this time?
• How can parents, caregivers screen for mental health concerns?
• What can we do to integrate emotional and behavioral health into our daily routine?

More about Heather Prime

Prime's research program uses a family-based approach to understanding child development and mental health. Throughout her research, Prime emphasizes the importance of family relationships as a key mechanism through which risk and/or resilience is transmitted in families. She considers contextual environments that may expose children to risk, such as socioeconomic disadvantage and early adverse experiences, and the ways in which these risks operate in tandem with protective factors within the child, family, and broader context. Prime studies individual differences in children and families, including predictors and consequences as well as evidence-based interventions to support child and family well-being. She frequently implements real-time observations of family interactions between parent-child and sibling dyads, including the development of efficient behavioural observation coding systems, which are now in use in epidemiological and public health initiatives internationally. Dr. Prime is a clinical psychologist licenced to work with children, teens, and their families. She practices using a family systems and attachment-based approach.

91亚色聽is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change and prepare our students for success. 91亚色's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91亚色鈥檚 campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media contact:聽Anjum Nayyar, 91亚色 Media Relations, cell 437-242- 1547,聽anayyar@yorku.ca

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91亚色 experts available to explain how to prevent learning losses

TORONTO, August 10, 2020 鈥� With four weeks to go before children return to Ontario elementary schools on Tuesday, September 8, parents are encouraged to keep learning alive in their households to help make for a smoother transition back to the classroom.

That鈥檚 the advice of two 91亚色 educators who say some parents are concerned that their kids will have an achievement gap when they return to school in the fall because of the 鈥渟ummer slide鈥� 鈥� a phenomenon where some kids lose about two months of reading and math skills over the summer. This is particularly pronounced in lower-income and at-risk student populations.

One U.S-based also suggests the global COVID-19 pandemic which closed Ontario schools since March, plus the summer break, could leave students suffering from both the summer slide, and the 鈥淐OVID slide鈥� 鈥� a double whammy of knowledge loss. 91亚色鈥檚 experts say the key to combating this issue is to infuse learning in the everyday lives of kids to help foster their literacy and math development.

is a professor of language and literacy in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Education. She says building resiliency is paramount if kids are going to bounce back from any COVID or summer slide in academics.

鈥淧arents working to lay a strong foundation for learning at home need to be reminded that all learning happens best when children feel a sense of belonging and well-being, and are engaged in the world around them,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e need to encourage kids to question, to experiment, to reflect and review, and to evaluate multiple sources of information as they construct knowledge.鈥�

An educator for 37 years, Krasny began her career as an elementary school teacher in Winnipeg and served as Manitoba's Provincial Language Arts Specialist. Currently, she teaches courses for prospective and current teachers including Early and Family Literacy, Adolescent and Children's Literature, Teaching English in the Intermediate Division, and Teaching English in the Intermediate-Senior Divisions.

Krasny can share literacy summer slide and COVID slide tips for parents, including:

• Make it fun. Fingerplays, skipping songs, counting rhymes, chants, camp songs and books with rhyme, rhythm and/or repetition, such as author Bill Martin Jr.鈥檚 Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, Eric Carle鈥檚 The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Bill Martin Jr.鈥檚 Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, are engaging ways to foster phonemic awareness and word recognition. They also offer predictable sentence patterns that engage kids in writing and illustrating their own songs and stories.
• Understand the early predictors of reading and literacy success. That includes alphabet knowledge, phonemic awareness, word recognition/sight word vocabulary, and word knowledge. While no single approach operates independently from others in building the ability to read and comprehend, phonemic awareness, or the ability to identify and differentiate between sounds in words, is the leading predictor of reading achievement.
• Bring books to life through dramatic play. For example, author Jan Brett鈥檚 offers activities and craft ideas including book making and character masks for dramatic play. Her book, The Mitten and the Hat, brings to life a Ukrainian folktale in which one by one, woodland animals make their home in a found mitten. The book teaches sequencing and important comprehension skills when kids use masks or stick puppets for story retelling.
• Play popular games to help with word recognition and knowledge. Kids can benefit from word games like Scrabble, Hangman, word searches and online favourites, Wordscapes and Friends with Words.
• Invent new games. are generally regarded as the 315 most commonly used words in children鈥檚 books. Parents can play memory games with their kids by matching these sight words, or help with letter recognition by matching lower-case with upper-case letters.

is an associate professor in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Education who teaches mathematics education courses. She says her main concern with the summer slide and COVID slide phenomenon is that kids may lose the fundamental math skills 鈥� addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

鈥淩esearch tells us that kids learn these skills gradually over time. It鈥檚 like brushing your teeth,鈥� explains Rapke. 鈥淐hildren should do a little bit of fundamental math skills spaced out over time. With classrooms closed for just over five months, some kids haven鈥檛 had the opportunity to practice math as often as they should.鈥�

Rapke teaches five math courses at 91亚色 and has conducted extensive research on strategies to enhance the learning and teaching of mathematics. This summer, she worked with math coaches at the Toronto District School Board to develop and host a series of to help kids from Grades 1 to 10 practice mental math at home, and give parents the tools to help them.

Rapke can share math summer slide and COVID slide tips for parents, including:

• Practice mental math. Take a math problem (such as 17 subtract 9), display it physically (using anything from Lego pieces to candies) and work with children to develop a strategy to solve the problem. Doing even two or three times a week, for 10 minutes or less, should make a difference.
• Talk about math with kids. Discussing a math problem is key to finding the solution. In classrooms, kids often solve math problems with their peers and compare how they calculated the answer. At home, parent should model active listening and ask questions about what their children have said.
• Play board games and card games. Playing games like Monopoly and Chutes and Ladders are a great way to engage kids in learning, and almost any game can be adapted to focus on math. For example, the card game Go Fish, can be played with a twist so instead of asking for the number 10 card, players can ask for two cards that add up to five plus five.
• Use a recipe to bake. Finding math in everyday activities is key. When baking, parents can have their kids read the recipe and count out the ingredients to gain a better understanding of fractions (such as 陆 cup of sugar and 1戮 of flour).
• Adjust the attitude about math. Parents can set a positive attitude by not saying things like 鈥淚 don鈥檛 like math鈥� or 鈥淚鈥檓 not a math person.鈥� Parents should make it clear to their children that making mistakes is OK. Celebrate the process of solving a math problem and not just the final answer.

91亚色 champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91亚色 students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world鈥檚 most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91亚色 U is an internationally recognized research university 鈥� our 11 faculties and 25 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91亚色 is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni.

91亚色 U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contact: Vanessa Thompson, 91亚色 Media Relations, 647-654-9452,聽vthomps@yorku.ca

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91亚色 U Experts Available: What you need to know about back-to-school anxiety

TORONTO, ON, August 30, 2018聽鈥� Students of all ages are getting ready for their first week back in class and for some, there may be mixed emotions or even back-to-school anxiety.聽 In fact, according to 2017, one third of parents say their children have missed school due to issues related to anxiety and one quarter have missed days at work themselves to care for their children who were experiencing issues. Moreover, 91亚色 research shows that at least 3 in 10 adolescents have some form of maladaptive perfectionism which is consistently linked with distress, especially anxiety.

, psychologist, Professor in the Faculty of Health and Associate Vice President Research at 91亚色, is available to discuss ways to help kids manage anxiety related to the back-to-school transition and can provide insight on:

• back-to-class triggers that can cause anxiety for kids
• tips on managing the transition back to class in the first weeks
• how to identify when the anxiety is something more serious
• preparing children for back-to-school vaccinations, do鈥檚 and don鈥檛s

As a pediatric pain researcher, Pillai Riddell has been leading a multi-million-dollar program of research in better understanding children鈥檚 pain, fear and anxiety for over 20 years.聽 She is also a health and clinical psychologist registered to treat children, adolescents, and adults.

, Professor in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health and the director of the LaMarsh Centre for Child and Youth Research, is available to discuss the link between perfectionism and anxiety and can provide insight on:

• How perfectionism is associated with less resilience in youth and how this impacts the ability to cope with聽interpersonal and academic stressors
• What academic issues can play a role in perfectionism and how perfectionism develops in the classroom
• Why maladaptive聽perfectionism is so prevalent among adolescents
• How perfectionism is linked with underachievement in students who have difficulty coping with the pressure
• The role social media can play in putting pressure on youth to 鈥榖e perfect鈥�
• Why perfectionists are anxious and the signs to look for
• When is perfectionism irrational?聽

Flett holds a Canada Research Chair in Personality and Health. His past research on perfectionism and its consequences has established that the perfectionism construct is complex and multi-faceted and associated with numerous costs and consequences.

91亚色聽champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91亚色 students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world鈥檚 most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91亚色 U is an internationally recognized research university 鈥� our 11 faculties and 25 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91亚色 is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni.

91亚色 U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contact:聽Anjum Nayyar, 91亚色 Media Relations, 416-736-2100 ext. 44543,聽anayyar@yorku.ca

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TORONTO, Tuesday September 12, 2017 鈥� With school classes in their second week, many parents will be enrolling or have already enrolled their children into a variety of extracurricular activities or sports for the new school year.聽 Between which activities and how many, parents and children aren鈥檛 making the decision alone.

The following 91亚色 Faculty of Health experts are available for interviews regarding sports and physical activities for children and teens:
is an Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science in the Faculty of Health at 91亚色.聽 Her research interests focus on the critical study of sport at the intersection of risk, health and healthcare.聽 This includes research on sports鈥� 鈥渃ulture of risk鈥�, the development and social organization of sport and exercise medicine, as well as the social determinants of athletes鈥� health.聽 Her research and teaching interests also centre on sport and social inequality with focused attention paid to the impact of gender, socio-economic, and ethnocultural inequities on accessible physical activity for all.聽 Her work has been published in such journals as the Sociology of Sport Journal, the International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Sport History Review and the Canadian Bulletin of Medical History/Bulletin canadien鈥� d'histoire de la m茅decine.

 
is an Assistant Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science in the Faculty of Health at 91亚色.聽 Her research focuses on understanding health promotion and the development of optimally effective health promotion messages targeting psychosocial predictors of behavior and is particularly interested in health promotion among special populations (e.g., people with SCI, MS), as well as children and youth.

 
is an Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science in the Faculty of Health at 91亚色. Her research focuses on children's involvement in organized sport; specifically, parents and coaches' roles in children's sport and development trajectories, dropout from sport, and positive development through sport.聽聽 Currently she is working on projects exploring preschoolers' introductions to organized sport, and characteristics of programs that may facilitate development within special populations and communities.聽 She is a member of the LaMarsh Centre for Child and Youth Research and the PYD SportNET research group.聽 She recently co-edited Health and Elite Sport: Is High Performance Sport a Healthy Pursuit? (2015). She is a recipient of the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology Young Scientist Award and the Province of Ontario Volunteer Service Award.

聽is known for championing new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-discipline programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91亚色 students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world鈥檚 most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91亚色 U is an internationally recognized research university 鈥� our 11 faculties and 26 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91亚色 is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 295,000 alumni.聽91亚色 U's fully bilingual Glendon campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contact:

Anjum Nayyar, Media Relations, 416-736-2100 ext. 44543, anayyar@yorku.ca

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As parents and students alike get ready for their first day and week back to school, many moms and dads will be getting out their phones and cameras to capture the moments and feelings of this new school year. Scrolling through friends鈥� and family members鈥� social media feeds may also make parents feel聽 pressure to share pictures of their children on social media on the first day of school.

The following 91亚色 U Faculty of Health expert is available to speak to this issue:

, is a clinical psychologist and Professor of Psychology at 91亚色.聽 She is an active clinician and researcher. Her research has focused on the role of emotional dependence and self-criticism in the occurrence of major depression.聽 Professor Mongrain鈥檚 research has been widely disseminated in empirical journals and media outlets. She is also an active member of the Association for Psychological Science, the Canadian Psychological Association, and the College of Psychologists of Ontario.

• What is the craze to share first day photos online?
• Can sharing photos and viewing them add to anxiety related to first week of school?
• Can there be a pressure to share first day photos on social media? What is the impact on parents鈥� emotional well-being?
• How parents鈥� and kids鈥� experience of the back-to-school craze can be different

is known for championing new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-discipline programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91亚色 students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world鈥檚 most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91亚色 U is an internationally recognized research university 鈥� our 11 faculties and 26 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91亚色 is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 295,000 alumni. 91亚色 U's fully bilingual Glendon campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contacts: Anjum Nayyar, 91亚色 Media Relations, 416 736 2100 ext. 44543. anayyar@yorku.ca

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