Regulation as the Foundation of Student Resilience

Presenters

• Lindsey BernhardtFollow

First Presenter's Highest Degree Earned

M.Ed

Year First Presenter's Degree Was Awarded

2020

First Presenter's Field of Study

School Counseling

Institution Where First Presenter Received Highest Degree

Eastern University

First Presenter's Institution

InMind Services

First Presenter's Brief Bio and Description of Credentials for This Presentation

A mother of two, Lindsey's work with schools and families centers around meeting children's and family's social and emotional needs. With a school counseling degree and a rich background in creating trauma-informed school environments, Lindsey strives to increase the number of homes and schools where students feel safe and loved.

Location

Vernon

Document Type

Individual Presentation

Primary Strand

Youth Resiliency

Relevance to Primary Strand

In order to cultivate resilience for students, we need to create schools and classrooms that prioritize regulation. The skills of self-regulation cannot be learned in times of stress, they must be learned in times of low stress so that they are in the student's toolbox when they experience stress or trauma.

Alignment with School Improvement Plan Topics

Student Learning and Development

Brief Program Description

Youth resiliency can be cultivated through a combination of external and internal factors. This workshop focuses on how schools, as an external factor, can establish a culture of regulation which can serve as the foundation for students' own self-regulation. The focus of the presentation will be on providing specific strategies for supporting regulation at all levels within a school system.

Summary

While we cannot reduce the likelihood of students entering school systems with risk factors or trauma, schools can serve a vital role in increasing students' resilience and their ability to cope in the face of stress and trauma. In addition to serving as a protective factor for students, we can establish a foundation of regulation in our systems and practices so that students can develop their own self-regulatory coping skills. Some of these regulation practices include pacing instruction with regulating breaks, supporting students' sensory needs with readily available supports (e.g. sensory pathways, fidgets, regulation rentals), and modeling regulation in staff meetings. Participants will leave the session able to confidently speak about ways to increase student resilience and create regulating schools for adults and students.

Evidence

Our organization regularly tests the effectiveness of our work in schools by assessing student behavioral change over time and conducting trauma-informed building assessments (pre and post). Our proposal is based on existing research in human development, mindfulness in schools, and smaller studies on brain breaks, fidgets, sensory development, and the neurosequential model of education.

Learning Objective 1

Participants will be able to define resilience and identify 2 external and 2 internal factors that cultivate student resilience.

Learning Objective 2

Participants will be able to plan for tangible ways to increase the resilience of their students and staff.

Learning Objective 3

Participants will be able to model ways to set the stage for regulation and wellness in staff meetings and adult interactions within a school.

Start Date

6-2-2026 10:15 AM

End Date

6-2-2026 11:30 AM

Recommended Citation

Bernhardt, Lindsey, "Regulation as the Foundation of Student Resilience" (2026). Southeast Conference on School Climate. 42.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/secsc/2026/2026/42

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.