Fighting Bullying With Babies

Using play-based learning and positive communication lessons, an organization called Right to Play helps school children in Pakistan act less violently toward their peers. The program, which is now replicated in 18 countries around the world, aims to reduce gender-based violence and stereotyping in the classroom.

Criança Feliz (Happy Child), is a parent-coaching program that was launched in Brazil in 2017 to help parents and children build healthier relationships. The program works by sending skilled social workers to the most financially disadvantaged regions of Brazil to help parents learn the importance of play, emotional interaction and well-being, and how to stimulate intellectual development through interactive activities. The program has already reached 300,000 families.

Disciplining schoolchildren has led many students down the “school-to-prison-pipeline” because teachers have focused on controlling students rather than instilling problem solving skills. Ross Greene has developed Collaborative Proactive Solutions (CPS), which is a method that trains staff at schools to develop relationships with disruptive kids and help them problem solve. With the CPS method in practice in 2012, Central School has reported fewer students sent to the principal’s office and no suspensions.

Muslim women in Egypt are expected to marry young and to stay close to home, and if they do not, they can be subjected to abuse or heavy criticism by men in the household. Save the Children’s Choices program offers educational workshop sessions for boys and girls, ages 10 to 14, which help them explore gender identity. Through discussions, the program hopes to change gender norms.

The San Carlos Apache tribe in Arizona has been able to increase dental healthcare access for children through targeted outreach and an educational marketing campaign. The goal of the multifaceted approach is to address fears, both on the part of the child and parents, through education about going to the dentist. The result has been a significant uptick in the number of children's dentistry appointments and caregivers reporting that their children are no longer afraid.

The rate of students dropping out of college or failing to complete their degree in the allotted time has soared in the United States, and experts are discovering that one of the causes is simply that students feel isolated, discouraged, and overwhelmed. A study by Ideas42 across a number of universities revealed that fairly simple behavioral "nudging" - or the process of providing tiny but regular interventions and encouragement through systems like text messages - can have a drastic impact on a student's likelihood of success.

Harassment on the internet is more accepted but just as harmful as it is in person. RiotGames, a game publisher, decreased abuse by enabling its gaming members to decide and enforce community norms.

Through programs across the country, nurses, social workers, or trained mentors offer support to new or expectant parents, imparting skills to help them become better teachers for their children. Through regular home visits with the families, these programs are working to close an achievement gap between rich and poor children that starts as early as just nine months into a child's life.

A school in Wisconsin requires that students sit in assigned seats, alongside teachers, during lunch. School administrators hope this will reduce student anxiety, help students develop social skills, and improve school culture.

Enrolling parents in simple, scalable ways can improve early child learning outcomes. Building on a model used in the US state of California, firms in the UK are developing an SMS-based curriculum geared toward parents of children entering kindergarten. The method involves sending parents text messages that explain short, easy tasks that both instruct and motivate children, encouraging positive cognitive and behavioral development.