A ‘social’ experiment
School social worker Munira Abdullah plays a game of air hockey with students in the student lounge that she and her colleague, school counselor Fiordaliza Connell, created at IS 206 in the Bronx.
Play with dolls provides a therapeutic calming benefit for the students.
It all started with a secondhand foosball table.
Social worker Munira Abdullah and school counselor Fiordaliza Connell, the mental health team at IS 206 in the University Heights section of the Bronx, noticed during the 2021–22 school year that their students were struggling to socialize when they returned to in-person classes after the pandemic lockdown. Some students got into fights while others simply self-isolated.
“We figured instead of us telling them how to socialize, let’s just socialize,” said Connell.
The duo found a foosball table on sale and set it up in the cafeteria.
Students who didn’t know one another started working together to learn an unfamiliar game. “They loved that foosball table,” said Abdullah.
Over the next three years, the team added more goodies and games — air hockey tables, cozy seating areas and video games that kept students upright and moving such as Wii Sports.
Connell says she and Abdullah model the behavior they want to see i n their students.
They used Teacher’s Choice funds, DonorsChoose money and even their own money to fund their purchases.
Now, every student at IS 206 spends their lunch period in the cafeteria with the school counselor and the school social worker on hand to support and engage with them.
The space feels less like a cafeteria and more like a student lounge. Reggae, pop and Latin music blast from the speakers as students dance, play games, or sit and relax during their daily lunch period.
But that’s not the most dramatic change the UFT members’ efforts have yielded. The school sees far fewer fights and incidences of bullying and harassment.
Cozy seating areas help students socialize in a healthy manner.
“In the past, it was crisis after crisis,” said Connell. “Now, instead of solving crises, we spend our time dancing and playing.”
The element of play is crucial to these efforts, the mental health team says.
“In middle school, you’re trying to be an adult — put on a hard face and act tough,” said Abdullah. “We want to encourage the students to be kids.”
The mental health practitioners provide baby dolls and stuffed animals for their students. They researched the therapeutic benefits of holding these types of toys to manage anxiety and purchased dolls that were the right weight and dimensions according to clinical guidelines.
“It’s calming for them,” said Connell, “and we want to help them learn how to be gentle.”
To encourage their students to enjoy comforting, childlike activities, Abdullah and Connell model the behavior they want to see. “They imitate our behavior — if you model it, it seems like it’s their idea,” Abdullah said.
With space, time and resources to blow off steam and support one another, students return to class happy, Connell said.
“Some schools do lunch detention,” she said. “Instead of that, we go downstairs and we play with you. It works.”