School avoidance is becoming an increasingly common challenge for families, schools, and communities.

For some children, walking through the school gates can feel overwhelming. Anxiety, bullying, social pressures, learning difficulties, emotional distress, and feeling unsafe can all contribute to school refusal and disengagement.

In Episode 3 of Big Feelings, Growing Brains, we explore what may sit beneath school avoidance and what families, educators, and communities can do to help children reconnect with learning.

In this episode, you'll learn:
• Why some children struggle to attend school
• What fear and anxiety can look like in the classroom
• The importance of emotional safety and belonging
• How schools and families can work together
• Practical strategies to support attendance and confidence

Featuring educators, parents, wellbeing leaders, and community voices, this conversation focuses on understanding rather than judgment and support rather than blame.

Because children learn best when they feel safe, connected, and seen.

Big Feelings, Growing Brains is a special Thriving Minds podcast series helping parents, educators, and communities navigate the challenges of modern childhood together.

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Learn more at www.profselenabartlett.com

Why do some children seem calm one moment and completely overwhelmed the next when it is time to switch off a screen?

In Episode 2 of Big Feelings, Growing Brains, we explore what is really happening in the developing brain when children move from highly stimulating digital environments back into everyday life.

Together, parents, educators, and wellbeing leaders discuss why screen transitions can trigger big emotions, what children are trying to communicate through their behaviour, and practical strategies that can help reduce conflict at home and school.

In this episode, you'll discover:
• Why screens can be so difficult to switch off
• What is happening in the brain during a meltdown
• Why connection before correction works
• Simple ways to support smoother transitions
• Practical ideas from people who have been there

This is not about blame, shame, or perfect parenting. It is about helping adults better understand growing brains and respond with confidence, compassion, and connection.

Behind many screen meltdowns are often big feelings, and children who need support learning how to regulate them.

Big Feelings, Growing Brains is a special Thriving Minds podcast series created by the community, for the community.

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Learn more at www.profselenabartlett.com

Why Children Melt Down When Screens End

Why do simple moments like “time to turn it off” so often end in tears, anger, shutdowns, or emotional explosions?

In the first episode of Big Feelings, Growing Brains, neuroscientist Professor Selena Bartlett brings together educators, parents, and wellbeing voices to explore what is really happening in the developing brain during screen-time transitions.

Featuring:

• Professor Selena Bartlett
• Dr Mark Williams, cognitive neuroscientist, Author, ScreenSmart Children
• Jennie Dreever from Younity Community Services
• Kim, sharing a parent perspective
• HIPPY (Home Interaction Program for Parents and Youngsters)

Together, they explore:

• why screens are so hard to switch off
• why transitions can trigger emotional escalation
• what parents and teachers are seeing in real life
• how connection helps regulate overwhelmed brains
• practical ways to reduce stress and conflict at home and school

This episode is not about blame or shame. It is about helping adults better understand growing brains in a rapidly changing digital world.

Big Feelings, Growing Brains is a special Thriving Minds mini-series bringing together neuroscience, lived experience, education, and community wisdom to support children, families, and educators.

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Learn more at www.profselenabartlett.com

Anxiety in children and teenagers is rising, but are we always helping in the right way?

In this powerful conversation, with clinical psychologist Dr Danielle Einstein to explore what anxiety really is, how modern parenting, social media and screens may unintentionally reinforce it, and why avoidance can quietly strengthen fear over time.

Drawing on neuroscience, clinical psychology, and real-world family experiences, this episode explores:

• Why the brain learns through experience
• How screens, uncertainty, and constant comfort-seeking can fuel anxiety
• The difference between supporting a child and rescuing them from discomfort
• Why confidence grows through small acts of courage
• Practical ways parents, teachers, and clinicians can help children face fears safely and gradually

Dr Einstein also discusses her research on uncertainty and anxiety, and shares insights from her work helping families navigate school stress, social anxiety, gaming, emotional overwhelm, and everyday avoidance patterns.

This is not a conversation about blame or “perfect parenting.” It is a conversation about understanding the brain, rebuilding resilience, and helping young people learn they can do hard things.

A practical and compassionate episode for parents, educators, clinicians, and anyone supporting growing brains in an increasingly uncertain world.

You can learn more about Dr Danielle Einstein and her work here:
https://www.danielleeinstein.com/

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What does it really mean to raise a screen-smart child in a world that is designed to capture their attention?

In this important and timely conversation, I sit down with Dr Mark Williams to discuss his new book with Gavin McCormack, exploring the science, the reality, and the responsibility we all share when it comes to children and screens.

Drawing from their new book Screen Smart Children, we go beyond fear and blame to unpack what is actually happening in the developing brain. We talk about attention, emotional regulation, sleep, learning, and how constant digital stimulation is shaping the way children think, feel, and connect.

This is not about removing technology. It is about understanding it.

Together, we explore:

• What screens are doing to the brain during critical periods of development
• Why children struggle to switch off and what that means for behaviour
• The link between screen use, anxiety, and emotional dysregulation
• How schools and families can respond in a practical, balanced way
• What “screen smart” actually looks like in real life

Dr Mark Williams brings deep expertise in cognitive neuroscience, helping us understand attention and memory in a distracted world. He collaborated with Gavin McCormack, bringing decades of experience in education, working directly with children, teachers, and families across the globe.

What emerges is a clear and hopeful message: we are not powerless. With the right knowledge and small, consistent changes, we can reshape children’s environments and support healthier brain development.

This episode is for parents, educators, and anyone who cares about the next generation.

Because this is not just about screens.
It is about the kind of minds we are shaping for the future.

📘 Resources & Links

Thriving Minds Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/article/edit/7457652593234919424/

Thriving Minds in the Age of AI

https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0999099779?ref=yb_qv_ov_prnt_dp_rw

Book: Screen Smart Children

• https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Screen-Smart-Children/Mark-A-Williams/9781761639715
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com.au/Screen-Smart-Children-helping-switches/dp/1761639714
  
  

Dr Mark Williams

https://www.drmarkwilliams.com/

Gavin McCormack

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavinmccormack/

#ScreenSmartChildren
#ThrivingMinds
#Neuroscience
#DigitalWellbeing
#ChildDevelopment

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If we are honest, we know we are not one fixed version of ourselves. We can be generous and self-interested, patient and reactive, all within the same day. In this episode, we explore that uncomfortable truth and what it reveals about human behaviour.

I sit down with Benjamin Knight to discuss Contained, a powerful immersive experience that brings you inside the reality of youth detention. It asks a confronting question: how different are “we” from “them,” really?

Through story, neuroscience, and lived experience, this conversation unpacks how behaviour is shaped not just by character but by conditions, pressure, context, and whether someone was there to help us pause and choose differently.

We explore:

• The thin line between opportunity and consequence
• How systems can shape identity, for better or worse
• Why connection, structure, and consistency change outcomes
• What neuroscience tells us about stress, safety, and behaviour

This is not about excusing behaviour. It is about understanding it. Because when we understand what shapes people, we can start to build environments that support better choices.

This episode will leave you reflecting on your own moments at the edge and asking a bigger question:

What would we build if we truly understood how much conditions matter?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-knight-53854061/

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What if the pickleball court was the beginning of a movement?

Not a fitness trend, but a genuine response to one of the most significant public health challenges of our time: the slow erosion of the social fabric that holds communities together and keeps people well.

I was sharing an Uber Pool on my way to speak to a room full of local council leaders when the woman sitting next to me started talking about why she had left her job in tech. She had spent a decade building a platform connecting people with mental health support, successful by every boardroom measure, but from the inside, she could see what the metrics weren't capturing. People were receiving care and returning to lives where the loneliness that had made them unwell in the first place remained completely untouched.

So she walked away from the platform and built something you can walk into. Nineteen indoor pickleball courts, a food hall, a co-working space, not a wellness program or an app, but a place where people have a reason to show up regularly and, over time, begin to genuinely know each other.

After thirty years of studying the brain, this makes complete sense to me. Authentic social connection isn't a nice addition to a healthy life; it sits at the very centre of brain health. Our nervous systems are built for it; we regulate each other, we find safety in each other, and when that is missing as a chronic condition of daily life, the consequences are neurological, not just emotional. We have understood this for a long time, and we keep building systems that ignore it.

This is why the work of Andy Hamilton and the team at Human Nature matters so deeply to me. They haven't tried to build a better version of youth detention; they have created environments where young people can experience connection, responsibility and being genuinely seen, often for the first time. The outcomes are simply what happens when you finally give people what was missing.

We have always known what works. The question has never really been about knowledge; it has been about whether we are willing to accept that we are all responsible for the answer.

I take you inside Andy Hamilton's work with Human Nature, and what three decades of neuroscience tell us about why environments like his produce the results they do. I also explore what the woman in that Uber Pool understood about community that most policy and technology still don't, and what weeding a park together might have to teach us about where we go from here.

If you work in community, leadership, health, or simply care about what kind of world we are building, this one is for you.

https://humannature.org.au/people/andy-hamilton/

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Kindness Tim Tams: A World a Little Better Because of Rachel Robinson, MySummits

In this episode of Thriving Minds, Professor Selena Bartlett speaks with Rachel Robinson, Director of Adventure-Based Therapeutic Solutions (ABTS) and co-founder of MySummits, about the transformative impact of connection and outdoor adventure for young people.

Rachel shares a story from one of her camps where offering a struggling young person a simple Tim Tam became a powerful moment of kindness and care.

Drawing on nearly two decades working in child safety, Rachel explains how adventure-based therapeutic camps help young people rebuild confidence, develop trust and experience belonging through activities such as hiking, camping and mountain biking.

The conversation explores:

• Why having one adult who cares can change a young person’s life
• How outdoor adventure supports emotional regulation and confidence
• the importance of connection for young people facing adversity
• Rachel’s vision for expanding these programs so that more young people can benefit

The episode also touches on emerging research examining screen use and self-harm and suicidal behaviours in young people, highlighting the growing importance of real-world connections and supportive relationships.

This episode is a reminder that meaningful change often begins with something simple.

One person who cares.

A moment of kindness.

And sometimes, a Tim Tam shared in a camp.

Learn more:

https://www.mysummitabts.com.au/

Support the show

Subscribe and support the podcast at
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Learn more at www.profselenabartlett.com