You Can Do It
Welcome to the 2025 school year. The You Can Do It program promotes the social-emotional wellbeing and achievement of all children.
The Early Childhood You Can Do It Program incorporates a variety of brain-based social-emotional learning activities, which:
1. Increase the type of positive, interactive, social learning activities to heighten dopamine levels at the beginning of many lessons.
2. Incorporate visually stimulating images, props, and discussion prompts that arouse students’ curiosity (producing Dopamine). The release of dopamine due to their curiosity is what hooks their attention as dopamine motivates them to want to pay attention and be able to stay alert.
3. Include more re-coding activities that aid students’ processing and memory of new content via different learning modes.
4. Include relatively challenging tasks that require students to exert some effort and develop their pre-frontal cortex.
5. Help students see the lesson content and skills as meaningful and relevant to their own lives and prior experiences.
6. Help students connect new social-emotional knowledge and skills with what they remember about similar previously learnt content.
7. Incorporate activities to increase student awareness of ways to regulate their amygdala when stressed (e.g. slow, deep breathing).
The mission of the You Can Do It program is to strengthen the five social and emotional skills and values which all children need to manage their own learning and behaviour, including Confidence, Organisation, Getting Along, Persistence and Resilience. Developed by Professor Michael E Bernard, these are regarded as the “5 Keys” for success and happiness and emphasise the importance of teaching children’s different ways of thinking.
The main characters in the program who promote the 5 Keys are Connie Confidence, Oscar Organisation, Gabby Get Along, Pete Persistence and Ricky Resilience. The program is delivered through stories, puppetry, a variety of activities, along with fun and engaging songs.