10 Activities to Enhance Social-Emotional Literacy in the Classroom: Transform Student Behavior from Chaos to Calm

Lynne Kenney, PsyD Related seminars and products

Move2Think, LLC

Dr. Lynne Kenney is the nation’s leading pediatric psychologist in the development of classroom cognitive-physical activity programs for students grades K-8. She develops curriculum, programming, and activities to improve children’s cognition through coordinative cognitive-motor movement, executive function skill building strategies, and social-emotional learning. Her current educational program is CogniMoves®, a classroom cognitive-motor movement program, co-developed with Benjamin S. Bunney, MD, Former Chairman Department of Psychiatry at Yale University. CogniMoves® is designed to strengthen executive function skills in K-3 students.

Dr. Kenney is a pediatric psychologist on the language & cognition team at Wellington-Alexander Center for the Treatment of Dyslexia, Scottsdale, Arizona. She has advanced fellowship training in forensic psychology and developmental pediatric psychology from Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and Harbor-UCLA/UCLA Medical School. As an international educator, researcher, and author, she is dedicated to improving the trajectory of children’s learning, particularly in high-need, under-resourced communities. Dr. Kenney’s books include Brain Primers, 2020 (Kuczala & Kenney); 70 Play Activities for Better thinking, Self-Regulation, Learning and Behavior (Kenney & Comizio, 2016); the Social-Emotional Literacy program, Bloom Your Room™; Musical Thinking™, and Bloom: 50 Things To Say, Think and Do with Anxious, Angry and Over-the-Top Kids (Kenney & Young, 2015). Her most recent endeavor is Cognitivities™, an original collection of portable mats that combine music, art, and movement developed with Fit and Fun Playscapes. Launched in 2024, this is the first Roll-Out Activities® mat of its kind, helping children with cognitive skills, executive function, and self-regulation in a calming and engaging way. In development, FlowMoves™ cognitive-motor movement cards for high-need communities and families to support co-regulation and self-regulation.

Since 1985, Dr. Kenney has worked as an educator in community services with national organizations including the Neurological Health Foundation, Head Start, Understood.org, HandsOn Phoenix, SparkPE, the First Nations in Canada, and Points of Light (Generation On). Dr. Kenney values working with Title I Schools.