Children’s Mental Health
Children's Mental Health
This year’s Children’s Mental Health Week is 7-13th February 2022, with the theme being ‘Growing Together.’
Around 1 in 6 children have a mental health problem, and many more struggle with challenges from bullying to bereavement. With the ongoing pandemic measures in force, seeing many children largely stuck indoors, remote learning at home and not able to interact with friends, we must do what we can to support the mental health of our children.
Here’s our top tips and FREE downloads for encouraging children to engage in discussing their feelings and emotions, and how to deal with these.
Make poster boards to write out and share your worries, make it a family project, family time, get out the colours and markers and stickers and start sharing. Talk about worries, fears and how to express them and what to do with them and how they make you feel. When parents get involved that opens the door for the children.
Write your worries and fears and place them under your pillow, say a little prayer (if you believe in that, or ask the universe, angels, whoever you believe in) to take your worries away. (my kids actually do this and they are 8 and 11)
Ask children to see things from a different angle/position. If they are hanging from the monkey bars... ask them what does the sky look like from there? what do you see up there? Ask them to lay at the end of the bed and look at the room from there and see how different things look, join them! Instead of getting annoyed at kids, use the opportunity to get curious with them. its beautiful to see how we can connect in these moments.
Write your worries on paper and scrunch them up and throw them in the bin, but make it into a game of basketball and try to get it in the bin and score and each time you do this you are releasing the fear and worry from yourself. Teaching the kids many things in this, writing out and releasing.
Look through a different window..........still looking through the windows we look through every day, but really LOOK......what 3 or 5 things do you see? What do you notice that you haven't seen before, but always has been there?
Journal or write 3 things 3 times a week (or everyday if they really wake to) on things that are going well in their life or they are grateful for. It builds that gratitude muscle in them.
FREE Downloads
Click on the following links to download the free resources & worksheets.
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