October 10th is World Mental Health Day. The theme is ‘mental health for all’.
The global pandemic and lockdowns on top of all the usual life challenges can affect people in different ways. These changes can affect children just as much as adults and children might need support understanding how they are feeling and why
Here are six stepping stones, and free downloadable resources, to help you support the children in your class develop good mental health.
Until someone has the vocabulary associated with emotions and feelings, they will not be able to explain how they feel or identify how others are feeling. Name emotions when a child experiences them, it might feel like you are stating the obvious, but you are giving them an important tool to support them becoming emotionally intelligent.
Help children to recognise how different emotions present in their bodies. Do they normally feel a bit sick when they are anxious? Do their shoulders feel tight when they are stressed? Do they become very busy when they are avoiding something? By helping them notice these physical representations of emotions they will begin to recognise when they are starting to feel something and they might be able to react before their brains get flooded with the stress hormone cortisol.
Design your own Emotion Emojis
The better children become at naming and spotting their emotions the easier it will become for them to notice the triggers for their emotions. If they always get a knot in their stomach on the way to school and know it is because they feel anxious you can start to explore where the anxiety comes from. Are they worried about the moment of goodbye, is it walking into a formed group of people or is it something else? By pinpointing the cause of the feeling, you and the child will be able to understand it better.
When you and the children in your class are able to notice, name and understand the source of a feeling or emotion you can begin to work out ways to help them regulate. Is a big calming and focusing breath needed? Or maybe a few star jumps? There isn’t one route to regulating a child’s emotions, what works best for one specific child will be something you need to figure out together.
Rules that maintain safety should be non-negotiable. The rules will vary depending on the age and developmental stage of a child. When a child is feeling a big emotion, their brain will not be working in the same way it does when the child is calm. Expectations and language may need to be adjusted to help the child stay safe. Rather than seeing a rule as something that a child should be punished for breaking, work with them to help them succeed in staying safe and maintaining the boundary.
Once the child has calmed down and are able to listen, empathise with them. Talk to them about a time you felt the same way and what happened. This will help them to understand their own feelings and feel like you understand and care about them.
Name, explain, understand, regulate, boundaries, relate
As the saying goes, you can’t pour from an empty cup, so make sure you are getting the support you need to help you support the people around you.
TEACHERS: check out the World Mental Health Day collection of free and premium resources to promote good mental health in the classroom.
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