Mental Health Awareness
Following this difficult year or home schooling and Covid, mental health awareness has been more important than ever, not just in adults but in children too.
Younger children, especially, can find it difficult to express their anxieties and worries. Older children have been able to access zoom or social media to still make contact with their social group and although not ideal, it is a way for them to talk over concerns and share feelings.
Younger children need social interaction in order to not only play, but socialise and talk – and in doing so, are able to share their own worries with others in a natural way. I have heard many children’s playground conversations where they help each other to make sense of the things in a simple, ‘easy-to-understand’ way that only children can do.
With this interaction removed, children may need help and support to express what they are worried about. They may sense they don’t want to bother a parent, or may just not know how to say what is on their mind, so we just wanted to share a few ideas with you which may help:
Use a puppet to talk to your child. Children will often talk more openly to a puppet and enjoy this interaction.
Create a worry box for your child to write or draw their worry down and post it. You can then make a time to look through these with your child.
Try and create a 1:1 space for your child as often as you can (maybe at bed time or during a quiet part of the day) to create an opportunity for them to talk.
Create ideas to let go of worries – maybe write them down or draw a picture and put them in a balloon to then ‘float’ them away or rip them into tiny pieces and put in a public bin away from the house.
Create opportunities for others you trust to talk to your child; maybe a grandparent, aunty or uncle or a sibling.
Read a book with your child and try and use this to promote a discussion (e.g. A Huge Bag of Worries, by Virginia Ironside):
Worries, of course, may just come out at different times and not always at a suitable time to deal with them. Your child may also become distressed and upset by a small issue where their anxiety is more related to what else is going on inside rather than what has happened. Try to have this in mind and create a time to explore this deeper when is a suitable time for you both.
This has been a difficult year for parents too so please remember you can only do what you can and try not to be too hard on yourself too.