Mental Health and Children

Mental health has been in the news a lot lately and particualrly mental health among children.

I’ve written posts before about mental health or aspects related to it and links are at the bottom of this post if you’d like to read them.

But this week  a couple of powerful new resources have become available which I thought it would be good to draw attention to.

The first is from Times Education Supplement (TES) and it’s called ‘I have a Volcano inside me’

It’s a short animated film which simply explains the struggles of one child and has messages about how the other children can offer support. It is very starightforward and begins wit some year 6 children explaining what they do to cope with their worries, their minor worries and I think is important to understand that everyone has minor worries and it is good to identify what we do to help us cope but also that for some people the woriies are more intense or their situations much more difficult.

The second is from the BBC and can be found here  

and contains short animnated videos that tell the stories of different children that have struggled with aspects of mental health. It includes a story about a bully, and someone being bullied, someone with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, someone with Anorexia and two children talk about panic attacks.

What we here often hear from parents is that when faced with their child or children having a problem that they dont know how to talk about it with them and what we hear from children and young people is that they find it hard to talk about how they feel.

I’m sure it must be really helpful to hear in the voices of the children themselves how they struggled and how they got help, and that must go some way to reducing the isolation they may feel.

The number of children and young people with mental health problems appears to be growing and while there are no easy answers, as adults whether teachers, parents, relatives or family friends the hope is we can all play a part by being there to help or support any child or young person experiencing difficulties and learn a little more ourselves about the struggles they face.

– https://attunededucation.com/2017/04/30/how-to-build-positive-self-esteem/

or see below for a post about emotions.

8 ways to helpchildren and young people learn about emotions

General