5 Ways to Embrace Mental Wellness with Kids
All parents and caregivers want their children to experience happy and healthy futures. Nurturing kids’ mental wellness—even from their youngest years—can help children develop a strong foundation of skills, such as emotional self-regulation and resilience, that will benefit them throughout life. Because brain plasticity (or the brain’s ability to change its structure and function) is highest in childhood and adolescence, this window of time is critical to all types of learning, including emotional skills.
Families don’t need to wait until kids encounter challenges to begin focusing on mental wellness. There are protective factors you can introduce now that will benefit kids in the short term and reduce their risk of developing mental health difficulties later. Many of these protective factors begin in the home and can be easily and simply reinforced.
Here are five ways that parents and caregivers can embrace mental wellness with kids—starting now.
1. Get Familiar with Feelings
Emotions are an integral part of being human. They give us important information about the world and help us decide how to act and react. But big feelings can sometimes be scary or overwhelming, especially for children. Teaching kids to understand and manage their feelings can significantly contribute to their overall well-being.
Get started by providing your child with an emotional vocabulary so they can name what they are experiencing. It may help to use a feelings wheel (affiliate link) to identify and describe emotions. Use the terms in the middle of the wheel for younger children, and as they grow older, introduce terms from the outer circles of the wheel to expand their emotional vocabulary. Reinforce to your child that there are no “good” or “bad” emotions: all feelings are equally valid.
Next, help your child understand that while experiencing emotions is a fact of life, we can learn to manage them. Emotional self-regulation is a complex process that children will continue to refine as they grow. But studies have shown that when parents develop positive and trusting relationships with their children, talk through difficult feelings and situations when they arise, and model their own self-regulation, they give their children a strong foundation to build on.
2. Get Expressive
Art can be a powerful tool to help children explore and express their emotions. Researchers have been able to observe the social and emotional benefits of activities such as music, dance, and visual arts even in early childhood. The National Endowment for the Arts released a summary report of 18 peer-reviewed studies that showed, among other positive findings, that:
- Parents who sang to their child at least three times a week were more likely to report that their child had strong social skills.
- When children were instructed to draw a house after being asked to think of an upsetting event in their past, they were better able to improve their mood than children who were told to draw the negative event or copy another drawing.
Expressive writing has also been shown to improve mental wellness by helping children understand their feelings, make sense of difficult experiences, and reduce stress. If kids need a boost to get started, try a writing journal with daily prompts (affiliate link). Or encourage older kids to write daily about what they’re grateful for on the free 3 Good Things app.
3. Get Moving
One of the best ways to embrace mental wellness with kids is to help them get moving. Studies show that on average, children ages 6 to 18 who exercise regularly have lower levels of stress and depression and higher levels of positive self-image, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being.
In our age of abundant technology, ensuring kids get enough physical activity may seem difficult. The Move Your Way resources from the US Department of Health and Human Services is a good starting point to understand how much physical activity your child needs, types of activities to try, and how to incorporate those activities throughout the day. You could also print the American Heart Association’s infographic of 25 Ways to Get Moving at Home and hang it where your child will regularly be reminded of quick and easy physical activities they can do around the house.
You can also check out our blog post on 9 Tips to Get Your Family Moving.
4. Get Comfortable with Tough Conversations
Physical and psychological safety is a critical component of mental wellness for kids. As children grow and become more independent, it’s important to have conversations with them about abuse, bullying, and other types of unsafe behaviors. Setting aside time for these critical conversations can help you build a foundation of trust with your child so that they feel more comfortable coming to you when safety issues arise.
Social-emotional learning nonprofit Committee for Children has developed a variety of free child protection resources that parents and caregivers can use with their kids. Their downloadable Hot Chocolate Talk How-To Guide contains research-based tips for talking to your child in an age-appropriate way about body safety. The guide also focuses on the “Three R’s” of safety by teaching kids how to recognize, refuse, and report abuse.
Families who want to educate their children about how to stand up to bullying should explore Committee for Children’s Captain Compassion webcomics. In each adventure, superhero Captain Compassion helps sidekick Kid Kinder and his friends activate their upstander power and spread kindness.
Guidance for how to approach other tough topics—such as divorce, grief, incarceration, and more—can be found through the Sesame Street Workshop website.
5. Get Help When You Need It
Strengthening protective factors at home helps establish a strong foundation of mental wellness for kids. But mental health challenges can still arise, and when they do, families may need support identifying and responding to them.
Seattle Children’s Hospital reports that one in five children experience mental health disorders each year, yet only half of those receive the professional care they need. The hospital developed a hub of mental health resources designed to help parents and caregivers determine if their child has a mental health problem, provide support at home, and locate professional services if necessary. Check out their Parenting Tool PDFs on topics including emotional validation, understanding behavior problems, and supporting youth who have experienced trauma.
The Boys & Girls Club of America recently published a list of 19 resources for parents and caregivers who need help addressing their child’s mental health. The page includes contact information for organizations that offer support for youth with LGBTQ+ or diverse cultural identities who may face social stigma or discrimination. And it contains tips for creating an Emergency Mental Health Plan with your child, so you know what to do and who to call should a crisis arise.
Kids Need Mental Wellness Support Now More Than Ever
The difficult truth is that child mental wellness is on the decline. In 2021, the US Surgeon General declared kids’ mental health “the crisis of our time,” and issued an advisory on what family members, educators, healthcare organizations, and more can do to protect it.
But there’s plenty of cause for hope. Parents and caregivers have a wide array of research-based guidance and resources available for embracing mental wellness with kids of any age. By prioritizing mental wellness today, you’ll help your child build skills and habits that support their well-being throughout life.
Interested in sharing media related to mental wellness with your child? Here are some additional resources to explore:
Stay connected with Ed2Grow for more valuable insights and resources to help you navigate the joys and challenges of helping kids learn.
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