21 Jan Supporting Young Minds
As an adult, you may have felt the effects of Blue Monday on the 17th of January and with Children’s Mental Health Week taking place on 7-13 February 2022, the team at Little Cubs Academy wanted to share positive tips on how to combat mental health within Early Years.
In the lead up to Children’s Mental Health week, our Greenwich nursery and Forest Hill nursery have planned a range of activities to promote positive mindset for our children. We believe that the emotional wellbeing of children is just as important as their physical health. Positive mindset, affirmations and good mental health practice allows children to develop the resilience to navigate through their early childhood, teen years and grow into well-rounded, healthy adults.
At Little Cubs Academy we encourage children to explore a range of emotions through play and education with their well-being at the forefront of our nurseries’ practice. The EYFS has evolved over years to promote a healthy mind stating:
“Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to fulfill their potential. Children develop quickly in the early years and a child’s experiences between birth and age five have a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high quality early learning together provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up.”
- https://www.pacey.org.uk/earlymindsmatter/
Which we believe is a cornerstone to a child’s success in future life.
Our childhood and early-years experiences can shape our adult personalities and characters, however promoting positive mental health is often overlooked when working with young children. Below are tips and activities that our nurseries implement and that can be continued at home.
- Promoting Resilience
Resilience is the beginning steps of developing positive mental wellbeing. Children are often short sighted and believe that what is happening in the moment is the defining point of their day. Therefore, it is important that we help children to understand they will continue to thrive and feel positive emotions after the event. Although not a quick fix, as adults we can help strengthen resilience by teaching our little ones to solve problems independently. As children with developing minds, little ones need to experience discomfort so that they can learn to work through it and develop their own problem-solving skills so that later on in life they will be able to overcome adversity with confidence.
You can begin promoting resilience and the ability to problem solve by asking children leading questions such as:
- What would you like to do?
- What would make you happy?
- How will you feel if you did XX?
Throughout the problem-solving task, ensure that you continue to praise your little one for making the decision and remind them that they will feel a different emotion once the problem has been tackled.
- Recognising behaviour patterns
Behaviour patterns can often be interpreted as behaviour routines. Behaviour routines such as washing hands, mealtimes or getting ready to go outside involve a sequence of actions that are repeated time-and-time again and become second nature. Within early years, these patterns and behaviours can be adopted far easier than within adults. Behavioural patterns can be triggered within sequential events such as the nursery drop off or nap times.
Sometimes negative behaviours can be the cause of parents’ distress, especially if the reason or trigger is unidentified. When a regular outburst occurs, it is great practice to note a few details to help you look for patterns over time. During calm moments, you can ask your child for feedback on these questions, too.
- When did the behaviour happen? What time was it? Which day of the week?
- What was your child doing just before the behaviour?
- How could you tell your child was getting upset?
- What helped your child calm down? How long did it take?
Once you understand the external events or patterns that may trigger behaviours, rather than avoiding the situation you can prepare and introduce new actions to turn the negative behaviour into a positive.
When you approach the behavioural sequence, talk to your little one and outline everything that is about to happen, not missing a detail and introduce and explain a reward for positive behaviour instead.
- Encouraging a positive outlook
A positive outlook is imperative within mental health. Our Greenwich nursery and Forest Hill nursery hold treating each child as an individual as our highest priority. We continue to nurture and encourage a positive outlook through developing all of our children’s unique qualities, whether that be creative, emotional or physical.
Communication and language that is used in a child’s environment is crucial to a developing mind. Positive reinforcements and the ability to set and achieve goals will expand little ones’ minds to a wealth of positive outcomes.
Encouraging positive behaviour and relationships through play within our nurseries helps to build strong foundations enabling our children to confidently progress into new areas of their lives.
At our nurseries we support our children’s creativity and positive outlook through imaginative play, story time and role play. By tapping into their imagination and gently steering conversation and expanding ideas we continue to promote happiness and positivity.
At home we encourage our parents to read with their children which provides a wealth of benefits outside of reading and writing skills. Through reading a range of stories and allowing children to explore ideas and concepts will help to introduce them to new environments, languages, people, beliefs, and relationships that they have discovered and explored in their own minds.
- Developing a health mind and body
Developing a health body is also as important as a healthy mind. Allowing our children to express themselves via a range of activities allows them to play, dance, laugh and communicate openly with each other. At both our Greenwich nursery and Forest Hill nursery we offer Yoga, Football, Dance and Music to encourage healthy activities where our children can thrive.
If you would like to try kids yoga at home – Cosmic Kids Yoga is a fantastic resource for young bodies and minds.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5uIZ2KOZZeQDQo_Gsi_qbQ
At Little Cubs Academy both our Forest Hill Nursery and Greenwich Nursery believe that children’s mental health should be nurtured, and we push to provide as many activities and methods to encourage positive minds.
If you would like to discuss your child’s mental health or if you have any concerns get in touch today and speak with our Head Teachers today.
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