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Whether you have a child and you’re looking for advice, or your little one is still a baby, read on for tips to help you feel prepared for future conversations with your child, and the small things you can start doing now to help foster healthy mental health awareness.
What is Children’s Mental Week?
An annual awareness campaign run by charity Place2Be that focuses on the mental health and well-being of children and young people. It aims to raise awareness of the importance of mental health in children, reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues, and promote positive mental health practices. The week typically involves various activities, events, and initiatives organised by schools, communities, and mental health organisations to educate children about mental health, teach coping strategies, and encourage open conversations about emotions and well-being, as well as engage parents, teachers, and the broader community in discussions and activities related to mental health.
How can reading can have an impact on children’s mental health?
According to the National Literacy Trust, research shows that a love of reading and writing can help children flourish at school and go on to succeed at work and other ventures in life. But we now know that reading and writing for enjoyment can also play a vital role in helping children lead happy and healthy lives. In 2018, their research found that children who are the most engaged with literacy are three times more likely to have higher levels of mental wellbeing than children who are the least engaged.
Mum & You have always known how important chatting and reading to your babies are for their language and speech development, as well as your bond. It’s why our eco nappies all have characters on to inspire you to chat at change time (and why our recyclable packaging all have different poems and stories on).
This year’s Children’s Mental Health theme is ‘my voice matters’, and is about giving children the tools to express how they are feeling. So now we know that developing a love for reading, plus having the language skills to express their thoughts all have a positive impact on children’s mental health, it’s an extra reason to start young and start small by using all those times your changing little one to have a little chat and tell some stories.
Tips for speaking to children about their mental health
Place2Be have put together an excellent 2 pager with great, easy to follow tips for parents for listening to your children and advice on how to start conversations with them about their day and mental health. And if you only have a baby who can’t yet talk back, it’s still a great guide to get to know now to use in the future.
Download the tips here:
We hope this has given you the tools to support your children’s mental health, whether that’s now or in the future.
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