Expert shares ways to help your child’s mental health

Expert shares ways to help your child’s mental health

It’s 6:43. Our 10 TV back to school coverage is going beyond the books to what happens before your child even takes a seat in class. I talked with a local mental health expert who says parents and guardians can give children a mental boost on the new year by assuring them that any of their anxious feelings are normal. It’s normal to feel anxious about any number of things including returning back to school and let’s be clear, adults can feel anxious about returning back to school as well. That’s why therapist Stephanie Starks says facing anxiety as a family is helpful. So how are you doing with this class? Parents can tackle those feelings by establishing a back to school routine as early as possible. We don’t want to have kids going to bed early two days before school. — Starts we want to start that a couple of weeks early
— and Stark says this is also a good time to teach children 2 or 3 relaxation skills they can use at home when they’re feeling anxious, as well as at school. For example, at home it could be taking a walk, watching a funny video, maybe at school it’s arranging with a teacher, hey, when Johnny’s anxious, he may need to go get a drink of water that gives him the opportunity to take a walk. He could. Do deep breathing or she could do deep breathing in her seat. Every child is different and Stark says in general, parents should take note of any changes in your child’s sleeping habits, appetite, and watch out for irritability or even isolation. — If you
— have a young person who comes home and you don’t see them again until dinner or God forbid the next morning, there’s a problem. How do we have those conversations? Because I think sometimes as parents we’re a little bit afraid to peel off the band-aid so to speak. I think that’s an excellent question when we talk to our young people don’t listen to respond listen to really hear. All right, so you also want to do these things establish the routine, you want those relaxation skills, note the behavior changes as you just heard, and then Stephanie talked about media use social media use that’s also on the assignment list moms, dads, caregivers and parents should remember. The kids are watching. If you’re distracted, if you’re scrolling in their presence or with family and friends, that sets the tone. So set a good example. Stark says parents should remember we can’t just talk about what the kids need to do if we are not looking at the entire family system and taking the lead, Jay.

Parents and guardians can give children a mental boost on the new year by assuring them that any of their anxious feelings are normal.