Taking care of a child’s health is a challenging task, whether it involves physical or mental well-being. Children are an integral part of any family.
We don’t want to see them sad or suffering. Parents getting worried about their children is a normal thing. The key challenge for any parent is knowing when to take action on a worry.
As children grow, their behaviour changes. Their perception of the world changes. They become irritated, angered, and unable to perform well in their studies. It is the parents’ responsibility to properly care for their emotional well-being and to counsel them when needed.
In this article, I will explain what common child mental health issues are and what strategies parents and caretakers opt for to improve their child’s emotional well-being.
Common Child Mental Health Issues
Children are more emotional than adults. It is difficult for them to regulate their emotions. These are some commonly occurring psychological issues your child might be facing.
Anxiety Disorders
The term anxiety revolves around excessive fear or worry that is too difficult to control and interferes with daily life activities. A child may face general anxiety, social anxiety, or separation anxiety. They can have physical symptoms like headaches, stomach problems, or trouble sleeping.
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
It is a neurodevelopmental disorder that occurs in children due to constant following of a pattern, inattention, and hyperactivity. Children with ADHD can not perform tasks requiring focus, act without thinking, and fight constantly.
Behavioral Disorders
Children with this disorder show resistance and aggressive behaviour towards teachers and their peers. Such a child refuses to follow rules, easily gets angered, or deliberately annoys others
Depression
Children with this mental disorder show signs of persistent feelings of sadness, irritability, and loss of interest in activities they used to enjoy. Physical symptoms include a change in appetite, sleep, and mood.
Eating Disorder
Children with such a disorder are too concerned about their body weight, body image, and the food they eat, which leads to severe physical and mental health issues like anxiety and depression.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
PTSD is a long-term emotional upset, worry, nightmares, or a scary moment that a child is going through. Children often face this issue after violence, abuse, injury, or trauma.
Schizophrenia
In this mental disorder, a child sees a person or hears voices that do not exist in reality. They lose touch with reality. Their minds create odd thoughts and behaviours.
Strategies to Implement for Child Mental Health
The following are some strategies you can apply to improve your child’s mental health, many of which are also emphasized in mental health training courses.
Create a Communication Space
A child may feel broken or detached from their peers. It is difficult for children to express their feelings openly because they have a fear of judgment.
As parents, you can help them by creating a safe and supportive environment. Show them some empathy. Make them feel that you are not alone; we are here to find a possible solution.
Validate their feelings by commenting like “I can understand”, “That must be painful/frustrating/annoying.” Show them your concerns and love. It will help children in their healing process.
Eliminate Mental Health Stigma
It is a common stigma in the family about mental health issues. Family members and society treat them as a negative trait if a child has any psychological concerns.
Some families don’t even take them seriously and talk about it. Discuss the benefits of treatment, spread awareness about mental health, and let them know that these concerns are treatable, common, and that anyone can experience them.
Play Games with them
Games are an effective method to reduce stress and anxiety among children. Winning a challenge gives a sense of accomplishment. You can have a fun and exciting time with your kids. You can include various word games, logic puzzles, and board games to play with kids.
You can engage your children with strands game, which makes them curious about finding hidden words according to themes. This step will help them to think logically and may reduce your child’s anxiety and stress, benefiting their mental health.
Include Physical Activities
Physical activities reduce anxiety and depression symptoms, improve mood, and cognitive function of the brain. As a parent, you can improve your child’s mental health by encouraging them to add healthy activities to their daily life.
You can encourage children to engage in physical exercise or activities. You can go hiking with them or play basketball, cricket, or badminton. Join them in playing a video game requiring movement, not just holding the controller and sitting on the sofa. Many VR games and dance games need body movement.
Perform Artistic Activities
Creative activities relax the mind and are beneficial for mental well-being. These activities lower stress hormones, release anxiety, and improve mood through serotonin and dopamine release.
Encourage your children to engage in digital art, painting, sculpting, music, and theatre activities. Let them know, they don’t have to be good at any activity. They simply have to enjoy and relax.
Celebrate Their Small Wins
Praise and appreciation boost a child’s self-esteem and build confidence. It helps children develop coping mechanisms for anxiety and depression. As a parent, you can appreciate their act and compliment them on small things.
For example, when they tie their shoes, put their toys back after playing, make eye contact, share a toy with a sibling, complete a puzzle, read a book independently, and learn new games.
Take Care of Yourself
It is not easy to care for and get yourself involved with emotionally unstable children. First, as parents, you have to take care of yourself. Take time to eat well, get plenty of sleep, and follow hobbies you like because an empty cup can’t fill another cup.
Find a Support Network
To treat a psychological issue of a child, you need multiple people to support your child’s well-being. Dealing alone with such a kind may drain your energy.
Sometimes, you may not be emotionally available to support the child. If you have a supportive family network, you can ask for help. Encourage your child to share or have contact with those family members.
Family Routine to Follow for Better Child Mental Health
Child mental health improves with great family connections. A supportive family plays a decisive role in healing a child’s mental health. You can consider these activities to follow with your child for better psychological well-being.
Meditation
Meditation is an effective activity that releases stress and anxiety among kids and adults. It improves focus and takes dedicated time for meditation.
Sit on the floor and take deep breaths without thinking about anything. Please do it for 10 minutes a day, or you can adjust the timing according to your schedule.
Play Brain Games
Brain games are a great activity that helps children recover from mental health issues. Playing games requires focus, concentration, and memory usage. Especially games like Connections Unlimited need it more.
It requires both vocabulary skills and logical reasoning. The child will shift his focus from being worried to solving the word puzzle. It is an essential step in a child’s inner harmony.
Exercise Daily
Engaging in exercise with kids is a great way to foster a strong bond with them. Exercise releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with happiness, which promotes children’s mental well-being. You can fix a time from a routine. It could be a cardio exercise, zumba dance, or a simple walk or jogging around the block.
Fix Sleeping Schedule
Sleep time is essential for anyone dealing with mental health issues. During sleep, our body recovers and heals. Minds get relaxed. As a family head, establish a consistent sleep schedule for your child to maintain a healthy mind. Don’t allow your child to have screen time, as it creates a hindrance to their sleeping pattern.
Family Meal Time
Eating together at the dining table leaves a healthy impact on a child’s psychological health. As a family, everyone shares their thoughts at the table. It feels like being connected with family.
Motivate your child to share their problems and feelings with family members. With family members, the child considers himself safe and protected, which is good for mental health.
Conclusion
Childhood is a beautiful phase of human life, but mental health issues create a hindrance to enjoying life. Cognitive issues in children, like depression, anxiety, and ADHD, are common problems that exist. These psychological issues are curable with the proper steps.
Parents can help their children by creating a safe talking environment, playing games with them, supporting them, and encouraging them to participate in hobbies.
Moreover, parents can change the family routine, like doing meditation, physical activities, and fixing sleep time with children, which helps in recovering the child’s mental health illness.
