The Puzzle Pieces for Children’s Mental Health

This week, I spent a little time away from school so that I could attend the HMC Conference for Heads of Prep schools. I am certainly happier when amongst the Prep children and colleagues and rarely choose to be away from school, but it is important to connect with other Heads and share ideas for tackling the big issues in society. One of the talks was on the rise of anxiety amongst children. There are many elements of this topic that are debated, and consensus is unlikely, so each of us needs to reflect on how the myriad of research resonates with our own observations, especially if considering our own children.

As a Head, I believe we have a responsibility to the children to do our part in educating them and equipping them to have strong mental health and to do this in partnership with their parents. Clarity is needed in the things we discuss, and when I speak to parents about strong mental health, I do not mean that children (and adults) should be happy all the time. Strong mental health is about having the appropriate and proportionate emotional response to situations. There are times when feeling sad or angry is completely right for what is happening, and in fact, these emotions are necessary in working out what to do next or what to do differently next time. Below I separate out some of the elements that come up in the research and discussions on supporting children, and for each one, I reflect on how this fits with life in the Prep.

Educating the children

There is disagreement as to whether or not talking to children about mental health actually makes it more likely that they will think they have mental health issues. The way we approach this at the Prep is to treat it the same as physical health. We teach the children that our bodies and minds need to be loved and cared for. This isn’t anything special or extra; it is simply part of being alive. We talk about building healthy habits and recognising signs that our health needs extra support or maintenance. We normalise talking about how we are doing. Our House Assemblies often focus on helping each other, whether that is through service to the community, which we know actually boosts our own wellbeing, or through looking out for each other and proactively checking in.

‘Hats on for Mental Health’ – Bayman House Week

Screen time or screen activity?

The momentum against children having access to social media platforms and various gaming sites has grown, and a number of nations are putting in place higher age restrictions. Yet, arguments roll on as to whether or not it matters what they are doing on their devices or if any screen time could be the issue. Research tends to focus on one or the other and can be bewildering for the lay reader. As an educationalist, what resonates with me is the impact of instant and often reward through “likes” on social media and rewards in gaming and “educational” apps. This simply isn’t replicable in life nor in the classroom. Finding ways to motivate children in subjects or activities that they don’t automatically like gets harder if it doesn’t meet the bar set by online activities. And screen time has a number of possibly associated issues, such as reducing the amount of sleep children have and how much of their time they spend being sedentary. Children of prep age need 9-11 hours of sleep each night. Less than this can increase anxiety and reduce their ability to have sustained focus. At the Prep, we break up our day with lots of opportunities for physical movement, both through unstructured free time at breaks and lunchtime and through PE, Games and our activities programme. The installation of the daily mile markings and other games on our playground as well as adding another physical play space, are all part of our commitment to get the children moving.