time for change
Many children experience difficulties with transition. Learning about change and how to cope with it will help children with transition and prepare them for many other changes and challenges they will face in life. Just like we can all look after our bodies, we can also all look after our minds. Mental health includes all the feelings we have - good and bad and it is different for every person. Sometimes you might feel really happy and positive, and other times you might feel sad or worried. How you feel can change all the time, and this is all a part of your mental health. Here are some ideas to support your child with transition and change, which will ultimately support their mental wellbeing.
ideas to support transition
celebrate you!
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Identify your strengths and make a poster or certificate to celebrate all the things that make you, YOU! No matter what transitions you might be going through, identifying and remember your own strengths will help you to feel confident during different changes. It can be difficult to think about what we are good at sometimes because we don’t often take enough time to appreciate ourselves and our strengths. Understanding our strengths helps us to be better prepared for dealing with change, and the feelings that come with it. It might be your creative abilities, sports related, being a good friend, or a good listener – we are all good at something.
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circle of support
A support network is a group of people (or pets!) who we have in our lives, who provide support, advice, or sometimes just listen to us when we need someone to talk to. Talking to them can help us to solve a problem, or just makes us feel better. Sometimes when we go through a new change, or have feelings we might not completely understand, it can feel very lonely. Identifying people in our support network can remind us that there are people in our lives to support us, and we can reach out to them when we need to. Draw a big circle and inside it write the names of all the people you can think of that you can include in your support network. This can be anyone you trust or anyone that cheers you up – even your pets! When things feel challenging, you can look at this and decide who you will go to for support.
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create an encouragement jar
Every time you think of a way to encourage yourself or someone else, write it down on a piece of paper and pop it in the jar. Decorate this jar in any way you like and then, when you need a boost, dip into the jar and pull out a quote. You can also include photos or memories of people who encourage you and cheer you on. Everyone goes through ups and downs as they’re experiencing change and transition, so this jar can be full of little reminders and cheerleaders to keep you going when things get tricky.
Additional resource to support parents/carers top-ten-tips-for-parents.pdf (youngminds.org.uk)