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Taking care of one’s mental well-being is important for everyone. People are realizing that just like they need to care for their physical health, similarly caring for their mental health must also be a priority. Young children are no different. Just because they are kids, does not mean that we do not have to put much of an effort for their mental well-being. Childhood is the period when their psychology, thought-process, personality develop, besides their physical growth. Therefore, at this stage teachers as well as parents must pay extra attention to their all-round development including their mental and emotional well-being. This is especially important now, when we are amidst a pandemic, and facing obstacles to our mental well-being.
 

Teachers and other school staff often times, take help from the school counselors to find out how to support students’ mental well being. Since most schools due to various reasons find it difficult to have more than one counselor to handle the students of the school regularly, therefore, they prefer their teachers to have basic knowledge of student counseling techniques so that they can support the children during any difficulty and can counsel them towards the right path. This is more so applicable in this pandemic when learning is happening over the web and teachers/counselors/students cannot meet each other in-person. Therefore teaching professionals with a certificate in child counseling for teachers will benefit a lot in their profession.

Healthy Mental and Emotional Development by Age

In this blog, we tried to briefly discuss the healthy mental and emotional development of school children to help the teachers handle the typical struggles that are a part of human growth and development and develop expert teaching counseling skills. Mood swings might be normal for young children but that in no way indicate that it's easy to manage. Through this blog, we have shared a few handy tips on how to support children facing the normal struggles of growing up years.

Classroom Best Practices

The best practices for supporting mental well being in the classroom include:
 

Social Time: Fix a day every week and allot 1 hour where students in the classroom can socialize and interact with each other freely. This can be done to discuss a creative project, a game or a challenge, something that is not included in the curriculum. Encourage your students to talk and chat with their peers to complete the tasks.
 

Lunchtime Clubs: These clubs may include drama club, baking club, book club, singing club, etc. The main idea behind encouraging such clubs among your students is to create a sense community and inclusion and help them relieve the pressure that they may feel.
 

Open-door Policy: Ensure that your students know that you are available for them whenever they need your help and advice or any of their issues/concerns. Make it known to them that you are always present to listen to their worries and will provide advice if they ask for it.

Teacher Well-Being: More than ever, such is the situation that we need to be thinking about our teacher's mental well-being too in these trying times. Though rewarding, meaningful, and amazing, teaching has always been a challenging job. In this emotionally exhausting time, when most of our interaction depends on the internet, you as an educator must remember to take care of yourself and each other too. That can be through meditation, spending some time doing what you love maybe watching movies or reading books!