Articles & Resources
Making decision-making easier
Making decisions is something that causes many people anxiety or worry. This can be for many reasons: For younger children Break decision making into 1-2 choices rather than free reign to build confidence, ‘would you like to do X or Y?’ and give time to think it through. When they make a choice, give them
Children’s Activity: 5 Important Questions
Learning about ourselves and what makes us ‘us’ is an important aspect of self-esteem and happiness. If we develop a strong sense of what we like, what makes us feel good, and how we want to be it allows us to live our lives more authentically and be less swayed to be something we are
Should we stop praising independence?
If you attended the Dandelion Conference in April 2024, you will have heard my presentation about attachment styles and the expression of feelings. The role of attachments, is something I am hugely passionate about as it influences so many aspects of our perception of child behaviour and feelings. Attachment theory was first proposed by Bowlby,
Children’s Activity: Therapeutic Colouring
Free Activity So, this week, our free activity is a downloadable therapeutic colouring sheet, so you can unwind together. Why not make it a family affair and all have a go…. Download here Next steps Want to learn more? Would you like to deliver emotional literacy interventions in your work? Our Level 3 Emotional Literacy Mentor qualification
4 ways to support children to externalise their feelings
When it comes to feelings, there are two routes that we can take: In the reverse to a first aid situation, when we cannot see someone’s expression of feelings this is a warning sign that a child or young person needs support. When we can see a child’s behaviours or hear their expressed words, this
Children’s Activity: Feelings Colouring
Identifying that our feelings are fluid, and ever moving supports children to understand that they do not need to always feel ‘happy’. For so many children and adults, there is a pressure to always be ‘happy’, when in reality our feelings move continually throughout the day. Learning to differentiate between different feelings is an important
Creating safe spaces for feelings
Emotional literacy sits at the core of our well-being, mental health and management of needs such as stress. When we have positive emotional literacy skills, we have a greater capacity to: However, to be able to do this we also need the right environment. The development of emotional literacy awareness requires support as well as
Children’s Activity: Journal Prompts for Friendships
Journal Prompts Journalling can help us to calm our minds by structuring our thoughts. Journal prompts help us to explore different aspects of our lives and develop a deeper understanding of them. By taking time to deeply think about different concepts, we can find peace, solutions or identify areas for support. Journal prompts are questions
The easiest way to teach accountability
A subject that often comes up when I speak with parents and professionals, is about how we teach accountability and taking responsibility with children and young people. Accountability refers to the ability to: So, how do we best teach accountability? Accountability is correlated to both positive and negative behaviours and actions. Many young people have
Children’s Activity: Creating Good Feelings
Self-care The process of emotional literacy development, includes being able to recognise and meet our own needs. Happiness is a feeling that we can create, as is feeling good and having positive opportunities. Download here Next steps: Want to learn more? Would you like to deliver emotional literacy interventions in your work? Our Level 3
10 questions to ask yourself today
Questions are incredible things. The questions we ask can completely change the direction that we take and the feelings that we evoke. Think for a moment, if you ask a child ‘did you have a good day at school?’ they will often tell you ‘No!’. However, if you shift that question to ‘what was the
Children’s Activity: June Colouring
Download here Free Activity So, this week, our free activity is a downloadable mandala colouring sheet, so you can unwind together. Why not make it a family affair and all have a go…. Want to learn more? Are you looking for a deeper understanding of child mental health? Our Level 4 Child and Adolescent Mental
Why we need self-awareness
Whilst in a meeting this week, we had a discussion about self-awareness that I wanted to share, because it highlights a set of skills that are paramount to our well-being. Self-awareness refers to our ability to have “conscious knowledge of our own character and feelings”. This includes being aware of our feelings, and what drives
Children’s Activity: 10 questions to feel good
Journal Prompts Journalling can help us to calm our minds by structuring our thoughts. Journal prompts help us to explore different aspects of our lives and develop a deeper understanding of them. By taking time to deeply think about different concepts, we can find peace, solutions or identify areas for support. Journal prompts are questions
Why we need Glimmers and Glows
Glimmers have become more popular over the last few years, and we often see social media posts talking about them. So, what is a glimmer and a glow? Glimmers Glimmers are micro-moments of pleasure that we experience in the day. These small moments, when we give them attention, provide us with calm, peace and connection.
Children’s Activity: 9 ways to decompress
With exams upon us, supporting young people to decompress between exams to manage their stress levels and support them to retain their revision is an important, and often missed aspect of the preparation process. So, we are sharing 9 ways that young people can decompress between their exams (and after). 9 ways to decompress Download
Why are boundaries so important?
When I teach about mental health, I frequently talk about why children desperately need structure and boundaries. Sometimes, people can feel that it is being too rigid to give children structure, and that children should be able to choose these things for themselves. So, let’s look at why boundaries and structure matter: What should we
Children’s Activity: Move your focus
If you read our article this week, we were exploring the impact of our perspective, and where our head is. If you missed it, you can read it here. Being able to ask yourself the right questions, and shift your focus is an important skill when it comes to regulating our feelings and behaviours. Free
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