In line with the theme, schools, teachers, and parents will be promoting individual growth. This year the theme calls upon adults and children to ask themselves how they have grown and how they can support others in growing.

The first Children’s Mental health Week was celebrated in 2015 to give importance to children’s mental health. Celebrating its eighth year, it is exciting to see more people involved and raising awareness.

One in six children and young people have a diagnosable mental health problem, and other children suffer from bullying and bereavement.

Let’s look at how Children’s Mental Health is being brought awareness to this year and what children’s books you can share with your kids to help them gain a better understanding of mental health.

Personal Growth in Children

This year’s theme of Growing Together will be promoted by sharing Growth Stories with children told by familiar faces. These individuals will be famous TV, music, and sports personalities from around the world.

The stories will be told via videos and will be uploaded to the Place2Be site. Place2Be is a charity for children\'s mental health that provides mental health support and training in schools.

Personal growth in children is explained from the perspective of physical and emotional growth. Over time, children grow physically, but it is important to explain how emotional growth is also essential.

Parents and Caregiver Tips to Promote Growing Together Theme

Throughout the week, parents, teachers, and caregivers can access resources that they can use to help promote this year’s theme and educate children about mental health issues.

Some tips and activities that teachers and parents can use to promote Growing Together:

Talk to Your Child about When They Were Younger

A great way to enforce personal growth is to talk to your child about their younger years. Explain how in different ways they have grown since then. They are physically bigger now and know different skills, like learning how to ride a bike etc.

Talk about how as human beings they have feelings and emotions that have also changed and grown since they were younger. This will help promote understanding of their own mental health and self-understanding.

Point Out When Your Children Have Grown

As a parent and caregiver, you should point out when you notice that your child has grown. This is an important aspect of teaching your child about personal growth.

This growth does not have to be physical but also emotional. For example, if you notice how your child walks away from their sibling instead of engaging in a brawl, or if you see your kids sharing their storybooks. This can be an example of emotional growth.

Positive reinforcement of this kind of behaviour can result in your child learning more mature ways to engage with other children and adults.

Encourage Children to Try New Things

As a parent, you should encourage your children to try new things. This will help to give your child confidence to take the plunge and not feel nervous when they want to try a new activity or food.

As parents, we should always try to motivate our children to grow their confidence. Later on in life, this will help them tremendously with behavioural health and how to navigate life when faced with new encounters and situations that may make them feel uneasy.

Listen to Your Child’s Dreams and Future Plans

You must talk to your child about future personal growth, and how they see themselves in the next 5, 10, 15 years. This will help your kids put their emotions into words. These feelings could cause anxiety and having someone to discuss them with will make them feel more comfortable and confident and promote their behavioural health.

It is also important to show them that whatever they are doing now is a step towards achieving their plans. That if they are going to school and working hard, it means they will be able to pursue whatever they want to do when they grow up.

Support Your Child in Tough Situations

Whenever your child is in a tough situation at home or in school, always try to show them the upside of the situation. Counsel them on how even though life is hard and sometimes we may have tough situations to deal with; in the end, we are always better and stronger for it.

This will help them understand that personal growth comes from dealing with situations like these. This will help them see this situation from a different perspective.

Activities to Celebrate Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week

As a teacher or caregiver, you might be looking for ways that you can teach children how to accept and embrace their personal growth.

You will want to explain what personal growth is and how it is important to grow together. You can do this by using different examples from your classroom participants or sharing stories of your growth from child to adulthood.

Teachers can use the following tips to promote Growing Together and Children’s Mental Health Awareness:

• Read a children’s book that talks about growth and change
• Use plants to discuss how children can visualize the growth
• Use a craft activity like having kids cut out stars and write their goals on them
• Have children talk about a skill they learned like riding a bike, an instrument or a new language
• Create a growth wall where children can post how they think they have grown since the beginning of the school year

How You Can Raise Awareness for Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week:

If you would like to know how you can raise awareness for Children\'s Mental Health Awareness Week, then look no further.

We have listed ways you can get involved:

• Donate to a children\'s mental health awareness charity
• Shoutouts through social media using Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts using appropriate hashtags
• Create countdown weeks to Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week
• Dressing to show support, which is a way to get involved by wearing a bright colour or outfit to show solidarity and promote Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week

Children’s Books you Can Read with Your Child for Mental Health Awareness Week:

A great way to celebrate the week is to read a storybook with your child that focuses on children’s mental health. Remember no matter how Big or Small- how you feel matters!

There are so many great kids’ books available for primary and secondary students, but here is a quick list of children’s books that you can use now:

Connect with Austin Macauley Publishers for more such blogs, and submit your manuscript if you are looking to publish your work. You can also make a quick and easy submission through the online submission form.

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