[ad_1]
CThe children take 10 minutes of the heavy school day to reflect on their thoughts and feelings. Some fall to the ground while thinking of their feet on the floor, while others focus on their breathing.
It's mindfulness, the lessons that are growing in popularity as an antidote to the stress of twenty-first-century youth, whether it's peer pressure to write exams, social media or social media. obsession with body image that would affect even primary schools. the age of the children.
Children get to know their brains and master their undisciplined thoughts – to control their emotions such as anger and fear. This is no longer the head, shoulders, knees and toes, but the amygdala, the hippocampus and the pre-frontal cortex.
The most recent NHS survey on youth mental health, conducted in 2017, shows that one in eight Britons aged 5 to 19 has a diagnosable mental health problem. Hospital admissions for anorexia only have more than doubled over the last eight years until 2017-2018.
Stress is a known barrier to learning, and an increasing number of schools are concerned about the emotional health of students through programs such as meditation, mindfulness, and the provision of life and health workers. mental.
The Mental Health Foundation wants emotional well-being to be at the heart of the school curriculum and has chosen body image as the central theme of this year's Mental Health Awareness Week. Dr. Antonis Kousoulis, his deputy director, said his investigation last year revealed that 47% of people aged 18 to 24 had undergone body image stress that could be overwhelmed or unable to cope. to face. "Social media certainly played a role," he says. "Historically, it was the mirror that was the main driver of the perception of our image and the way we thought others perceived us. Nowadays, young people are exposed almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to manipulated and highly retouched images, whether advertising or photos of their friends. "
In the last five years, mindfulness organizations and businesses selling lesson plans and training for staff in schools have multiplied. But it works?
Richard Burnett, a high school teacher who founded the Mindfulness in Schools project 10 years ago, warns against "fast" approaches. "We are a charity created by teachers who wanted to teach children the best way to manage their thoughts and feelings and cope with the roller coaster of youth," he said.
It features two training courses for teachers – one for high school students and one for younger classes. "It's about getting your attention to notice what's going on. If you are aware of it, you can choose how to react, for example to manage the amygdala, the part of the brain that detects fear and prepares an answer, "he said.
Emotional turmoil is on the rise and we should be educating our children and youth about coping with stress, "says Lee Hudson, Mental Health Manager, Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health. But must it be mindfulness? There is evidence that the process can bring benefits to adults, he says. "[But] the evidence of its effectiveness with children is not yet strong enough and we need more research. However, some schools are in the process of being deployed and the children seem to be enjoying it – and it is unlikely that it will hurt. "
The Department of Education is funding a major project to find the most effective ways to promote positive mental health in schools. This project is managed by the Factual Practice Unit, a collaboration between the Anna Freud Center for Children and Families and the Faculty of Science Brain Medicine. Mindfulness is one of five approaches tested.
"Many people are interested in mindfulness and practice in different ways, but there is not much evidence of its effectiveness in schools," says program director Jaime Smith.
Meanwhile, teachers at Cherry Tree Elementary School in Basildon, Essex, say that mindfulness classes are already making a difference. "Children aged eight to ten in four classes do different exercises each day for ten minutes," says Kim Milsom, head of school pastoral care. "The children told us that mindfulness helped to calm them down and that they also used it at home."
Experience: "We need to equip them with coping strategies"
Tracey Ward, Assistant Director at the Stanley Grove Elementary Academy, reviews her work as a mental health aide.
As a mental health worker, you have been trained to detect signs and symptoms and can "respond quickly". If you have followed the training on mental health first aid in England, you are more aware of depression and anxiety.
To give some context, 97% of students in our school have English as an additional language and 57% of the population in our area live in poverty, according to a report last year. Well-being is a priority for us and we want to make sure that if our children are going through a critical crisis in life, we have them equipped with the appropriate strategies – sustainable strategies and that they can use at home. to come up. .
We converted our first aid stations into mental and physical health posts and trained mental health helpers at lunch break and lunch.
On their trays, the children all have a "first aid kit", which is an open box with a red cross. They write on what they need when they feel distressed, overwhelmed or anxious. Kids love this approach.
This week, I was in one of the first aid stations when a child had a seizure and came to tell me that he was "overwhelmed". I told him to remove his mental first aid kit from the board and we discussed what he could do. Another child came to see us because he was "busy minded" and led the anti-stress bucket activity. We discussed what filled the anti-stress container and what could be put in place to drain some of the water.
We had a session with mental health helpers in our sensory disturbance room for targeted children who need support.
Part of our approach is to engage in physical activity to support mental health. One of our wellness activities is the daily mile marked on the playground. All children, kindergarten through sixth grade, walk, run or run every day and they can do it with a friend or a staff member. We find that children are more likely to express outside the classroom. Our culture and culture are warm and happy, which is largely related to the importance we place on mental health and well-being.
[ad_2]
Source link