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It is important for children to be mentally healthy. Here are some parenting tips for raising emotionally healthy children.
After children are born, parents make sure that their children are healthy. They make appointments with doctors to vaccinate their children against diseases. If parents don’t worry about their children’s physical health, they focus on their education and behavior. Amidst all this, many times children’s emotions are ignored. Mental health is also important. Emotionally healthy children have strong social skills and can cope better with life’s problems. Read on to learn ways to raise emotionally healthy children.
What is emotional health?
Emotional health is a person’s ability to understand and manage their emotions. The skills to perceive, express, understand, monitor and manage emotions are some of the dimensions that can determine a person’s mental health, says psychiatrist Dr Trideep Chaudhary.
A child can be influenced by the emotional state of their primary care provider, their mother, who they watch and learn from the infant stage. As their cognitive development takes place, they learn different emotions and try to imitate and express them. So, right from an early age, the expert says, one must consciously teach ways to control emotions and stay mentally healthy.
Why is it important for children to be mentally healthy?
It is important for children to be mentally healthy because childhood is a stage of developing different values and a child experiences many situations and interacts with different people. Being mentally healthy helps them navigate these situations effectively, which helps them develop a variety of life skills, experts told Health Shots. Furthermore, being emotionally healthy helps them develop their personal relationships, which helps them lay the foundation for a strong support system for the later part of their lives. It helps them to build a huge network of acquaintances from whom they can also acquire different life skills.
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How to raise a mentally healthy child?
Parents play a special role in raising mentally healthy children. Here’s what you can do –
1. Get your child to recognize different types of emotions
There are various emotions like anger, frustration, happiness and sadness. Children may already experience these emotions most of the time so you can teach your child to recognize these emotions. Your children may feel confused when they are overwhelmed with these emotions in real-life situations during their formative years. You can reassure your child that the feeling is normal.
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2. Gain awareness
You need to know when your child is exposed to different emotions. By being aware of them, you can prevent any negative emotions from developing in them, says Dr Chaudhary.
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3. Don’t respond to emotional stimulation
You should not respond to any emotional outburst from your child. Instead, try to stay calm during that time. This will help your child learn to control his emotions.
4. Teach emotional regulation
You should take such difficult situations as opportunities to teach
Emotional regulation for your child. This can be done when your child is calm. They can reflect back on what happened and learn about the consequences of these emotional outbursts.
5. Proper communication
Many times a child’s emotional expression can be an abusive way of expressing their needs, the expert said. You can teach your child to express needs in alternative ways by making proper eye contact and making appropriate sounds with the right words.
6. Be a role model
Modeling is one of the ways to teach your child emotional control. Children often imitate their parents’ emotional expression for various situations.
7. Praise your child for good behavior
Reinforcing good behavior through praise and discouraging unwanted behavior are important. They help your child in the process of emotional regulation.
8. Create a safe space
You need to focus on creating a safe space when your child is emotionally upset. It will help them at that time.
9. Teach breathing exercises
You can teach your child a variety of simple techniques to control overwhelming emotions, such as deep breathing exercises. You can monitor them as they practice them in real-life situations.
10. Develop empathy
Give importance to developing empathy in your children. In this way they can gauge the emotional state of others and behave accordingly. It helps to stay mentally healthy.
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