Note from Daniel: This is a guest post by John Lim.
When I was 2, my sister was born.
I reacted to her birth by hiding in my toy car the whole night and refusing to come out.
Why?
Because I was jealous of all the attention that my sister was getting. I felt sad that no one seemed to care about me.
It doesn’t matter if your child is 2 or 22 – it can sometimes be hard for him to express how he feels.
As a parent, this can be challenging and frustrating for you.
After all, how can you support your child’s mental health if he doesn’t talk about how he feels?
Mental health isn’t just about psychological and emotional problems. It’s also about psychological and emotional well-being.
So in this article, we’ll focus on the positive aspects of your child’s mental health – resilience, optimism, and well-being.
Here are 7 tips that I trust you’ll find useful.
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1. Understand the signs that your child is struggling.
Train yourself to be attuned to your child’s emotional needs.
Every child exhibits different signs when they’re struggling. For example, when I struggled emotionally as a child, I became quiet. I wouldn’t say a word to anyone about my problems.
Over time, my parents noticed that whenever I was quiet, something was probably wrong.
They would then give me the space I needed to work through the problem.
Knowing what signs your child exhibits when she’s going through a hard time is a good way to understand her better.
Here are some of the common signs:
- Your child isn’t as talkative as she used to be.
- Your child is more withdrawn.
- Your child doesn’t want to spend time with her friends.
- Your child frequently says that he or she hates school.
- Your child isn’t excited by the things that used to bring her joy, e.g. games, sports, music, art, reading, family outings.
- Your child’s mood fluctuates. One moment, she might be angry or explosive, then a short while later she might be sad or distressed.
To understand your child better, ask yourself these questions:
- When was the last time she struggled psychologically and emotionally?
- How did she behave during that period of time?
- What did I do that helped the situation?
- How did she respond to my help?
