Research conducted over the past years reveals that children and teens are more stressed compared to the past. Increased school workload, high-stakes examinations, extracurricular activities, peer pressure, recreational activities, and screen time have led to increased levels of stress and anxiety among the youths.
As much as it may be impossible to protect our children from the stresses of life, we cannot continue to protect them from the real world and its challenges. Rather, it is more helpful to foster children who are capable of overcoming any sort of problems and adversities.
Due to having more stress, children should be taught self-care and stress management strategies to improve their mental condition.
Recognising Signs of Stress in Children and Teens
This stress can then show itself in many different forms in a child. It’s important to be vigilant of your child’s behaviours and feelings to know when the child is stressed. It may also be useful to focus on changes that are noticeable in their behaviour. Signs of stress in a child may include:
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Lack of energy
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More frequent reports of experiencing pain (ie, abdominal pain, headache)
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Forgetting things easily or having difficulty focusing at school or home
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Habits of eating
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Disruptions of the sleeping pattern
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Refusing to engage in preferred activities or isolating themselves and avoiding other people.
Depression in adults is normally characterised by sadness, but in teenagers and children, stress causes them to have anger or become easily irritable. Your child may not just be a moody delinquent; he or she could be stressed.
If you think your child is experiencing mental health problems, you can use this child anxiety course online.
Five Effective Strategies to Help Children Manage Stress
1. Getting Active
Not only is physical activity healthy for the body but it is also healthy for the mind. In case your child feels bored, tired, hyperactive, sad, angry, or nervous, going out and exercising can help manage your child’s feelings. Remember, it does not require much time or many supplies to get active—make your family’s fun physical activity list. If your child has any medical complications, seek the service of a physician first. After that, there is no restriction on the types of activities that can be fun!
2. Practice Problem-Solving
It is crucial to educate your child on problem-solving skills, mainly for stress management. This entails many examples, demonstrations and real-life situations. A good starting point is a three-step process:
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Step One: Allow Your Child to Label Their Feelings: You should let your child express their emotions like feeling stressed, worried or even anxious and affirm it back to them. For instance, “I see that you are concerned about poor performance in your test.”
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Step Two: Processing Emotions: Take your child to a separate room where he or she can comfortably process what is being felt. This may involve taking deep breaths or saying things like ‘I can do well in this test if I try,’ which is a growth mindset.
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Step Three: Problem-Solving: Suggest possible solutions together, where your child will engage in leading the discussion. Some may recommend studying together with a friend, going to the teacher for assistance or setting certain time slots for studying.
3. Muscle Relaxation
Muscle relaxation is a wonderful technique that helps nervous or stressed children to calm down. The muscles contract and relax and as such the mind can concentrate on one thing thus reducing stress levels.
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Make your child comfortable, either lying down or sitting down with their feet planted on the floor.
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Ask them to blow five to ten breaths into their belly.
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Encourage them to contract and then release each part of the body starting from the feet, legs, hands, arms, and shoulders.
4. Journaling
Writing diaries is comfortable for children to share their emotions when they are sad, afraid, mad, or happy. Here’s how to get started:
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Bring a notebook and a pen; however, it is also okay to type on an electronic device.
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Cultivate the practice of writing in a calm and comfy spot with no distractions.
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Allow your child to freely express himself/herself by writing, drawing or typing whatever he/she understands. If they require assistance, then they can write about what they did today, something they are looking forward to, something that concerns them, a time when they were proud, or something they desire to alter.
5. Use Stress-Management Techniques
It is crucial to help your child achieve a relaxed state so that he or she can focus on problem-solving. Here are some stress-management techniques to try:
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Deep Breathing: Take your child and tell him or her to blow through the straw and then close the lips and exhale.
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Progressive Muscle Relaxation: Teach them how to tense and then release various muscle groups.
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Stretching: Exercise for unwinding should be promoted.
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Listening to Music: Listening to nice music before retiring to bed can help in calming the mind.
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Playing or Exercising: One copes with stress through physical activity.
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Brain Breaks: Take breaks whenever handling tough tasks.
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Laughter: Get funny and sill by making a funny face or telling jokes to make the situation lighter.
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5-4-3-2-1 Technique: Note five things that they observe, four things that they hear, three things that they touch, two things that they smell and one thing that they taste.
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Meditation: To try this, tell your child to shut their eyes, take a few deep breaths, and count the sounds of the breaths.
These techniques avoid the total elimination of stress but assist your child in reducing stress and getting into a position where he can think analytically about how to deal with the stress factors.
