Tuesday’s Storybook Lucy’s Blue Day – Supporting Children’s Wellbeing
Hello Everyone,
Here is a video recording of Hazel reading the story about Lucy’s Blue Day. Lucy is a very special little girl with magic hair, it changes colour with her emotions. If she is feeling happy her hair goes purple, if she is feeling jealous, it will turn green. One day Lucy wakes up and her hair is blue, she doesn’t understand why! she soon learns its ok not to be ok! This story will hopefully support you to have conversations with your child around their feelings and emotions:
Here are some ways to support your child’s well-being.
1. Be aware. Pay attention to children’s reactions and behaviours (such as acting out, aggression, sadness ). Listen to your child, and be aware of what they are doing, showing that you are listening to them, help them respond to challenges and any emotional out bursts by offering comfort such as a hug or sitting down beside them to talk about their feelings.
2. Identify causes. Help children recognise the causes that underlie the feelings they’re experiencing. (For example, fear, joy, jealousy, frustration) Encourage them to name and to acknowledge those feelings to support them to gain self-awareness. Some children have trouble putting feelings into words, offer support using books and discussions around feelings you have and coping strategies you use for example breathing techniques.
3. Communicate. Talking about emotions with children can be an effective way to deal with them. Listen carefully to what they have to say. Offer comfort. Share your own experiences (within reason) with feelings like sadness, or disappointment, including how you managed them. Be patient. Sometimes children express emotions in a range of ways such as crying, shouting, throwing toys etc, this is the first step in identifying their emotions and with support they will learn to regulate them.
4. Value self-reflection. Show children and talk to them about thinking things through. For example, you might choose to think about how or why certain circumstances or events are unfolding as they are, ways in which similar situations might be handled in the future. Children may need relaxation, unstructured play, fewer demands, music, or alone time in order to calm down, this will support them to understand what they’re feeling, and consolidate their thoughts.
5. Encourage resilience. Help children develop the ability to deal effectively and creatively, sometimes children have trouble accepting their limitations. Children may require extra support to know that it’s okay to have these feelings, and that they can overcome these. This in turn promotes resilience.
When children’s emotional well-being is nurtured they’re more likely to feel more positive thoughts, so children can focus more on learning, playing and interacting with others. Helping children build upon their essential emotional capacities will support them to regulate their feelings and emotions now and in the future.
