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6 Ways to Help Children Develop Positive Body Image

May 9, 2019 By Zoe Ross

Positive body image: Mental Health Awareness Week 2019

healthy body image

The w/c 13th May is Mental Health Awareness Week with the theme of body image. We know that helping children to develop positive body image important topic for many Mind Moose schools and families, so this blog post explores 6 practical ways parents can help their children develop positive body image.

Why care about positive body image?

Body image is often a hot topic, especially in light of the ever increasing tv, magazine and social media platforms and the ways these can and are accessed by our children. It can be very easy for children -as well as adults- to absorb the information portrayed as “reality” and this can have a knock on negative effect on their own self esteem and confidence.

The good thing is that there are plenty of ways that we can try and counteract that at home with normalising different body shapes and concentrating on fitness and health rather than unrealistic physical appearance. Below are some examples of ways in which we can try to provide a more body positive culture for our children at home.

Like everything, children learn most by the behaviour that is modelled to them. Try to be aware of your own language about your own bodies as well as others. This is not always easy and may require a big shift in your own mindset as well.

Tips to support positive body image

Here are 6 tips that could help you to support your child:

1.Refer to bodies in positive terms that focus on health, strength and capabilities, rather than weight. Try hard to refer to your own body in positive terms, especially in front of children and if you are if making changes to your own eating plan, rather than talking about wanting to go on a diet to lose weight, think about using phrases such as, “eating healthier foods to get fitter/stronger” etc.

2. Try to have magazines/books etc around the home and watch programmes that have images of a variety of ‘real’ body shapes rather than the often unrealistic bodies often shown in fashion magazines and some reality programs. You can discuss in an age-appropriate way how magazines, websites and social media often show images of bodies (and faces!) that have been altered in some way.

3. Allow your children to hear you say positive comments about others that do not refer to how they look but what their bodies can do; e.g. “wow look how strong her legs are to kick that football so hard”, or positive personality traits; e.g. “Uncle John is such a good friend, he listens to me when I need to talk”.

4. Try not to refer to food as ‘good’ and ‘bad’, or ‘treats’. Focus instead on eating a healthy, balanced diet that fuels your own and your children’s bodies. Eating in moderation is healthy and restricting certain foods and labelling them as ‘bad’, can sometimes cause issues for children when they grow up.

5. Try to model the importance of exercise, again focusing on positives such as health, strength, meeting new people, getting fresh air, having fun etc, rather than linking it to weight. Where possible spend time as a family doing some form of fun exercise. Walks in the park, playing “tig” or catch, kicking a football, turning the radio up and having a disco in the kitchen! It doesn’t have to involve lots of money or equipment – try different things and see what works for you as a family.

6. Try to compliment your child on personality traits rather than physical traits; e.g. “You were very kind sharing your crayons today”, or, “It was great the way you thought through that problem and came up with a solution”. Be careful to talk about your child’s body in positive terms – our body positive cards are a good place to start!

Filed Under: Free resources Tagged With: body image, children's mental health, mental health, mental health awareness week, parents

Family Conversation Cards

February 7, 2019 By Zoe Ross

Family-conversation-cards-image-mind-moose
Mind Moose Family Conversation Cards

These family conversation cards are designed to help you talk to your child in a positive way about your day.

On the first page there are suggestions for how to use them. You just need to print them out, cut them up and give them a go!

Click to download the cards now

You might also like this post on 10 ways to support your child’s mental health and wellbeing.

© copyright Mind Moose 2019

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: children's mental health, Children's mental health week, families, free resources, parents

Pre-SATS Body Scan Relaxing Meditation

April 25, 2017 By Zoe Ross

Mind-Moose-Relaxing-Meditation-Pre-SATSWe know that SATs can be an anxious time for some children (and teachers and parents!). So Zoe has recorded a free audio for you to use with your children.

It’s a relaxing body scan mindful mediation that is just over 3 minutes long. Our chief year 6 testers said it helped them to feel a lot calmer!

We hope it helps – good luck!

Click to download

Filed Under: Free resources Tagged With: children, free resources, ks2, mediation, mental health, parents, primary, SATs, wellbeing

The importance of developing healthy self-esteem in children and young people

October 4, 2016 By Zoe Ross 2 Comments

the-importance-of-healthy-self-esteem-in-children-young-peopleHealthy self-esteem in children and young people is the topic of our first blog post to support teachers and parents looking to understand how they can help children with their well-being.

What is self-esteem?

Self-esteem is our opinion of our self and our worth. It’s our perception of our value as a person, particularly in regard to our work and achievements, our purpose in life, how we relate to others and our ability to stand on our own feet. Having healthy self-esteem means being comfortable with how we look and how we feel. It means feeling good about ourselves, our abilities and our thoughts.

Self-esteem is made up of all the experiences and relationships we’ve had in our lives. The people we encounter in our lives add to or, in some instances unforunately, take away from how we see ourselves and our level of self-esteem.

For children and young people, building self-esteem is an ongoing process and starts early. As parents and teachers, we don’t always get it right but as long as we remember to praise, listen and enforce boundaries in a positive way more often than not, we can help children and young people to develop healthy levels of self-esteem. P

What does healthy self-esteem look like?

Someone with positive self-esteem will generally approach things thinking they are a good person who deserves support and love and can succeed in life. Someone will low or negative self-esteem will generally think that they are not good at things, don’t deserve love or support and that situations will work out badly for them.

Children and young people with high self-esteem:

  • Have a positive view of themselves
  • Make friends easily and adapt to new situations
  • Can play on their own or in groups
  • Will try to work things out for themselves but are willing to ask if unsure
  • Can be proud of their achievements
  • Can admit their mistakes and learn from them
  • Are willing to try new things and adapt to change

A person with healthy self-esteem believes that they are doing the best they can. They accept that life isn’t perfect and rolls with the punches. They are comfortable with who they are and can get through things that don’t turn out the way they expected. Building resilience — the ability to adapt well to adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or even significant sources of stress — can help our children manage stress and feelings of anxiety and uncertainty. We’ll be writing more on this in the future.

Why is healthy self-esteem particularly important for children and young people?

Young people with low self-esteem can find it very hard to cope with pressures from school, peers and society. The teenage, and increasingly pre-teen yearss can be very stressful as youngsters are expected to achieve good grades, look a certain way and be successful or popular. Children and young people with low self-esteem are more at risk of developing depression, anxiety, self-harming and other mental health problems as they grow up, and will often find the ups and downs of life in general harder to get through.

Most children and young people will have dips in self-esteem as they go through different stages and challenges. Starting or changing school, moving house, changes in the family can all affect a child’s self-esteem but with support they can get through this.

In conclusion, having healthy self-esteem helps children in many areas of their life. They have the courage to try new things, like making new friends. they believe in themselves and know that good things can happen when they try their best. Our next blog post will look at how we can help children and young people to develop healthy self-esteem.

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Filed Under: Moose Guides Tagged With: children, healthy self-esteem, parents, resilience, self-esteem, teachers, young people

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