From the moment our children are born and the doctor takes them to be weighed, measured and bundled, their health becomes one of our very highest priorities. As parents, most of us are instinctively attuned to every sneeze, scratch and sleep disruption. We are careful to never miss a check up or ignore a cough. Yet even as we worry over immunizations and stock up on hand soap for flu season, how often do we take the time to sit back and ask ourselves: how emotionally healthy are our children?
According to The American Academy of Pediatrics(link is external) (AAP), “An estimated 21 percent of children and adolescents in the U.S. meet the diagnostic criteria for a mental health disorder…Yet, due to a shortage of pediatric mental health care providers, only 20 percent of these children receive treatment.” In June, the AAP release a toolkit along with other resources to help pediatricians more effectively identify and manage mental health issues in children.
As important as it is this to get this message to pediatricians, it is just as important to help parents, who may have trouble identifying that their kids are hurting. On Dec. 4, I will be hosting the free Webinar, “How to Raise Emotionally Healthy Children”(link is external) to help parents, caretakers, teachers, and professionals learn valuable tools for dealing with their children’s emotional struggles. As parents in today’s culture, we find ourselves encouraged to center our daily lives on our kids. Yet as we focus our attention on carpools, homework and play dates, we run the risk of becoming dangerously distracted from what’s most important: how our children feel. While setting our schedules to make our children a practical priority is an act of genuine caring, nothing is as valuable or has the positive impact as staying attuned to a child’s feelings, asking her how she is and allowing her to open up about her thoughts, impressions and fears.
In general, many of our children’s emotions get overlooked, as we tend to pay more attention to how they are behaving than how they are feeling. By maintaining an awareness of our children’s psychological state and keeping in mind the following parenting principles, we can become more attuned to our children and learn ways to raise an emotionally healthy child.
To read more please follow : https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/compassion-matters/201211/7-tips-raising-emotionally-healthy-child