Utah and Mental Health for Children

Governor Cox and his wife are advocates for mental health, especially for early childhood. This is nice to have the state working on these troublesome topics. We have a shortage of therapists in Utah and we have one of the highest suicide rates. It is a thought that altitude has something to do with that but with rates rising everywhere there has to be other factors. It is higher is rural areas. And there is a rise in teen girl suicide thoughts and ER visits.

 I hope that if I can teach children at an early age cooping skills that this will be instilled into their very nature as a human. I believe early childhood to be one of the most important times of a person. And we know that there is massive brain growth, more than any other time in a persons life, and more connections are made during the 0-3 age. Such a wonderful age. And one of the biggest take away of the Mental Health Summit last week was CONNECTION.

“The child who is not embraced by the village, will burn it down to feel its warmth.” Taken from When you wonder, You’re Learning: Mister Rogers’ Enduring Lessons for Raising Creative, Curious, Caring Kids. 

 Babies are always communicating.

 Pay special attention to your child and see how they ask for help? 

How do they tell you they want something? 

Do they show anger?

 How?

 When I see children at my school the first thing we establish is it is okay to feel emotions.

 It is good to ask for help. I will help you learn to express emotions and how to let emotions go.

 Kids are all different. Some hold grudges, some are more jealous. Some are naturally mad, and some naturally happy. Some let things go easier than others. Some go from 0-60 in 1 second, and some look at the situation and take a while to process what is happening.

 Children have a strong instinct to protect themselves. The will hit if someone gets in their space. All these things are who they are. I don't want to change them, just help them deal with the strong emotions. Some kids might lack emotion. Excitement is okay too. 

 Welcome to the Hidden School. Where we solve problems, let emotions come and go with the flow of life. We also have extra time if we need to talk. Because in public school, there simply is not enough time to have emotions when the teacher has 12 kids in the class. Not to mention...in High school, kids are afraid to ask because teachers are so overwhelmed with the work load. And that is one loss of connection. Another loss of connection is less play time on the playground. Kids are not able to connect with other kids because of the time limit allowed to have unstructured play.

Helpful website for toddlers

helpful website for teens

Intermountain Health support

More from Mister Rogers’ book: “it is the deep relationship between instructors and students…that hold the key to ending the soul-numbing disenfranchisement that so many young men experience at school.”

“When children feel bonded to you they are less likely to violate your expectations.” 

“The need for human connection is more than a warm, nice-to-have feeling— it’s a biological imperative.”

- Mister Rogers’. My hero