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On Our Sleeves: Navigating Kids' Mental Health

10TV is partnering with Nationwide Children's Hospital for an in-depth look at the new free resources the On Our Sleeves movement has started offering.

Stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic have changed children’s lives forever, disrupted routines, and in some cases kept them separated from friends and family for long periods of time. This is on top of data showing one in five children lived with a mental condition before the Coronavirus took hold of the world. 10TV is partnering with Nationwide Children’s Hospital for an in-depth look at the new free resources the On Our Sleeves movement has started offering to parents and educators to help them help kids navigate their own mental health.

On Our Sleeves, has released on Monday a collection of resources called “How to Foster a Child’s Emotional Development.” This contains information about sharing feelings, boosting mental wellness and self-care.

According to Parker Huston, Ph.D., clinical director, On Our Sleeves and pediatric psychologist, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, children have a better opportunity for social-emotional wellbeing if they learn mental health skills early in life.

“Waiting until a problem presents itself is too long,” Dr. Huston said.

The Emotional Empowerment guide will help adults help kids learn how to: identify emotions, recognize emotions, understand emotions in others, express emotions appropriately, and regulate strong emotions.

Identify Emotions

This is the ability for a child to know words that describe different emotions and distinguish between them.

Recognize Emotions

This is the ability for a child to identify an emotion and pick them out in real-time experiences.

Express Emotions Appropriately

This is the ability for a child to be able to feel comfortable communicate their own emotions, and not avoid them.

Understand Emotions in Others

This is the ability for a child to recognize how others are feeling, or to develop empathy, and use this to help strengthen personal relationships.

Regulate Strong Emotions

This is the ability for a child to learn how to calmly react and control their own actions and behaviors during times when they experience strong emotions.

This “How To” guide on kids’ emotional empowerment is free to anyone who wants to use it. It contains explanations of the five steps to emotional empowerment for kids, and offers tips for adults, games, book suggestions and even activities for adults and kids to do together.

“We wanted to make it really approachable and something that literally anybody can do with the kids in their lives,” Dr. Huston said.

Empowering Emotions is from the On Our Sleeves Alliance, which was founded by Big Lots, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and other sponsors. It will provide free mental health curriculum to over 100,000 teachers nationwide while helping to meet the goal of reaching over one million classrooms by World Mental Health Day on October 10, 2021. “Mental Health Discussion Guides” will also be distributed at Boys and Girls clubs across the country.

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