Children's mental health bulletin content

The core production logic of this blackboard newspaper is to reject empty slogan-style propaganda and cover three audiences: children, parents, and teachers at the same time. It has practical methods that can be implemented and popular science content that conforms to cognitive laws. It does not need to be comprehensive, but it is enough to solve 1-2 of the most common psychological confusions around us.

On the most conspicuous front page, don't put "the importance of mental health" that no one wants to take a second look at. Instead, put three "emotional abnormalities signal lights" that ordinary people can understand at a glance: not being able to sleep or eat well for more than a week, suddenly losing interest in things that are originally interesting, and not being able to help hurting yourself or the people around you. When I was doing a psychological screening at the primary school in my area last month, I met a fourth-grade boy who had been picking his arms for a week and was covered with red marks. The class teacher thought it was a bad habit until he saw the notice on the bulletin board we posted before asking us to intervene. Finally, he found out that the child had been bullied on campus for almost half a month and did not dare to tell his family. Here is a different point of view in the academic world: counselors from the behavioral school will pay more attention to the duration of abnormal behavior, and will only judge it as a signal that requires intervention if it exceeds 2 weeks, while counselors from the humanistic school will pay more attention to the child's own subjective feelings, and should pay attention even if there is only one self-injury tendency. There is nothing wrong with both judgment methods, and they can be combined when used in practice.

Just leave a small box about the size of a palm next to the front page. It is specially made for children. It is called "My Mood First Aid Kit". Write down a few tips that don't bother others: write down the unhappy things on the paper and fold it into a paper airplane and throw it out. Clench your fists and count for 10 seconds before releasing them. Even if you find a place where no one is around and shout twice, it will work. Don’t underestimate these little tricks that look like playing house. Research in the field of positive psychology has long confirmed that concrete processing of abstract negative emotions can quickly reduce anxiety levels by about 30%. I often use this trick when I provide counseling to visiting children. Last time, there was a little girl who was afraid of the dark and dared not sleep alone. She drew "fear of the dark" as a little black monster and posted it on the back of the door, saying "I shut it out." She dared to sleep on her own that day, which was very effective.

The content in the second half of the bulletin is mainly for parents and teachers. Don't write any correct nonsense like "respecting children's independent personality." Just list a few pitfalls that people often fall into: Don't always compare "other people's children" with your own children, don't always say "I'm so tired because of you", and don't say "Why are you so timid/squeamish" when you see your child crying. A while ago, a mother came to me for consultation, saying that her fifth-grade child suddenly refused to go to school. After talking for a long time, she found out that the mother always said, "Why cry about such a trivial matter? It's so useless." The child was robbed of pocket money by a senior classmate last month, and she held it in for almost a month without daring to say anything. Of course, there is also a collision of different educational viewpoints here: many parents who advocate frustration education believe that children must be punished more to develop resilience, while parents who advocate empathy education believe that all emotions of their children must be fully accepted. In fact, it does not have to be black and white. When it comes to principled issues such as lying and hurting others, of course you can be strict, but when children are emotional, you can catch the emotion first and then reason, and you will never go wrong.

Oh, by the way, don’t leave the corners of the bulletin blank, just put two small sections in it: one is the “Misunderstanding Clarification Area”, just write two sentences: “Being in a bad mood is not pretentious, and chatting with a psychology teacher is not a disease.” I have seen too many children who originally wanted to ask for help, but were afraid of being called “sick” by their classmates. In the end, small problems turned into sleep disorders and tiredness of school. What a pity. The other "emotional message area" can be left blank, with a stack of post-it notes. If the children have anything to say, they can write it anonymously. The teacher can take time to read it every week. Children are willing to write down many grievances and demands they dare not raise in person.

In fact, there is really no need to pursue anything lofty when making this kind of blackboard newspaper, and there is no need to pile up all the psychological knowledge points. As long as the content you write has truly seen the plight of children and truly understands the difficulties of parents, even if the writing is crooked and the layout is not exquisite, it will still be much more useful than empty words copied from the Internet. After all, the original intention of running a blackboard newspaper is to provide a small window for everyone to see their emotions. If the people who see it can only remember one sentence: "It's normal for me to be in a bad mood," then it's worth it.