News from the Deputy Principal

Positive Self Talk

This week with the children we have been focusing on positive affirmations and positive conversations with each other, especially with ourselves.  As we head towards the end of the year we are all feeling tired, and for our children they may be feeling a little worried about saying goodbye to friends who may be moving to a new school, feeling tired as there are weekend and after school events to attend and in the classroom sometimes this projects as changes in behaviour and negative self talk.  For some of our students this can look like being off task, talking down about themselves and speaking unkindly to others. Therefore we have had a focus on changing trash talk into treasure talk.

As parents and educators, it can be challenging to deal with negative self-talk. Sometimes, we can also be in that space ourselves and may not always model positive self-talk to our children.

Negative self-talk for our children may include "I will never be able to do that," "Everyone is better than me," "I wish I didn't look like this," or " I am dumb at everything."

Working in a school setting, we often see children struggling with negative self-talk. 

Did you know that every person has around 10,000 thoughts a day, most of which are internal dialogue or self-talk? If these conversations are mostly negative, this has a severe impact on a child's self-esteem and ability to find something positive in their daily routine.

So, how can you help your child change their negative self-talk into positive self-talk? 

When thinking of examples of positive self-talk, it can help to start by turning negative thoughts into positive ones. Here is a list of common negative statements and how to turn them into more positive ones:

Negative: I’ve never done this new thing before, I’m sure I’ll be bad at it.

Positive: This is a great opportunity to learn how to do something new; maybe I’ll even be good at it!

Negative: There’s no way I will do well on this test.

Positive: There’s a chance that I will do well on this test; I will try my best!

Negative: I’ve failed, and now I’m not good at anything and have embarrassed myself.

Positive: I tried, and while I might not have succeeded, my actions were brave.

Negative: Nobody likes me on the playground.

Positive: My classmates want to play in different ways, and I’m sure I can join in.

Tips for parents:

*Model positive self-talk to your children, avoid them hearing you speak negatively about yourself.

*Identify negative self-talk when you hear your child speaking unkindly about themselves.. 

*Teach positive self-talk.

*Encourage self-compassion.

*Offer positive affirmations and encouragement to your children.

*Seek professional help for your children by engaging with counsellors and psychologists when you notice that your child is struggling to change negatives to positives or when the situation has not changed with intervention from home or school settings.

Trying mental health, mindfulness and Feelings apps or activities

How We Feel App:

How We Feel is a free app created by scientists, designers, engineers, and therapists to help people better understand their emotions and find strategies to help them navigate their emotions in the moment. 

The How we feel app is filled with step-by-step video strategies you can do in as little as one minute on themes like "Change Your Thinking" to help you address negative thought patterns with cognitive strategies; "Move Your Body" to express and release emotions through movement strategies;"Be Mindful" to gain perspective and minimize the negative impact of misunderstood emotions with mindfulness strategies; "Reach Out" to build intimacy and trust, two important tools for emotional wellbeing, with social strategies.

Smiling Mind App

This is a mindfulness meditation app which has guided meditations to use.

Smiling Mind was developed by psychologists and educators in Australia to help bring mindful balance to children and adults.  Smiling Mind is perfect for children 3 and older thanks to programs like The Bubble Journey, a guided meditation exercise that involves children filling in bubbles representing moments in their day when they really noticed what was going on around them. There are also guided meditations for older children that focus on being a better student, being more present, and using mindfulness to excel while playing your favourite sports. And while we did not test Smiling Mind’s children-focused exercises ourselves, we did have a great experience with the app’s more grown-up content.