Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week (May 1-7, 2022) is part of a national effort to raise awareness and help direct people to available resources.

Positive mental health is vital to children’s development. According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, “The month of May is a time to acknowledge the importance of children’s mental health, show that positive mental health is essential to a child’s healthy development from birth, promote positive youth development, resiliency, and recovery, along with the transformation of mental health service delivery for youth, adolescents, and families.”

Mental health is not simply the absence of a mental disorder. In childhood, mental health means reaching developmental and emotional milestones. It also encompasses learning healthy social skills and how to cope when there are problems.

The four main areas of child development are physical, social, emotional, and cognitive. Development in each of the four areas is tightly connected. Failure to progress in one area affects the ability to progress in all other areas. Children develop at their own rate and development progresses in stages. Professionals such as doctors and nurses track your child’s development, identify possible concerns, and make referrals when needed.

Dr. Dorothy Law Nolte, practitioner, parent educator, family counselor, and writer stated, “No matter what you think, or they say, your children need you when they are grown up just as much as they needed you when they were growing up!” She wrote the classic poem, “Children Learn What They Live” many years ago and her legacy taught many people about family dynamics and parenting. Dr. Marilyn Price-Mitchell, a researcher looking for cause and effect relationships that show how children develop, envisioned numerous studies that support Dr. Nolte’s assertions in the poem. In Psychology Today, Catherine McCall stated this wise poem inspires good parenting and work with children and her “life experiences have proven the statements in this poem to be true. Elayna Fernandez, the positive mom, states the poem is a wonderful roadmap to raising positive, happy, and successful children.

This inspirational poem presents a clear message: Children are continuously learning from parents. Your children are paying attention not to what you tell them to do, but to what they actually see you do. Parents are their most powerful role models. Children will absorb whatever values are transmitted through their parents’ behavior, feelings, and attitudes in everyday living.

The Positive behaviors in the poem that follows are in bold print and enlarged because they are critical to your child developing mental wellness. These behaviors should be reflected on a day-to-day basis as you care for your child/children.

Children Learn What They Live

If a child lives with criticism, he/she learns to condemn.

If a child lives with hostility, he/she learns to fight.

If a child lives with ridicule, he/she learns to be shy.

If a child lives with shame, he/she learns to feel guilty.

If a child lives with tolerance, he/she learns to be patient.

If a child lives with encouragement, he/she learns confidence.

If a child lives with praise, he/she learns to appreciate.

If a child lives with fairness, he/she learns justice.

If a child lives with security, he/she learns to have faith.

If a child lives with approval, he/she learns to like himself.

If a child lives with acceptance, he/she learns to love.

If a child lives with friendship, he/she learns that the world is a nice place in which to live.

In Reflections on “Children Learn What They Live,” The Positive Mom, added:

If a child lives with fear, he/she learns to be apprehensive

If a child lives with pity, he/she learns to feel sorry for him/herself.

If a child lives with jealousy, he/she learns what envy is.

If a child lives with approval, he/she learns to love self.

If a child lives with recognition, he/she learns it is good to have a goal.

If a child lives with sharing, he/she learns about generosity.

If a child lives with honesty and fairness, he/she learns what truth and justice are.

If a child lives with serenity, he/she will live with peace of mind.

With what is your child living? This is a powerful question to ask yourself every day.

Let the words of this poem motivate and teach every reader who has children or works with children, it is never too late to choose specific behaviors for the purpose of increasing the well-being of children in your life.

Go to rootsofaction.com/surveys and get personalized results showing the core attributes you use most and least often and how to strengthen them.

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References

• Catherine McCall MS, LMFT, Children Learn What They Live, Psychology Today, December30, 2021
• Children’s Mental Health Awareness, The National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Nctsn.org/resources/public-awareness/children
• Elayna Fernandez, 2021, thepositivemom.com/children-learn-what-they-live
• Marilyn Price-Mitchell, PhD, Children Learn What They Live: Lessons from Dorothy Law Nolte