Social support

Hi again. So we’ve learned a few child friendly mindfulness activities and now Ashley is going to tell us more about how adults can encourage children to seek social support. Carly, this is so important. And adults have a really big influence on supporting their children to seek social support, and we all know that during childhood and adolescence, peer relationships can often be difficult. And I talked earlier about the interconnection between psychological health and social health. And social health is so important for children, not only in the relationships that they have with peers, but also the relationships they have with other adults, caregivers and people within their community.

And Rena spoke about social and emotional learning and this really lays the foundation for creating those positive relationships with peers. So helping children to become trusted friends and having reciprocal relationships. During crisis, it is even more important that children seek out social support, and as an adult you can really help them to do this. Ashley, I sense an activity coming on. Carly, you are absolutely correct. So we’re going to show you an activity that you can do with your child at home. Make sure to make it playful. You can grab any supplies around the house, and also you can use this template that we’ve created for you or a blank piece of paper.

So this is called a Social Support Map. When you’re doing this activity with your children, make sure to ask reflection questions. Also use non judgmental language and really make sure that this is something that can support them.

So, at the center here you’ll ask your child to draw themselves or write their names, 00:02:10.500 –> 00:02:21.000 and then we have boxes at the top and ask them to think of relationships that they have in their lives, where they are supported.

So for example, it can be a peer to peer relationship and then below they can write the characteristics that they appreciate in that person. They can always go to this person when they need to laugh and play. And next, you can have your children write the characteristics that they bring to these friendships, or these relationships. And remember to keep this handy and anytime that your child is experiencing difficulties with social relationships, this is a great reminder that they have these people in their lives that can support them, and they have different people in their lives, who they can go to depending on what they might need in that moment.

Carly, I would love to see your social support maps that you put together. Yes. OK. So that is my self portrait in the middle and that is as far as I got. But I have a lot of different friends who provide a lot of different types of support, so I’m excited to have a visual representation of that. If you feel comfortable, you can share the social map that you made or the one you made with your child here and will be able to see all the different ways all of us are supported. You can download this exact social map, or you can make your own. Happy mapping.