TKW Consulting

Stress in Young Children...

How oversheduled are the the children in your care? I know some parents that have their children in every possible activitiy through the summer and need an elaborate calendar system just to keep track of who is supposed to be where, when, and how they are supposed to get there... You know how stressful it is to be overscheduled, over-pressured, and overwhelmed. You know how tough it is on adults -- why do we expect anything different from a child.

Still, you wonder if it's enough for a child simply to engage in ordinary play and recreational activities. To spend time doing "nothing." Everyone agrees that play is important for children. But even people with the strongest conviction can waver when faced with pressure from neighbors and friends who are convinced that their child will do better in school and in life if they just keep their child busy, busy, busy. We certainly don't want to be poor parents and let our children down... What if he never "finds himself" because you didn't push him to try a multitude of activities? What if letting him simply play turns him into a lazy person?

Did you know?

• Preschoolers are being diagnosed as having post-traumatic stress, bipolar disorder, and anxiety disorders, among other psychiatric ailments.
• Many young children's brains now look remarkably like the brains of overstressed adults, with excess levels of cortisol and adrenaline.
• In 1995 the New England Journal of Medicine reported that 150,000 preschoolers (10% of them 2-year-olds) were taking antidepressant drugs.
• A 2006 study conducted by KidsHealth revealed that more than four in 10 children feel stressed most, if not all, of th etime. More than 75% of the children expressed a longing for more free time.

These are the likely results of a child's time being scheduled and programmed -- directed by someone else -- from morning till night, day after day and not being allowed "downtime"... time to just relax and be a child.

• Being Balloons. Breath control plays an important role in relaxation. When we inhale slowly and then exhale twice as slowly, we decrease the supply of carbon dioxide in the blood, thus slowing down the activity of the nerves and brain. To promote deep breathing with children, ask them to pretend to be a balloon, slowly inflating (by inhaling through the nose) and deflating (by exhaling through the mouth). You'll likely need to demonstrate this yourself first.
• Statues & Rag Dolls. The ability to intentionally control muscular tension is also critical to relaxation. Adults do this by alternately contracting and releasing their muscles. However, because young children won't understand the terms contract and release, you can play a game called Statues & Rag Dolls. Before you being, talk with the children about the differences between statues and rag dolls. Then alternately invite them to pretend to be a statue and then a rag doll. This, as you can imagine, requires them to alternately contract and release the muscles. (Always end with the rag doll!)
• Melting. Melting is a wonderful -- and fun -- slow-motion activity. Talk about the melting of ice cream cones, snow sculptures, or ice cubes. Then ask the children to pretend to be one of these things and to show you just how slowly they can melt.
• Finding Creatures in the Clouds. This can only be a relaxation exercise if it doesn't become an assignment! If you send little ones outside to find creatures in the clouds, simply make it a suggestion and, perhaps, provide a blanket for them to lie on. If you join them in the activity, resist the temptation to turn it into a contest to see who can find the most creatures. Instead, lie beside them and quietly describe what you're seeing. And if nobody discovers any creatures, it's okay to just lie there looking.

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 4:13 PM