Prevention Activities for Children | Mental Health Matters

Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Qualified Clinical Supervisor. She received her PhD in Mental Health Counseling from the University of Florida in 2002. In addition to being a practicing clinician, she has provided training to counselors, social workers, nurses and case managers internationally since 2006 through AllCEUs.com Want to chat with me? Join me at https://members.docsnipes.com/ For $10/month you get access to my daily tips for health and wellness and you can text chat with me privately.
Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes

Explore PACER strategies to help children develop tools to stay healthy and happy
Motivation
~ 5 Dimensions
~ Physical: Energy, comfort, health
~ Affective: Happy
~ Cognitive: Why is it something you would want to do?
~ Environmental: Prompts/Triggers; star charts; token economies
~ Relational: How will it make [caregiver] happy
~ Other
~ Seek first to understand then to be understood
~ Create a win-win
Overview
~ Ill health and poor health behaviors contribute to poor mental health
~ Poor mental health contributes to poor health behaviors and illness
~ Developing good habits early can help protect the vulnerable developing brain and body from unnecessary insults.
Physical Interventions for Mental Health
~ Sleep 1, 2
~ Symptoms: Moodiness, irritability, tantrums, hyperactivity, difficulty concentrating, loss of motivation, clingy/needy, difficulty learning
~ Stick to a sleep routine and make it rewarding (make a picture list)
~ Tuck in dolls/action figures or put the dog to bed
~ Read a book
~ Share 5 good things from the day
~ Nutrition
~ Hydration: Frozen fruit ice cubes/popsicles
~ Antioxidants: Eat colorfully—Food art
~ Low Glycemic Index: Kids cookbook
Physical:
~ Exercise
~...
~ Jenga block game—(Pick a colored block and show me, or tell me what makes you feel…)
~ Emotion collage: What does ____ look like OR What makes you feel ___
~ Emotion animal
~ What is TV character feeling?

Affective: CHATS (Temporary)
~ Distress tolerance and coping skills (Skills path)
~ Comparisons to:
~ Others who are not doing as well
~ Times when you have been worse off
~ Times you have handled similarly difficult situations (Courage book)
~ Hardiness: Commitment, Control and Challenge
~ Gratitude tree
~ Rock Balance
~ Rock Rucksack

Affective: CHATS
~ Activities that distract or produce positive emotions
~ Sing
~ Tell jokes
~ Take a bubble bath
~ Bounce/throw a ball
~ Read
~ Play a video or board game
~ Art
~ Guided imagery (5 things you see, 5 things you hear) make a video or audio recording

Affective: CHATS
~ Thought stopping
~ Envision a superhero or forcefield protecting you from the thoughts so you cannot hear them. Draw it.
~ Sing a song
~ God/Universe jar
~ Write it down to get it out of your head
~ Sensations
~ Breath dragon (paper cup)
~ Blow bubbles
~ Dandelion breath
~ Candle breathing contest…how far away can you get
~ Harmonica (loud and breathing)
~ Race

Cognitive
~ Mindfulness
~ 5-4-3-2-1
~ 5 best/worst things
~ Daily review and processing
~ How I feel right now physically, emotionally and what I need
~ Positivity
~ Dinner time focus
~ Journaling/drawing
~ Psychological flexibility: Accept what is and improve the next moment
Cognitive
~ Problem solving skills
~ Duct tape, gum, paper clip, box, soda bottle
~ Ask the child for help
~ Health Literacy
~ Read books together
~ Make menus
~ Put together a first aid kit
~ Act out positive health behaviors with action figures
~ What does Superman need to do to stay healthy
~ What is Dolly doing today to stay healthy

Cognitive
~ Scaffolding
~ Have the child create step charts
~ Teach back
~ Goal setting– Easy as 1-2-3
~ Start with the end in mind
~ What is the first thing you need to do
~ Dealing with the Inner Critic: Puppets/action figures

Environmental
~ Safety Inspector: What makes you feel unsafe and what can we do to help you feel safe?
~ Safety game: Use a Chutes and Ladders board. Each time you land on a person you draw a “situation card” If it is an up then they need to answer correctly to go up. If it is a down, then if they answer correctly they do not have to slide down.

Environmental
~ Colors:
~ What color do you feel? Why?
~ Color theme drawing/painting
~ Scents:
~ How does the scent make you feel and why?
~ Bake/bring in a bunch of flowers
~ Think of a happy time. What did you smell?
~ Touch
~ Hugs
~ Textures
Relational
~ Attachment: CRAVES Consistency, Responsiveness, Attention, Validation, Encouragement, Support
~ Empathy
~ Puppets
~ Story narration
~ Television/movies/pets
~ Self-Esteem
~ About me collage/scrapbook
~ Ad campaign
~ Self-esteem jar
Summary
~ It is never too early to start teaching behaviors that will contribute to health and mental health.
~ Improving health literacy can be fun
~ By teaching, encouraging and modeling HRBs the entire family or classroom can enjoy improved health and happiness. #mentalhealthmatters #parenting #childrenmentalhealth