Everything Exams

In my last post, I took a look at the research into the many benefits for children of journaling. It seems that the process of writing things down on paper can improve a child’s mental health, physical health, and even have a positive affect on their grades in school. Research tells us that regular journaling is a powerful tool which our children can use to help them lead happy lives but I thought it might be useful to explore how to start as it’s not immediately obvious what this entails. 

Below are my suggestions to get parents started; the overall point is to encourage children to process their emotions on paper through their writing. Before going on, I  think it’s also worth mentioning privacy. A journal should be for a child’s eyes only and we should respect this, otherwise they may well not write down all of their thoughts and feelings and therefore not fully process difficult experiences. It’s normal to occasionally vent about your parents and siblings but a child might well be mortified if they found their thoughts had been read by the family member in question. The act of journaling actually speeds up the healing process and reading a person’s thoughts could make everything a lot worse. I feel that we should only look at a child’s writing if given permission to do so or if our child is in extreme circumstances, such as if they go missing, and personal information could be used to help them.

Younger Children

For younger children, who may not be ready to write, parents need to explain what a journal is.

• Explain that a journal is a safe space for children to be creative, to think about and record how they feel
• Help them choose a special copybook, notebook or lock-and-key journal and decorate it in any way they like
• Help them choose a special place to store it – explain that this is just for them and no one else
• Decide together when they are going to add to their journal – as soon as they get home from school, maybe every day just before bed or even on a Friday evening, once a week when they have more time. Whenever they have a difficult experience, be sure to encourage them to fill out a page in their journal on that day too
• When they add to your journal, try to encourage your child to remember anything which happened during their day which made them feel good, bad or unsure. They can use crayons, pens or paints, and can draw what they feel. This might be the best approach with very young children who are not yet fluent writers. They might want to colour a whole page of red if they’re  angry, or sunshine with a smile if they had a good experience that day. They can cut out, stick in, draw and paint anything which reminds them of how they feel.

Older children

With older children who can write, steps 1-4 will be the same. Stress that they don’t need to worry about spelling, handwriting or grammar. They can just pile their thoughts onto the page as they arrive – it’s only for them to read, after all. Let them know that it’s especially beneficial to journal after a bad experience. 

They might struggle occasionally with where to start and it could be worth using the following questions as writing prompts:

• What bothers or annoys you?
• What makes you feel happy?
• What is the last thing which made you sad?
• What ideas have you had recently?
• What dreams do you have for your future?
• What usually makes you cry?
• If you could solve something in this world, what would it be?
• How do you feel, right here, right now?
• If you could fix something in your life, what would it be?
• What are you excited about?