National children's mental health week.

Know Yourself, Grow Yourself – National Children’s Mental Health Week

As we celebrate National Children’s Mental Health Week, a theme of great importance comes into focus: Know Yourself, Grow Yourself. The journey of self-awareness and personal growth is pivotal for every child, and one of the best tools we can offer in this journey is feedback. But how can feedback empower children to understand themselves better and reach their full potential?

Understanding the Power of Feedback

Feedback is not just about pointing out what went right or wrong—it’s about nurturing growth. It’s a vital part of the learning process, especially for children, as it helps them navigate their world, understand their abilities, and learn how to improve. When feedback is given thoughtfully and constructively, it empowers children to make choices and decisions that can positively influence their mental and emotional well-being.

Know Yourself: Building Self-Awareness

Before children can grow, they need to know who they are and how they see the world. Self-awareness is key. Feedback is essential in this process because it helps children understand their strengths and areas of improvement in an environment that is supportive and encouraging.

When giving feedback, it’s important to focus not only on the outcome of a task but on the effort, the process, and the mindset involved. By asking open-ended questions and using reflective language, we can help children recognize their own feelings and thoughts. For example:

• “I noticed you tried a new way of solving that problem. What did you think about it?”

• “You worked hard on this project. How did it feel to be challenged?”

These questions promote reflection, helping children understand not just what they did, but how they did it, encouraging them to connect their emotions with their actions.

When feedback includes these elements, it helps children feel understood and supported, allowing them to know themselves better—important for both their personal development and mental health.

Grow Yourself: Using Feedback to Develop Resilience

The next step is using that self-awareness to grow. Growth doesn’t happen overnight. It’s the small, consistent steps that lead to lasting progress. When feedback is clear and constructive, it offers children a pathway for improvement. It’s not about labelling mistakes as failures, but about seeing them as opportunities to try again and grow stronger.

Children often need guidance on how to use feedback productively. By framing feedback in a growth-oriented way, we teach children to embrace challenges and see them as part of their learning journey. Instead of focusing on what went wrong, we can emphasize the learning that comes from the experience:

• “I see you struggled with this task, but you didn’t give up. What could you try next time to make it easier?”

• “It’s okay to make mistakes. What did you learn from this, and how can it help you next time?”

This approach helps children build resilience by teaching them that making mistakes is a natural part of life and learning. They begin to understand that their abilities are not fixed and that they have the power to grow and improve.

Feedback and Mental Health: A Path to Confidence

In National Children’s Mental Health Week, it's important to acknowledge the connection between feedback and mental health. Positive, growth-focused feedback helps children build self-confidence and emotional well-being. It provides them with the tools to handle challenges and setbacks in a healthy way, reinforcing the idea that they are capable of learning, growing, and overcoming obstacles.

By fostering an environment where feedback is a tool for growth—not judgment—children can feel more in control of their own development. This is essential for mental health, as children who understand their strengths and areas for growth are better equipped to face the challenges of life with resilience.

How Parents and Educators Can Support This Process

For feedback to be most effective, it needs to be part of a consistent and supportive dialogue. Here are a few ways parents and educators can help children know and grow themselves:

1. Be Specific and Positive: Give clear, actionable feedback that is focused on effort and strategies, not just outcomes. Praise effort and perseverance to encourage a growth mindset.

2. Create a Safe Space: Let children know it’s okay to make mistakes. Help them see mistakes as an opportunity for learning rather than something to be feared.

3. Encourage Reflection: Ask questions that promote self-awareness, such as, “What did you find easy or hard about this?” or “What could you do differently next time?”

4. Use Encouragement: Celebrate small victories. When a child shows improvement, no matter how small, acknowledge it. This reinforces the idea that progress, not perfection, is the goal.

5. Model Feedback: Show children how you handle feedback in your own life. By modelling openness to feedback and a willingness to grow, children learn to value this process.

   
   

Conclusion

In this National Children’s Mental Health Week, let’s reflect on how we can empower children to Know Yourself, Grow Yourself. Through thoughtful, supportive, and constructive feedback, we can help children develop self-awareness and resilience—two key pillars of mental health. Feedback is not just about pointing out flaws but about guiding children to become the best versions of themselves, one step at a time.

By fostering a mindset of growth, we’re not only helping children succeed academically or in their personal endeavours, but we’re also helping them build the mental and emotional skills they need to thrive in life.

Thanks as always for reading. If your team or club would benefit from a specific session on how to deliver feedback please get in touch at andrew@kandrynperformance.co.uk

Have a great week.

Diesel.