Stormbreak a local charity believe that children thrive when they have healthy relationships surrounding them. Children can learn how to build healthy connections through enjoying movement based activities together. So here are a few ideas for how Stormbreak can help you to connect with others this Children’s Mental Health Week and beyond.

Use stormbreak to create opportunities to connect

The trusted adults we work with tell us that stormbreak creates moments of connection when they stormbreak with children. We have also found that doing a stormbreak together promotes the trusted adult’s sense of mental wellbeing too!

Use stormbreak to start a conversation

We know that children often find it easier to talk about challenging things, when they are doing an activity alongside another. That’s OK, you can use these moments of connection through stormbreak and lead into curious conversations that explore how the child is feeling, what they understand about a challenging situation or what they can do to help change things for the better. Each conversation deepens your connection, helping the child to internalise their sense of self-worth and promote their mental wellbeing.

Watch the stormbreak relationships concept animation together

Our concept animations are a great starting point to get children thinking about the skill of forming, developing and sustaining quality relationships. The last few years have had an impact on our children’s emotional and social development. Reduced opportunities for our children to socialise, meant reduced opportunities to learn and develop the emotional and social competence skills that they need. This social learning deficit is having an impact in other areas of childhood. Helping children understand how to connect with others in healthy ways is a step forward in recovery from the pandemic.

Click here to watch the Stormbreak Relationships Animation.

Do a stormbreak as a group

Taking time to stormbreak as a collective multiplies the opportunity for connecting! The enjoyment factor is multiplied and the opportunity for social learning is increased. It’s really true – the more the merrier. Many of our stormbreak activities are designed to be used in a group setting, to help everyone learn together the skills that are needed to connect well.

Listening with intent to validate experiences

A sure way to connect with others is to actively listen to them. When they share something important with you, it may sometimes be easy to miss the importance because it’s just not important to you. By role modelling compassionate and non-judgemental listening you can help children to learn skills to connect and experience connections. Remember it doesn’t take any longer to validate a child’s experience. Simply acknowledging the impact of an experience on their emotions is a sure fire way to connect with someone, it’s letting them know that you have seen and heard them.

Here are some links to some popular relationships stormbreaks:

Copy Cats
Mood Shift
Friendship and Empathy

There are loads of other FREE resources for children, and adults, to help deepen their understanding of relationships and mental wellbeing on the stormbreak website and you can create a free account at stormbreak.org.uk/free.