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Psychological needs of children and how to support this - Coggle Diagram
Psychological needs of children and how to support this
Social connection
Taking an older child to the park with friends will encourage them to play alongside others their age, bring a parent to supervise.
Taking a baby to a baby class, this means they can interact with other babies their age, this can be organized by the parents.
Taking your child to physical activity group like football, which helps them interact with other children around them but also teaches them how to work in a team and how to rely on their peers.
Love
If a child likes physical contact, make sure to give them stuff like hugs, cuddles and things like holding their hand, by doing this you can help make them feel not only calm and safe but good as well.
Make sure you do activities they want to do with them, even something as going to the park will help you learn about your child's interests and make them feel loved.
Make time to play with them, by doing this you are showing your affection and care for your child and making them feel special. Playing with your child can help strengthen your relationship with them and help them feel more comfortable and confident.
Stimulation
When talking about stimulation you want to find the things that can help stimulate your child. Dancing is a form of stimulation as it stimulates the brain as it triggers sensory and motor circuits.
Another form of stimulation for a child is reading them a story from a book as it helps stimulate their brains to help them build not only their vocabulary and imagination but self esteem as they may find characters relatable and from how you spend time reading with them.
Sensory play is another form of stimulation that helps the child's brain to grow. Sensory play helps children with their 5 senses of sight, touch, sound, taste and smell. Sensory play can also improve fine motor skills, brain growth, problem solving skills and language development as it can extend their vocabulary.
Caring
A way you can show you care for your child is to listen to them, by listening to your child whenever they speak it lets them know you are interested in what they are saying and are actively focusing on them.
Paying attention to your child is another way of showing them that you care about them as it can make them feel loved, secure, special and cared for. Paying attention to your child can also help build your relationship more so it is stronger.
You should always support your child to show that you care for them, by showing your support it can help them deal with problems better and shows that you will always be on their side and they might feel secure enough to come speak to you if a problem was to occur.
Security
One way to meet a child's security need is by providing them with emotional security, which means always being there for your child if they are upset or in a state of being distressed. Your child should always be able to count on you and feel loved and validated. By giving a child emotional security, you are giving them a safe place to be in.
A child's physical safety is another way you can help make them feel secure, supplying physical safety helps keep your safe from any harm that someone or something might cause and also making sure their basic needs are met.
One of a child's most essential security needs is having a safe place where they can learn things for their future. Some examples of a safe learning environment include of a clean school, being treated with respect, accessible equipment and an overall positive environment. Having a safe learning environment helps your child stay comfortable and excited to learn.
Freedom of expression
When addressing a child's freedom of expression needs, they need to be able to express themselves freely without the fear of judgement looming over their shoulder. One way of this is arts and crafts, by doing this a child can express themselves through their art from whatever drawing, shapes, creatures or paintings they've made.
Another way of freedom of expression is by doing pretend play where they can act out whoever or whatever they like simply from their imagination, by children doing this it allows them to explore their creativity and different ideas they have.
Conversing in conversation with a child is also a way of freedom of expression as it allows them to talk about whatever they want whether it be their day, emotions or imaginations, this allows children to express their feelings without judgement.
Stable relationships
Having a trustworthy adult in a child's life, who they can rely on and offer comfort to them even if it is a teacher or a family member. By being trustworthy a child will have someone who will always listen to them.
Having someone that is consistently in there life no matter how long it has been as they already know and trust them and have that stability and support.
Having a stable relationship with friends who play, share and always support each other no matter what, helps provide a child's confidence, social skills and can give them a sense of belonging.
Belonging
When talking about the belonging needs of children, having a place in their family where they feel belonged and appreciated can help support their needs. By providing a child with a sense of belonging within their family you are making them feel loved and cared for.
Another sense of belonging that a child needs is within the space of their friendships. When a child feels like they belong in their friendships it can help them feel better about themselves and help them develop their social skills as they are interacting with people of their community. It can also help them enjoy spending their time with other people instead of feeling isolated.
A further sense of belonging that a child needs is the feeling that they belong in their community especially if it is a religious community as it can help them feel included in activities or festivities and help them understand their community or religious background more, it also helps them create an identity with that part of their culture included.
Safe boundaries
A child having safe boundaries is a very important thing that helps them stay in control of what they want. One example of a safe boundary is a physical boundary, where they can express if they want someone to touch, hug or hold their body.
Another example of a safe boundary is emotional boundaries, by allowing a child to communicate their emotional boundaries it helps them control their emotions and be in charge of them.
A further example of a safe boundary is verbal boundary which allows the child to verbalize if they do not like what someone has said to them. By allowing a child to set verbal boundaries as it helps them feel secure and have better relationships with other people.