Children's mental health promotion sentences

「I just want you to pay more attention to my little temper." "If you love me, catch my bad mood first." These are the contents that were most widely disseminated and generated the most inquiries when our organization carried out science popularization in 12 primary schools and 7 communities last year. You can take them and use them.

In fact, when we first polished these short sentences, our team had a quarrel. Teachers with a background in public health science insisted on taking a straightforward route, saying that core messages such as "early intervention for children's psychological problems" and "depression is not hypocrisy" must be directly printed, otherwise the audience will not grasp the key points. Previously, the slogans they made were "early detection and early treatment of children's psychological problems to avoid delaying the disease." As a result, after half a month, less than three people took the initiative to consult, and some parents thought it was an enrollment advertisement from a private hospital.

A teacher who does clinical consultation for children completely disagrees with this idea, saying that this kind of expression, which is too similar to a medical notice, will actually strengthen the sense of shame: children will feel that "I am sick" after reading it, and parents' first reaction after reading it is "My child is not sick, no need to see him", but it will push away those who really need it.

Both sides have their own reasons. In the end, we simply conducted a comparative pilot. The three primary schools in Chengxi District first put up slogans that focused on medical warnings. After a week, only two parents came to consult, and they both asked, "Is my child having ADHD because he can't sit still in class?" and no one mentioned the child's emotional problems. A week later, we changed the slogan to a softer one that focused more on daily companionship. Just three days after posting it, a fifth-grade child came over during lunch break and asked the psychology teacher: "I don't want to do homework or play with my friends recently. Is this normal?" ”The number of inquiries that week jumped directly to 17, a difference of almost 10 times.

Of course, this does not mean that straightforward warning phrases cannot be used at all. If you are a science popularizer in the medical system and want to promote targeted disease screening, you can use more direct expressions, such as "If your child continues to be in a bad mood for more than 2 weeks, don't take it seriously. It's not a bad idea to ask a professional." After all, "low mood for 2 weeks" is one of the core indicators of depression screening. Spreading this information can really help many children who are stuck in mood and no one pays attention to it. But if it is daily science popularization in schools or communities, try to rely on daily companionship. Don’t mention “disease” and “treatment” all the time. It is too easy to scare people.

Last year, I met a mother who lived in a high-tech zone. She said that she always thought that her child was ignorant and did not need to deal with the tantrums. Until she saw the sentence we posted in the elevator of the community, "The way you squat down and listen to him talks is to give him the best psychological nourishment." That day when the child made a fuss and refused to eat, she did not open her mouth to scold her like before. If he hadn't seen that slogan, that night would probably have been another chaotic situation, and the child's emotions would have been suppressed again.

In fact, a good promotional sentence does not need to be very literary or elegant at all. To put it bluntly, it is enough to make people stop for two seconds and think about one more sentence when they see it. If you feel that the short sentences that are too gentle are not impactful enough, it is okay to add a few more direct sentences, such as "Spanking and scolding is not education, it is a stab to the child's psychology." As long as it is not full of such anxiety-inducing content, and paired with it, there will always be a sentence that can hit the person in need.