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The Creative Skills Podcast
The Creative Skills Podcast
Bonus Episode: Express Yourself this Children's Mental Health Week
It's Children's Mental Health Week and the theme is Express Yourself - so we couldn't help but release a bonus mini episode. Heather Armstrong looks at ideas that have come up in Creative Skills training sessions: self-expression and creative flow.
Find out more at: www.starcatchers.org.uk/bonusepisode1
Transcript
Heather Armstrong (00:09):
Welcome to this special bonus episode of Starcatchers Creative Skills Online. I'm
Heather Armstrong.
This week is Children’s Mental Health Week, and the theme this year is “Express
Yourself” – and I was so excited when I heard that theme! A lot of the time when we
think about children’s mental health and the arts, we think about the amazing work
done in the fields of art therapy, drama therapy and play therapy, but everyday creative
activity can have a massive positive effect on mental health too.
So, how does it actually work?
Today I want to talk about two themes that keep popping up in Creative Skills sessions
– self-expression and flow.
Self-expression can sometimes be seen as quite an indulgent, artsy, highfalutin concept
– I am an ARTISTE and I need to EXPRESS MYSELF! But when it comes to good mental
health, there are really sensible, practical reasons we should be encouraging wee ones
to express themselves. An important part of looking after our own mental health is
being able to recognise our feelings, accept them, then let them go.
The wee ones we care for need to be able to do that to but a lot of the time it isn’t
about sitting down and talking it through in a literal sense – it can be about exploring
the idea of different emotions through puppetry and drama. It can also be about finding
other ways to express yourself that don’t involve words. The expressive arts give wee
ones so many other languages to explore, whether that’s through movement, or music,
or literally making your mark in visual art.
As adults our job is to give wee ones opportunities to explore those languages without
trying to control or criticise what they do – sometimes they need to go crazy bashing
that drum and sometimes they need to paint their whole arm blue. And yes, it can help
to chat about feelings and identify them whether that’s through role-play or wondering
aloud how someone’s feeling but self-expression isn’t always about having to read into
their art and find out “why” they wanted their arm blue.
If we can give wee ones opportunities to make decisions and we recognise and
celebrate their “voices” – in whatever form they come - we’re already helping them set
down the foundations of good mental health for the future.
The other idea that keeps popping up lately is the concept of “flow”. Now flow is that
feeling where you’re completely absorbed in what you’re doing – you lose track of
time, you’re not thinking about the past of the future, and you’re not focussing on any
kind of end product, or what you’re trying to achieve. Entering a state of flow is great
for productivity and innovative thinking, but it’s also brilliant because it feels brilliant –
it’s like a holiday for your brain. Engaging in a state of flow is a kind of active
meditation, you get the same mental health benefits, and it’s a lot more accessible for
wee ones compared to what we might traditionally think of as meditating or
mindfulness.
Now here’s the important thing about achieving a state of flow – whatever you’re
doing, it can’t be too easy or too difficult. A lot of adults achieve a state of flow using
those colouring in books that started becoming popular a few years ago. Now, if you’re
an adult and you’ve already nailed your fine motor control then yes, they’re great. But
for wee ones, it’s about finding experiences that are age and stage appropriate they can
become totally absorbed in.
And that changes all the time. You’ll see wee ones completely absorbed in pouring
water from one container to another, day after day, and then suddenly they’re over it
and they need something else to spark that curiosity.
On the Wee Inspirations page on the Starcatchers website, there are over 70 creative
ideas you can explore with babies and young children, and every one of them offers
those genuine opportunities for wee ones to express themselves in ways that are age
and stage appropriate.
And as you read through the ideas, you’ll realise that another theme that weaves all the
way through is having fun together. One of our Creative Skills artists, Pearl, recently ran
some online training for us with some early years practitioners and although we
covered loads of different visual art ideas, essentially what we did was doodle together
and chat together for a couple of hours. And afterwards I got a message from one of the
participants and they said that they’d been wilting recently under the pressure of work,
and they made the point of saying how reenergising they felt, just hanging out with us
virtually. They also gave us a thank you which is very much appreciated.
That message reminded me so strongly, that part of looking after the mental health of
wee ones, is also about looking after the mental health of all the adults who care for
them. We need to find time to express ourselves, and have fun, and get lost in a state of
flow.
So, in this Children’s Mental Health week, let’s prioritise finding time for creativity for
all of us.
Catherine Wilson (04:58):
Thank you so much for listening to this special bonus episode. There are some links to
find out more about Children’s Mental Health Week and flow on the transcript of this
episode. You can find that at: www.starcatchers.org.uk/bonusepisode1. You’ll also find a
link to our Wee Inspirations webpage there too.
Let us know what you think! Head to www.surveymonkey.com/r/creativeskillsonline - to
let us know what you think about Creative Skills Online. You could win £50 worth of
arts materials. It only takes five minutes and it really helps us out!
Our intro music is "Road Building" composed by Abigail Sinar and performed by the
RSNO for "Hup" in 2014.
The Creative Skills Podcast is part of Starcatcher's Creative Skills programme: training
for the ELC workforce in Scotland funded by the Scottish Government. To find out more
head to www.starcatchers.org.uk and click on "Professional Development for Early
Learning and Childcare".