Know Yourself, Grow Yourself: Children's Mental Health Week 2025
Today marks the start of Children’s Mental Health Week 2025 and we’re really excited to join the conversation about this important topic. Organised by the amazing children’s mental health charity Place2Be, this week is all about giving kids the tools, confidence and voice they need to look after their mental well-being.

Children’s Mental Health Week first launched back in 2015 and has been celebrated every February since - fast forward to 2025 and it’s marking its 10th year! We know that understanding mental health from a young age is so important - helping kids recognise and express their feelings builds confidence, resilience and stronger relationships, plus it sets them up with essential life skills for the future. With this in mind, we’re really keen to amplify the incredible work done by Place2Be and bring more attention to this truly essential topic.
In this blog, we’ll explore what this year’s theme, ‘Know Yourself, Grow Yourself’, is all about and why talking about mental health matters for kids, plus share some fun, creative ways to support your little ones’ emotional well-being.
Ready? Let’s get started!
Why is Children’s Mental Health Important?
Why is it important for kids to learn about taking care of their mental health? Well, just like we encourage them to eat their veggies and stay active, looking after their mental well-being is just as crucial. Mental health affects everything - from their relationships and school life to their overall happiness and physical health. Plus, the numbers speak for themselves – according to the NSPCC, in 2023/24, over half of all Childline counselling sessions focused on mental or emotional health, so this is a big, shared concern that many children are experiencing.
When kids understand and know how to care for their mental health, they’re better equipped to feel happy, confident and calm. It also allows them to enjoy the fun stuff like playing, hobbies, friendships and new experiences, and makes everyday challenges a little easier to handle. Plus, building good mental health habits at an early age gives them the resilience and tools to grow into healthy, balanced adults ready to take on the world!
What is the Theme for Children's Mental Health Week 2025?
This year’s theme is Know Yourself, Grow Yourself, encouraging children and young people to embrace self-awareness. Since research shows that resilience is a key ingredient for positive mental health, Know Yourself, Grow Yourself puts a spotlight on how we can build this resilience, grow and develop by understanding who we are and what makes us tick.
According to Place2Be, the more we understand about ourselves, the better we're prepared to tackle life's ups and downs. By helping children learn how to understand and accept themselves, they start to build self-awareness, allowing them to develop the skills they need to cope now and as they grow and experience new things.
What’s more, this year’s Place2Be is teaming up with Here4You and getting some extra magic from The Walt Disney Company. With the help of Pixar’s beloved characters from Inside Out and Inside Out 2, kids can use these characters to explore the importance of self-awareness, understanding and expressing their emotions.
Ways to Support Children’s Emotional Wellbeing
Wondering how you can support your child’s emotional wellbeing? It can be tricky as parents to know where to start – we’re not all mental health experts! While this is no substitute for professional support, we’ve gathered some of our favourite simple and easy ways to help nurture your child’s emotional wellbeing at home.
Understanding emotions:
Big feelings are a natural part of childhood due to how kids’ brains are developing. The Amygdala (the brain's emotional alarm system) is super sensitive in children, while the Pre-Frontal Cortex (the part responsible for reasoning, helping us to stay calm and think things through) is still a work in progress! That’s why kids often react with Fight, Flight or Freeze responses when they’re overwhelmed or struggle to regulate big emotions. Since they can’t reason through situations the way adults can, it’s so important to help them learn healthy ways to manage stress and navigate their emotions from an early age.
As part of Children’s Mental Health Week, Place2Be have some great resources, using characters from Inside Out, designed to help teach kids about understanding their emotions and feelings. From encouraging journalling and reflection to practicing communication, these resources can help your child learn how to improve their emotional wellbeing.

Mindfulness:
Another great way to support your child's emotional wellbeing at home is through regular mindfulness practice. These strategies, including mindful breathing, yoga and tapping, are fantastic tools for self-regulation - they activate the body's relaxation response, slowing the heart rate, calming the breath and easing busy thoughts in little minds!
By introducing mindfulness in fun, playful ways, children can experience greater feelings of positivity and emotional wellbeing while learning early on how to release and process stress in a healthy way. Here’s some great ways to get kids started with mindfulness:
The ‘5 senses game’ is an easy and adaptable way to introduce kids to mindfulness and can be practiced anytime, anywhere! Whether sat at home, in the park or on a walk, it's perfect for staying present in the moment, especially when longer mindfulness practices like meditation are too much for little ones to focus on. Here’s how to do it:
See: Notice 5 things around you that you don’t usually pay attention to.
Feel: Focus on 4 sensations, like the breeze on your skin or the texture of your clothes.
Hear: Listen for 3 sounds in the background, like birds chirping.
Smell: Identify 2 scents, pleasant or not.
Taste: Notice 1 taste, whether from food, drink or just the air!
This activity is a super simple way to stay grounded and present and is really easy for all ages to follow! Plus, you can ‘rebrand’ this activity in lots of different ways – if they love superheroes, why not call it the ‘Spidey senses’ game!
Another activity you can try is the ‘belly breathing game’! We know how powerful deep breathing can be for emotional regulation and this is a great way to get little ones started with mindful breathing. To do this, kids simply place a stuffed animal on their stomach and watch it rise and fall as they breathe deeply, being careful to make sure it doesn’t fall off!
For more information about how to introduce mindfulness to kids and top tips for teaching them how to do it successfully, take a look at this article from Positive Psychology. And if you’re looking for some visual aids, Children in Need have some great resources you can print out and use with little ones!

Get creative:
Like mindfulness, doodling and colouring can also be really therapeutic – art can positively impact emotional well-being by reducing stress, improving mood and building self-esteem.
These activities are great because they can be really soothing whilst requiring very little logical thought, planning or consideration. So, even if your child can’t verbalise why they’re crying or why today was the “worst day ever”, they can still use a colouring pen and let go of stressful thoughts and feelings that way!
Charlotte Clark from The Happy Human Project is a huge advocate for children's mental health and wellbeing, and helping young people manage their emotions. In the guest blog Charlotte wrote for us, she spoke about using creativity and art to help conquer the 'Emotion Monsters'. From line art to doodling and colouring, art can be an outlet for children to process what they’re feeling and communicate that with others.
One of our favourite techniques is drawing your own ‘emotion monsters’. Simply start by choosing an emotion, like anger, and encourage your child to create a character for it through art. What colour is it? What shape? Does it have fluffy hair or ten eyes? Drawing these “monsters” can make emotions feel less scary and open up conversations or simply be a fun activity. Either way, it's a great way to encourage self-reflection and connection!
Place2Be have also utilised the power of creativity this Children’s Mental Health Week. Their fun art activity encourages children to learn more about themselves by imagining a growing plant. It invites children to reflect on the roots of their identity and what helps them grow. You can download this resource here!
It’s no secret that our creative outlet of choice is colouring! And for good reason - research shows that colouring in particular offers kids a creative and safe way to express their emotions visually. The colours they choose - whether bold and vibrant or soft and muted -can often reflect their mood and personality. It’s also a great way for children to communicate their feelings when words might be tricky to find. Plus, colouring can be wonderfully calming, making it a therapeutic activity that helps reduce stress and promote relaxation.

Head outside:
A really easy way to aid your child’s emotional wellbeing is prioritising time outdoors! Whether heading off on a hike or playing in a park, research has shown spending time in nature can have numerous benefits for young people’s mental health and wellbeing.
Due to the calming effects of nature, it has been shown that as little as 20 minutes outside can reduce feelings of stress, anger and aid emotional regulation. What’s more, outdoor activities can also help build confidence and self-esteem, both important facets of mental health, as kids learn to tackle obstacles and develop skills when facing risks and challenges of the outdoors. Finally, spending time outdoors, especially in public spaces, can offer kids the opportunity to meet and interact with their peers. These social connections are integral in children’s sense of self and belonging and can have a hugely beneficial impact when building kids’ positive mental health.
As we honour Children's Mental Health Week until 9th February, we’re reminded just how important it is to nurture kids' emotional wellbeing from an early age. It can be difficult to know how we can help as non-professionals, however it’s so important that we are open with children about their mental health and help them to feel safe expressing their emotions.
Whether it’s getting outside for some fresh air, encouraging mindfulness, exploring emotions through art or finding ways to better understand and express feelings, there are so many ways to support your children’s mental health this week (and beyond!). We hope this blog has helped shine a light on the incredible work done by Place2Be and inspired you to check out their brilliant resources. Let’s keep this conversation going and continue to give kids the tools they need to grow, thrive and be happy!
We’ve included some great resources below for those who need it or those who want to learn more:
Young Minds - https://www.youngminds.org.uk/
NHS Every Mnind Matters - https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/supporting-others/childrens-mental-health/
NSPCC Support for parents - https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents/
Barnardo’s Support for parents and carers - https://www.barnardos.org.uk/get-support/support-for-parents-and-carers/mental-health
Mind - https://www.mind.org.uk/for-young-people/
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