From the bogeyman for small children to the bogies of SATs and final exams for the college-bound, stress affects kids of all ages. The first thing a parent can do to help their child manage stress is to build a strong family unit. Include your children in family discussions and be on the lookout for stress in your kids.

Recognizing Stress in Children

Especially small children with under-developed communication skills may display stress very differently than an adult does. Often kids’ stress is internalized and most noticeable in physical symptoms such as frequent flu-like symptoms including headache, stomachache, and even nausea.

Children under stress may regress to behaviors like bedwetting, clinginess, and frequent crying. Behavioral symptoms may be extreme at both ends of a behavior spectrum. A normally active child becomes either listless or hyperactive, a usually docile child has fits of anger or a child that “acts out” becomes docile and introspective.

Some signs of stress in kids are easily confused with children’s mental disorders. For instance, if schoolwork slides or your child’s circle of friends undergoes a drastic change, it isn’t a sure sign that your child is on drugs. Situations like these may simply indicate a child’s inability to handle a stressful situation.

Helping Kids Reduce Stress

Children primarily learn by example. The best way to teach your child how to manage stress is by using the tools and articles at Stress Management Tips to learn to effectively manage your stressors. In addition, you can develop skills and child-oriented stress management techniques to help your kids recognize and manage their stressors.

• Eat healthy. A healthy body is better able to withstand stress-induced illness. Schedule regular meals and snack times. Don’t allow your child to skip meals.
  
• Vigorous exercise is a good stress reliever. Just like adults, kids need time to unwind. If your kids are bound to video games, television, or a computer, get them on their feet by providing and encouraging the use of active toys like balls, punch bags, and bikes. If your child presently appears to be stressed, make a point of playing with them. Time spent with your kids is a great vehicle for getting them to open up the lines of communication.
  
• Be clear in setting rules and consistent with discipline. Kids live in a “black and white” world. Blurred guidelines and inconsistencies are even more confusing for them than they are for adults.
  
• Gentle physical touch is a great healer. Sometimes a hug is worth more than a thousand words. Another physical stress reliever can be a gentle massage of your child’s neck and shoulders. Like you, your kids can also get knotted up with stress!
  
• Learn to be a good listener. When your child wants to talk about his or her problems, don’t criticize. In addition, it isn’t always necessary to give advice. Sometimes kids just need to talk. Encourage them with open-ended questions like, “So what happened next?” “How do you feel about that?”
  
• Teach your kids that everyone (including you) makes mistakes. A good start is admitting your mistakes to your children with an “I’m sorry” or “My mistake” when you goof-up. If the situation warrants, use personal examples of stressful situations you encountered during your childhood. Even if you were unsuccessful in dealing with your situation, you’ll teach your kids that you can learn from and even laugh at your own mistakes.
  
• Finally, teach your kids stress relieving exercises and help them find stress reducing games they can play to reduce their stress.

Text courtesy of Motivated magazine. Photo by Lotus Carroll via Flickr.

Adapted from an article by Mari Ferrell

Do our children today have entire days to explore nature and enjoy the freedoms of the outdoors? Is unstructured outdoor play becoming a relic of the past?

Have you ever noticed the difference in your children's behavior when they are outdoors rather than cooped up inside? My childhood memories are filled with games of hide-and-seek, flashlight tag, making firefly lamps, building clubhouses, exploring the "woods" (vacant lot) near our house, and making things from the "clay" we found in the backyard. My mother and her brother tell stories of leaving their house every morning in the summer and not returning home until dusk. Their days included craw fishing in a nearby ditch, wading in Dry Creek, and building hideouts in the tall prairie grasses.

Do our children today have entire days to explore nature and enjoy the freedoms of the outdoors? Is unstructured outdoor play becoming a relic of the past? Evidence is mounting that points to the fact that children are spending more and more time indoors, disconnected from nature due to the pull of the TV, internet, or video games.

Outdoor play has a calming effect

In my own children I notice a marked difference in their personalities when they are able to enjoy the pleasures of outdoor play. I have always believed that children should spend as much time outside as possible, hearkening back to my teaching days when I was often the only teacher who took her students to the playground on cold and misty days. I never had a complaint about the kids' behavior inside as long as [I was sure] they had plenty of time outside. When things seemed to be getting crazy it was always a sign that they needed to get OUT! I have noticed that it works exactly the same with my own three kids.

Studies have indicated that exposure to green space and nature has an especially calming affect on children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). Even adults benefit from time in nature, which has been shown to help with relaxation, stress reduction, and mental restoration.

Outdoor play is fun

This past summer at my daughter's birthday sleepover I had 12 girls ranging from six to eleven years old spending the night. My husband just happened to be out of town. I was a little concerned about doing this all by myself, so one of my good friends stayed for a couple of hours to help me out. Then she got to leave her kids with me and go out for a nice, quiet dinner with her husband. I was on my own. It was (understandably) wild and crazy inside my house. Cake crumbs and ice cream drippings covered the floor. I knew the best thing for everyone involved would be for all 12 kids to go in the backyard so I could have a moment to clean up the sticky mess. (Editor's note: Of course, keeping a close eye on the children from a window, or having an adult supervising the kids outside would be safest.)

For a full 15 minutes one or another of them kept knocking on the door. "When can we come in?" "I'm tired," "I'm bored out here," etc. They didn't seem too sure about the idea of being outside in the heat. Finally the kitchen was cleaned up and I was ready for the re-entry to occur. But wait—what was going on out there? I stealthily opened a shade and peeked outside. They had a frog and some paper birthday plates and bowls, sticks and leaves, and were building a frog mansion. The mansion became more and more elaborate over the next several hours and the frogs multiplied. There needed to be lots of rooms, you see. And a swimming pool complete with a diving board. …

Around 10 p.m. I forced them to come in. The frog mansion project ended up being the most talked-about event of the party.

Exposure to nature is crucial to human developmentThere is a growing amount of research that shows the importance of time spent in nature to human growth and development. Extensive evidence indicates that direct exposure to nature is essential for physical and emotional health. When children do not have the experience of being outside, they are missing out on an important part of childhood. In his book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, Richard Louv explains, "Nature-deficit disorder describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses."

We should not think of outdoor play as simply leisure time, but as something that is as necessary to our children's development as a balanced diet or a good night's sleep.

Time in nature helps:

• develop motor skills
• improve memory
• foster creativity
• keep obesity in check
• improve attentiveness
• decrease restlessness
• reduce stress

Exercise when young builds the body for life

Studies are showing more and more that exercising seems to have a tremendous effect on human growth and development‚ most importantly when you are a little child, but also all the way up into your early 30s, and, of course, exercise is beneficial at any age. Some of the effects of exercise, such as bone growth, affect you for life, and can only be gotten when young.

It's believed that children who get insufficient physical activity and exercise may not grow to their full physical potential. It's a fact that exercise promotes growth on top of the growth which is derived from sleep and nutrition. Exercise is directly linked to the size and strength of a person's bones. Children who get good exercise grow more and have stronger bones than those who have less or no exercise.

Bones, like muscles, grow stronger with exercise. Bone growth stops around puberty or at 18–20 years; density and strength still increase until around 30–35 years. Exercise is the greatest stimulator of bone growth. Additionally, it's the bone strength gained during the first 35 or so years of life that either prevents or contributes to osteoporosis, and to overall strong or weak bones in later life.

What can you do?

Make an effort to increase time outdoors. Find ways to expose your children to nature and green spaces. [In the summer] this can be difficult to do in extreme heat, but sometimes just a hose and a few water balloons, a small kids pool or tub, buckets of water, and bubbles will suffice. A rock garden, vegetable garden, or animal habitat could be a wonderful addition to your backyard. Last summer we went for nature hikes and biked on the greenbelt in the cooler parts of the day, stopping to see interesting things along the way.

Studies:

A growing body of literature shows that the natural environment has profound effects on the well-being of adults, including better psychological well-being, superior cognitive functioning, fewer physical ailments and speedier recovery from illness. It is widely accepted that the environment is likely to have a more profound effect on children due to their greater plasticity or vulnerability (Wells 2003).

Research is providing convincing evidence of the significant benefits of experiences in nature to children. Findings include:

• Children with symptoms of ADHD are better able to concentrate after contact with nature (Taylor 2001).
• Children with views of and contact with nature score higher on tests of concentration and self-discipline. The greener, the better the scores (Wells 2000, Taylor 2002).
• Children who play regularly in natural environments show more advanced motor fitness, including coordination, balance and agility, and they are sick less often (Grahn, et al. 1997, Fjortoft 2001).
• When children play in natural environments, their play is more diverse with imaginative and creative play that fosters language and collaborative skills (Moore & Wong 1997, Taylor, et al. 1998, Fjortoft 2000).
• Exposure to natural environments improves children's cognitive development by improving their awareness, reasoning and observational skills (Pyle 2002).
• Nature buffers the impact of life stress on children and helps them deal with adversity. The greater the amount of nature exposure, the greater the benefits (Wells 2003).
• Play in a diverse natural environment reduces or eliminates bullying (Malone & Tranter 2003).
• Nature helps children develop powers of observation and creativity and instills a sense of peace (Crain 2001).
• Early experiences with the natural world have been positively linked with the development of imagination and the sense of wonder (Cobb 1977, Louv 1991). Wonder is an important motivator for lifelong learning (Wilson 1997).
• Children who play in nature have more positive feelings about each other (Moore 1996).
• Natural environments stimulate social interaction between children (Moore 1986, Bixler, Floyd & Hammutt 2002).
• Outdoor environments are important to children's development of independence and autonomy (Bartlett 1996).