Awesome Tips for Teachers: Get Students Involved in 'Big Talks for Little People: Child Mental Health Program'

In our evaluation of our program ‘’Big Talks for Little People: Child Mental Health Module’’ as reported in  our published paper (Slee, P., Pill, S. & Agnew, D. 2025) we asked teachers for their tips for engaging students in a discussion about mental health. Many children find mental health programs challenging, and struggle to understand its relevance to them so it is  incumbent upon teachers to show them the importance of mental health and well-being. There may be some stigma around mental health for individual students.

Exploring mental health

Example Lesson Plan: 

•     introduce the mental health concept under focus eg ‘friendship’

•      use Menitmeter and Padlet to get students contributing.

•     use  pairs  and/or  small group activities  to encourage discussion

•      allow time for students to report back  to the class

•     provide opportunities for reflection.

•      Revisit the information  produced at the end of the lesson

•     At the  start of next lesson check their understanding/recall of ideas discussed

•     have extension work set for students before the next lesson eg draw what a ‘good friend is ‘ and share  in the lesson

n.b. for Australian teachers BeYou https://beyou.edu.au/  has significant school resources on mental health

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Teacher Tips

Ø  Use  small group activities and strategies such as circle time, break out groups, butcher’s paper brainstorming / mind maps and technology

Ø  Be aware of the possibility of re-traumatizing students, so setting up ground rules from the outset  eg equal floor time , no interruptions, respect  for the confidentiality of ideas shared

Ø  Language choices should be carefully considered to keep the discussion solution focused, with the aim of understanding students’ strengths instead of ‘solving problems’.

Ø  Emphasize the benefits of good mental health and avoid beginning the lesson with doom and gloom.

Ø  Be aware that for some students  the term ‘mental health’ can be equated with ‘mental illness’ – use more  creative alternatives such as ‘mental wealth’.

Ø  An important theme is to normalize - we’re all flawed human beings.

Ø   An effective technique to elicit student  ideas is the perspective taking model – “What advice would you give to someone else?”, “What advice would you give to a friend struggling to manage a conflict?”

Ø   Help students to self-assess, “Where I am now?”, “Where I would like to be?”, “What will help me to get there?”.

Ø   For younger students, make it personal and practical with short/sharp discussions using  role play with fellow classmates.

Ø  Use hands on activities like mandala making to create something together around the idea of growth coming out of difficulty.

Ø  Emphasize the value of connection, and relationships

Ø  consider providing a ‘safe place’ for students to access if they want some ‘time-out’ from the classroom activity

Ø  Students should be encouraged to develop trusting relationship with someone at school that they can approach approach with problems - not necessarily their teacher.

Ø  Teachers can create connection by sharing and assisting a student to recognize that it is alright to struggle with things at times, things can be overcome.

Ø  Students will often talk in private more about personal stuff and they often need someone to listen, not attempt to solve their problems , recognizing that the goal for teachers is to help students achieve self-efficacy to achieve their goals.

Ø  recognize and celebrate student diversity,  achievement/progress continually -small steps matter

Reference

Slee, P., Pill, S. & Agnew, D. 2025. Big Talks for little People: A pilot study of a                  classroom based mental health program. In: Health Promotion Journal of Australia. 36, 2, 8 p., e70014.