8 Signs Your Child Would Benefit From Journaling

Is your child in need of a creative outlet for their emotions and thoughts?

From navigating emotions to fostering self-awareness, journaling can empower children in ways you may never have imagined.

Here you will discover 8 signs that indicate if your child could benefit from the transformative practice of daily journaling.

1. Difficulty expressing emotions: Struggles to articulate feelings and emotions.
2. Easily overwhelmed: Frequently overwhelmed by emotions, thoughts, or feelings.
3. Lacks self-awareness: Needs to develop greater self-awareness and understanding.
4. Facing major changes: Experiencing significant changes at school, home, or in friendships.
5. Needs better coping skills: Requires improved coping skills, especially before transitioning to high school.
6. Creative expression: Shows creativity and could benefit from enhancing their creative expression.
7. Goal oriented: Aims to improve academic and personal growth.
8. Emotional wellbeing: Needs support in nurturing their emotional wellbeing.

Difficulty expressing emotions

For children who have difficulty expressing their emotions, journaling can be a great emotional outlet. It provides a safe space for them to explore and articulate their feelings, fostering better emotional understanding and regulation.

The This is Me Guided Journal can provide a safe outlet for children to express their emotions with over 300 mood tracking stickers and 70 guided journal spreads. This is a great starting point especially if they have difficulty verbalising their feelings.

Easily overwhelmed

When children are faced with stress, anxiety or overwhelming emotions they benefit from journaling as a way to process and manage their feelings. Age isn’t a barrier nor is their ability to write. Journaling can start with something as simple as drawing or colouring such, as the activities in the ABC’s of Mindfulness.

Lacks self-awareness 

Journaling or drawing their thoughts can help children explore their mind, beliefs, and values, leading to greater self-awareness and self-understanding. Over time this will help them to become aware of any triggers and learn strategies to use next time they are struggling with anything. Therefore, leading to a greater self-discovery.

The Awesome Ends in ME journal an excellent tool for developing self-awareness. It not only teaches kids how to get the most out of practicing gratitude but also includes fun activities that help build resilience and boost happiness. By focusing on what is important, staying calm when facing challenges, and fostering a positive attitude, this journal guides children in understanding and managing their emotions.

Facing major changes

With life comes challenges and our children aren’t exempt. Coping with big life changes such as moving, divorce, loss, change of schools or friendship problems can put a lot of stress on our little peoples minds and bodies. Children during these scenarios may find regular journaling helpful in navigating and coping with such challenges.

If you want to help your tween (aged 8–12) develop self-awareness, The Everyday Resilience Journal is the perfect tool. It offers 40 insightful strategies to assist tweens in understanding their emotions, navigating friendship dynamics, managing schoolwork, and boosting their confidence. Featuring easy-to-read strategies, journal pages, and beautiful illustrations, this book is ideal for both boys and girls.

Needs better coping skills

The last year of primary school can be nerve racking if you don’t feel your child has the right coping skills and amount of resilience to successfully navigate high school. Starting journaling before this next major milestone in their school life can support your child in developing resilience and coping skills by helping them reflect on challenges, setbacks, and successes.

The Cup Filling Journal, is designed to help your child improve their coping mechanisms, especially during those challenging times in their lives. This journal focuses on developing self-love, kindness, confidence, resilience, and a growth mindset through affirmations, engaging activities, and colouring pages.

It equips your child with tools for emotional regulation and stress management through fun and accessible breathing exercises, yoga, mindfulness, and gratitude activities. As they work through the divided chapters independently at their own pace, they will grow their social and emotional understanding and self-awareness, making the transition to high school smoother and more manageable.

Creative expression

Letting the creativity flow during moments of quiet reflection can be very relaxing and soothing for our minds and bodies. Journaling encourages our children to express themselves creatively through writing, drawing, or other artistic means, this promotes self expression and exploration.

The Wild Nature Journal is the perfect journal when you have a creative little one. It will help children slow down, process feelings, encourage observation, and build writing skills. Inside, you'll find beautifully illustrated pages including an overview of how to use the journal, moon, sunrise, and sunset tracking pages, a green time habit calendar, detailed colouring pages, step-by-step drawing instructions for common natural treasures, open-ended writing prompts, log pages for recording nature sightings, and lined, blank, and dotted pages for open-ended writing and creativity.

Goal oriented

Remember that time you had a goal, wrote it down and then the huge sense of pride you felt when you were able to look back at it and say, “I achieved my goal!” Journaling can help support children in setting and achieving goals, guide them to reflect on their learning experiences, and foster a growth mindset.

Emotional wellbeing

Nurturing our children’s emotional wellbeing assists in confidence building. Journaling can boost young people's self-esteem and self-confidence as it provides a space to celebrate their strengths, accomplishments, and progress. Along with this it improves mental health by ways of being a therapeutic practise that promotes healing and wellbeing.

Journaling can also be done together as parent and child to foster conversations that may not usually be spoken about. Sometimes it can be a way into our child’s lives, to help us to find out worries, thoughts, and feelings that our child hasn’t bought directly to our attention previously.

At Smiling Minds Collective, we believe that daily journaling offers incredible benefits for children. If you're interested in helping your child start this practice, explore our range of journals on our website and find the perfect one for them.