Let's dive into something exciting today - the MESH Movement in the toy industry.🌟
🤷♀️ So, what's MESH, you ask?
MESH stands for Mental, Emotional, Social Health. Think of it as the superpowers your kids need to thrive in today's world. 💪
Something as a therapist and a teacher that we’ve been passionate about supporting since we founded Present Not Perfect back in 2021.
ThinkFun, the genius behind awesome brain games, is on a mission to amp up kids' MESH skills while they play and recently published a study in 2022 all about how we can build kids’ resiliency through play (speaking our language!) 📚 In the study, research showed that 71% of parents were reporting the pandemic had taken a toll on their child’s mental health.
In the report, Abigail Schlesinger (MD Clinical Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Integrated Care Western Psychiatric Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh) said that “play is one of the best ways to promote safety in kids’ mental health when it’s used to teach the skills they need to recognize, respond to and learn from their emotions.”
💡 Why is it important?
In a nutshell, MESH skills help your kiddos handle life's inevitable curveballs like champs! They learn to:
🧠 Problem-solve
😊Manage their emotions
🤝 Navigate social situations
🗣️ Express themselves
So how do we do this?!
It's all about play, play, play! Playtime becomes a magical arena where kids develop these awesome skills without even realizing it! 🪄🤫 The power of playful metaphor is paramount to our mission here at Present Not Perfect.
🧚♀️ And guess what?
Experts in the education, psychology, and parenting fields like Jen Hartstein and Tina Payne Bryson are all in for this movement. 🩺📚 They say toys and games (just like our Calm Kits here at Present Not Perfect) can be your go-to tools for shaping resilient, emotionally intelligent mini-humans. 🌈
You can read more about this movement and more at MESHhelps.org
Thanks for being part of this movement with us and being the most supportive community we could have asked for!