Understanding Mental Health in Children Through the Hoopla Method

If you asked ten people what mental health means, you’d probably get ten different answers, and a few nervous laughs. Some might say it’s about being happy. Others might think it’s something people talk about only when things go wrong.

But the truth is, mental health isn’t just about avoiding breakdowns or “fixing” problems. Let’s explore mental health in children through the Hoopla Method. It’s about how we live every day, how we feel, move, and connect with the world around us.

Mental health is not a luxury. It’s the quiet foundation that holds everything else together.

The Basics: What Mental Health Really Means

Mental health is how our mind helps us handle life, from the big, scary moments to the small, everyday ones. It shapes how we manage stress, make choices, build relationships, and see ourselves.

You can think of it like this:

• Physical health helps your body move and grow.
• Mental health helps your mind stay balanced and strong while it does so. It is just as important as physical health.

When our mental health is steady, we can cope with challenges, learn from mistakes, and bounce back when life gets messy. When it’s off-balance, everything else starts to wobble too, sleep, appetite, focus, patience, even how we talk to the people we love.

Feel It: Encourage your child (and yourself) to notice emotions instead of brushing them away. Say, “I’m feeling frustrated right now.” Naming the emotion makes it easier to manage.
Move It: Step away for a quick walk, stretch, or deep breath before reacting.
Connect: Afterward, talk about what helped and share a moment of calm together.

Mental Health Is for Everyone

Somewhere along the way, the term “mental health” became tangled up with “mental illness.” They’re related, but not the same. Everyone has mental health, just like everyone has physical health. Sometimes it’s in great shape; sometimes it needs care.

When we talk about mental health, we’re not just talking about therapy or diagnoses. We’re talking about the skills, habits, and relationships that keep our emotional world steady, noticing how we feel, learning how to calm down, setting boundaries, and staying connected to others. Not because we are “broken,” but because we are human.

Feel It: Pause and check in, “What am I feeling right now?”
Move It: Use sensory resets like a warm shower, favorite song, or deep exhale to release tension.
Connect: Reach out, sometimes a simple, “I had a rough day,” is all it takes to open a bridge.

Why It Matters for Parents and Kids

In families, mental health is contagious, in the best and worst ways. Children learn how to understand their feelings by watching how adults handle theirs. When parents rush through emotions or treat stress as weakness, kids learn to hide how they feel. But when parents model honesty, “I’m feeling frustrated, so I’m going to take a break and breathe,” children learn that emotions are normal and manageable.

Strong mental health at home helps kids build confidence, empathy, and resilience. It helps parents stay patient and connected even when life feels overwhelming. And it builds families that talk, listen, and care for each other instead of pretending everything is fine.

Feel It: Create a Safe Space for Emotions

Children don’t just need to be told it’s okay to feel; they need to see it.
When parents name their own emotions (“I’m feeling tired right now” or “That made me sad”), they model emotional literacy. Over time, this teaches kids that feelings aren’t something to fear or hide; they’re signals that help us understand what’s going on inside.

Encourage your child to do the same by asking, “What do you think your body is telling you right now?” or “Where do you feel that feeling?”
For younger children, use simple visuals, like Hoopla’s emotion emojis or a “feelings thermometer,” to help them point to what they can’t yet say in words.

Parent Tip: Don’t rush to fix the feeling. Just listen and name it. Validation (“That sounds really hard”) helps children feel seen and safe, the first step toward calm.

Move It: Help Emotions Move Through the Body

Once an emotion is named, it needs somewhere to go.
Children process feelings not just through words, but through movement and sensory play. This is where Move It comes in, helping the body release built-up tension so the mind can reset.

Invite your child to:

• Dance it out — turn on a favorite song and move together.
• Doodle or color their feeling — “Show me what ‘angry’ looks like in colors.”
• Squeeze or stretch — use a stress ball, playdough, or simple yoga poses to let energy flow.
• Breathe together — try “bubble breathing”: pretend to blow a big bubble slowly, expanding your hands as you breathe out.

These small actions teach children that feelings don’t have to stay stuck. They can move, change, and soften — and so can we.

Parent Tip: Join in. When kids see you using these tools, they internalize them. It turns emotional regulation into a shared practice, not a lecture.

Connect: Rebuild Trust and Understanding

After the storm passes, the most powerful thing you can do is reconnect.
Connection turns regulation into resilience — reminding your child that even big feelings don’t break your bond.

End the day with a gentle check-in:

• “What made you smile today?”
• “What was tricky or confusing?”
• “When did you feel proud of yourself?”

These small reflections help children process their day and build emotional awareness. If they’re quiet, that’s okay too; connection can also mean sitting together, reading a book, or sharing a bedtime story.

Parent Tip: Use physical closeness, a hug, holding hands, or sitting beside them, to reinforce emotional safety. Kids don’t always remember the words, but they always remember how it felt to be comforted.

The Everyday Habits That Support Mental Health

Caring for mental health doesn’t have to mean adding something new to your already full schedule. It’s about small, consistent choices that help you and your child reset.

Try these simple, Hoopla Method–inspired habits every day:

• Feel It: Name your feelings. Saying “I feel stressed” helps you understand what’s really happening.
• Move It: Move your body. A short walk, stretch, or dance break can shift your energy.
• Connect: Call a friend, hug your child, or share a laugh. Connection is medicine.

Other reminders:

• Rest without guilt. Resting is not laziness; it’s how the mind recovers.
• Breathe before reacting. A few deep breaths can turn chaos into calm.

Teaching Kids About Mental Health

Children don’t need to understand all the science behind emotions to start caring for their mental health. They just need to know that feelings are real, normal, and manageable.

Parents can help by:

• Asking open questions (“What made you smile today?”)
• Helping them label emotions (“That sounds frustrating”)
• Encouraging expression through play, drawing, or talking

Feel It: Let kids identify how they feel, even if it’s “mad” or “bored.”
Move It: Encourage them to act it out safely, stomp, run, or draw the feeling.
Connect: Offer a hug or shared laugh after, it tells them they are not alone with their emotions.

The more we treat emotional care as part of daily life, the less scary it becomes.

The Heart of It All

At its core, mental health is about balance, knowing when to keep going and when to pause, when to speak and when to listen, when to care for others and when to care for yourself.

When we take care of our mental health, we are not just avoiding crisis; we are building stronger minds, healthier families, and more connected communities.

So next time someone asks what mental health really means, you can tell them this:
It’s everything that makes us us, our thoughts, our feelings, our hopes, our resilience.
And it deserves care, every single day.

Feel It. Move It. Connect.
That’s the Hoopla way to nurture stronger families, one feeling, one movement, one connection at a time.

Author: Soyini Alexander