When children are not in a good place emotionally they struggle to perform academic tasks, to the best of their ability. It is important that educators monitor and help their students that are suffering from stress, anxiety and emotional distress.

1. 8 REASONS WHY A CHILD’S EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING
IS VITAL FOR SUCCESSFUL LEARNING Emotional health is crucial for
success.

2. INTRODUCTION:
Our current educational system, as it
stands, doesn’t take into account a
student’s emotional wellbeing. In
fact, very little attention is paid to
the fact that a child could be
underachieving because they are
stressed, anxious, emotionally
unhappy or suffering from self-
esteem issues. The emotional needs
of children are largely ignored,
even though, research has strongly
emphasised the powerful link
between emotional well-being and
success in learning.

3. HERE IS WHY EMOTIONS DO MATTER:
Reason 1
Emotions influence learning:
Research on the brain has shown that
the limbic system of the brain is
responsible for both emotional responses
and memory retention and recall. When
a child is stressed or feeling emotionally
overwhelmed, their brain’s primary
function will be to help sort out their
emotional state, making absorbing or
recalling information very difficult.
Reason 2
Emotional health is vital for success:
When stress or anxiety sets in, it cripples
a child’s ability to absorb, recall or
share the information they know. Their
knowledge is lost in all the fog of the
emotional upheaval.
Emotional issues overwhelm a child’s
whole being, leaving no space for
effective learning.

4. REASON 3:
Positivity creates success:
Healthy emotions like happiness and
self-pride, charges the brain in a way
that it helps to promote concentration.
This in turn will lead to an increase in
productivity.
Positivity also enables student’s to
become better problem solvers as they
have the resilience to tackle difficult
tasks.
Positivity also tends to produce better
results as student’s are not intimidated
by challenging tasks.

5. Reason 4
Memories can be altered through
emotional upheaval:
It does not matter how effective a
teacher is in teaching a lesson, if a
student is not in good shape emotionally,
their memory function will be reduced.
This is because a child who is in an
anxious state, uses 100% of their brain
function just to perform basic tasks, so
that they can get through the day.
Fatigue is also a side effect of emotional
turmoil, and this also will have an impact
on a child’s memory.
Reason 5
Negativity reduces the ability to finish
what you’ve started:
Children who struggle with learning
often develop a negative mind-set,
because their inability to succeed has
battered their self-esteem.
If educators do not monitor their
student’s emotional well being, these
children will be perceived as being
behaviour problems, as they start
refusing to work, procrastinate and
leave work incomplete. These are sure
signs that a child is struggling with their
work.

6. REASON 6
Learning is more meaningful when life, knowledge and emotions are connected:
Learning should not be an isolated activity. A child will be open to the learning
experience when he sees that the concepts affect his life in a positive way.
If boredom, despondency, or frustration is experienced a student will not be able to
relate to the content and will therefore “tune out”. At this point it is important for
teachers to gain an understanding, as to why, a student/s are not learning effectively.

7. Reason 7
Test anxiety causes poor results:
If a student is stressed or anxious for a
test or exam it will impact their result in
a negative way, because test anxiety
causes the brain to become “foggy”. This
foggy state will hinder clear recall of
information and the ability to express
themselves clearly.
The test then does not become a true
reflection of what the child knows and
also becomes a counter productive
assessment tool.
Reason 8
Emotional wellbeing gives children the
perception of success:
If a student is happy and emotionally
balanced it will give them an edge over
other students who may be more
academically minded but are
emotionally unhappy.
This is because children who are
emotionally healthy do not let challenges
get them down, even if the obstacles
seem overwhelming. They plod ahead,
trying harder, unaffected by their
mistakes.

8. CONCLUSION
When we ignore a child’s emotional
distress we are directly placing obstacles
in front of their ability to learn. Telling a
child to get over themselves or cheer up,
does not give them the tools they need to
improve their emotional well-being.
In this day and age educators need to
be aware of their student’s emotional
needs and work at putting effective
strategies in place, to help these students
become more responsive in the
classroom.
This will be discussed in my next post

9. “THE ANXIETY CHILDREN FEEL AT CONSTANTLY BEING
TESTED, THEIR FEAR OF FAILURE, PUNISHMENT, AND
DISGRACE, SEVERELY REDUCES THEIR ABILITY BOTH TO
PERCEIVE AND TO REMEMBER, AND DRIVES THEM AWAY
FROM THE MATERIAL BEING STUDIED INTO STRATEGIES
FOR FOOLING TEACHERS INTO THINKING THEY KNOW
WHAT THEY REALLY DON’T KNOW.” – JOHN HOLT