Fostering self-care and wellbeing through the world of reading

Nicola Schofield
A teacher sat outdoors with young students looking at a book togethr
Reading time: 6 minutes

Growing up is an exciting time. Children are curious and open-minded, and every day welcomes a new thing to learn. They are constantly exploring and discovering themselves and the world around them. But children also have to face many challenging times too as they get older. It is, therefore, important that we teach our young people to be aware of their own wellbeing and self-care, what they can do to lead a balanced and healthy life, and give them the tools they need to help them in difficult times, both mentally and physically.  

Boosting children's wellbeing with reading
Play
Privacy and cookies

By watching, you agree Pearson can share your viewership data for marketing and analytics for one year, revocable by deleting your cookies.

What are the key factors to a child’s wellbeing?

Have a look at Maslow’s Hierachy of Needs below. It describes people’s basic needs for good mental and physical wellbeing.

Self-actualization – Children need to be aware of their own feelings and understand how to process them.

Esteem – Children need to grow in confidence, feel valued and receive praise for their achievements. Having hobbies and interests too is key.

Love/belonging – Children need to develop meaningful relationships or feel part of a community. This could be friendships, family, a class, a club or school.

Safety – Children must feel safe in their surroundings.

Physiological – Children must have a home and access to food, water, sleep and exercise.

However, do children know how to look after their wellbeing? 

Ask them to make a list and share your ideas together as a class or as a family. What do they do to look after their mental and physical health? Are there any things that they do lots of or don’t do enough of? What can they start doing or try to do more of?

Alternatively, you could also ask them to put the following items in order of importance. Ask them, ‘What makes you happy?’, ‘What is important to you?’ 

  • Food
  • Water
  • House
  • School
  • Friends
  • Family
  • Exercise
  • Sleep
  • Hobbies 

How can Disney Kids Readers help children’s wellbeing?

Let’s refer back to the hierarchy of needs and see how they can link into reading.

Self-actualization – Disney Kids Readers can help increase empathy and self-awareness through reading about other characters’ emotions and putting ourselves in their shoes. It can help us to understand and process our own emotions too. For example, in Inside Out, we see Riley struggle with her emotions when her family moves to San Francisco. Through the characters of Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust, we can see how normal it is to feel a range of emotions and not feel happy all the time.

Esteem – Disney Kids Readers also help children to develop confidence and self-esteem as they progress through the levels. By completing the wide range of activities at the end of the books, children can see that they are learning and improving their English skills as well as having fun reading a book. 

Readers can also help us navigate difficult moments in life and teach us resilience and strength in challenging times. When we read the stories, we see how the characters overcome obstacles and deal with their problems. This can teach children key lessons and help them tackle their own problems in the real world.

For example, many of the characters go through difficult times to which children can relate. In The Jungle Book, Mowgli is scared but then his friend Baloo comes to help him. In Frozen II, Elsa goes on a difficult journey to restore justice for the people of Arendelle and The Enchanted Forest. 

Love/belonging – Reading Disney Kids Readers as a class, in pairs, or as a family can really strengthen relationships and a sense of belonging, which is such an important part of children’s development. Sharing a book is something special that can allow people to develop common interests and therefore make children feel that they are part of a wider community.

Safety – Children can feel safe and more secure when a parent or a caregiver reads to them before bed. Disney Kids Readers are perfect bedtime stories and help children to fall asleep listening to their favorite Disney characters on exciting adventures. Also, in times of stress, reading can help reduce anxiety, allowing children to enjoy the present moment and escape the real world for a little while.

Physiological – Reading exercises your brain. In addition to physical exercise, reading is an excellent mental workout which is so important to children’s health. Ask the children to memorize some pages from the reader and recite it without looking or ask them to memorize the phonics rhyme on the phonics page. You could also ask them to memorize the key words from the glossary list and see how many they remember.

Explore our range of readers and get inspired

Activity ideas

Now try out some of the activities below which can be linked to the Readers which will help your children/young learners focus on their wellbeing.

1. Paint a scene

This activity is calm, relaxing and mindful for the children to complete. The world is a busy place, and this activity links in with the idea of self-actualization and esteem. Painting or drawing keeps our mind focused on one task, and reduces stress and anxiety. It can help us process difficult emotions and can cheer us up when we are feeling down.  

Encourage your young learners to paint or draw a peaceful scene that they can imagine themselves in. It could be a beach, a forest, or even outer space. This activity allows children to express their creativity and imagination while also promoting relaxation and mindfulness.

Need: Self-actualization, Esteem

2. Reading emotion diary

Self-awareness is such a useful tool for our wellbeing – through this activity, the children take a moment each day to read a few pages of a book and then look inside themselves to think about how they are feeling before and after reading. This is powerful, as over time the children will understand that reading is a good way to calm the mind and manage emotions – something that can help them improve their own wellbeing and feel safe. 

Encourage your learner to write down their feelings in a diary after reading and reflect on how the reading has affected their emotions. This activity promotes self-awareness and emotional intelligence, which are crucial for maintaining good mental health.

Need: Self-actualization, Safety

3. Reading emotions

Emotional intelligence is such an important part of life. Understanding how someone is feeling through body language, such as facial expressions, gestures and body movements, can be useful when someone is sad, angry or upset. It can help us decide what they need and can help them feel listened to, loved and valued. In this activity, the children practice this by analyzing the characters’ emotions. It will help children build confidence when dealing with difficult or sensitive topics with family and friends. 

Choose a Reader with a diverse range of characters and ask your learner to identify and describe the emotions shown by each character. This activity promotes empathy, communication skills and social-emotional learning.

Need: Love/belonging, Esteem 

4. Guess the scene meditation

This activity is a great exercise for the brain. It helps children to visualize and picture different surroundings in their minds and imagine different smells, sounds and textures, and bring them to life. As the children’s minds are focused on one thing, they begin to relax and feel calm. This activity can be a great tool to use before bedtime to help children fall asleep peacefully.

Guide your learners through a guided meditation where they imagine themselves in different peaceful scenes. You can also ask them to create their own scene and describe it in detail. This activity promotes relaxation, mindfulness and creativity.

Need: Self-actualization, Safety

5. Develop resilience

In every story there is a lesson to be learned, and through this activity children learn how to deal with difficult situations through the characters. It teaches children that although there are hard times in life, if we are patient, work together and show resilience, then we can work through our problems.  

Choose a Reader with characters facing challenges and discuss with your learners how the characters handle the situation. Encourage them to think of ways they can apply this to their own lives when facing difficulties.

Need: Belonging, Esteem 

6. Create an exercise routine

This activity is creative and fun and will get the children moving and laughing at the same time. Physical exercise is so important to our wellbeing, so what is better than doing a workout with your favorite Disney character? The children can do these workouts in small groups, with family or as a class. This activity promotes physical health and social bonding.

Choose a few Disney characters and create simple exercises for each one. You can also use props or make it into a game by having the children take turns being different characters.

Need: Physiological

Read our blog post 'Choosing the right graded readers for young learners'.

Explore our range of readers and get inspired

More blogs from Pearson

  • A man with headphones on listening and smiling while he sits on a sofa
    11 great English-language song lyrics
    By Steffanie Zazulak
    Reading time: 5 minutes

    What is it about music that helps boost your English skills, confidence and pronunciation? A song can provide an emotional connection between the music and the listener, providing learners with new ways to express their feelings. Music and rhythm have also been shown to benefit memorization, which is a key component of learning.
    Here are some of our favorite lyrics to some of our favorite songs:

    1. The Beatles – Blackbird

    The Beatles are the best band to help you learn English. There are many Beatles songs with catchy melodies and simple lyrics, but Blackbird captures the Fab Four at their most poetic:
    Blackbird singing in the dead of night
    Take these broken wings and learn to fly
    All your life
    You were only waiting for this moment to arise

    2. The Cure – Friday I’m In Love

    This song is a great way to help learn the days of the week (that may be obvious). Love is also a very popular English word, so this one is for all the romantics out there.

    Always take a big bite
    It’s such a gorgeous sight
    To see you eat in the middle of the night

    3. Ed Sheeran – Thinking Out Loud

    Another one for the lovers: Ed’s heartfelt lyrics usually do well on the mainstream pop charts; he's one of the world's most popular songwriters. In this ballad, he tells the sweet story of long-time love.

    Take me into your loving arms
    Kiss me under the light of a thousand stars
    Place your head on my beating heart

  • Children and teacher looking at a tablet smiling and laughing in the classroom
    Incorporating reflection activities to kickstart the New Year
    By Charlotte Guest
    Reading time: 5 minutes

    A new calendar year offers a natural reset, an opportunity for your learners to pause, look back and lean forward with purpose. Reflection isn’t just a feel-good exercise; it’s a powerful learning accelerator. It helps students consolidate knowledge, develop metacognition and set actionable goals. It also helps you, the teacher, gain insights into what’s working, what needs adjustment and how to sustain momentum. Below are activities that fit into real classrooms and real schedules, with variations for different age groups and subject areas.

    Why start with reflection?

    Reflection builds self-awareness and agency. When students name what they’ve learned and where they want to grow, they’re more likely to persevere and achieve. For you, structured reflection provides a clearer picture of learning gaps and strengths, enabling intentional planning. Think of these routines as small investments that pay off in greater engagement, clearer goals and smoother instruction all year long.

    Quick wins you can do in one class period

    Rose–Thorn–Bud

    • Purpose: Recognize successes ("rose"), challenges ("thorn") and emerging opportunities ("bud").
    • How-to: Give students three sticky notes or three boxes on a digital form. Prompt: “One thing that went well last term”, “One challenge I faced”, “One idea I want to try”.
    • Teacher moves: Sort responses to identify class-wide trends. Celebrate roses. Normalize thorns with a growth mindset. Turn buds into a short list of new strategies to try together.
    • Variations: Pair-share for younger grades; content-specific (rose = strategy that helped with fractions, thorn = multi-step problems, bud = practice with word problems).

    Start–Stop–Continue

    • Purpose: Turn reflection into immediate behavior and study habits.
    • How-to: Ask students to list one habit to start, one to stop, and one to continue this term. Provide sentence stems: “I will start…”, “I will stop…”, “I will continue… because…”
    • Teacher moves: Have students star the one they’ll commit to this week and set a check-in date. Invite a brief self-assessment after two weeks.
    • Variations: Subject-specific (start annotating texts, stop cramming, continue reviewing notes nightly).

    3–2–1 Learning snapshot

    • Purpose: Capture key learning quickly.
    • How-to: Prompt with “three concepts I understand now”, “two questions I still have” and “one resource or strategy that helped me learn”.
    • Teacher moves: Use the “two questions” to plan mini-lessons or office-hours topics. Share a class list of “one resource” to build a peer-sourced toolkit.
    • Tools: Paper exit tickets or a quick digital form, whatever is easier and quicker for you. 

    Peer reflection interviews

    • Purpose: Build belonging and metacognition through conversation.
    • How-to: In pairs, students ask: “What’s one thing you’re proud of from last term?”, “When did you feel stuck – and how did you get unstuck?”, “What’s a goal you have for this month?”
    • Teacher moves: Teach active listening (eye contact, paraphrasing) and capture themes. Close with a 2-minute write: “One insight I gained from my partner.”
    • Variations: Record short audio or video reflections for classes using multimedia tools.

    Two stars and a wish (Portfolio refresh)

    • Purpose: Reflect using evidence.
    • How-to: Students choose two artifacts from last term to highlight ("stars") and one area to improve ("wish"). They attach a brief reflection: what it shows and why it matters.
    • Teacher moves: Model with your own sample. Provide a rubric for reflective depth (specificity, evidence, next steps).
    • Variations: Early grades can draw or use photos; older students link to digital artifacts.

    Deeper dives for week-one routines

    Personal learning timeline

    • Purpose: See growth over time and connect effort to outcomes.
    • How-to: Students draw a timeline of the term: key topics, pivotal moments, breakthroughs, setbacks and supports that helped. They mark future milestones: “By Week 4, I will…”
    • Teacher moves: Guide students to identify strategies that worked (study groups, retrieval practice), then add them to their plan. Create wall or digital gallery for optional sharing.
    • Extension: Have students revisit the timeline mid-term to add new milestones.

    Goal-setting conferences

    • Purpose: Craft specific, measurable goals with support.
    • How-to: Provide a short goal sheet: “My priority skill”, “Evidence I’ll use”, “Daily/weekly actions”, “Support I need”, “Check-in date”.
    • Teacher moves: Rotate through 3-minute conferences to coach students toward clarity and feasibility. Encourage process goals (such as practicing 10 minutes daily) alongside performance goals.
    • Variations: Small-group coaching if individual conferences aren’t feasible; student-led with peer feedback for time efficiency.

    Class norms refresh (Community agreements)

    • Purpose: Re-center your classroom culture.
    • How-to: Invite students to propose two norms that helped learning and one to adjust. Synthesize into 5–7 concise agreements.
    • Teacher moves: Co-create routines that enact the norms (silent start, exit reflections, peer tutoring). Post and practice with brief weekly check-ins.
    • Equity lens: Ensure norms protect voice and belonging, not just compliance.

    Make it stick: Implementation tips

    • Keep it short and regular. Even just 5–10 minutes a week builds powerful habits.
    • Use sentence stems to reduce cognitive load: “A strategy that helped me was…”, “Next time I’ll try…”
    • Celebrate progress. Highlight student reflections that show growth, not just perfection.
    • Close the loop. Bring reflections back into instruction: “I noticed many of you asked about synthesizing sources—let’s start with a mini-lesson.”
    • Make it visible. A reflection wall or digital board keeps goals at the forefront.

    Inclusive informed considerations

    • Offer multiple modalities: writing, drawing, audio or a private form. Choice increases safety and authenticity.
    • Normalize struggle and curiosity. Use language that validates effort: “Challenges are data, not defects”.
    • Protect privacy. Invite, but don’t require, public sharing. Summarize themes anonymously.

    Using tools you already have

    Many of you use courseware, dashboards and assessment reports. Use them to ground reflection in evidence:

    • Pull a quick progress report to anchor 3–2–1 reflections in actual performance trends.
    • Use item analysis to identify common thorns and plan targeted practice.
    • Invite students to look at their data with you during goal-setting conferences.

    A quick start plan for week one

    • Day 1: Rose–Thorn–Bud plus a short norms refresh.
    • Day 2: 3–2–1 Learning Snapshot tied to last term’s key skills.
    • Day 3–4: Goal-setting conferences; peers do Two Stars and a Wish.
    • Day 5: Personal Learning Timeline and a brief share-out; set check-in dates.

    Reflection is a powerful tool. Begin small, stay consistent and let students’ feedback guide you. With clear prompts, support and the right tools, including Pearson’s, you can turn New Year’s energy into steady progress for your class.

  • University students stood in a class together working on tablets
    How PTE Express helps agents beat admissions deadlines
    By Alice Bazzi
    Reading time: 2 minutes

    For students applying to US universities, timing is everything. Admissions deadlines can be tight, and delays in English proficiency scores can lead to missed opportunities. Your reputation as an agent depends on helping students have a seamless process, which includes meeting timelines.

    Why speed matters for US admissions

    US institutions often require English test scores before issuing offers or processing visas. Traditional testing methods can take days or even weeks for results, creating stress for students and agents. PTE Express changes the game by delivering certified results within 48 hours, ensuring students can submit scores quickly and confidently.