After GSAT
GSAT results are out!
So, what’s next?!?!
THANK GOD, whoever you perceive Him to be. The examination is done, the grades are out, and primary school is nearly completely finished. You did it, with His help.
HUG YOUR CHILD! Hug your child because their hard work and sacrifice brought them to this point. You were there; you know what they went through. Whatever the placement may be, they worked for it and achieved it. Your child NEEDS to KNOW that you love them. CELEBRATE!
BREATHE. No matter what you can do today, one thing you cannot do is relive the past, so breathe and embrace the future that lies ahead. There will be much preparation to do this summer, lots of running around and ground work:
Uniforms (rules for shoes, hairstyles, socks, school-bags)
Book lists
New students’ handbooks
Orientation schedule
After school activity planning
Learning a new route to school
With all that and more, don’t forget to…
BE GRATEFUL: Remember everyone who helped, prayed, taught, supported your family in one way or another during the difficult preparation. Whether it is a phone call, a short note, a card or a present take the time to be grateful. Teach your child to thank them!
ENJOY THE SUMMER: your baby is growing up. Don’t waste one moment of this summer holiday – enjoy as MUCH as you can, because this is the last summer before high school. Secondary school marks a new phase of life: ever-increasing independence, less confiding in parents, more confiding in friends. Teenagers! But that is for tomorrow,
for today … Rejoice!
Managing Challenging Behaviours in Your Children
Matthew McKenzie, Clinical Psychologist
Getting your child to cooperate with you can be one of the most challenging experiences as a parent. However, it can be achieved if you’re willing to adjust a few things. Changing the child’s environment is key; your attitudes, behaviours, rules, methods of discipline and lifestyle constitute the environment in which your child lives.
your attitudes, behaviours, rules, methods of discipline and lifestyle
constitute the ENVIRONMENT in which your child lives.
One of the things parents are always hungry for answers about is the root of the challenging behaviours in children. Some of the more pronounced ones are inconsistent discipline, excessive punishment of the child, lack of parental supervision and angry adult role models. One thing’s clear – many of the factors are under parental control and can be eliminated by parents, if parents choose to do so.
In some families parents consistently fail to notice, praise and reward the child’s good behaviour. The child therefore has little reason to display good behaviour, because he knows his parent/s will not respond to it. It is also the case in these families that parents angrily respond to the child’s bad or inappropriate behaviour. Thus these behavioural problems become a means by which children gain some attention from their parents, even if it’s negative attention.
In some of these families parents allow all kinds of misbehaviour to go unchecked and then periodically the crack down on the child with excessively harsh or abusive punishment; almost as if this punishment is payment for everything negative that the child has done over the past three months. Such inconsistent behaviours by parents place defiant children at greater risk for full-blown antisocial behaviour in adolescence and later life.
“inconsistent behaviours by parents place defiant children at
greater risk for full-blown antisocial behaviour in later life”
Over-reliance on punishment is an approach that creates many more problems than it solves. Excessive use of punishment trains the child to lie and to engage in sneaky behaviour to avoid punishment. Children may begin to feel fearful of their parents and actively avoid them. Punishment for bad behaviour should preferably be used sparingly. For punishment to be effective it has to be used as little as possible; occur immediately after the child displays unwanted behaviour; be carried out in the same manner each time; be handled in a calm business-like way; and be of short duration.
The key is consistency. When you do not enforce the rules of your home consistently, your child learns that sometimes I can get away with it. Keeping even a few of these things in mind can go a long way to help you manage your child’s behaviour more effectively. Remember, there are no bad children, just bad behaviours and so when we punish, we seek to punish the behaviour and not the child.
This article first appeared in the CHILD’S MONTH SUPPLEMENT of the Paediatric Association of Jamaica,
Gleaner May, 2013
Matthew McKenzie is a Clinical Psychologist at Tots to Teens.
He can be contacted via the office or via email at matthew.mckenzie@caribbeantotstoteens.com
Learn MoreArt Therapy for parents with children who have special needs.
Six-week summer programme with our own Leslie – Ann Belnavis. Call us at 978-8535 or email jamarttherapist@caribbeantotstoteens.com for further information.
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ARMADALE: Children on Fire
UNICEF Jamaica shares the memorial of Randy McLaren calling to mind the 22 girls who were in the fateful room and the 7 girls who lost their lives at Armadale on May 22, 2009 in Jamaica.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tgV6lBS5tQ?rel=0&w=1280&h=720] Learn MoreClimate Change: DEAL with it! – Dengue Fever & Gastroenteritis
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp1IEc1f3ms?rel=0&w=853&h=480]DISCUSS
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Its 2013 let’s DEAL with it!
A production created for PAHO out of Barbados that is true for EVERY Caribbean country. Climate change is affecting all of us, we must DEAL with it.
Learn MoreHunger and Behaviour
What would your answer be if someone asked, “What affects a child’s behaviour?”
- Genetics
- Socialization
- Faith & Religion
- Culture
Rarely would the answer include hunger. But believe it or not, hunger plays a major part in behaviour. Look at the most basic form of behaviour, newborn babies. How do you known when babies are hungry: their behaviour changes. Most definitely you won’t see a hungry baby laughing and playing. Likewise, the statement “a hungry man is an angry man” is factual.
Narrowing down to school-age children, hunger will affect them both academically, and socially. Teachers may report a child as lazy, disruptive, withdrawn/antisocial, or they may find the student is unable to grasp the simple concepts being taught in class. It is important to note that it isn’t absolute that this is simply a lazy child, a disruptive child, an antisocial child, or a child that isn’t smart. It could just be that the child is hungry. Yes: HUNGRY.
Hunger is not simply a craving. Hunger is a physiological condition that is brought about by the anticipation of a meal. Hunger may include a long-term painful experience brought on by lack of food over a prolonged period. Hunger can lead to starvation, stunted growth and development, and even death. Depending on the duration of hunger, the child’s behaviour may be change immediately by simply feeding them.
From as far back as 1998, Dr Murphy et al conducted and published research in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry that revealed “Hungry and at-risk for hunger children were twice as likely as not-hungry children to be classified as having impaired functioning by parent and child report. Teachers reported higher levels of hyperactivity, absenteeism, and tardiness among hungry/at-risk children than not-hungry children.”
In addition, the Food Research and Action Center’s Breakfast for Learning report in 2010 reported that, “hungry children have lower math scores, are more likely to have to repeat a grade, are more likely to be hyperactive, absent or tardy, and have more behavioural and emotional problems in comparison to other children.”
Research coming out of Barbados, in conjunction with Harvard Medical School has recently confirmed that long-term changes occur in children who were hospitalized because of severe starvation. Although they had caught up with their physical growth, “these adults were more anxious, less sociable, less interested in new experiences and more hostile than those who were well-nourished throughout childhood”, as reported by Dr Janina Galler and her team in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
Now that you know that hunger affects your child’s behaviour, academically and socially, ensure that your child is properly fed. The best way of doing so is to ensure that they have the most important meal of the day:
BREAKFAST
Our Guest Blogger is Chenell Griffiths of Nutribites.
Check her out at nutribites.webs.com or follow her on twitter @NutriBites
Learn MoreClimate Change: DEAL with it! – Water Scarcity Infomercial
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JglioH7yPfg?rel=0&w=853&h=480]DISCUSS
EDUCATE
ACT
LOWER RISK
Its 2013 let’s DEAL with it!
A production created for PAHO out of Barbados that is true for EVERY Caribbean country. Climate change is affecting all of us, we must DEAL with it.
Learn MoreBARBADOS: Climate Change and Health Risk- DEAL With it! KUWTJ Edutainment
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5xM1fsngX0?rel=0&w=853&h=480]Even if you have never watched Keeping up with the Joneses KUWTJ before now (are you under a rock?!) you will LOVE this message on climate change and health risk. Dengue, Gastro…. no mo’!
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