Children - handle with care

Abstract

Children brought up in a good atmosphere, are of good behaviour and they can better handle any situation successfully. The atmosphere for a child involves the family, peers, teachers and school. Proper socialization is a must for a child’s proper development. The primary socializing agents are the parents and teachers by whom the child’s character formation takes place. Academic achievement of a child is not the sole deciding factor for the successful living of a child, but it is just one of the factors that determine the success or failure. But in the present scenario, undue importance is given to the academic achievement, ignoring the social and emotional development of the child. Hence, the children become the ultimate victim of the misjudgement. Therefore, to handle the children carefully and to nourish them in social and emotional competence, the Parent and Teachers Association has to be used as a common platform to nourish the children for a better citizen of tomorrow.

Introduction

According to Sigmund Freud “Any Child’s later years is determined by its own experiences during its childhood “. Scoff, a famous child psychologist stated that “children from good family atmosphere are of good behaviour and they can adjust with anyone and children from bad family background won’t try to communicate and adjust with people”. Hence, child has a character of imitation. It tries to do what it sees in its social environment. The social environment involves all the person the child meets in its life. It includes family, school and peer group.

Likewise proper socialization is must for a child’s proper development. The primary socializing agent is the family. This is where the child character formation takes place. The Secondary socializing agent is the school environment. This is where children spend their first part of life. Therefore school acts as a new society for them. For better growth and overall development of a child three areas namely, Academic excellence, Social development and Emotional development are very much important to be taken into consideration while nurturing.

Academic excellence

Academic performance of children varies from child to child to a greater level. Therefore, a class room is a heterogeneous unit which is a mix of gifted children and slow learners. Many children have problems in the specific areas of reading, writing and mathematics namely, dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia respectively. These learning disabilities cannot be treated but it can be better managed with the help of teachers and parents to achieve academic excellence. But, both teachers and parents are not aware of these learning disabilities. Once the teachers get to know about these learning disabilities, they can identify the children with such problems in learning easily and change the teaching methods accordingly. For remedial teaching, a teacher has to take extra effort. On the other hand, the parents have to accept the disability of their children and deal with them accordingly.

Perception of Parents

The academic goal of these children must be realistic and achievable. Parents can have their ambition with themselves and not on their children. In most of the cases, the parents expect more from their children by comparing with other children. Due to the cruel treatment of children for academic progress, their behaviour pattern changes aggressively and their scholastic achievement drops suddenly. Children are not parent’s extension but they are individuals. Parents don't know the real truth. Academic achievement is not the only deciding factor for the successful living of a child, but it is one of the factors that determine the success or failure. Hence, Parents should:

• Understand the needs, feeling and expectation of each child.
• Be impartial and not compare children with others.
• Be comfortable, free, and friendly with the children.
• Avoid discussing about the child in their presence.

Perception of Teachers

Teachers are not willing to accept that a child that can “look normal” can still have learning disabilities. Many of them feel that the child “is lazy”, “a born shirker”, “careless and inattentive”, even after they have been exposed on learning disabilities. Contrarily, they harass and punish the child for better academic performance. But, the teachers must take great responsibility in providing remedial help for children with learning disabilities. On the other hand, it is frequently observed in the recent dailies that teachers are being charged by the parents for the curial treatment against the students and for which, some of the teachers were transferred, suspended and taken legal action against them. Contrarily, the teachers argue that “children are being punished with the good intention of better academic achievement of the children”. When the teachers are being punished, for their cruelty on children, the response of the teachers is not a desired outcome of positive change. Further, they become a rule oriented employee rather than a performance oriented teacher. To make the teacher-student's relation effective the teacher should:

• Be positive.
• Avoid punishment.
• Be a good listener and encourage the children.
• Take great responsibility in providing remedial help.

Social Development

Like physical competence, social competence plays a vital role for an individual’s successful life. Where friends, peers, media have a greater influence over the children. So, children must be provided with necessary space to deal with their peers and relatives to gain social competence. This must be provided with proper guidance. In the socialization process, children have to accept many things they don't like and have to face  new situations and incidents.

Role of Parents

Parents are the role model for the children and they have to be comfortable, free, and friendly with the children. Parents play a pivotal role in shaping children’s values and goals. They should make sure that the goals are realistic and not fantasy oriented. Parents should also guide the children to face a lot of challenges in daily life and insist moral values in the children.

Role of Teachers

Teachers play an important role in the character formation of a child. Children consciously or unconsciously start to imitate their teachers. If the teachers are of good character and behaviour, children can be become good. If a teacher is adjusting with many situations and tackles many situation well, their students also try to emulate it. So a teacher should be a good model. Teachers should promote life skill to the children to face the society. They can create a healthy and favourable environment in school.

Emotional Development

Emotion is a common factor in every one’s mind. We have different counts of emotions to different people. There are many factors which control our emotions. Teacher and parents play an effective role in emotional development. Fear, anger, jealousy and love are some of common emotions of children. These emotions play an important role in the emotional development of a child. But some factors viz., tiredness, health, intelligence, societal circumstances and family relations affect the emotional development of a child.

Role of Parents

Children not only need basic needs like food, water, shelter but also beyond that:

• Children need some one to talk to and share their goals, hopes and problems. Parents should interact with their children daily.
• Another important need of children is to have good friends since friends can make vast and drastic changes in the life of children. Children seek persons of similar likes and dislikes, wishes etc., to mingle with. A proverb says “bad companies ruin good character”; hence parents should supervise closely the child’s peer group.
• Children need a sense of “Identity”- a set of unique traits that distinguish one child from the other. Children are unique and have their own sense of expressing themselves. Hence the parents should encourage them and inculcate right principles to their children.

Role of Teachers

Emotional development of a child is based on his studies experiences, intelligence and maturity. Teachers are taking into consideration only the intelligence but they hardly consider the emotional factors. They miss to handle introverts and extroverts as they deserve to be treated accordingly. The teacher should allow and also encourage them to express their own talents creatively for that the deep study over every child is important.

Intervention Platform

Parent Teacher Association is a common platform for bringing the teachers and parents to a better understanding of handling the children with care. Home-school relationship improves the development of child in social, emotional, and academic achievement. Parents Teacher Association offers the home-school relations that help to create.

• A better understanding between parents and teacher concerning what children are like.
• A better understanding with regard to what is education.
• Opportunities for parents to meet other parents and learn from their experience.
• Understanding of the new technique of child-rearing and training practices.

If these goals are to be achieved, the children will have to be nourished in a children-friendly atmosphere at school and home.

Source: Portal Content Team