Some or most of the parents may have a desire to have some free time for themselves after dinner, after the daily baby care ritual. The pre-requisite for it is that the child should be asleep! But the child doesn’t sleep without the company of his parents. So, the child has to be encouraged and trained to sleep alone, without the parents.
Continue reading Child Care: Making the Child Sleep Alone Without Parents
Sleeping problems are the most common complaint of mothers and fathers in the first few years. And more often than not, being a parent means having to get used to NOT sleeping fitfully almost every night. Let’s face it. You need your baby to sleep at night not just for her sake – you need sleep too to remain sane and function effectively. For this, it is important to know that there’s a great variability in babies’ sleep patterns and needs.
They can be divided into three broad categories:
1. Bedtime struggles: The child finding it difficult to fall asleep.
2. Night waking: The sleep of the child is interrupted during the night.
3. Parasomnias: Nightmares, night walking, night talking and night terrors.
WHICH SCHOOL TO PREFER IN THE INITIAL STAGES?
The ideal school at the age of 3 years is one where there is a lot of fun and joy for the child, along with learning of the basic and elementary things like knowing A-Z, names of common things, animals, colours etc. This learning should be in the spirit of play and fun; and not disciplinary where the child is made to sit at one place in the classroom for 3-4 hours and then taught things formally. The teachers over there should have a genuine fondness and love for the children and should be able to interact with them at their level.
Two important issues to be addressed for preparing a child to start schooling are:
i. Separation Anxiety: The child has difficulty separating from the parents temporarily to spend some time alone in an alien place i.e. the school. This is a normal phenomenon occurring in many children. With time and firmness on the part of parents, this anxiety decreases as the child becomes acclimatised to the school environment.
Continue reading Child Care: Preparing A Child for Schooling
Two important issues to be addressed for preparing a child to start schooling are:
i. Separation Anxiety: The child has difficulty separating from the parents temporarily to spend some time alone in an alien place i.e. the school. This is a normal phenomenon occurring in many children. With time and firmness on the part of parents, this anxiety decreases as the child becomes acclimatised to the school environment.
Continue reading Child Care: Preparing A Child for Schooling
CURE OF SCHOOL PHOBIA
The important thing is that the child should not miss schools, because then it becomes all the more difficult to cure it. The parents should find out what exactly is making the child fearful of school. Talking with the child and the teachers may reveal the cause. Most likely it will be one of the factors mentioned above (at the age of 3-4 years, it is usually separation anxiety). If the parents feel that the cause is not separation anxiety but something else like a stern teacher, a bully etc., they should not hesitate, but rather go and discuss the matter openly with the principal or the class teacher. Once the parents have an idea of the child’s fear, they can take steps to rectify it, alone; with the help of the teachers; or with the help of doctors.
Continue reading Child Care: How to Handle School Phobia and Poor Performance in Children?
❖ All anecdotal reports of a child being toilet trained early (before one and a half-year) are due to a “conditioned reflex” whereby the child becomes conditioned to strain reflexly whenever he feels the potty seat under him. The child is not conscious of the bowel movement nor has it come under his control. He has to be retrained later on in life, which will be a true and learned training. Retraining is harder, so don’t toilet train a child before he is ready for it.
An important part of a child’s development is to achieve control over his passage of urine and stool. From birth till the age of one and a half-year, the child passes both urine and stool involuntarily in his diapers. Only after that is some sort of control achieved. Culturally, human beings, as opposed to animals, are supposed to pass urine and stool in the toilet. We associate it with a sense of cleanliness.
Continue reading Child Care: True Toilet Vs Conditioned Toilet Training
❖ Up to 1 year (infancy stage): The key issue is formation of a strong emotional bond between the child and parents.
Continue reading Child Care: Child Psychology and Associated Problems