Child | Growing Pains

How To Encourage Your Teenaged Child To Study Harder?

July 22, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

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Parents often face trouble with their teenage children because they fail to understand that old methods of communicating with their children will no longer work with their teenaged child. Many gifted students stop studying during their teenaged years because they feel unappreciated by their parents.

When your child is young, he or she may want to excel in studies to make you happy. However, when teenage arrives, the child begins to develop his or her own identity and develops an ego. In such a scenario, the child may not be interested in getting good grades simply to satisfy you. Rather, he or she may focus on self-satisfaction and adopt a more selfish approach.

Many parents make the mistake of taking their children’s obedience for granted. They presume that the child should do well in school because they have done a favor by being a good parent for the child. Well, do you think you would appreciate such a sentiment? Obviously not.

As your child grows, you should set up a quid pro Quo system where you appreciate the child for efforts made and acknowledge that the child is going to benefit a lot in the future from his or her efforts. Instead of demanding good grades as a right, you should express appreciation that the child is considerate enough to work hard for you. That is the right way to motivate your teenaged child to continue being a good student despite the physical and emotional changes in the teen’s life.

Filed Under: Child Development, Education, Parenting Tagged With: Adolescence, Child, Parent

Activities to Supplement Your Child’s Education

May 8, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

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As a parent, your children often overwhelm your life. This can be compounded by the stress of having a special needs child or the need to encourage a child who is older or gifted. Learning some effective tools to manage your stress can help, as can encouraging a child to live up to their potential. Using rewards, praise, and positive influence can help any parent deal with their children while maintaining their own sanity.

Special needs children, as well as gifted or older children, have their set of needs and respond differently. Utilizing special activities and awards can be helpful. The key is determining the most effective method of encouraging your particular child. Consider, for example, a special needs girl who is struggling with learning to read. Using a book, such as ‘Angelina Ballerina’ in combination with a special gift, such as ballerina doll shoes, can provide the child with a reward while encouraging them to read.

This same concept can be used for any child; the secret is determining what motivates your particular child and finding a suitable activity. Gifted children may respond a museum or library trip. Special needs children may be better suited to educational games. Take the time to find out what your child considers an award.

Remember that job number one of every mommy is learning the fine art of encouraging a child. Learning how to do this will not only help prepare your child for a more successful life, it will help you better manage potentially stressful children. Being a mommy doesn’t have to mean being frustrated.

Filed Under: Education, Parenting Tagged With: Child, Intellectual giftedness, Special needs

Encouragement is Free

May 2, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

While there are so many things that parents today want to give their child, encouragement is one of the most important. As you look around chances are that you are bombarded with all types of products and services that insist that you need them in order to be a better parent. Some of these things may really work but just taking the time to say uplifting words to your child is completely free and priceless all at the same time.

Don’t worry about being eloquent. Kids, no matter what their age, would rather have your sincerity than a long list of words that sound nice but don’t mean anything. Just begin to look for an opportunity to give them a little boost. Your daughter sits at the table working through a complicated math problem and can’t quite seem to figure it out. Take the time to sit down with her, look her in the eye, and tell her that you know she can do it. Help her work through the problem, but when she finds success, encourage it!

If your son is struggling with a decision that he is making about school or an extra curricular activity take the time to listen to each option he is considering. You’ll get insight as to where he is coming from. As a parent, you may want to jump in and tell him just what to do because you see the big picture; you see what is best for him. But give him the chance to work it out himself and encourage him by letting him know that you believe he will make the best decision.

Filed Under: Child Development, Parenting Tagged With: Child, Family, Parent

Children with Special Needs

February 24, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

Those who label children with special needs may be doing more harm than good, to the children and the families of those children.

Special needs children have the same needs as other children. They may have additional needs that parents must fill, but calling them special is something that may cause a lifetime of heartache for the children and the parents.

As a society that is supposed to accept people from all lifestyles, it would seem that there is much work to do still, when it comes to advising parents of children that society calls special. All children have a naivety about themselves, their family members, and about the world around them. Children learn about differences in people from adults. They do not have a preconception of how supposedly normal children act. Nor do they know how those normal children behave, or what they are supposed to look like. It is adults who do all of this.

Parents of children with additional needs must impose on school officials and parents of other normal children, how they expect others to treat their child at all times, which except for an additional need here and there, is the same as other children.

Parents of children with special needs are the advocates for their children; just as any other parent is for their child. However parents of children others consider special, need to be especially vigilant so that their child does not begin to believe that he is special or different from any other child his or her age.

Just as school administrators label so-called normal children according to their academic skills in a school setting, children with special needs do not need singling out, and their parents do not want that either.

All children with special needs really need, is the support and help that all other children want and need, with a little extra, nothing more and nothing less.

Filed Under: Child Development, Education Tagged With: Child, Family, Special needs

Promoting a Child’s Creativity without Being Overbearing

February 18, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

It is perfectly natural for a parent to want their child to engage in extracurricular activities they enjoyed when they were children themselves. Parents can certainly offer suggestions or present choices to a child regarding outside activities. This is an excellent way for a child to highlight his or her talents or creative ability.

The downside is that a parent may tend to push a child to remain in a club or on a sports team they do not enjoy. Once the child begins to balk regularly, it is time for the parent to listen. Not every child will want to participate in certain activities, regardless of whether or not he or she possesses the necessary skills to excel.

A child may love to paint, draw, or write, regardless of their level of talent in creative arts. On the other hand, a parent may know that their child has artistic or athletic ability and wish their child would pursue that instead of playing sports. The child may not care for the discipline and time involved in playing a musical instrument, or completing an art project now, but they may decide to do so on their own later.

As long as the child is happy, a parent does not need to worry that their child may miss the opportunity to become the next Beethoven, Rembrandt, or Mickey Mantle. Children have a tendency to find their own way, when it comes to figuring out their passions.

One last thing to remember is that even if a child gave up being a scout, a ballet dancer, or a team player, it just means that they have not yet found an activity they enjoy. With so many opportunities for a child, parents can reassure themselves that whether it is music, art, sports or something else, your child will find his or her niche at some point.

Filed Under: Child Development, Education Tagged With: Child, Mickey Mantle, Parent

Encouraging Children from Infancy to Adulthood

February 8, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

Every parent hopes that when their children grow up, they will look back on their childhood years fondly. When you talk to people who say they had a wonderful childhood, they usually tell you that their parents were supportive in everything they did as children, and encouraged them every step of the way.

Encouraging a baby to utter his or her first words, or into taking that first step, comes easy for parents. Encouraging a toddler or preschooler to share toys and to play nice with others, takes a little more effort on the part of the parent, but eventually children get the idea that by doing these things, the child will make, and keep friends.

When children start school, parents encourage them to do their best while helping them adjust to spending the day away from their parents. Parents render this same kind of support and encouragement when children enter high school.

Even when parents consistently lend their support and guide their children through every nuance of their childhood years, there are those times when children need more than encouragement. When children feel discouraged, parents must allow their children to express their thoughts and feelings.

Parents cannot bear to see their children suffer, but instead of consoling children by telling them that they are mistaken in their thoughts and feelings, they need to encourage their children to talk about their problems and then discuss ways to solve those problems.

Understanding that it is perfectly fine to express sadness or anger helps children learn that there are steps they can take to improve those things that upset them. They learn they have the ability within themselves to change things for the better.

Encouraging children to express negative feelings and helping them deal with them, makes them feel better about themselves and teaches them to use a common sense approach to life’s struggles.

Filed Under: Child Development, Education Tagged With: Child, Family, Parent

Helping Children with Drug Addictions

January 23, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

Everybody has felt it: the agony of peer pressure. Occasionally, peer pressure can be a good thing. It can induce us to new activities, to go out with friends and encourage us to try things we wouldn’t otherwise do.

However, more often than not, peer pressure seeks complicity rather than compliance. Peer pressure says, “I feel weird trying this thing by myself. Do it with me so I feel less responsible for it.” In fact, most base peer pressure has to do with shirking responsibility, rather than owning up to it.

Children and teenagers face a complicated crossroads when it comes to complicity. If they don’t do what everyone is telling them to do, they face teasing, bullying and alienation. However, by giving into peer pressure, a child may be sacrificing his safety and health, emotional and physical.

In fact, underlying most child drug abuse issues are the more complicated emotional, psychological and social problems. This doesn’t mean that children with drug abuse problems are without hope; it just means that to stop them from hurting themselves, you can’t simply take away the substances. You have to address the deeper issues… the emotions, the negative peer pressure, the loneliness.

Children turn to substance abuse either seeking acceptance or seeking solace. However, drugs and alcohol accomplish neither of these things. The only way to help children understand is not by punishment, but by emotional and physical aide. Organizations, such as MichaelsHouse.com, are living and understanding resources for those in need.

Sometimes help simply begins with someone taking notice. Children – or anyone – with substance abuse problems is often turning to substances as an implicit cry for help. A substance is rarely the problem in and of itself – especially with children. Substances are often dangerous symptoms of deeper-seated issues, and the best way to find help is not alone, but alongside others who understand.

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: Child, Peer pressure, Substance abuse, Substance dependence

Nurturing a Child’s Learning Abilities

January 16, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

In the early 1960′s, when a child caused problems for teachers in the classroom, school officials often placed the child in a class separate from the regular classroom. In certain schools, they called this the Special Class.

The level of disruption caused by the child did not matter to school administrators. To them, the child was troublesome and they had to separate that child so as not to interfere with other students.

It was not until November of 1975 that Congress approved the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, which went into effect in October of 1977. This act gave schools the funds to obtain resources for children in need of special instruction.

This brought to the forefront the needs of children who, while not exhibiting any physical or emotional disabilities, still required special instruction in class. The IQ of these children can range from average to superior, to genius. The problem is not the inability to learn, it is the inability to learn in the same manner as everyone else.

Parents of children with superior intelligence have some idea about the problems gifted children have with learning disabilities. Sadly, parents of children with average intelligence may never find out that the only reason their children are not thriving in school, is that they learn on a different level than most. The reason may be as simple as an extremely smart child’s inability to be a good test-taker. Parents may also discover that their child is bored in class.

Schools with gifted programs have the resources to match a gifted student with a school psychologist or counselor. The counselor will test the gifted student to determine the best course of study that will best suit the advanced student. They call these Individual Education Plans.

All children should have access to these resources. Anytime a child struggles in school, parents should request a meeting with the teacher, the counselor, and other school administrators, to determine the cause of the child’s difficulty. A number of key issues may be uncovered that will ease the difficulties children may encounter in school.

Filed Under: Child Development, Education Tagged With: Child, Parent

Can a Child Be Too Smart?

January 4, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

Although this may seem like an outrageous question, the answer depends on where you send your child for an education.

Academically advanced children, or gifted children as some schools call them, have an edge over other children in school, as do those with higher IQ’s than most of their classmates. Unfortunately, these advantages can sometimes create problems for the child, the teacher, and the parents.

Even though a child entering school for the first time already knows the basics, they are still on the same emotional level as the other students in the classroom. School administrators often forget this when it comes to those children who already know what the teacher is teaching the rest of the class.

Parents can help with this problem if they talk to the teacher before the child begins school in the classroom. Teachers need to know that although a child can breeze through the material they are teaching, they still need actively engage that child in classroom activity.

Because some teachers realize that a gifted student already knows much of what they are teaching, they tend to ignore a gifted child in the classroom.

As a result, children far ahead of the other students academically, can become bored in class. Depending on the personality of the child, this may not cause major problems. A bored child needs a teacher that understands the situation, and to make an effort to rectify it.

Some public school systems developed special out-of-class activities for gifted students. Others attempt to incorporate additional instruction in the classroom. This can backfire for the gifted student if they feel the teachers single them out, in front of the other children.

Parents and teachers should discuss the following solutions with a gifted child’s teacher can help prevent problems in class:

Give additional work to complete at home or in the classroom
Allow him or her to assist other students
Have books and other activities available at various times

Parents of a gifted student should always communicate with the school before problems arise because a child, no matter how smart, deserves the best education.

Filed Under: Child Development Tagged With: Child, Education

Life Skills For Children With Special Needs

December 30, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

When you are living with a special child the most important thing you can teach them are life skills. These simple skills will help a special child live a full and rewarding life. Comprehensive learning activities are used to help special children acquire the essential life skills they need to become productive adults. A key factor in living with a special child is teaching them how to apply their skills and knowledge to new and familiar situations that will occur throughout their lives. Children with special needs learn how to accomplish the fundamental life skills most of us take for granted. These skills include social, personal, occupational, and daily living skills.

Teaching life skills to a special child will greatly improve their living conditions and help them conquer daily living tasks. Mastering these basic skills are the first steps towards productivity and independence. Children with special needs are taught how to apply these skills to their occupational, personal, and private lives. Your child should be encouraged to try new activities and hands-on projects that can help them develop sustainable skills that will last a lifetime. Trying new things will help special children develop practical experience and teach them how to apply the learned skills to their personal or social lives.

Medical and educational websites offer informative details on living with a special child. You can find resource information, learning activities, and teaching facilities for children with special needs. These resources are widely used by parents who are living with a special child to teach them the basic life skills they will need to help them function as an adult. With the proper training and life skills a special child can be independent and productive. This will allow them to secure regular employment, as well as live a happy and normal life.

Filed Under: Parenting, Resources Tagged With: Activities of daily living, Child, Education, Life skills, Parent