Month: June 2019

Gifted children are indeed gifts for the parents. They make parents feel proud and achieve great success during their lifetime. It is important for parents to clearly understand the proper treatment that these children should receive, for they are often highly sensitive to relations. They are different from the normal children and need considerable attention for their proper development.

Who is a gifted child? How are they identified?

Gifted children are identified from their behaviour and acts. A gifted child may be a fast learner, very sensitive to feelings and emotions, inquisitive, methodical and deeply involved in subjects from an early age. Sometimes, gifted children are exposed to negative tendencies and may get involved with equal enthusiasm and vigour.

Gifted children usually don’t mix up with the kids of their age. Their IQ and mental level may make them misfits in their respective age groups. Therefore, socializing is one of the aspects that need to be properly looked after.

In classroom also, such children may feel bored or not interested. This can have impact on their studies.

Gifted children may also face problems responding as emotional beings. They may be too sensitive to small issues and may alienate themselves from others. Social alienation is also found to be common problem with the gifted children.

The parents should understand the needs of such children and try to avoid any situation, which might excite them more than they can safely handle. Like parents should be careful as not to scold the child or rebuke in public.

Some parents may assume that a playschool is a lot of fun, filled with the use of crayons and play-pens. The kids and the setting of all preschools may appear very innocent and similar but the kind of a preschool a kid steps into has far-reaching consequences on the child’s growth and development. A preschool lays the foundation for later academic success during formal education.

Considerations When Choosing a Preschool (In order to provide an easy overview of some of the basic factors to be considered while choosing a preschool, examples have been quoted by assuming a preschool, called abc preschool for the sake of comparison.)

• Credentials — most preschools are privately-owned and managed. Thus, they have the freedom to make their own rules.

A defectively-managed preschool, for example, abc preschool employs teachers that don’t have the essential Early Childhood Educational qualifications. Now, compare this with a reputed preschool like Shemrock. Every staff member there is well-qualified and experienced. Parents should check out a preschool’s accreditations and certifications.

• Time Schedule — this is something that parents often overlook as they can’t differentiate between a day care facility and a preschool. Day care centres often provide extended hours for taking care of kids, especially for working parents. However, a neighbourhood preschool, for example, abc preschool may offer shorter but more planned activities for the kids. Thus, the parents have to consider their personal schedule and the nature of preschool education they would prefer for their children.

• Discipline — the most integral part of preschooling is introducing the children to the concept of discipline. This is where preschool policies become very crucial. The parents have to be beware of schools with very a very liberal outlook towards teacher authority. For example, a preschool, abc preschool insists upon scolding the children harshly or punishing them severely for the slightest of mistakes. Does it make sense to introduce your kids to such an extreme form of authority, so early in their lives?

• On the other hand, a reputed preschool like Shemrock helps the children to make this transition into education and disciplining easy, by delving into child psychology and sorting out the emotional aspect of child behaviour.

• Nutrition — one very important aspect of any good quality preschool is the kind of meals/food provided to the children. Some neighbourhood preschools may insist upon feeding the children tasty but unhealthy/fast-food/sugar-loaded kind-of-meals. Whereas, prestigious preschools like Shemrock have personal nutritionists to make sure that kids are provided healthy, tasty and wholesome meals.

• School Safety — a close-by or neighbourhood preschool may be very convenient, but it could be compromising on the safety facet of a child. The security aspect is a very comprehensive concept and includes security in terms of the construction, infrastructure, transportation and even accessibility to the preschool campus by strangers.

Educators in India agree that formal education should ideally begin at the age of five. This is also the pattern followed and accepted across the nation. However, with many schools operating their own nursery grades, the definition of the term ‘formal’ education has been slightly altered. Generally, parents prefer that children start their education at the age of five, though there is a scope for some leverage in different parts of the country. However, rather than being obsessed about the age at which children start school in India, parents should also address issues like —

• Good Preschooling

• Helping the Child Start School

Preschooling
As the terms suggests, preschool is all about making a child prepared for his formal education. A child graduating from a preschool has better cognitive and learning skills and can easily adapt to the setting of a structured schooling programme. Skills taught at a preschool are essential before the beginning of statutory education.

Preschool is addressed by different names. A preschool could be called a playschool, day-care, pre-primary, pre-nursery or kindergarten. Young parents are prone to be concerned about the age at which children should start school India, but they should first take care of the preschooling aspect as this gives the child a structured foundation for further learning. The basic skills developed at this age last throughout a child’s life.

Helping the Child Start School
Most children find it difficult to acclimatize themselves to the proper classroom setting of a school. This is because the environment in a school isn’t as liberal and fun-focussed as that of a preschool. Thus, once the parents are through with the headache of gaining admission to a good school and the anxiety pangs of the correct age at which children start school in India have subsided, they should concentrate on helping the child with getting ready for school.

Some tips for parents have been listed below –
• All the supplies mentioned by the school including things like books, school bag, crayons, etc. should be bought beforehand.

• For the sake of the child’s safety and to make easier for others to guide him/her in the school premises, make sure that some of the items like the child’s clothing, lunch box, etc. are labelled with the child’s name/class/section.

• The child should be made aware about the commuting plan, inclusive of the drop-off and pick-up details.

• The parents should also prepare a hand-out for the school teacher or nurse, in case the child depends on particular medications.

The night before the first day at school is very important for the child. Most children are very apprehensive and may ask a number of questions. The parents should —

• Discuss the most probable morning routine with the child, including things like bath-time/bed-time/waking-up. Make the child aware that sticking to the schedule is necessary.

• Try and talk to the child about the things that should be expected on the first day at school.

More and more people are turning towards the internet in order to search for information regarding the various preschool options. However, few of them are able to get the desired information. Yes, the perfect webpage to answer all your queries regarding the preschool is out there! The problem lies in the method of searching employed by the people. Most parents tend to use a search engine when searching for such information. They usually type a few words in the Query Box and then start scrolling through all the possible matches the search page displays.

Search Phrase
Usually, the words chosen to conduct the search play a very crucial role in finding the best-possible results. Typing in a vague phrase like — admission in playschool + kidzee, will lead to many off-target web pages that don’t deal with the required information. In fact, on most search engines, this phrase would list various websites that contain some articles/information related to Kidzee. This is because search engines are unable to decipher as to what is the exact nature of the query, from such a search phrase. The search phrase — ‘admission in playschool + kidzee’ could be interpreted as information sought related to:

1. Admissions in Kidzee
2. Some general information about Kidzee
3. What things should parents check out when seeking admissions for their child in a playschool? or
4. What are the issues related to admission in a playschool.

Neither does conducting search with the term — admission in playschool + kidzee, lead to the main website of Kidzee. This is because the search term itself is too generic. The solution to this confusion is rather easy.

• If a parent is seeking information about admission in Kidzee, then the search term has to be more specific like — admission in kidzee or “admission” kidzee. Both these search terms essentially lead to the main website of Kidzee, providing the necessary information on the page related to admissions.

• However, if the parents are searching for information regarding issues like the appropriate age, things to check-out, etc. for admission to playschools, they could key in the phrase — admission in playschool — in the Search Box. After having gone through the articles/information related to playschool admissions, the parents could then seek further information regarding the playschool of their choice by typing in the name of the playschool in the search box, which would invariably lead to the main website of that playschool.

There are various methods of searching for the best-suited preschool for your child. Some parents make such decisions based the various forms of advertising that are used in the media, while some depend upon the feedback they receive from parents who already have children enrolled in a preschool. Many parents use the online option when searching for a preschool for their child.

A common method of searching about a particular brand of preschool in Delhi is to type-in the name of the school, preceded by the main nature of the enquiry and lastly, the location is typed in. For example, keying in a search phrase like — admission age mother’s pride new Delhi — will initially list websites that are directly related to Mother’s Pride,

followed by other websites that would be attuned to subjects like, the age for admission, perfect age for admission and even listings of websites highlighting the term ‘New Delhi’. Thus, it becomes apparent that the search term — admission age mother’s pride new delhi — doesn’t list the websites that provide the accurate and sought after information.

So, what is the best approach towards making an online search for a parent?

A Better Alternative
The best and perhaps the easiest way to go about searching for information related to any preschool is to visit the main website of that particular preschool. Thus, instead of typing-in — admission age mother’s pride new delhi, a better option would be to type-in the brand of preschool or the preschool name, followed by a comma, followed by the city/location of your preference.

For example, a search term like — mother\’s pride, new delhi or shemrock, new delhi would invariably bring you to that preschool’s main website. Now, the parents can not only checkout the various locations/availability of that preschool in New Delhi but also get a better idea about the activities and facilities that are provided by the preschool and any new changes in the curriculum/certification/affiliation that the preschool has incorporated. Further parents would realise that the availability of some facilities might vary from branch-to-branch.

Most of the main websites of preschools are very informative in this regard. For example, Shemrock’s main website lists every kind of information that would be sought by a parent including —
• Admission information
• Activities and facilities
• The education system at shemrock
• Contact details
• Resources for Parents and even
• A Franchise Section

Buzz up!

Overparenting is sometimes also called hyper-parenting. Both the terms signify the same thing — a wrong parenting style. It refers to a parenting style in which parents are overly-involved with their children. Such parents are often seen fighting at the school games or arguing with the school-coach because they felt that their kid was undermined in some way.

Such parents are overly competitive and would go to the extent of writing and doing their child’s homework and assignments. A small drop in the child’s test scores is equivalent of the world ending for them. Hyperparenting is not limited to the big cities only. Over-ambitious parents are found in small towns and rural areas also. Basically, such parents are over-involved, over-controlling, too demanding and obsessive.

Concerned Parenting versus Hyperparenting
It is not uncommon to find parents who are very concerned about their child. The increasing stress in our daily lives and the ever-growing ambitions and frustrations of the parents often leads to a tendency of being preoccupied with the achievements and performance of one’s child. Many such parents feel that succeeding in every subject and every sphere of activity at school is an absolute necessity. They begin to associate the child’s success as their own. Concerned parenting is essential for being good parents, but when the concern of a parent turns into a fixation, it turns into something ugly — hyperparenting.

Seeking Perfection
An obsessive parent can be understood as someone who seeks perfection. This perfection should be reflected in both individual output as a capable parent and his child’s performance in terms of being a perfect student, an outperformer. Such parents are very determined to make every possible sacrifice for their child’s education. They begin to micromanage every aspect of the child’s life including social and academic aspects.

Children of Over-involved Parents

• Such obsessive parents don’t allow the child to take any independent decision. Thus, the children develop little self-confidence. The 24×7 scheduling and analysis done by the parents makes the child vulnerable to be acutely self-critical.

• Children of such parents might also develop trust issues. They could start believing that the parent doesn’t trust them at all. Usually such children grow into over-dependent, hypercritical and untrusting individuals.

This is because of a very simple cause — children are just too young to be able to modulate or alter their emotions. They cannot exercise the same level of control as parents. Two-to-four-year-olds try to express their frustration via these angry outbursts. Children this age can’t express their needs or feelings to their parents or caregivers and tend to develop a kind of nervous energy, i.e. anxiety or anger. Adults too have the tendency of temper outbursts but they can usually control their frequency or the acuteness of such emotional outbreaks. Parents could follow a few tips in order to take control when their children present such situations.

• Staying Calm
The very first and most elementary of advices while handling an angry, irritated child is for the parents to stay calm and composed. The parents should acknowledge the child’s feelings which could be either of frustration, boredom or tiredness. They shouldn’t engage the child in a long conversation regarding how he feels.

Rather parents should keep the dialogue short and communicate to the child that they are willing to help. It is advisable, when handling irritated toddlers, to have some of distraction distract the child. Parents could try and use some treat like his favourite chocolate shake to calm the child.

• The Wiser Approach
No matter how helpless the parents feel themselves, they shouldn’t reward a child’s repeated tantrum with too much attention. The idea behind is that the child shouldn’t start believing behaving angrily is just an easy way to garner the parent’s attraction or an easy treat. Secondly, the parents are a child’s perspective of what is good. Thus, the parents themselves can’t behave inappropriately. Sometimes neither of the above-mentioned steps seems to work and then the parents have only option, i.e. to leave the child alone.

How to Avoid Tantrums?
Tantrums are a sign of a child’s anger, frustration or something that is making the child very uncomfortable. In this context, it is important to realise what is the child’s tolerance level. The parents should work upon it and try and raise his level of tolerance against stressful situations and train him to be a calmer and more confident individual. One easy way of doing this is complimenting and rewarding the child’s good behaviour.

Parents should use all or a combination of these four basic ways to tackle child-related problems.

Raising the Child’s Self-Esteem
• Small things like a parent’s tone of voice, the usual body language and facial expressions make an impact on the child. Such things affect the child’s perspective of the world around him and play a major role in developing his personality.

• Praising the smallest of child’s achievements however small they may be would improve his self-confidence and make him more confident of his abilities. This feeling of personal pride eventually reflects in the form of raised self-esteem. On the contrary, disparaging remarks and comments or constant comparison and negative speech makes the child feel worthless and look down upon himself.

• When the child makes a mistake and it is apparent that he feels bad about it, don’t try and scold him or make him feel even more guilty of himself. This would induce the fear of making mistakes and make him prone to developing self-conflicting issues.

Are you an Escapist?
Some parents are guilty of venting out their frustrations or anger by shouting or being hyper-critical about the child. This kind of a negative parenting attitude makes the child feel unwanted. The child shouldn’t become an escape mechanism for the parents. The parents need to deal with their own set of problems and make sure that the child’s innocence is not hampered by their own disappointments in life. The children shouldn’t be used as a tool for achieving what a parent failed to do so himself/herself. The child’s ambition and freedom should be give priority.

Discipline isn’t a Choice
• The main purpose of disciplining the child is to make sure that he develops the right set of moral values, attitude, aptitude and manners. Children themselves are unable to identify the need for rules and regulations but it is the responsibility of the parent to make sure that the child isn’t getting away with too many liberties. An excess of freedom at one point in childhood could backfire as the child develops a mind of his own and doesn’t respect the opinion of his parents anymore.

• Rules aren’t just for the child. The parents should be sincere enough to present themselves as good role models. Once this is established, the child has practically no excuse to break the house rules or consistently disobey his parents.

Make Time for Your Children
• Modern lives are very busy and it is difficult for parents and children to do simple things together like having a family meal but such simple family activities are essential and from the basis for parent-child bonding.

• Parents can created a ‘special night’ every two weeks to get together and let the children decide what TV programme or movie they want to watch.

• Parents who can’t meet their children in the morning could put a note in the child’s study room or in the kitchen with a few words of encouragement written on it.

• Parents should look out for opportunities like attending the school concerts and games to make the child feel special and appreciated.

At the time of birth infants have an in-built protection against a number of diseases because of the large number of antibodies that pass through the placenta from the mother’s womb to the child. Breast-fed babies continue to get the same benefits due to the numerous antibodies found in breast milk. However, these antibodies can’t guarantee protection against every disease and this is why vaccination is needed. Vaccines are used to increase the strength of the child’s immune system. Some vaccines do cause mild side effects including soreness at the point of the injection but these aren’t serious when compared to the effects of the deadly diseases they protect against.

Commonly-recommended Vaccinations for Children 
• DTP, i.e. diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis.
• IPV for polio.
• Influenza
• MMR, i.e. measles, mumps and rubella.
• Chickenpox
• Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B

DTP Vaccine
• Diphtheria — it is a very serious infection of the throat that can block the air passage. This causes severe breathing difficulties in children.
• Tetanus or lockjaw — this is a very serious nerve disease. It can occur at any age and is caused by toxin-producing bacteria that are found in common wounds.
• Pertussis or whooping cough — it is a common respiratory illness and has cold-like symptoms. This leads to severe coughing or a ‘whooping’ sound. This sound occurs because the child breathes deeply after the coughing bouts. The complications of pertussis occur in children under the age of one and those under the age of 6 months are very susceptible.
• Why is the Vaccine Recommended?
The vaccine has been so successful that it has virtually eliminated diphtheria and tetanus among children.

IPV-Polio
• Polio begins as a viral infection that could eventually lead to permanent paralysis in children.
• Immunization Schedule — the immunization schedule includes giving the poliovirus vaccine or IPV at different stages, i.e. at the ages of 2 months, 4 months, 6 to 18 months and then between 4 to 6 years.
• Why is the Vaccine Recommended?
Protection against polio occurs in more than 95% of children immunized.

Influenza Vaccine
• Influenza is commonly referred to as the flu and is a contagious viral infection of the respiratory airway. Contracting this disease could prove fatal for the children.
• Immunization Schedule — the flu shot is given in a fixed schedule which includes shots when the child is 6 – 59 months old. For kids below the age of nine, two separate shots are given at an interval of a month.
• Why is the Vaccine Recommended?
The flu vaccine isn’t completely effective but it reduces the person’s chances of contracting flu by nearly 80%. Getting a shot, gives the body some sort of immunity against the virus.

MMR Vaccine
• The MMR vaccine immunizes against measles, mumps and the deadly rubella virus.
• Immunization Schedule — the MMR vaccinations are delivered in two separate doses. The first does is administered between the age of 12 – 15 months and the second between 4 to 6 years.
• Why is the Vaccine Recommended?
Measles, mumps and rubella are infections which later lead to many complicated illness. The vaccine is extremely effective in protecting the child.

Varicella or the Chickenpox Vaccine
• The varicella vaccine helps to protect against chickenpox — a common and very contagious viral illness.
• Immunization Schedule — the vaccine is given by injection between the age of 12 to 18 months.
• Why is the Vaccine Recommended?
The vaccine is effective enough to prevent severe illness in nearly 95% of children who get immunized in time.

Hepatitis A Vaccine
• The hepatitis A virus or the HAV causes a number of symptoms which usually occur together. These include fever, nausea, vomiting and jaundice. If not controlled, the infection can spread and cause an epidemic.
• Immunization Schedule — the vaccine is ideally administered to children 12 to 23 months old. A second dose follows, 6 months later.
• Why is the Vaccine Recommended?
Vaccination against HAV is vital because even infected children many not have any of the above symptoms for a long period. This is a life-saving vaccine.

Hepatitis B Vaccine
• Hepatitis B virus or the HBV affects the liver. The infected child becomes a lifelong carrier of the virus. This leads to problems like cirrhosis or degeneration the liver or liver cancer.
• Immunization Schedule — this vaccine is given in a set of three injections. The first shot is given to infants, just after birth. The second shot is administered between the age of 1 – 4 months and the third at the age of 6 to 18 months.
• Why is the Vaccine Recommended?
The hepatitis B vaccine has been very successful and gives extended immunity to the child. This kind of immunity carries from childhood to adulthood. This decreases the risk of getting any kind of chronic liver disease.