STRESS LESS EARLY CHILDHOOD

Children are like wet cement. What ever falls on them makes an impression.
-Haim Ginott-

                    The personality of the child, the foundations for which had been laid in babyhood, begins to take form in early childhood. Parents and relatives constitute the social world of the child. Their feelings about him and their treatment are therefore important in the shaping of his self-concept. The child’s concept of himself as a person is formed with in the word of family relationships. As the mother plays a more important role in the young child’s life than any other single person, her attitudes towards the child and her treatment towards him are significant. It influences his personality development.

                   Researches found that the child rearing practices in a rural area revealed that the behavior problems of children increased substantially as the severity of the methods used at home distinctly contributes to the development of self-concept,strict,authoritarian discipline and frequent harsh corporal punishments turned to build up resentments against all forms of authority and feelings of martyrdom.

                  The aspirations of parents for their children also affect the young child’s self-concept. If these are unrealistically high, the child is doomed to failure.

Failure leaves as indelible mark on their self-concept and lays the foundations for feelings of inferiority and inadequacy through out life.

A child is the nation’s pride: Early childhood should be happy period in life. If the child is to be happy, his basic needs and wants must be fulfilled. The following suggestions will emphasize the important role of the parents in making a child happy.

Stress relieving tips in early childhood:

1. A healthy child is the potential for happiness. With careful attention to his diet, sleep, rest and play, he can be in good health for the most of the time. Even when ill, a child can be happy if he feels that his parents are doing all they can to help him to be comfortable.
2. A child is happy when he is not annoyed. Parents must recognize that the behavior, which annoys a child such as constant asking of questions, temper out bursts following a necessary thwarting of a desire, or quarelling with sibling and playmates, is a normal accompaniment of early development. Even more important is to show the child how to satisfy his needs in a more social way to make himself a more attractive and amicable person.
3. A child needs a constant reassurance of being loved in order to be happy. A well-planned consistent and comprehensive disciplinary policy will dispel the beliefs that the child may harbor that he is not loved when unfairly treated. When emphasis is placed on naughtiness of his act, rather than on him. He will have no reason to feel that he is rejected, which relieves stress in him.
4. Guidance in learning how to get along with other children in play situations will increase the young child’s feeling of being accepted and loved by his sibling and playmates outside the home and their by ensure their happiness.
5. Every child must have a reasonable amount of affection to be happy. Parents must shoe their affection for the young child by an interest in his activities and pride in his achievements. However, affection along will not satisfy his needs, unless it is geared to his level of development.
6. A child must be helped to like himself. He cannot like himself if thinks that he is a failure. Parents therefore have to take the responsibility, to develop and encourage the child not to develop a failure complex. By showing appreciation for what he has done for good things and how it could have done better and by not comparing the achievements of the young child with an older sibling or playmate. Parents must help the child to have a goal with in his potentials and thus achieve it.

 The most important factor is an atmosphere of happiness at home at all times. The child’s home is his immediate environment. If the prevailing atmosphere of the home is happy, the child will be able to overcome temporary unhappiness without distorting his outlook on life continue to be happy.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs332/en/index.html