Lauretta Ani, a child counselling expert, has called on parents to encourage self-awareness in their children as it is an essential skill they need to cope in school and beyond.
Speaking at a parents’ forum organised by Greensprings School, Lekki campus, Ani said parents should teach their children how to name the emotions they feel and ways of responding to these emotions.
“Parents should listen to their children. They should teach their children to identify when they feel stressed or angry and should teach them how to manage these emotions,” she said.
Ani urged parents to take time to listen to their children and validate their emotions by teaching them how to know what they’re feeling and how to respond adequately.
The child counselling expert further observed that many children have busy parents who do not have time to listen to them, adding that due to this, the children go to school with the mindset that nobody will listen to them because everyone is busy.
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She said such children suppress whatever challenges they experience until things get out of control.
“They can only know about these responses if their emotions are validated at home. Children become self-aware by being able to name and respond to their emotions. This makes it easy for them to relay their challenges and feelings to school staff members so that they can be helped appropriately,” she said.
Commenting on possible actions to take when angry, she urged children to take deep breaths or engage in art or writing therapy to help deal with the anger they feel.
Ani said that schools also have a role to play in helping children to be self-aware, by complementing the efforts of parents, adding that having the pre-requisite knowledge will help children open up appropriately to school staff on challenges they have in school and be provided with adequate help.
“While parents do their part to make their children self-aware, schools must also design programmes that will reinforce the children’s self-awareness. At Greensprings School, we teach our students about self-assessment, goal setting, character development, and emotional intelligence and all these helps them to become responsible individuals. We also organise frequent forums aimed at discussing proper ways of raising children,” she said.
