Back to school: Parental tips

21 Jun Back to school: Parental tips

Transitions are always difficult and transitioning back to school this year may be particularly challenging for children and caregivers.

School reopening after holidays gives an increased amount of distress, fear, and feel anxious during this transition period. When we feel these strong emotions, children become upset over trivial things.

During these highly intense emotional moments, parents can help simply by being there, empathize and perhaps a hug or a gentle touch. Rarely are children able to reason logically during those moments. For instance, if a child is having a tantrum, a parent can help soothe the child by validating their emotions (“You are upset because I could not take you to the mall”) while soothing through gentle touch and a calm voice. One can simply say, “I am right here when you are ready to talk.”

Once children regain control and think more clearly, parents can model and teach their children calming strategies.

Some calming strategies include using deep breathing exercises to help stay calm, choosing some soothing music to listen to, or creating a calming space at home (filled with favourite calming tools, such as stuffed animals, soft pillow and blanket, books, play-doh, squeeze ball) where the child can go and relax.

During these moments, it may also be helpful to get down on the same or lower level as your child to help communicate that there is no threat and the child does not have to remain in a defensive posture. The neat thing here is that the brain gets the message from the body that it is safe! At the end of the day, the message we want to send to our child is, “Whatever you need, I am here.”

Children need to be seen, heard and able to express themselves during this phase.

Happy children and Happy learning.