How to help your kids with stress
Parents will have already noticed that not only adults, but children experience stress as well.
A daughter who doesn'y sleep well on the night before her exam, a 7-year-old son who has a stomach ache when leaving for school, a toddler who is agitated …
Child psychiatrist Lieve Swinnen explains more on Radio2:
"When there's an imbalance between what is asked of a child and what a child can do, your child will experience stress. This usually happens at school and at home. In young children, it often concerns physical and psychosomatic complaints. Older children have difficult thoughts: 'I can't do that', as well as fear of failure or a negative self-image. The consequences can also be the same: suicide, borderline, CVS, …"
How can you help?
It's important to let children experience and understand that they are good enough. Thinking that they are not good enough (or do not do enough) and fear of failure cause stress in children. Loving relationships are very important to strengthen their resilience. Emphasize the child's strengths. Successful experiences help with this; they feel that they're good at something.
Respond to negative experiences such as bullying by offering an alternative.
Of course, every child requires a different approach. There are children with a bit more resilience, a different temperament, children who quickly become agitated or have difficulty controlling themselves …
Turn stress into a positive direction
As a parent or educator, we can't remove all problems or negative aspects in order to make children feel good. Lieve Swinnen: “We have to stimulate our children, support them in their resilience, recognize their strengths, stimulate them, give them opportunity to develop and learn to use their own skills to deal with their environment in a positive way."
(MH with Skwadra by Tagtik/Source: Radio 2/Illustration picture: Pixabay)
