FEBRUARY 2011 NEWSLETTER

Greetings Parents / Guardians,

We are extremely excited about the opportunity to work with you and your child. By now, most children have settled down into the school learning environment. We are pleased to append below the school hours for your information.

Class                                                 Start                       End

Pre-Junior (Age 3)                             8.00 a.m.              11.30 a.m.

Junior 1 to 3 (Age 4 to 6)                   8.00 a.m.              12.00 noon

The class teaching will commence at 8.10 a.m. except for Tuesday and Thursday at 8.30 a.m. after the PE lesson. Our Pre-Junior children will end at 11.30 a.m. and whereas our Junior 1 to Junior 3 children will end at 12.00 noon daily. Should you desire to pick your child early, kindly inform our school office at least one hour before the pick-up time.

We would like to seek your kind cooperation not to stay inside the school compound prior to the school ending time. Entering into the individual classroom during school hours is strictly prohibited. Should you be sending foods or other items to your child, please pass it to our duty teacher at the door grill. This is to avoid any interruption to class and distraction to children learning.

Self-control, also known as impulse control, is the ability to suppress the urge to do or say something. It means comprehending consequences of behavior. Adults, who themselves may have difficulty with some aspects of impulse control, often expect children to have better control over their emotions and actions. Research and experience teach that children are developmentally driven to perform certain activities, including testing limits. As a rule, children, especially young children, do not consciously plot to make parents angry or upset. They simply do not have mature impulse control.

What does this mean? Parents need to help children develop impulse control and in some cases, be the impulse control. How? Research has clearly proven that responding promptly to an infant’s needs decreases future crying and anxiety. So learn what those cries mean—“I’m hungry, I’m tired, I’m lonely.” Verbalize what you’re doing. “I’m going to leave the room, but I’ll come back through that door.” While infants may not initially understand the words, they will certainly respond to nurturing facial expressions and tone of voice. Additionally, a regular routine and schedule help babies develop feelings of security and attachment, which will aid in later development of self-control skills.

Parents need to provide reasonable consequences for inappropriate impulse control in a consistent, loving and firm manner. They also need to provide supervision and environmental controls so that children are not placed in situations where lack of impulse control could impact health and/or safety.

Happy reading!

Helping Children Develop “Impulse Control”

- Illinois

Excitement, joy, anger, frustration, and disappointment are all part of growing up. Learning how and when to show these emotions is known as impulse control. Here are some facts about impulse control:

Impulse control helps children make and keep friends

Children who can control their anger and frustration, and use words to express their feelings, are likely to be able to make and keep friends. And making and keeping friends can boost self-esteem and later school success.

Early experiences can contribute to later success with impulse control.

Infants need a responsive and predictable environment. When you respond to their physical needs with love and care, they learn to expect order in their world. They also learn that their actions affect others.

Toddlers need to feel independent and capable. You can help them use their developing language skills to label their own and others' actions. Learning to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings with words is the key to having good impulse control.

Older preschool children learn to control their impulses by taking turns or sharing their toys. They are increasingly able to use language to control their emotions and interact with others.

You can encourage the development of impulse control in your 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds in the following ways:

Suggest words that your child can use to say how she feels.

If your child gets mad while playing a game, encourage her to use words to show her anger, such as "That really makes me mad!" or "I don't like it when you play the game that way!"

Make it clear that hurting others is not allowed.

When your child gets mad playing a game and pushes or hits another child, take him aside and remind him that hurting others is not allowed.

Help your child think of new ways to solve problems.

When your child has a disagreement with another child, suggest solutions such as taking turns or sharing.

Respond to your child's misbehavior with words.

When you tell your child the reasons behind rules and explain the consequences for misbehavior, you help her develop inner controls on her behavior.

Model self-control when dealing with stress or frustration.

Your child learns many behaviors from observing you. When you model self-discipline and self-control in difficult situations, your child will learn to follow your example.

JANUARY 2011 NEWSLETTER

Greetings Parents / Guardians,

Welcome you to Tadika Seri Rhema’s 1st Early Childhood Newsletter of 2011. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all parents for helping your child to adjust into our school learning environment. Parents are reminded to be punctual as the school starts at 8:00 a.m. Please do inform the school should there be any changes to your addresses and phone numbers to enable the school to contact you during emergencies.

Please take time to read this monthly newsletter as they are mooted to share some ideas on familiar or common topics which I believe will inspire or enable you to be more effective parents. For update of information, you may visit our school blog at http://serirhema.blogspot.com. If you need any help with regards to your child’s development, please do contact me. I am available on most mornings or afternoons after school. I will be more than willing to arrange a time with you if you would prefer a private session.

As a precautionary measure, please keep your child at home whenever he/she has a running nose, fever, chest cold or other contagious diseases until full recovery. Thank you parents for your support and we look forward to serving you and your children.

Anxiety is a necessary part of the human condition. All of us have anxieties and our children are no exception. Anxiety is our natural alarm system, which alerts us to uncertain or potentially dangerous situations.

It can begin in infancy as some babies experience anxiety when left alone at night or when separated from their parents. To an infant this is perceived as a life threatening situation, as they depend on their parents for survival. Some experts feel much of the anxiety we experience throughout our lives is related to this "separation" experienced early in life.

In this article we will discuss childhood anxiety disorder and focus on the school age child, with a special word on school phobia.

Happy reading and wishing all parents a blessed Chinese New Year!

Children and Anxiety – Stanford Health

Anxiety Disorder

This disorder is described as excessive worrying or having intense fears that interfere with the child's daily existence and enjoyment of life. Dr. Sharon Ryan Montgomery, a child psychologist in Morristown, NJ, stresses that all children may experience anxiety at some time in their childhood as a response to a new situation or developmental challenge. The birth of a sibling, a move to a new home, the start of the school year, and illness or death of a close family member or pet are common examples of situations that can provoke anxiety in any child.

Some children, because of their own temperament, may be more prone to anxiety and have more fears than other children. These are children who are shy, have always had difficulty with separation or new situations, or with change or transitions. As infants they may have had more difficulty settling down and may have reacted more suddenly to loud noises.

When a child is experiencing anxiety, a parent may observe a change in appetite, difficulty sleeping, nightmares, or physical symptoms such as head-aches, dizziness or stomach aches. Some children may suddenly not want to be left alone or go to a friend's house to play or sleep over. For most children or adolescents, these symptoms will be short lived and the child will work through these fears and develop a feeling of mastery over the challenge. In fact, learning how to face fears and cope with new experiences are vital skills for our children to learn.

However, for some children, the anxiety begins to intensify and become more pervasive, and fear may spread beyond the original source of the anxiety. For example, an initial reaction to parents leaving a child at home with a relative while they take a trip, may extend to fear of any separation between parent and child. Difficulty sleeping or eating will worsen the child's physical state and decrease the child's ability to cope. These greatly magnified fears and anxieties will then begin to interfere with the child's enjoyment of daily life.

Dr. Montgomery offers the following advice for parents who suspect their child is having anxiety or increased fearfulness.

• Talk to your child about what he or she may be afraid of (remember children will not understand what anxiety is). Find out what is happening in the child's world, especially school. What changes or losses have occurred for your child?

• Make adjustments if possible to ease the situation, but don't overprotect. Remember that it is unrealistic to think that you can remove all of the stress from a child's life. So, try to help your child face his or her fears with gentle support. Encourage your child's independence in age appropriate areas.

• Maintain structure and set limits on behavior. These make a child feel safe.

• Reduce your child's exposure to frightening media reports. These alone have been responsible for some children's sudden fears.

• Anxiety is very contagious. Children can easily pick up on a parent's anxiety. In addition, remember to examine family stresses to see if your child is picking up on someone else's anxiety.

• For the same reasons, be aware of your own anxieties and fears. Be careful not to discuss these with your child.

When do you need to seek professional help?

If a child's symptoms last longer than a month, seem to be getting worse instead of easing, have spread to other areas of the child's life, or are interfering with school functioning, or if all your attempts to help your child cope are not working, then it is time to speak to your pediatrician or seek help from a child therapist.

Our aim as parents should be to teach our children better coping for handling stressful situations, rather than trying to eliminate stress in our children's lives. Because the reality is – whether child or adult – we live in a stressful, rapidly changing world, that requires coping skills to survive.

School Phobia

An important type of anxiety disorder is when a child suddenly develops tremendous anxiety about going to school. Physical symptoms are very common with stomachaches and headaches leading the list. Once a medical cause has been ruled out, the school avoidance has to be acted on immediately. This is the one situation that a parent should not wait several weeks before addressing. The child should be firmly, but gently, returned to school as soon as possible. The worst thing is for a child to get into a pattern of staying home. The longer this goes on, the harder it is to return the child to the classroom. To achieve this sometimes requires a collaboration and cooperation of parents, teachers, the pediatrician, and the therapist.