siliconindia | | August 20189Play is the child's work. So, it goes without saying that the worst and the sad sight to see is children and even babies staring at tablets, television screens, mobile screens and ipadsbottles spoons, pillows offer valuable opportunities for play. Do not think what the child will do with it. Let the child think and they will certainly do something with it. The games that have been played for centuries like hop-scotch, hide & seek and many more are excellent for elder children. Bumps & bruises are all right if they experience mastery. Of course, it is important to give them the emo-tional support at such times, but it is also important to help them realize that body heals. What is the second most important gift to your child? It is the social engagement with parents and family. Chil-dren thrive when they are with people who love them. The connections they develop help them to grow the emotional resilience and the emotional regulation, which is so very vital to building their self-esteem and ego. There has been a technological revolution that happened since the 1970's. With the telephone, then the computer, then the mobile phones, then the tablets, and then the internet and the wifi. Things have changed at a very fast pace. We need to be-come mindful about what have we gained and lost because of the change. We have been made to believe that our kids need cognitive stimulation at an early age by staring at the screens or making the kids join extra-curricular activities. Kids join school at a really early age. We over schedule them and rob them of the move-ment opportunities, which actually help our kids brains to develop. Even though technology has changed, the developmental needs of the kids still remain the same. Our kids are not agendas and their development does not have deadlines. We work on them like projects instead of relishing the moments, we spend growing with them and when some of these kids grow-up to become teenagers, they are broken adults who have poor self-esteem, poor decision-making ability, poor mechanisms of coping with stress and poor self-regulation. It is very easy to build strong kids rather than to repair broken adults. Some adults that I worked with were broken beyond repair who are carrying loads of emotional baggages.The Remedies1. Provide opportunities for your children to be in nature and just play everyday.2. Provide rich and nurturing social engagements with par-ents, caregivers, relatives and friends.3. And above all be a great role model for your child.
< Page 8 | Page 10 >