Children experience stress sometimes, just like adults do. Children’s sources of stress, however, may be different from adults. Changes in a child’s body, changes in their environment, discovering their identity and discovering duties and consequences are some common fundamental causes of stress. Children may experience stress due to feelings of abandonment, separation, instability, and vulnerability.
These emotions may intensify as your child enters school because of the increased workload and massive quantity of knowledge they must absorb each day. Without emotional support, children may react to stress in ways that are harmful and detrimental to their future development. They might also have academic difficulties. Because of this, it’s critical for parents to watch out for any indications of distress in their kids so they may intervene as soon as possible. Adults frequently overlook the need of considering children’s emotional development. Understanding that children are less able to control their high emotions is one thing; maintaining that understanding when a child is (from an adult perspective) “overreacting” is quite another.
Through kindness, endurance, and direction, you may assist your child in managing stress. Additionally, this will promote peace in the house as your child grows the stress-management abilities necessary to become an independent learner. Here are seven suggestions to help you strengthen your bond with your kids while promoting their emotional intelligence.
1. Make choosing a healthy lifestyle enjoyable
Eating nutritiously is a fantastic way to protect your child from stress because a healthy child will be better able to handle stress. Your child can face more difficult situations with a clear mind, more energy, and a more durable foundation for their body thanks to good food. However, kids don’t connect with the word “healthy.” By incorporating the idea of enjoyment with some interesting information and engaging activities, you may encourage a healthy diet in your child rather than just explaining that eating well can lower stress. For instance, you may say: “Guess what I learned today? Eat your vegetables so that you can be healthy. I discovered that broccoli can fight against cancer! Even the skin and eyes are protected by it. Your child becomes more eager to learn when you share what you’ve discovered. Make smoothies with your child and let him or her mix and match different fruits if you’re trying to replace sugary snacks with fruits for your child. You could even choose to engage in a full-fledged activity where you and your kid arrange fruits on a dish in amusing shapes. In addition to strengthening your child’s immune system, a healthy lifestyle that incorporates physical activity and balanced eating also promote your child’s mental and emotional stability.
2. Integrate Fair Timekeeping
Your child will feel in charge of his or her life when he or she is able to use time properly. As a result, your youngster may become more relaxed and less anxious in general. Time management and stress reduction go hand in hand. Stress can result from putting off doing a job, chore, or assignment until the very last minute. Time management is crucial, but to a child, the word sounds so serious and uninteresting. Children may not be interested in learning something that seems rigid and inflexible because the concept of “time management” does not appeal to them. An activity chart, which sounds more enjoyable and positive, is a pleasant approach to teach your child about time management and get them in the habit of creating customized routines. You can mark times on this activity chart with stickers and color-coded markers. As an illustration, use blue for study time, green for chores around the house, yellow for amusement, and so on. Because it provides your youngster with a general understanding of his or her personal organization, time management is crucial. Additionally, it keeps your kid from becoming overly overloaded. When your child completes a task, you may attach a sweet sticker to the corresponding colored bar, which will make them feel accomplished and proud. Reduce your screen time and digital gadget use, which frequently causes distractions and demotivation.
3. Put the learning process before the result.
Remind your child that learning is far more important than results and relieve them of the strain that comes with achieving high academic standards. Naturally, your child’s academic performance will increase as they become better learners. Pushing for the result in a sideways manner is unhelpful. Remind your child that learning is far more important than results and relieve them of the strain that comes with achieving high academic standards. Naturally, your child’s academic performance will increase as they become better learners. Pushing for the result in a sideways manner is unhelpful. According to research by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a 36-member intergovernmental economic organization, 66 percent of students worldwide and 86 percent of students in Singapore expressed concern about their academic performance. Don’t let your child who is still learning join that statistic. Pursuing perfection robs learning of its joy, and pressure or fear of failure are much less effective motivators than joy. Students are encouraged to embrace learning and learn from their errors at HKCC. The advice in this blog post can help you instill these principles at home:
4. Promote Ingenious Exam Study Techniques
For students who want to do well on their exams, this is a stressful time. In addition to the stress of performing well on tests, students also experience a great deal of strain from the massive amount of revisions that demand them to digest more material than usual. Your child may feel more confident and capable of handling the stress of exams if they develop an exam strategy. It’s important to maintain your composure because panic can impair judgment and negatively impact exam performance. Another benefit of time awareness is that it prevents your youngster from speeding through or overanalyzing exam questions. Your youngster must learn how to effectively study, whether it be for an exam or to pick up new abilities. The smart study entails absorbing new knowledge quickly and calmly. Utilizing vibrant shapes, tables, charts, mind maps, and flashcards can help your youngster focus and retain information while learning. Studying for brief periods of time and taking regular breaks also helps to reduce stress and gives your child’s brain a break so that he or she can better retain knowledge.
5. Steer clear of comparing your child to other kids
Childhood is a delicate age for developing confidence, and when a child feels inferior to another, comparison skews that confidence. At home, comparisons between siblings foster an unhealthy competition that may have an impact on their emotional intelligence as adults. Instead of stating, “You always dutifully complete your assignment, unlike your brother who never does,” say, “Wow! I appreciate the research you have done. In your statements, leave out the terms “always” and “never.” They sound definitive and give the impression that there is no space for improvement or alteration. Rather than asking, “Why can’t you be tidy like so-and-so?” Put a positive spin on your request to subtly lay the message: “Your shirt looks dirty. In a tidy one, you’d feel and look better.
6. Watch your language and tone when talking about exams.
Avoid raising your voice or displaying impatience while talking about tests to prevent causing your youngster to withdraw even further. No of the setting of the chat, provide support and empathy for him or her to create a secure emotional space. If you must be firm, speak your words clearly and gently to avoid miscommunication and to foster respect and admiration in your child for your own emotional maturity. Additionally, let your youngster express how he or she feels about the situation. By doing this, you can develop a stronger, more trustworthy relationship because you are aware of what they are going through. Long-term benefits include your youngster being able to concentrate on studying for examinations without being distracted or stressed out by thoughts of your displeasure.
7. Encourage and demonstrate gratitude
It’s crucial to have the ability to focus on the bright side of things when under stress. If your child failed an exam, you can encourage him or her to view it as a lesson in which they can correct their errors and be thankful for the chance to perform better in the future. If your child causes harm to another person, you can reassure him or her that they have the choice to apologize and that they should be appreciative of the chance to behave better in the future. Remind your child that although there will be repercussions, even the toughest ones won’t be the end of the world, and there are still ways to find calm amid a crisis. Rather than allowing shame or regret to poison one’s behaviour, gratitude teaches accountability for the decisions made. Additionally, gratitude enables your child to refocus their thoughts and avoid dwelling on the bad, which may very well result in depression.
Reduce Stress During Your Child’s Academic Journey
With the support of the aforementioned advice, we hope to help you and your child grow closer and build more effective coping strategies for stressful situations. You are giving your child a caring and supportive environment where it can enhance their emotional intelligence and confidence to take on challenging tasks by helping them cope with the difficulties of daily life. Our professors at HKCC are similarly dedicated to giving our students a supportive and all-encompassing educational experience. We lower the stress levels of our pupils by giving them the chance to develop their positivism, confidence, and uniqueness through sessions that encourage independent work, thinking, acting, and even play. Making sure our students are constantly one step ahead and ready to face any problems that may arise, including tackling the new academic year with confidence and anticipation, is another crucial aspect of reducing stress in their academic journey.