Help children cope with anxiety towards examination

Parents can find out the source of anxiety. Does the child, parents or teachers have a high expectation on the child? How does a child feel about the examination? What is the child‘s belief of the examination? Is the child fear of failure? Is the child doing his or her best to prepare for the examination?

The following ways may be helpful for them to cope with anxiety

1) Share the feelings

I believe a little bit of stress is helpful to motivate the child to excel. However, if the child feels overwhelmed, he or she needs to get support from parents or teacher. I suggest the teachers or parents give listening ears to their concern and worry. The child is in need of someone to support and understanding their feelings (e.g. fear, worry, anxiety). Let the child talks about his or her feelings. They can cope better by talking about it.

2) Distraction Techniques

When the child is very anxious, he or she can take a break and do something they like most (e.g. reading story book, comics, listening to music, playing with toys or participating in sports and son on) for a while to distract them from the anxiety.

3) Breathing Exercise

We can teach the children some relaxation exercise (e.g. breathing exercise) to cope with the anxiety towards examination. The parents may teach them to breathe in and out for relaxation. It is just like blowing a balloon. This is an effective exercise for them to cope with anxiety.

4) Imaginary games

Parents can find out the heroes of the children. The parents may encourage the children to capture the quality of bravery of their heroes to face challenges during their examination. The children could imagine that their heroes will support them going through the mission and regain confidence for their study.

5) Change the Belief towards examination

Some children may feel pressurized when they emphasize on result rather than the process. Some of them may have fear towards failure to get a good grade. If they can shift their focus to the learning process rather than result focus, it may help them to cope better. If they can perceive examination as challenge rather than difficulties, it may shape their beliefs and cope better with examination.

6) Be calm and confident of yourself as parents

Parents’ emotions affect the emotions of their children. If the parents are stressed and highly anxious towards child’s examination, the children will respond by reacting to the emotions of parents. Therefore, it is important for parents to be relaxed and calm towards the examination of the children. When the parents can be calmed and practised relaxation skills first, the children will learn the coping skills from parents.

It is important to accept your child as who he or she is with his or her own strengths and good characters. When the child feel that he or she is being affirmed, he or she will do her best to excel in their strengths and potential. Coping with difficulties of life is essential life skills for parents to teach their children.

If the child is not getting better to cope with anxiety after you have tried the methods, you may need to discuss with teacher and school social worker or counsellor to help the child.

WCMAK

www.wiseparents.net

Support Children Cope With Pain

Would you like to find out more about support children cope with pain? The information in the article below comes straight from my working experience with children suffering from chronic or life-threatening illnesses. The more information about this topic you know, the more likely you are able to support children cope with pain.

Imagine that we are at the doctor’s clinic. You see a child crying and yelling because of pain inflicted by injection and medical treatment. How do you feel? Are you anxious or worried when you bring your child to see a doctor? It is normal to have this reaction. Since it is painful to see your child suffering in pain, I shall suggest ways to help the children to cope with pain and medical treatment.

Ways to help children

1. Tell them the details of the medical appointment

You can tell the children about the date, time, place and reason for the medical appointment. You can describe the environment and person of a clinic or a hospital. Is there any toy corner, toy house or reading books for the children in the clinic or hospital? Who are the doctor and the nurse? What will they do for your children? Why do you bring your children to see doctor? What will be the treatment of the illness?

For example, the parent tells his son, ”Today, I will bring you to see Dr. Lee at 9:00 a.m. at Clinic H because you have fever. Don’t worry. The doctor and nurse are helpful and they will check your body and give you medicine so you will recover soon.”

2. Role-play at Home

Role-play is a good way of learning for the children to experience a real-life situation. Sometimes, you play the role of a doctor, nurse, and patient at home. Your children will have experience of different roles through acting.

In my experience, children usually like to act as a doctor or a nurse. They will develop a sense of mastery or control over the situation. Through the change of roles, the children will experience different roles and become more familiarised with the physical and social environments of a clinic or a hospital. You can buy a doctor kit in a toyshop to play with your children. A doctor kit includes stethoscope, thermometer, plasters, and blood pressure measuring equipment and so on. The choice of toy is according to the age and preference of the children. The role-playing game is good psychological and mental preparation for your children.

Preparing your children for the medical treatment is very important. Tell them about the medical treatment and the role-playing game at home can prepare them to see a doctor psychologically.

We hope the sections above have contributed to your understanding of support children cope with pain. Share your new understanding about support children cope with pain with others so that more children will be benefited from it.

A child sees a dentist

Do you experience the difficulty to bring a child to see a dentist? I met difficulties to bring my child to see a dentist when he was 3 years old because he had a lot of tartar. He was scared when he sat on the dentist chair. We brought him a few times to dentist clinic to get him familiar to the environment. Finally, we brought him to a dental clinic for the children with a conducive environment for children. The dentist is well trained in looking after the small children. I practised the following ways to lessen the anxiety of my son and I find it useful for me therefore I would like to suggest the following ways for parents:

Prepare your child for the dental appointment

The parents can tell the child the date, time, place and reason for the appointment. Parents can describe the environment of the clinic and people there. For instance, I said to my son, ”I shall bring you to see a dentist to check whether your teeth are clean next Monday at 3:00pm at Children’s Dental Clinic. Dr. Lai is a caring dentist and she can help to clean your teeth. We can go there half an hour earlier so we can play in the playroom first.”

To bring along children’s favourite toys and for medical treatment

Some of the parents will bring along children’s favourite toys, such as cars, soft toys, story books and so on, so the toys can help to occupy their waiting time to see a dentist or distract them. It is because the longer waiting time, the higher anxiety and insecurity levels for children. The sense of security will be increased with the presence of their favourite toys.

Role-Playing

It is an effective way for the child to learn how to handle a real-life situation. Sometimes, the parents can play the role of a doctor or dentist, nurse or patient at home. The children will have a chance to experience different roles through role-playing. In addition, you can ask the dentist to explain to the children about the procedure and equipment. It helps to lower the anxiety of children by knowing what is going to happen to them.

In my experience, the child loves to be a dentist because they can develop sense of mastery or control over the situation. Through preparation, distraction, role-play games, they help to prepare them psychologically for the dental consultation and treatment.

Disclaimers: The author shares this article based on her personal and work experience and disclaims any responsibility for any liability, losses or damages and /or application of any of contents of this article.

About the Author

Ms Mak Wai Chong, a mother of 3 children, is a freelance trainer and counsellor. She has worked as social worker and counsellor for 17 years. Visit her website at http://www.WiseParents.net for prenatal training and parenting information and FREE newsletters. The author has written Connecting with Your Unborn Baby Ebook. For more information on ebook, please visit http://www.wiseparents.net/theEbook.php

All rights reserved.

Breathing Exercise and coping with labour

You should be able to find several essential facts about breathing exercise and coping with labour in the following paragraphs. If there's at least one fact you didn't know before, imagine the difference it might make.

You may not consider everything you just read to be important information about the topic. But don't be surprised if you find yourself recalling and using this information in the next few days. I hope the information presented so far has been applicable.

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, the psychological benefits of natural childbirth by the pain management techniques other than medication include breathing, relaxation therapy, visualization and so on:

Many women consider natural birth empowering. A woman who is supported to labor as she instinctively wants to, is a woman who will likely feel positive about her birth experience and future parenting skills. Her baby is more able to be alert and placed on her skin (promoting maternal bonding) and breastfeeding is more likely to be enjoyable and successful.

In fact, breathing exercise helps to focus on breathing and reduce the pain during delivery. It makes contraction more manageable.

Steps:

• Breathe in through the nose.

• Breathe out slowly through the mouth.

• Think "I can overcome the pain. Every contraction gets me closer to my baby. I aim for drug free pain control which is the best for us. I have the confidence that I can do it."

Personal Sharing

When I was admitted to the labour ward to give birth to my third child, I forgot what I had learnt for pain control previously. I was worried as the contraction was getting more painful each time.

The staff nurse, Ms Lim of Labour Ward of TMC, coached me to do the breathing exercise. She taught me to breathe in through nose and breathe out slowly through mouth when contraction came. It was so effective that I did not need to use any medication to reduce my pain during contraction. She praised me for my effort in practising the breathing exercise. I was grateful to receive the coaching and support from her.

In conclusion, with the coaching and support from the experience midwife, I use breathing exercise to calm down and relax myself during labour. It helps to lessen my labour pain. I was happy that I did not need to use any medication to reduce my pain during my third pregnancy. The faith in myself, baby and God helps me to put through every difficulties in my life.

There's a lot to understand about breathing exercise and coping with labour . We were able to provide you with some of the facts above, but there is still plenty more to write about in following articles.

Disclaimers: The author shares this article based on her personal and work experience and disclaims any responsibility for any liability, losses or damages and /or application of any of contents of this article. Copyright (c) 2004-2008, Mak Wai Chong, All rights reserved.

About the Author

Ms Mak Wai Chong, a mother of 3 children, is a freelance trainer and counsellor. She has worked as social worker and counsellor for 17 years. Visit her website at http://www.WiseParents.net for prenatal training and parenting information and FREE newsletters.

This article is extracted from Connecting With Your Unborn Baby Ebook. For further information, please visit www.wiseparents.net/theEbook.php

Suggestion and Unborn Baby

This interesting article addresses some of the key issues on suggestion and unborn Baby. A careful reading of this material could make a big difference in how you think about this topic.

The information about Suggestion and Unborn Baby presented here will do one of two things: either it will reinforce what you know about suggestion and unborn baby or it will teach you something new. Both are good outcomes.

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, suggestion is the name given to the psychological process by which one person may guide the thoughts, feelings or behaviour of another.

The power of suggestion is an amazing tool to help you achieve something that you want. Our subconscious mind is controlled by the power of suggestion. This method is most effective when carried out just before you go to sleep because your conscious mind is then less active.

During my third pregnancy, I was bleeding in the 5th week. While doing the examination, the doctor discovered the shape of the water-bag was irregular and had many angles. In addition, the doctor told me that he had not been able to get the heartbeat of my baby.

I started to be concerned about my medical condition. I calmed myself down and suggested to my third child, "Baby, I need your help. Can you heal yourself? Your water-bag is getting round and smooth. You are strong and healthy. Your heartbeat is normal and strong." I suggested to my baby about 3 times a day which included one just before I went to sleep.

Within one and a half weeks, the shape of the water-bag was getting rounder and smoother. The doctor was able to find the heartbeat of baby in 6.5 weeks. I was simply overjoyed with the progress and expressed my gratitude to my third child.

In addition, I used suggestion to tell my unborn baby about wake up and sleep cycle. I told him daily before I went to bed,"Felix (name of my unborn baby), you shall sleep at 9:00 p.m. and wake up at 7:00a.m. Good night. I love you. Please wake me up with a gentle kick at 7:00 a.m." With practice for a week's time, he could wake me up at 7:00p.m. His sleeping and waking up times synchronize with my sleeping and waking up times. This example shows that unborn baby is responsive to our suggestion.

I found that applying the art of suggestion was helpful and powerful for the healing of my third child. The response from my unborn baby was remarkable.

So now you know a little bit about suggestion and unborn baby. Even if you don't know everything, you've done something worthwhile: you've expanded your knowledge.

Disclaimers: The author shares this article based on her personal and work experience and disclaims any responsibility for any liability, losses or damages and /or application of any of contents of this article.

Copyright (c) 2004-2008, Mak Wai Chong, All rights reserved.

About the Author

Ms Mak Wai Chong, a mother of 3 children, is a freelance trainer and counsellor. She has worked as social worker and counsellor for 17 years. Visit her website at http://www.WiseParents.net for prenatal training and parenting information and FREE newsletters.

This article is extracted from Connecting With Your Unborn Baby Ebook. For further information, please visit www.wiseparents.net/theEbook.php

Drawing and Unborn Baby

When you are learning about something new, it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of relevant information available. This informative article should help you focus on the central points.

I hope the information presented so far has been applicable. You might also want to consider the following:

Drawing is a wonderful way to express your feelings towards the unborn baby. The following article will focus on how to use drawing as a tool to involve the family to bond with your unborn baby.

Drawing is a useful tool to connect with unborn baby. I love to draw for my unborn baby. I drew a circle with heart shape that represents love, forgiveness and gratitude for unborn baby. After my drawing, I wrote my journal and read it aloud to my unborn baby. My unborn baby responded by giving me a gentle kick after reading my journal. It showed that he was listening attentively.

Besides parents' drawing, we can involve children in the drawing to represent their thinking and feeling towards the unborn baby. They learn to show their love to their unborn siblings. My eldest son drew a picture of a plane as a gift of love to the unborn baby. He was looking forward to take a plane with his baby brother in future. My second son drew his toys for unborn baby. He would like to play and he share his toys with his baby brother. It helps them to show love and care for one another. It also helps them to bond with one another earlier.

Younger children would love to draw. You can encourage them to draw and give it as a gift to baby. You may ask them for any message that they may want to send to baby.

You could compile all their drawings and put it in a journal, CD or e-books which can be presented to them as a priceless birthday, wedding gift or family album in future. The whole experience can be thoroughly enjoyable for the children as well as the whole family.

Drawing helps my sons to visualise and bond with unborn baby at the earliest stage. It also helps them to identify their position with the baby and that they are playing an important role for his well-being and development. It teaches them to treasure their sibling and there will be lesser chances of sibling rivalry. It helps them to connect with unborn baby at the earliest stage.

Now might be a good-time to write down the main points covered above. The act of putting it down on paper will help you remember what is important about drawing for unborn baby. Draw a picture for your unborn baby and enjoy yourself during the process of drawing.

Disclaimers: The author shares this article based on her personal and work experience and disclaims any responsibility for any liability, losses or damages and/or application of any of contents of this article.

About the Author

Ms Mak Wai Chong, a mother of 3 children, is a freelance trainer and counsellor. She has worked as social worker and counsellor for 17 years. Visit her website at http://www.WiseParents.net for prenatal training and parenting information and FREE newsletters. She has written an Ebook on Connecting With Your Unborn Baby.

Support Children Cope With Pain

Would you like to find out more about support children cope with pain? The information in the article below comes straight from my working experience with children suffering from chronic or life-threatening illnesses. The more information about this topic you know, the more likely you are able to support children cope with pain.

Imagine that we are at the doctor’s clinic. You see a child crying and yelling because of pain inflicted by injection and medical treatment. How do you feel? Are you anxious or worried when you bring your child to see a doctor? It is normal to have this reaction. Since it is painful to see your child suffering in pain, I shall suggest ways to help the children to cope with pain and medical treatment.

Ways to help children

1. Tell them the details of the medical appointment

You can tell the children about the date, time, place and reason for the medical appointment. You can describe the environment and person of a clinic or a hospital. Is there any toy corner, toy house or reading books for the children in the clinic or hospital? Who are the doctor and the nurse? What will they do for your children? Why do you bring your children to see doctor? What will be the treatment of the illness?

For example, the parent tells his son, ”Today, I will bring you to see Dr. Lee at 9:00 a.m. at Clinic H because you have fever. Don’t worry. The doctor and nurse are helpful and they will check your body and give you medicine so you will recover soon.”

2. Role-play at Home

Role-play is a good way of learning for the children to experience a real-life situation. Sometimes, you play the role of a doctor, nurse, and patient at home. Your children will have experience of different roles through acting.

In my experience, children usually like to act as a doctor or a nurse. They will develop a sense of mastery or control over the situation. Through the change of roles, the children will experience different roles and become more familiarised with the physical and social environments of a clinic or a hospital. You can buy a doctor kit in a toyshop to play with your children. A doctor kit includes stethoscope, thermometer, plasters, and blood pressure measuring equipment and so on. The choice of toy is according to the age and preference of the children. The role-playing game is good psychological and mental preparation for your children.

Preparing your children for the medical treatment is very important. Tell them about the medical treatment and the role-playing game at home can prepare them to see a doctor psychologically.

We hope the sections above have contributed to your understanding of support children cope with pain. Share your new understanding about support children cope with pain with others so that more children will be benefited from it.

Disclaimers: The author shares this article based on her personal and work experience and disclaims any responsibility for any liability, losses or damages and /or application of any of contents of this article.

About the Author

Ms Mak Wai Chong, a mother of 3 children, is a freelance trainer and counsellor. She has worked as social worker and counsellor for 17 years. Visit her website at http://www.WiseParents.net for prenatal training and parenting information and FREE newsletters. She has written an Ebook on Connecting With Your Unborn Baby.