My Garden of Thoughts: Reflection #14 -- Parents and their School-aged Children

 

https://healthy-food-choices-in-schools.extension.org/tag/parents-of-school-aged-children/page/13/

    As children get older, their needs change and progress over time. In Chapter 7 of our textbook, we dove into the topic of how parents can raise and interact with their school-aged children. Initially, the chapter begins by discussing how parents can promote the socio-emotional development of their children. At this age, children should be introduced to activities where they can build their communication with both peers and adults. The book recommended having school-aged children join a sports team or get involved in more group activities with their peers that are led/coached by an adult. It will strengthen various skills, such as communication, team-building, and their self-esteem. Another way this area can be developed is through parent's decision to practice co-regulation, where they share some of the decision making process with their child. This helps the child learn how to share power and start becoming independent in their actions.

    Along with illustrating how parenting styles and community environments influence the way school-aged children develop social skills, the textbook also shows how parents can continue to use the relationships their children build as a way to help them achieve academic and cognitive success. At this age, parents are able to begin using more complex vocabulary and also show how words and actions can have either a positive or negative effect on others. This will teach their child empathy skills and how to be aware of peoples outside of themselves. It is wise for parents to begin encouraging and positively reinforcing their child's unique interests at this time too. 

    Finally, the textbook concludes the chapter with a focus on a school-aged child's physical health. Not only does it reflect on the value of healthy eating and consistent exercise, but it also shows how media is affecting children's health too. Now, parents have to be conscientious of the screen time they are allowing their young children to engage in because studies have shown that a child's imagination, physical health, and even relational development become stunted when a child has more than 2 hours of screen time. Parents should even go so far as to monitor what kind of topics are on the media that their children are exposed to. It is best that they are watching only prosocial, positive media, as opposed to violent media which research has shown to have a variety of harmful effects on children's development.

    I appreciated how the textbook addressed modern issues, such as how media and the internet affect children. I have witnessed many parents who let their toddler or school-aged child engage in more than 3 hours of screen time each day. Sometimes they'll even plop their kid in front of a TV for hours at a time, but then wonder why their child doesn't know how to initiate creative play in the real world. What I observed in the children who are allowed this much screen time is their poor social skills, their lack of engagement in reality (not wanting to experience what's real rather than virtual experiences), and their tendency to lack initiative in playing and exploring. My husband and I have had to discuss--like many other parents who are now realizing the harmful effects of too much media--what we will do when we have children. We are strongly against giving our future children any electronics until they need it, which is usually when they are adolescents and have jobs we will need to take them to and from. In monitoring their media intake in this way, we hope they will grow a passion for playing outdoors and engaging in reality in creative and fun ways. This will help them significantly learn how to develop good social skills and maintain positive progress in other areas of development too.

- E.