With the aim of helping students and parents cope with stress in daily life, The Hindu In School in association with Kokuyo Camlin conducted the first of its series of five workshops titled ‘Let’s Talk About Them at Children’ at Welfare Centre High School in Versova on Sunday.
The first topic of the series was ‘Handling stress during examination’. Psychotherapist Aditi Salkar, ADAPT director Rekha Vijaykar and special educator Monica Saraf spoke to students and parents on the topic.
Ms. Salkar said there were three types of stress — psychological, physiological and academic — that children faced and which need to be identified and solved. “Reading, visualising and repeating are the mantra for coping with academic stress,” she said.
Ms. Vijaykar said stress comes in all forms and according to the World Health Organization (WHO), stress is a mental disorder. The major contributor to stress are fear and phobia.
Ms. Vijaykar said, “Stress brings in a lot of problems, but every problem also has a solution. If one accepts, starts liking or creates an interest in a subject, then the child will not have stress. Parents need to bond with children.” She concluded her session by mentioning that if a child is prepared to deal with stress then they will display confidence while facing challenges in life.
‘Believe in your child’
Ms. Saraf asked parents to trust and believe in their children. She shared different types of learning techniques like ROT learning, visual learning, audio learning and activity learning. She said these techniques can be adapted by parents and children. She said every child has different learning capabilities. Ms. Saraf advised Class IX and X students on how to strategise and manage time while writing their exams.
Naveen Reddy, deputy commissioner of police, Zone X, said the problems faced by students differed in rural and urban areas. Mr. Reddy said, “The initiative Police Didi focusses on the safety and security of schoolchildren. Students must focus on acquiring knowledge by reading the newspaper and good books. Parents need to understand that they can solve their children’s problem only through interaction and proper communication.”
Saumitra Prasad, chief marketing officer, Kokuyo Camlin, spoke about how art helps in reducing stress. He said Camlin had developed an adult colouring book as parents also undergo stress.
‘Draw and learn’
Mr. Prasad said, “I advise children to draw what they study and it will register in their mind forever. A time will come when parents need not drag children to schools anymore, instead the children will be rushing to school and won’t like to return home and that will the time when education will achieve its goal. I hope that day comes soon.”
The event was presided over by N. Vaidyanathan, general manager and national head – school vertical from The Hindu Group.
