Hey guys, finally am sharing the last post of the series on Emotional Needs of children. This post is about understanding the emotional needs and then taking the right actions to tackle child behavior. In the first post, I had shared why we as parents or caretakers should understand the emotional needs of a child. In the second post, I shared what are the emotional needs of a child and how emotions affect their behavior.

And in today’s post, I am going to share how we can help our children by understanding the factors causing emotional turmoil & extreme behaviors. Our children look up to us in every way because they trust us. And to keep their trust, it becomes our duty to be actively involved in their development. And to also understand and fulfill their needs!

Screenshot of my Instagram story (highlight – school)

So, when we started noticing behavioral changes in Nemit, we kept a watch on him through CCTV (live streaming facility provided by playschool) while he was at school. It became a task for us to understand why was he suddenly behaving so weird.

=> I recommend that you read the previous 2 posts to understand this post in a better way <=

Our observation at home as well as at school

We observed quite a lot of changes that happened around Nemit at home as well as at school, which might have triggered that behavior. And after carefully observing and understanding the situations, we came to a conclusion which I am sharing below-

1- Changes in our daily schedule

My husband and I noticed a lot of change in our daily schedule during the last 2 weeks just before we saw changes in Nemit. We have been traveling a lot lately which meant Nemit was also experiencing the change of place and people quite frequently. It is not easy for kids to adjust to changing routines in the blink of an eye. And they take their own time in adjusting to such situations. Initially, we completely overlooked this part while addressing the issue.

2- My Health

Another situation which could have hurt him emotionally was my bad health.

Screenshot of the school’s CCTV footage

I was not keeping very well during the same time period. That’s why I was not much involved with him during his play and activity time at home. And because he spends the rest of the day with me after coming back from school, he could have been missing my complete involvement. It is definitely not easy for kids to understand what an illness is. And what to expect when the parent is sick and not in their usual self. Also, we are a nuclear family, which means there is no other family member who could take over the situation and take care of Nemit.

3- Nemit’s Health

One more point which I want to consider here was Nemit’s on & off cold & nasal congestion. He catches a cold quite often since he started his playschool. Usually, the common cold does not affect him much and he stays active and happy throughout. But considering the other scenarios at hand, I think cold also worked as a trigger for his cranky behavior.

Now coming to the school part for understanding the emotional needs of a child

Screenshot of my Instagram story (highlight – school)

When Nemit joined the school, for the first few days I used to stay with him inside the class. I saw that the class teacher was paying equal attention to each and every kid. They were offered toys and were allowed to play on their own. However, when I watched the CCTV footage during the period of his crying, things were different. I saw a completely different nature of class teacher & her way of handling kids. In one video, I saw his teacher holding him by the shoulder and scolding him, which was a red alert for me considering they have a ‘no touch’ policy.

Screenshot of my Instagram story (highlight – school)

We are Ok with scolding if the situation is getting out of control and that’s the only option left to make the child understand. And we are also Ok with teacher hugging and consoling the child if that’s what would make him feel better. Since Nemit is a super active kid, I try to channelize his energy using play-based activities at home. Following some of the Montessori principles have also helped us in keeping his excess energy in control.

However, at school, he was left to follow the teacher’s instructions which I feel is not the correct way to discipline young toddlers. I also felt there was a lack of emotional connect between the teacher and the kids. We discussed all our concerns with the Center Director and she promised us to look into the matter.

Screenshot of my Instagram story (highlight – school)

We are glad that she took our concerns seriously and implemented the changes instantly. In just 2 weeks Nemit was back to his usual happy active self. His teacher started paying attention to kids and I even saw her hugging kids to make them feel better.

Let the kids be kids! at least in a playschool.

It’s time to conclude this post here. If a child shows any sign of changed behavior, parents should jump into the matter to find out the reason. The emotional needs of a toddler are higher than we anticipate. They need lots of love, understanding and appropriate guidance. And when searching for answers, always look at a greater picture. As parents, we are bound to come to conclusions very fast. And then we blame either situation or the child or even ourselves for our child’s negative behavior.

Screenshot of my Instagram story (highlight – school)

Just remember when a child cries, feels upset or throws a tantrum, there is a reason or some stimuli behind this behavior. Parents should look at all the possible factors causing the changes. And then take appropriate measures to deal with the problem. I hope you find this series helpful in understanding the emotional needs of your child.

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The post Understanding the Emotional needs of a child – Our Observation appeared first on Growing With Nemit.

Hey guys, I know I kept you all waiting too long for this post on emotions and child behavior. I want to blame the #momlife for that. That’s the easiest excuse which fits everywhere! Isn’t it? Just kidding!

In the first part, I shared a little background of why I am writing these posts on the emotional needs of a toddler. With this series of 3 posts, I want to share my experience with all the parents whose kids are in the age group 1-3 years and go to a play school.

You can read Part -1 of the series here.

Nemit was 2.5 years old and was going to a playschool since last 3 months. He was well settled in his class and used to get really excited every morning to go to school. For a child, who is otherwise happy to talk about his school every day suddenly starts acting weird definitely needed an immediate attention (please read Part 1 to know the details).

Screenshot from CCTV footage at school/Watch all school stories on my Instagram highlights

But because Nemit was too young to express his feelings in words, it became a challenging task for us to find out the reason behind his behavioral change. Parents are the one who is really close to their children and any change in the behavior of a child or a sudden outburst of emotions can be easily detected by them.

Emotions are a part of human nature. Anger, sadness, frustration, fear are as normal as feeling elated, calm and happy. But to understand the reason behind these emotions, parents need to pay attention to a child’s behavior.

One day, Nemit completely refused to go to school. We were confused as the reason could be anything. Just a phase or he wanted a break from school or he was having some emotional concerns or maybe he was just looking for attention from us.

We decided to keep a watch on him during his school time using the CCTV live streaming facility provided by the school.

Almost 20 days later and after many brainstorming sessions, we somewhat understood the reason for his behavior. This time also Google came to our rescue and we came to know about the term emotional needs of a child. We trusted our instincts and went deep into the research to get more understanding of the topic.

And then, we, along with Nemit’s playschool teachers started working on it. This is the most important step when dealing with emotions. Detecting a problem is one thing, working towards fixing that problem and finding a solution is what that matters the most.

Before I tell you more about our observations, let’s see what are the emotional needs of a toddler and how it affects their behavior.

What are the ’emotional needs’ of a toddler?

It is quite easy for parents to understand and meet the physical needs of their children. But, the emotional needs of a child may not be as obvious. That’s why it becomes even more crucial for parents to understand and acknowledge the emotions of their kids.

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Young children need unconditional love from their parents, encouraging words and support from their teachers and acceptance and approval from their friends to grow emotionally strong. All this helps in developing self-confidence, high self-esteem and a healthy emotional outlook on life for kids. You may read more on this here!

A child’s good mental health helps them to think clearly, develop socially and learn new skills. 

Every child has some basic emotional needs which if not met effectively can result in behavioral changes. The most common ones are-

• Need for unconditional love and acceptance from parents
• Encouragement, praise, and support from teachers and peers
• Freedom to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes
• Appropriate guidance and discipline for correcting behavior instead of using harsh language and spanking
• The need to be heard and understood
• Understanding their mood changes and dealing with them politely
• Need for safe and secure surroundings
• Accepting negative emotions and understanding the reason behind such emotions.

Understanding and fulfilling these basic needs of a child is very important for their mental health and emotional development. We noticed that we lacked somewhere in fulfilling some of the emotional needs of our son which led to a drastic change in his behavior. However, we are happy that we could find out the reason behind his crankiness, frustration, and fear and could take appropriate steps in resolving these issues.

In the next post of the series, I will share the incidents in detail that probably lead to certain behavioral changes in Nemit during this time period.

Reference –

https://psychcentral.com

https://www.psychologytoday.com/

http://guidetochildcare.org/

https://www.healthyfamiliesbc.ca/

Are you parents/caretakers aware of your child’s emotional needs? Are you mindful of your own actions and behavior? or Are you always there for your child when they go through an emotional stress? Answer these to yourself.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Do share with me in the comments below. And don’t forget to share this post with your friends and family.

The post How Emotions & Emotional Needs of a child affects their behavior? appeared first on Growing With Nemit.

Hi friends, hope you are having a good day! Today, I am going to talk about a very important topic from a child’s mental health perspective, the emotional needs of a toddler.

I have been trying to write this post since July when I first started observing the behavioral changes in Nemit. But due to time constraint & other prior commitments, I couldn’t find time to finish this post. Thanks to Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa campaign that I am finally able to complete all my pending posts including this one.

I will be sharing this post in a 3-part series and this is the first post of the series. 

Screenshot of school’s CCTV footage

If you guys have been following my Instagram (growing_with_nemit) stories, you must be aware of the school tales that I share every once in a while. If you are not following me, you can still check the story highlights ‘School‘ on my Insta profile.

You may also read: Is your child achieving cognitive milestones?

Nemit is 2 years and 8 months old presently (September 2018) and goes to a play school. I am sharing incidents from July 2018.

He had not been feeling very happy about going to school around that time. Many of my friends told me that it could be a phase which every toddler goes through so I should not bother much about it. But this phase left me really worried.

Hence writing this post to share my experience and learnings from that phase on understanding the emotional needs of a toddler and how parents can deal with such situations.

Happy days at school

But first, let me share a little background here. Nemit started his playschool 6 months ago (in March 2018) and it took him around 3 weeks initially to settle down in his class and get comfortable with his teacher. Once he got settled, every morning he would get so excited to go to school.

You may also read: How to prepare your child for preschool!

It was July when his behavior suddenly changed towards the school. He used to start crying as soon as we would ask him to get ready for school. And would keep on crying in the class as well. He simply refused to talk about anything related to school.

Before moving further, I want to request all the parents out there to never ignore the cries of your children.

Nemit is a happy kid usually calm and understanding, it is very rare of him to show any temper tantrums at home or even outside. Even if he experiences an emotional outburst, it doesn’t last for long. We have been following the positive parenting approach with the major focus on a healthy parent-child relationship. And I give much credit to this approach in helping us understand & focus on Nemit’s emotional needs.

Positive or gentle parenting as the name suggests involves a parenting approach which focuses on disciplining children with love, empathy and kindness rather than enforcing harsh rules.

We strongly believe if the child is happy and his emotional needs are also fulfilled, it helps in developing a strong relationship with parents on the basis of trust, love, and care.

Why understand the emotional needs of a toddler?

Positive Parenting helps in developing a strong, deeply committed relationship between parent and child. And this relationship is based on communication and mutual respect. And that’s exactly we have been following with Nemit.

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We talk a lot with him to help develop his communication skills. Every evening we talk about what he’s going to do at school the next day. Usually, he’s happy to talk about his school and the activities which he does in the class.

You may also read Best home remedies for nasal congestion in kids!

But, one day (in July), when I shifted the topic of our conversation to school, he started getting uncomfortable. I could notice the change in his facial expressions which were changing from excitement to confusion and later to sadness.

This was an alarming sign for us!

The change in a child’s emotions & behavior can give you an insight into what’s going on inside a child’s mind. Sometimes, an early intervention can save kids as well as their parents from getting too deep into an emotional stress.

This post was just an overview and to give you a little background. My aim was to tell you how you can observe the emotional changes in your child. There is no one who knows a child better than his own parents. When you notice a change in their behavior, it’s your responsibility to find out the reason behind it. It’always better to intervene and understand the reason to avoid getting the situation out of control at a later stage.

Children cry and have tantrums to show that they are upset or frustrated with a certain situation. Parents can easily identify between usual tantrums and the serious ones. Still, there are chances that we may miss or ignore the behavior which may need immediate attention. Hence, it becomes even more important to understand the emotional needs of a child.

Why emotions matter? A child’s response to various feelings they experience every day have a major impact on their choices, their behavior, and on how well they cope and enjoy life.

I will be continuing further in my next post, Part-2 of the series and will share more on ‘what are the emotional needs of a toddler?’ Keep watching this space!

Whenever your child cries or throws a tantrum, how often do you try to find out the reason behind that behavior? Let’s talk about child emotions and their emotional development!

‘I am taking my Alexa rank to the next level with Blogchatter’

The post Why understand the emotional needs of your child? appeared first on Growing With Nemit.