HEALTH PLUS:Any fear of going to a new school will be helped by having photographs of the school and perhaps the classroom to get a child used to the idea, writes MARIE MURRAY
NOW THAT August is here anxiety can arise about children beginning nursery school, Montessori, Froebel, primary or junior school at the end of the month.
The “first day” in a new situation is a big one in a child’s life. New situations are usually both exciting and anxiety provoking. Change, even welcomed change, always involves some stress.
Because young children have less linguistic skills through which they can be prepared for new situations, they need good visual preparation for it. They have less skill in mastering concepts of space, place, distance and time.
They can become fearful, clinging, resistant or simply overwhelmed when they arrive into unfamiliar places, particularly if they are to be left alone there for a while. An hour can be an eternity for a child.
Because stepping outside the familiar can be upsetting for an anxious child, preparation is so important.
Telling children what is going to happen and showing them pictures of where they are going to, helps them to make transitions from what is comfortably familiar into what is unfamiliar and new.
Photographs of the people and places a child is going to encounter is one way of helping them to rehearse for an outing or a visit to relations and friends.
Photographs are the ideal preparation for ordinary activities: the shoe shop for that first pair of shoes, the swimming pool, the playground, the doctor or visiting someone in hospital.
In fact, any new situations that young children are about to encounter are made easier by visual preparation.
Showing children photographs of where they are going, the transport they will use to get there, who they will meet on arrival, their names and maybe some information about them, is one of the best preparations parents can make for future events.
Photographs differ from picture books. What makes photographs special is that they are personal and local.
Begin with photographs of home, the garden, the family car and all the rooms in the house. Photographs of the young child’s bedroom, his or her favourite toys and the family members, including pets, allow children to see the network of relationships to which they belong.
These photographs connect and unify what is significant in a child’s life.
These photographs are a way to talk to children about their lives and help them to locate themselves in their individual and social worlds. They teach children how to talk about what is important to them.
Photographs facilitate memorisation of key people and places. Photographs of the extended family and their homes allow discussion with the child about family members and preparation for visits to them, especially if a child has to stay overnight.
When parents are at work, children love to have pictures of their workplace; they are less anxious if they know where their parents are and can visualise them there.
Albums of familiar places can be fun to create and older children in the family really enjoy the responsibility of this task. Older children are ideal photographers. They see, with the child’s eye, the details that adults often overlook. They are sufficiently connected to the local terrain to know what to photograph and how to photograph it from the visual perspective of a child. This is a fun activity and a pleasant responsibility.
For older children the “game” of taking photographs of shops, the park, cars, buses and landmarks in local places, provides them with summer entertainment. They may be proud to be the artists creating such personal albums.
Older children usually live up to responsibility given to them, respond to trust that is placed in them and enjoy tasks that require their imagination and attention. Photographing also increases their observational skills and their connection to their local community and it can unearth hidden talent.
Family picture albums that contain all the significant people and places in a child’s life are an emotional asset.
And as school approaches, create a book of photographs of the school building, the entrance door, the classroom the child will be in, the cloakroom, the child’s school bag and shoe bag and lunchbox. In that way, all the significant objects and places that will be in the child’s life in the new situation will familiarise the child with the unknown and make it feel safer as a result.
- Clinical psychologist and author Marie Murray is the director of the student counselling services in UCD