Make sure your child has plenty of social interactions these days
The new school year has started, but for many parents this means their children are at home, sitting in front of a computer doing ‘busywork’ instead of fundamental, interactive learning. Positive social interaction from an early age have a wide range of both physical and mental benefits, including increased cognitive ability, learning to acquire clear communication skills to express himself effectively, good mental health, independence, collaboration and even physical health - by constantly moving around.
Recess is not only a scheduled period in a school day for horseplay – it functions as a period were your child learns problem solving, sharing, resolving conflict with his peers, cooperating, respecting, building imagination and creativity and bonding with other children. Those social interactions increase your child’s awareness of other children, which is important for his mental growth and optimal brain development (neural circuitry).
When going to school, children develop fine and gross motor skills, cultivate listening skills, learn about boundaries – the importance of understanding personal space and that of others; they develop self-confidence in school, as it encourages children’s independence and self-reliance.
Children are learning from each other and their social development is an important process to mature into a healthy teenager and then young adult. In school children develop and perceive their own individuality within their community, and they learn to process their actions and what others expect from them.
If you child does not go physically to school this year, make sure you arrange for plenty extra-curricular activities for him - as social interactions are so important for his healthy development. I am already concerned that in a few years from now, developmental psychologists will reprimand parents for all the mistakes they have made and the great harm that was caused to the children of the ‘Great Lockdown’.
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