Chennai: The fact that 95 per cent of childhood development takes place before a child turns five, has prompted a kindergarten school to include doctors in their parent-teacher meetings each month.
City-based school Play Coop has pioneered a new concept of parent teacher meeting, during which a doctor clarifies doubts on the upbringing of kids. Besides bringing back the concept of doctor-patient and doctor-family relationship, the concept is also useful in dealing with various health and psychological issues.
Lack of time and awareness act as constraints to the majority of parents who are unable to decipher the seriousness of ‘right upbringing.’ The 32-year-old kindergarten school, which started the concept, a few months ago, invited a pediatrician recently to interact with parents who cleared the doubts on various health habits.
The concept acts as a support system to parents from nuclear families. “My mother was very confident while my brother and I were growing up, as she had my grandmother’s support. However, with nuclear families evolving, guidance from elders has become a rarity. This concept introduced compensates for absence of such guidance,” said Sunitha Shekhar, an IT employee and a parent.
“Children tend to munch on inedible items until they cross two years of age. However, it would continue due to lack of attention. Other habits like biting nails can persist into adulthood, if not addressed soon,” said Dr. Lekshmy, a paeditrician.
“However, we must ensure that punishment is avoided. Instead, we could adopt the method of sticker charts,” added Dr Lekshmy, also a mother. Discussing various problems including learning disability, attention deficit hyper activity disorder (ADHD), autism, breath holding spell and sibling rivalry, the paeditrician said: “Parents should modify their own understanding of how to deal with their children. Exhibiting good behavior is the duty of the parents as kids consider them as role models,” she added.
“Scientifically, a lot of work has to be put in during this tender age. It is not only about preparing the child for the next school, but for life. Preparing the child is not done only through lessons, but also with fun. We follow a play-way method of teaching and try to help the parents follow the same,” said head of the kindergarten school Princess Naik.
