Help Child Cope with Stress
Recently, my son started stuttering. We did the best we could to help our son try to overcome his difficulty and frequent repetition of syllables. Despite the assurances of our doctor and other parents, my husband and I still could not help but worry.
Strangely, exactly a week after he started stuttering, it stopped. He talked normal and with no trace of difficulty at all. Today, after a short talk to my son's teachers and caretakers at the Kindergarten, we found out why he started stuttering. It was his reaction to change.
See, the day he started stuttering was the day he "graduated". Teachers have seen how fast he figured out puzzles and all the other activities in his group so they thought it best to put him to the next class, with the bigger kids. My son loved it. However, the changes that occurred that day must have had an effect on him, nonetheless.
I am glad that we found the source immediately and that my son was able to cope with the changes relatively fast.
Children do feel stress. Like adults, they have different ways of coping with the changes happening to them. For my son, it was stuttering.
"…children are resilient. They can learn to adapt to the stress they experience. Furthermore, it is the interpretation of the stress by the child that will determine how they will respond to stress."
Should you feel that your child's behaviour or characteristics suddenly changed, observe. He/She might be stressed. Here are a few more insights from experts to help us help our children cope with stress: Ronald Pitzer and Karen DeBord, Ph.D.
And, as parents, we can help by continuously offering our support, love, patience and encouragement.