The in Lagos state, was recently filled to the brim with women from different professional backgrounds who attended a specialized training on children and youths counseling.
The event, which came under the theme “Mothers and Effective Counseling,” was auspicious and timely as it exposed the participants to different techniques of counseling the younger ones in the society.
Speaking on “The characteristics of an Effective Counselor and Understanding Emotions and Body language in children, Executive Director of “The Wife,” the organizers of the training, Dr. (Mrs.) Nkem Okoro, explained that the major goal of counseling is to assist the counselee to identify and analyse his problems as well as accept responsibility for his choice.
According to Mrs. Okoro, an effective children counselor should have very good knowledge of the children as well as understand the challenges children are facing in their world, their internal struggles and their circumstances.
However, she stressed the need for a counselor to apply different communicative techniques of attending, listening and probing skills to establish rapport to get more information from children.
She advised such a counselor to acquire the ability to effectively monitor and evaluate children, which according to her, will help in re-strategising for further improvement and effectiveness.
She emphasized the need for one-on-one and group counseling, among others.
Read also: Christmas: The rush, The frenzy
Highlighting how mothers can detect early academic challenges in children, an educationist , Mrs. Josephine Akenuwa, regretted that the educational sector in Nigeria was gliding downward with a dangerous speed adding that unless some urgent intervention took place, the nation may be heading toward academic doom.
To her, if children are left with the academic challenges they face, it will further deal a death blow on the education sector.
Considering the fact that the first form of education a child gets is from the parents especially the mother, she stressed the need for mothers to pay attention to the early education of their children.
“Mothers are the first to have contact with the children. That is to say that from birth, and subsequently, through life. This affinity comes with a burden of responsibility.
“If a child’s academic performance in school is going to be good, training has to start early by the parents. Conversely, should the performance be poor, the parents cannot pass the bulk rather they share in the blame.
“ This is because the parents should adequately be knowledgeable of each child’s strength and weakness at different stages of their development. In addition, to being in close proximity, mothers closely observe and monitor their children . They therefore have the advantage to correct any default in their academic performance,” she noted.
Highlighting symptoms of academic challenges in children, she observed that some children are naturally hyperactive, some are wired to be very playful , while others are very reserved.
To her, none of the above-mentioned behaviours are bad, adding that caution to ensure that a balance is struck to avoid extremities so that children do not develop such habits that may impact negatively on the academic performance.
On the steps that mothers should take to assist the child to overcome the academic challenges, she said that every mother should have a good understanding of each child’s temperament which will determine how to interpret the child’s actions and also how to handle or treat them.
“Don’t try to box your child into some previously set mold or pattern. Your child’s uniqueness is his or her strength and respecting that strength from the start will help lay the best possible foundation for self-esteem and loving relationship with others,” she said.
