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| Are the young becoming old before time? | | LET KIDS BE KIDS! | | Dr. Pragya Khanna
Blessed be child-
hood, which brings
down something of heaven into the midst of our rough earthlines!!! Henri frederic amiel.
Many a times, nowadays we come across children of different age groups talk and discuss things which are beyond their comprehension and intellectual capacity.
This leads us to ponder: Are children becoming mature before time? And what is it that is leading to this transformation?
The educationists and thinkers must have considered lot many things and factors when they framed age equivalent learning of the child. It is always advocated that the kids should be allowed to grow naturally and no external factor should disturb the natural growth of the children.
Today small children at the age of one and a half year plus are made to go to one or the other play school without realising that it might do them more harm than good.
Though there may be some compelling reasons for the parents, however, most of the time the argument is that if they do not send their child to the play school their child will lag behind and would not be able to perform as well as the other children.
Thereby parents very often expose their child to an unknown environment against the natural growth of the child. One instance shall elucidate this point.
During one of the interactions between the head of a school and the parents of the children of pre-primary classes, regarding the issues faced by the parents at home; the mother of a child complained that her son (who was three years old) did not follow the instructions of his dance coach.
The steps required counting up to thirteen and he would not do more than ten steps. Her question was how she could make the child disciplined so that he followed the instructions of the coach? The perplexed teacher informed the mother that the child had learnt the counting up to ten only. This is not an isolated case; there are many children who are forced to do things which are not their age equivalent.
A new study published in the journal 'Pediatrics' finds that watching violent or age-inappropriate programs could increase the chances of children having problems falling asleep and staying asleep or have nightmares.
If your kid is having trouble sleeping, take a closer look at what he's been watching on TV.
Experts recommend that TV and other media should be avoided during the hour before bedtime (that goes for adults too), but if your kids are watching TV before nodding off, make sure they're tuning into an age-appropriate show.
For too many kids today, growing up is far more complex than it was a generation ago.
Life for children appears to be stuck on fast forward. Possibly one of the most remarkable changes is the early physical development of young girls. Medical researchers call it 'precocious puberty', the medical term for sexual maturity that arrives abnormally early.
Why is this happening? Researchers hypothesize a range of theories.
One of the most controversial is that environmental toxins digested by mothers during pregnancy are triggering these physiological changes ahead of time (The Globe and Mail, 1/25/00.).
The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (August 2000) theorizes that young girls who have a good relationship with their biological fathers in the first five years of life will reach puberty at a normal age because the scent of a biologically related male is an evolutionary signal to inhibit maturity. In addition, those girls exposed to a lot of unrelated adult men achieved puberty earlier.
Other scientists point early maturity to the fact that our kids are eating better and more often when compared to children a hundred years ago. Whatever the cause, it appears our little girls are growing up way too fast. Most little girls feel the pressure, often brought on by the media they watch, to look and act more like older teenagers. This stress is heightened when parents are too busy or not prepared to talk to their children about such concerns. Many parents don't feel it is appropriate for their child to be thinking or talking about issues like sexual development and relationships at such an early age. When parents are not prepared to engage their children on these matters, kids will often turn to the media for answers to their questions about life.
Girls may look physically older, but they are not prepared emotionally to deal with the consequences.
Media is also pleased to introduce younger children to an adult world without ethical precincts. Lack of a parental presence leaves them vulnerable to the whims and wishes of peers and media alike.
One another significant aspect is the influence of media advertising. Although each advertisement may have as its main intention the objective of promoting product sales, the collective effect from children's long-term exposure to television advertising may exert far broader sociological influence. Some researchers have argued that one of the long-term effects of children's exposure to commercials is an increase in materialistic attitudes. Commercials for candies, snacks, sugared cereals, and fast foods represent a large proportion of the advertising that is presented during children's programs, while advertising for more healthy or nutritious foods is rare. Consequently, children tend to develop poor nutritional habits, mistakenly assuming that the products that they see advertised are an appropriate diet whenever they are hungry.
Children are a vulnerable audience, with limited information-processing capabilities that constrain their early understanding of the nature and purpose of television advertising. Because of these limitations, young children are more easily persuadable than are older children or adults. They are more trusting of advertising claims and appeals, and they are more susceptible to commercial persuasion.
Studies have shown that a majority of children become angry, disappointed, or argumentative when purchase requests are denied. The frequent purchase requests that are associated with children's heavy exposure to television advertising may place a strain on parent-child interaction at times, an issue of consequence largely because of the sheer volume of commercials that are viewed by most children.
It is the responsibility of teachers, parents, society, media, any external agency that has an influence on the tender mind to see that our kids follow the right path and at the same time have an adequate learning of the world according to their age.
Do not let too much of exposure, persuasion, wiles make your child follow the wrong track. Let us not kill their childhood in the name of making their future. Future would be enjoyed by them if they are allowed to grow naturally and are not forced to become mature before time.
“Children arent like coloring books. Yor don’t get to fill them with your favourite colors” - Khaled Hosseini. |
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