Pastoral Care Worker  (PCW)

PCW

I wonder, when you ask your child how their day has been at school how many parents get a full and informative response, and how many get a one-word response such as ‘good’ and little else.   I learnt early on when asking my children about their day I had to ask open questions and keep digging until I was happy with the response.  Even now when I ask my son sometimes I forget and I get the one word response ‘good’ again.  “What was good” I will ask him to which he will reply “everything”!.

Recently I came across a blog by Kirrilie Smout, a local psychologist practicing here in Adelaide.  Kirrilie tells us there are primarily two reasons why it isn’t easy to get children to tell us about their day.  Firstly, they just don’t want to talk about it ... they find it boring as it is talking about past events, or for older children, they are concerned if they talk about something that is hard to do at school it might mean extra work for them.  Secondly, some children find it hard to talk about their day as they “live in the moment” they find it hard to remember details and express themselves about past events.

Kirrilie tells us as parents we should not give up asking our children questions, it helps us to know what is going on in our child’s lives so we can mentor and coach if needed.  Asking our children questions and getting them to think about their day also helps our children to improve communication skills, learn how to express thoughts and feelings and sometimes helps them to face challenges – all good life skills. 

• If you are interested in reading more from Kirrilie’s blog, or looking at a chart she has created  to help make the communication more fun for primary school children, you can find it on:  http://developingminds.net.au/blog/2016/2/10/getting-beyond-nothing-helping-kids-tell-us-about-their-day  she also has a link to questions you can ask older children/teenagers for those who are too old for charts.

Sandy Altmann

Pastoral Care Worker

Wednesdays: 9.00am – 1.30pm email: sandra.altmann875@schools.sa.edu.au

Thursdays : 10.30am – 3.00pm

Phone: 8443 5544