Perspective（1） "Stand in the child's shoes and you will see"| I’ve listened individually to guardians’ issues and worries about child-raising from March to April. Many of them were worried about language development. For language development, it is necessary for a child to have something they want to express, someone they want to communicate with, and a means of communication. To put it succinctly, it is important to build a relationship in which the child feels that they want to express certain things to a certain person. They wholeheartedly desire someone who will do the things they enjoy together and help them when in need, even if it doesn’t appear so. If the mother, father or nearby staff could fulfill these needs, I’m sure it would make the child happy. However, the adults strong desire for the child to be “a certain way” results in them trying in one way or another to simply teach them words. For most people, this probably rings a bell from experience, but it is difficult to gain the expected results. Even when the adult calls out to the child, they ignore them, only half-listen or at times cover the adult’s mouth with their hand. Then, the adult, with a tendency to seek out a cause, assumes “The child cannot understand that I am speaking to them.” or “It can’t be helped because the child has intellectual disabilities.”, and there the gap between the child’s feelings and the adult’s desires widens. If the adult can’t communicate with the child well, they will lose confidence. Are there any other ways of solving this problem? Speaking of the adult’s way of speaking, a child can recognize the difference between pleasant or unpleasant words. With pleasant words, they automatically make agreeable responses in their mind. If the words appeal to the child, they respond by nodding, smiling, giving eye contact, and generally relaxing. Then again, if they are words they don’t want to listen to, they will only half-listen or turn their backs. Let's stand in the child’s shoes and imagine what kind of language resounds in their hearts, and how they view adults, and check their facial expressions and actions. This is very difficult to realize by yourself. We should work together and share our gained knowledge. |
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Social Welfare Corporation SUISEN FUKUSHIKAI
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