Y3K Tutor In Your Home

Helping Children Cope After a Tramatic News Event

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In response to a traumatic news event (such as a school shooting tragedy), many children may have questions and concerns. Y3K Tutor In Your Home offers the following suggestions to help guide parents and caring adults to best support children who may be grieving, concerned, or troubled by a terrible event:

Be Supportive

Children will benefit greatly from support and caring expressed by the adults in their lives. Create an environment in your home that encourages respect for each other’s feelings and fears, and allows for a supportive, healing environment.

Be Available

Let children know that you are available to talk with them.

Let children ask questions.

It is ok if you do not have answers to all the questions. It is ok to let your child know that you do not have the answer but that you will try and find out.

Be Caring

Let children know about the support being provided to students, friends, and families of the victims.

Be aware of children who may have experienced a previous trauma and may be more vulnerable to experiencing prolonged or intense reactions and will need extra support.

Be Reassuring

Acknowledge the frightening parts of the event.

Explain what happened in words that children understand. Explanations should be appropriate to the child’s age, developmental stage, and language skills.

Reassure children that they are loved and will be taken care of.

Children who have concerns about siblings who are living on a college campus or have concerns about safety at their own school should be reassured and their concerns validated.

Be Thoughtful

Be aware of how you talk about the event and cope with the tragedy.

Children learn about how to react to traumatic situations by watching and listening to parents, peers, and the media.

Reduce or eliminate your child’s exposure to television images and news coverage of the shooting. The frightening images and repetition of the scenes can be disturbing for children. If they do see coverage, be sure to talk with them about what they saw and what they understood about the coverage. Make sure to correct any misunderstanding or misinterpretations.

Maintain your child’s routines as best as possible.

Be Creative

For children who are too young to talk or do not feel comfortable talking about their feelings, expressive techniques such as play, art and music can provide additional ways for children to express their feelings and let you know what may be troubling them.

It might be difficult for them to grasp exactly what the situation is all about, but you should try your best to enable them to understand these things in their own way.

Many behaviors and symptoms of stress are normal for children who have just experienced a trauma. However, if you find that your child is preoccupied with the event, has ongoing sleep or eating disturbances, is experiencing intrusive thoughts or worries, is focused on fears about death, or is having difficulty going to school and leaving parents, your child should be evaluated by a mental health professional. Contact your pediatrician or school counselor if you feel that the symptoms are persisting and are interfering with your child’s daily routines.

Immunization Schedule Safer Than Delaying Vaccinations?

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Vaccination Myth: “Delaying vaccines is safer than following the standard immunization schedule.”

Some parents worry that giving too many vaccines at once can lead to developmental problems. Recently researchers compared kids who received their shots on time with kids whose parents spread them out. They found that those who followed delayed schedules fared the same or not as well on cognitive tests as those who followed the standard schedule. In addition by delaying vaccines, you are giving potentially serious infections a window of opportunity to take hold. Some diseases like tetanus don’t provide any natural immunity. The only way to protect yourself is to get vaccinated.

How To Build Positive Relationships With Children

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There are several strategies you can use to build a positive relationship with your children. Create a loving home by playing with your children and expressing affection. You need to give them attention no matter how busy you are. Be consistent with schedules and activities so children know what to expect. Respond to similar behaviors in similar ways. Be flexible and willing to involve kids in the decision making process.

Parent-Teacher Meeting: Child Involvement & Tutoring

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Prior to a parent-teacher meeting, talk to your child to find out if they have any issues they would like discussed. This would include any social, bullying or learning style issues. Sometimes kids will disclose some of this information to their tutor, so you may want to ask us for some feedback too.

Parent-Teacher Conferences: Your Responsibility & Tutor Help

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Before parent-teacher conferences, decide what information you would like from the teacher and questions you would like answered. It is often helpful to make a list ahead of time. Your tutor, who knows your child well, can help you come up with important items for your list.

Confronting Bullies and Parental Support

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If your child is being bullied, they need your complete support. Facing a bully can be a hard and scary thing for a child, so they need to know that you believe them and have their back. Your child needs to know that if they defend themselves against a bully and get in trouble at school for doing so, you will support them. It can be one of the most difficult things to do in the world but confronting a bully can be an opportunity for children to face their fears and learn to stand up for themselves.

Some signs that your child may be a victim of bullying include: fear of going to school, negative self talk, drop in grades, and sudden change in opinion about a specific person.

Y3K Tutor In Your Home’s Words To Live By

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Is anyone happier because you passed their way?

Does anyone remember that you spoke to them today?

The day is almost over and its toiling time is through;

Is there anyone to utter now a kindly word of you?

Can you say tonight, in parting with the day that’s slipping fast,

That you helped a single child of the many that you passed?

Is a single heart rejoicing over what you did or said?

Is the child whose hopes were fading, now with courage to look ahead?

Did you waste the day or lose it? Was it well or sorely spent?

Did you leave a trail of kindness or a scare of discontent?

As you close your eyes in slumber, do you think that you have the right to say, “You earned one more tomorrow by the work you did today?”

At the day’s end Y3K Tutor In Your Home can answer with a resounding, “YES”.

We hope you can too more or less.

Healthy Snacks & Parenting

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Offering choices for healthy snacks allow kids to feel like they are making decisions. For example having a child choose between a banana, apple, carrot, or celery empowers them while at the same time allows the parent to be in control of the healthy options.

Special Needs Play Dates

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If your child has certain special needs issues and is invited by a friend to a play date, try to include them as much as possible in environments where they have the best chances of success. If a play date would be more successful at home, you may accept the invitation but ask if it is OK for them to come over to your house instead.

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