Wednesday, 28 March 2012

Separation anxiety


Hallo to everyone,

Hope you are enjoying your day so far.  Just a short note about separation anxiety. As a teacher I’ve experienced separation anxiety quite often. It is very heartbreaking for the parent and child. I’ve done some research to find out how it develops. It is normal for a child to experience separation anxiety because they have not developed “object permanence” yet. That means they do not realize that someone exists even if you do not see them. Object permanence is thought only to develop at two years of age. Another reason for separation anxiety is because a child only develops a sense of time at the age of 6 or 7. In other words any time away from the primary caregiver can feel like a very long time for the child. Something that can help is if the teacher distracts the child immediately after the parent said good bye and ask for help with a certain task.  Luckily the child will settle down 2-3 minutes after the parent have left and are playing happily by the time mom or dad phones from the car and asks how the child is doing.

Have a great afternoon,



AC

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