Anuradha Gupta said that during this lockdown period the children are facing stress, anxiety and other such issues which is a matter of grave concern. “Parents must be in a position to assess the early warning signals and address the issues timely,” she added.
Professor Arti Bakshi, Head Department of Psychology, University of Jammu, appreciated the efforts of DSEJ for organising a webinar on such a relevant topic. She said the webinar would create awareness among students, teachers and parents helping them in dealing with various emotional and behavioural issues in the present challenging times.
Dr. Deepa Mohan expressed her gratitude towards DSEJ for organising the webinar for students of J&K at such a crucial juncture when their results are getting declared and are facing a strange situation of lockdown. She discussed the problems being faced by the children, emotional disturbances, behavioural disturbances, identification of such children, specific warning signs about children having suicidal tendencies and role of school in suicide prevention.
Highlighting the suicide prevention strategy, she advised, “Decrease criticism, Increase Appreciation. Avoid comparison of child with peers or siblings and always appreciate the effort, not the result of the child.” She further suggested that the DSEJ should have atleast one counsellor in every school for diagnosis of psychological problems of children.
The session was followed by Q&A session moderated by Head counselling cell, Romesh Kumar, in which participants put up various questions to the key resource person. Meanwhile, queries on Facebook were addressed by Ravneet Kour, Child and Adolescent Psychologist at Nurture and Cherish, Delhi, who was also one of the panelist for today’s webinar. Besides, Shria Abrol, RCI certified counsellor at Jodhamal Public School and Divya Duheta, Life Skills Trainer, author and coach also answered the queries on Facebook.