“My one recommendation to parents … let them talk.”
– Vanessa Jensen, PsyD
I really liked this sentence as it speaks volumes.
Very often we stop our children from speaking and expressing. Letting them express is very important. If your child is talkative and suddenly stops speaking, then pay close attention.
Young Children feel emotions without any filtering. They do not have the filtering capacity of adults; they can feel unadulterated emotions. They do not think before they feel and they don’t process their emotions in the way adults do. Therefore they can easily feel neglected, ignored, hurt and angry. If you shouted at your child because you were frustrated with your boss, your kid will not understand that logic. She will feel that you shouted at her because of something that she did. And that it is her fault.
If your child has stopped expressing, you need to provide a safe space for him to express himself. Children will feel safe in expressing if they are not ridiculed, repressed, humiliated or ignored. Otherwise lack of expression may later develop into emotional problems.
Vanessa Jensen, PsyD, is from Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Pediatric Behavioral Health. This quote is on the importance of parents’ knowing whether their children are slipping into depression. Published in USA Today, Nov. 14 (Monitor on Psychology publication, Vol 42)
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