If Your Child is Struggling at School

One of the big worries for parents comes about if their child is struggling at school.  Our school system often favours the more academic children, the ones who are unfazed by exams, or perhaps just better able to cope with the stress they are under.
We try to help with extra tuition or coaching, but beyond the stereotype of the ‘pushy parent’, what can you do to help your child? And how can we parents learn to celebrate the road that our children take, even it’s not the one we’d hoped they’d chose. We spoke to Emily, whose unconventional choices led her to march to a different drummer.

Get the Most out of Therapy for Children

In times of limited health care budgets, it can be frustrating for parents and children, when therapy sessions are few and far between. Emily has some great tips on getting the most out of therapy for children.

‘I’m so cross.  I had a speech & language session with our local community speech & language therapist and she said she couldn’t see us more than every six weeks!  How on earth is my son going to be able to progress at that rate??  I mean, seriously.  He’s three and can’t talk yet.  Surely they can see he needs some serious intervention? Bloody funding issues but I think they actually just don’t care.  I’m furious about it.’

I’ve heard this all too often – about Speech & Language, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy…any kind of therapy for children.  Yes there may be funding issues, and the frequency of appointments might well be less than the therapist would ideally be recommending, but every six weeks can be enough to make the difference.

Mistakes Can Be A Good Thing

Do you have a perfectionist child? A child sets extremely high standards, and is then frustrated and unhappy if she cannot meet them? A little bit of perfectionism needn’t be a bad thing, but a person who can rarely be satisfied with their efforts, will rarely find pleasure in completing a task. Emily’s daughter is a perfectionist, and she tells us today how she deals with her.