Zhou Yuru, a doctor of early childhood education: Parents, relax, your child is normal

(Photo by Huang Jianbin) Unless preschool children have obvious developmental disabilities, they are not yet old enough to be diagnosed with any disability. Excessive self-checking may have the opposite effect. Parents often come to me to ask me questions about their children. In the past, parents were busy with work and life and ignored some warning signs of their children’s development. By the time they discovered something was wrong, it was already too late to seize the golden period of early treatment before the age of six. . But the situation I have encountered in the past year is very different. More and more parents come to ask if their children are abnormal. Some parents are worried that their children have attention deficit because they cannot continue to concentrate when reading story books. Some parents worry that their children have ADHD because they lose their temper when they get up in the morning; some parents insist that their children have ADHD because they keep running around at home; some mothers simply take their children to school. They came to me and asked me to help identify whether their child has a speech disorder, because the child sometimes ignores what his parents say… Just last week, a mother of a two-year-old child showed me several pages of her child\’s observation record. When I told her that she was overly worried, the mother held my hand, looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, \”Teacher, it\’s okay to be honest, I\’m already mentally prepared…\” The worry of these mothers comes from over-age expectations. The children are still young, and the child\’s condition is also a normal reaction for children of this age. Young children cannot concentrate on reading for too long. Sometimes they lose their temper or ignore their parents. This is a normal reaction that every child will have. As for running around, it is a child’s healthy and lively instinct! Although these mothers\’ age-inappropriate expectations for their children seem to show a lack of understanding of their children\’s development, these mothers use very professional terms, and when the mothers describe their children\’s behavior, they often speak very professionally, and they have obviously checked She has read a lot of information and done a lot of homework. All she needs is a doctor or professor to give her a confirmation. There is a term in psychology called \”Pygmalion Effect\”. It was originally used to describe that after teachers have expectations about students, they will treat students according to their own expectations. As a result, students will eventually develop the teacher\’s expectations. Reaction. For example, if there are two classes with the same level, the teacher of one class is told that he teaches a \”gifted class\”, while the teacher of the other class is told that he teaches a \”normal class\”. As a result, he thinks that he teaches a gifted class. The teachers in this class give students higher expectations and more learning support during one semester of teaching. As a result, by the end of the semester, there was a clear gap in the academic performance of the two classes. The class that the teacher thought was a gifted class and treated it as a gifted student had far better results than the other class that was told to be an ordinary class. Don’t over-interpret children’s behavior. Why is the Bimalone effect mentioned here? What I want to say is, parents please relax and don\’t over-interpret their children\’s behavior. Preschool children are not old enough to be diagnosed with any disorder unless they have obvious developmental disabilities. At this time, children\’s brains are still developing rapidly, and many abilities have yet to be established. Excessive conformity may have counterproductive effects. If parents observeIf the child has some behaviors that are not as expected by the parents, such as not being very attentive, throwing temper tantrums, and loving to run and move, first check to see if this is a natural behavior for children of this age. If so, don’t overdo it. Don\’t worry, just spend a little effort to guide your children to behave more appropriately. If parents preconceptionally believe that their children are hyperactive or have emotional disorders, it is easy for them to become more hyperactive and disordered as they watch and think about them. This will actually affect the normal behavior of parents towards their children, and the children will be under the unusual care and treatment of their parents. , but abnormal behavior may occur. In addition, even if the child\’s condition is really a little behind, there is no need to immediately think in the direction of \”sickness\” or \”disorder\”. Many times, the child\’s condition is actually caused by the environment. Sometimes adjusting the work and rest or changing the environment can all be a problem. Back to normal. For example, I often encounter parents who tell me that their children are not paying attention and want to take their children to the doctor. But after I carefully understood the children\’s daily routine and study status, I found that many times the children actually just lacked sleep, ate too much sugary food, or had too little physical activity. \”Kindergarten children also often have this situation. They have a full schedule of classes throughout the day. As long as the child cannot keep up with the progress urged by the teacher, he is considered to have insufficient concentration. The actual situation is that when parents adjust their children\’s daily routine or move their children to a suitable kindergarten, their children\’s attention deficit and emotional disorders are all cured without medication. Most children are normal. Therefore, as long as you make sure that your child has a normal and happy living environment, parents really shouldn\’t be too nervous. Please relax and enjoy life with your child.