Sandy Hook Shooting Survivors Should Be in School, Need 'Routine,' Psychologist Says (click here)
Returning Routine is such mind speak jargon I can't stand it.
These are not adults that can process their world in a way that is rational. Children need time with their parents to be reassured they are okay and they are going to be okay. They need love and reassurance to feel safe. Masking their fears with routine is counter productive and will cause trauma all by itself. Basically, I don't believe in repressing feelings in children. They are very competent at using their own cognition to rationalize their own reality. They are very smart about their own world.
One of the heroes I witnessed in all this is a group of dogs that do nothing but provide comfort. When those dogs arrived on the scene the children smiled and actually found a great deal of comfort in their animal friends. It is not distraction that heals them, it is comfort and parents are the absolute best people at providing that to their children.
If administrators can't see their way clear to provide a longer CHRISTMAS vacation to the children of Sandy Hook School, then they should provide strolling dogs in the hallways and visiting to classrooms when invited by teachers to allow children to comfort themselves with REAL FEELINGS.
There will be children that will act our their repression today and in the future. They have to resolve their reality, not repress it through the insistence by adults. There will be children that will be overwhelmed by their reality for whatever reason is their own. They will cause interruptions in a classroom causing more feelings of chaos and uncertainty. None of these children should be required to relive that trauma by other children that have poor coping mechanisms and have not had time to heal. Children are a community all by themselves. Ask any bully.
I don't recommend school attendance for these children until after the New Year and they have had time to process this. These are NOT adolescents or teenagers, they are babies in so much of their reality yet.
Art therapy and desired Christmas presents will do wonders.
These are not adults that can process their world in a way that is rational. Children need time with their parents to be reassured they are okay and they are going to be okay. They need love and reassurance to feel safe. Masking their fears with routine is counter productive and will cause trauma all by itself. Basically, I don't believe in repressing feelings in children. They are very competent at using their own cognition to rationalize their own reality. They are very smart about their own world.
One of the heroes I witnessed in all this is a group of dogs that do nothing but provide comfort. When those dogs arrived on the scene the children smiled and actually found a great deal of comfort in their animal friends. It is not distraction that heals them, it is comfort and parents are the absolute best people at providing that to their children.
If administrators can't see their way clear to provide a longer CHRISTMAS vacation to the children of Sandy Hook School, then they should provide strolling dogs in the hallways and visiting to classrooms when invited by teachers to allow children to comfort themselves with REAL FEELINGS.
There will be children that will act our their repression today and in the future. They have to resolve their reality, not repress it through the insistence by adults. There will be children that will be overwhelmed by their reality for whatever reason is their own. They will cause interruptions in a classroom causing more feelings of chaos and uncertainty. None of these children should be required to relive that trauma by other children that have poor coping mechanisms and have not had time to heal. Children are a community all by themselves. Ask any bully.
I don't recommend school attendance for these children until after the New Year and they have had time to process this. These are NOT adolescents or teenagers, they are babies in so much of their reality yet.
Art therapy and desired Christmas presents will do wonders.
