Parents and educators urged to report concerning behaviours in children

Chandler Hyacinth (file photo)

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development, Chandler Hyacinth, has called on parents and educators to pay attention to children especially at the early childhood level.

She was delivering the feature address at the National Early Childhood Development Symposium held at the Goodwill Parish Hall on Monday.

Hyacinth is of the view that often times, there are situations at the Early Childhood Level and people cover it up and the necessary assistance and support for those children is not provided.

“Parents and educators, you need to be able to recognize when there is a need to refer a child for social support services where and when necessary,” she said.

According to her, intervention is key.

“I want to underscore here that intervention is key,” she remarked. “Do not sweep things under the carpet and wait for things to fester and then escalate, resulting in inappropriate behaviors.”

She went on to say that some of the children come to the institution with serious issues.

 “They come suffering emotional trauma, suffering shame, some of them are angry and they suffer relational abuse, and other severe emotional disorders,” she stated.

Hyacinth told parents and educators that if they notice something is wrong with a child, whether it is theirs or someone else’s, they should speak up.

She added, “Help us; let us get the necessary help and give the child the coping skills that is necessary to deal with the challenges that confront him or her.”

Hyacinth encouraged parents and educators to build on their emotional intelligence in order to observe behaviours in children and report it

“These are our little ones and we see the anger expressed in their behaviour, whether it is at early childhood or at Primary Schools,” Hyacinth stated.“Help us to help them.”

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5 Comments

  1. anonymous2
    November 15, 2018

    I would question the real reason for “reporting” behaviors. I don’t think that there is any reason to label children that have problems. There is no reason to report anything, handle it inhouse. The biggest problem is unstable households and parents that don’t know how to raise children.

  2. viewsexpressed
    November 15, 2018

    “1. Ms. Hyacinth has called on parents and educators to pay attention to children especially at the early childhood level. 2.There are situations at the Early Childhood Level and people cover it up and the necessary assistance and support for those children is not provided.3.“They come suffering emotional trauma, suffering shame, some of them are angry and they suffer “relational” abuse, and other severe emotional disorders,” Hyacinth, we know that already, so stop repeating the same old nonsense and go to Skerrit to invest in this matter. I recall Mr. Joseph (CCF)constantly an consistently advocate that the system of our social services is outdated and not well structured. if it were, you would not be promulgated this nonsense (BS). When are we going to have a leader of professional maturity in Dominica to address poverty, child abuse, unemployment, poor government services and stop this nonsense of Skerrit we love whilst his government has our families in poverty. Child Abuse…

  3. Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
    November 15, 2018

    “Hyacinth is of the view that often times, there are situations at the Early Childhood Level and people cover it up and the necessary assistance and support for those children is not provided.”

    Hyacinth, it appears to me that something is mentality wrong with you; maybe it is time for you to consult with Griffin Benjamin or some other psychiatrists. You are neither a psychiatrists nor a practicing psychologists.

    You are talking nonsense!

    Children are born with different traits, some might be hyperactive, some might be hypoactive, children may even behave strangely, but as they grow into adolescence their behavior changes. Because you are into politics, don’t make you a psychiatrists, nor a trained psychologists. 

    You are promoting stigmatization of children; there could be a forum for such discussions, but I do not believe as soon as a parent notice a child behavior is different to another child, they should report to you  who do not have any medical training in…

  4. Concerned
    November 14, 2018

    I totally agree…

  5. A Parent who has seen
    November 14, 2018

    From experience, I can tell you that when we speak out, the teachers and others in charge label you as a troublemaker. They rather just label the child as a trouble-maker, or take the child’s explanation that her brother pushed her so she has a huge black eye, rather than looking closer at the matter, and escalating it to the Welfare Department or to the police or a family counsellor. Everything in backwards Dominica is simply “the child like trouble”, “he troublesome”, “he just cannot behave” etc and the answer is always the same – beat him, cuff him, lash him, pinch him. STUPESSSSSSSSSSSSSS

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