The FINANCIAL — No adult readily confesses to trying to adjust their children’s behaviour to fit around their life-style.
“Often there is unintentional oppression being inflicted by ambitious parents on their children,” said Bakur Kotetishvili, Director of Psycho-Neurological Clinic. “For example many parents’ sensitivity organs are innate, yet adults pretend to know better than their child whether they are hungry or not.”
Very often schools are also places of oppression for children. According to the latest UNICEF reports – a national study on school violence in Georgia, about 45% of school students of all ages experienced physical and psychological violence last year. When they divided children by age group, results showed that about 50% more of pupils under 13 feel violated psychologically.
Psychologists used to work in most secondary schools, but nowadays because of staff reductions this number has been reduced.
“We carried out optimization of our school system and as a result no longer see the necessity for having a psychologist employed at our school,” said Gia kashia, Director of the 53rd secondary school in Tbilisi.
Deputy director Maia Apkhaidze of the 1st secondary school said that their psychologist had another job and couldn’t work in two places at the same time. “Now we are again seeing the need for having a psychologist at our school,” said Apkhaidze. “We haven’t decided yet, but it’s possible that we will hire someone for this post again.”
The National Curriculum and Assessment Centre together with psychologist Zaza Vardiashvili and neurologist Bakur Kotetishvili published a guide book – Deficiency of Attention and Hyperactivity. This book outlines for teachers how to communicate with pupils without psychological violation. As well as that, since 1999 there has existed the Association of Psychologists and Psychotherapeutics which cares for establishing healthy ethical norms among psychologists and psychotherapeutics. At the same time they care about their qualifications and do psycho-social and sociological research in Georgia. In spite of all the activities, psychologists complain that there is more still that needs to be done.
“We train teachers or psychologists who are already qualified and interested in psychological education. This is a small percentage of the whole society,” said Sophia Verulashvili, President of the Association of Psychologists and Psychotherapeutics. “We are frequently contacted by school students, who are constantly suffering from psychological violence. These facts tell us that the general psychological situation in the country is not satisfactory. The Government should be more concerned about this and involved, NGOs can’t combat the problem alone. We need more research. Then after the results of the research each field has to get adequate help from professional psychological experts.”
Veruslashvili also added that simple teacher training is not enough anymore. There is a need for trainings at schools on how to communicate with problematic students. “Authoritarian figures cannot by themselves solve the problems found within schools. In many countries abroad they have authoritative teachers as well as psychologists working together,” said Verulashvili.
Statistics show that more than 50% of children experience psychological violence not only at school but also within the family. “This is a very complicated situation,” said Kotetishvili. “Psychologist training is not enough, instead changing the way of our society’s thinking is needed. We need to raise the level of psychological education in the whole country. We need more institutions to solve this issue. We still live with stereotypes, which obstruct us in developing correct opinions about certain matters.”
Psychologist Zaza Vardiashvili told The FINANCIAL that several NGOs try to cover this issue and help children or even adults who are undergoing psychological violence. There is a Centre of Violence, and a Centre for IDP Care. All these organizations are independent, and take grants mostly from charity funds. “They also take grants from the state,” said Vardiashvili. “It would be better if we had more support from the state budget. But the state makes priorities of first aid necessities. The same occurs in most countries abroad. NGOs are then the only ones left to care for psychological education and support.”
In many maternity homes there exists schooling for the education of new mothers, which helps them from their prenatal state learn how to communicate with their children without psychological and physical violation. Neglecting and beating a child are two extremities which are equally dangerous for a child’s psychology. In Georgia most parents use these two methodologies as a part of bringing up their children. They often complain that their children have very complicated and difficult characters. As a rule overly tired parents either allow their children to do everything, or else the opposite – forbid them everything.
One more Psycho-neurological Centre was opened in Iashvili Children’s Clinic in 2010. They offer free beginning consultations and psychotherapies for everybody. Most children have one of three kinds of physiological problems: Hyperactivity, lack of attention – less concentration on subjects, and behavioural disorders – excessive aggression or defiant behaviour. After the first week, satisfied parents who want to continue the programme, have to start paying. Usually one psychotherapy session in the centres costs from 20-100 GEL, depending on the specific case. Because of serious social problems in the country not everybody appeals for help with the psychological maintenance of their children and themselves too.
“In 99% of cases the source of a child’s psychological problems stem from the parents,” said Keti Abdushelishvili, Psychologist of Iashvili Children’s Clinic. “We usually offer parents participation in the psychotherapies. These lessons give them the ability to learn more and acquire some psychological education together with their children. But normally they refuse. It’s wrong. They can’t realize that first of all they need a correct psychological basis not to cause psychological problems in their children. It’s very important for parents to listen to their children and try to take an active part in their development, plan some adventures together and play with their children. At the beginning of the classes parent and child must do tasks together. Adults also have to learn how to understand children’s body language. But the most important thing is correct reaction to the behaviour of their children.”
Historically children were often viewed simply as smaller versions of adults. When Jean Piaget suggested that children actually think differently than adults, Albert Einstein proclaimed that the discovery was “so simple that only a genius could have thought of it”.
Today, psychologists recognize that child psychology is unique and complex, but many differ in terms of the unique perspective they take when approaching development. Experts also differ in their responses to some of the bigger questions in child psychology, such as whether early experiences matter more than later ones. But they all have one and the same idea – proper psychological development is essential in order to have a healthy generation.
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