Media Parent

Off from the home environment for the first time, for example, when children first go to kindergarten, is not an easy task, both for children and parents. One common problem that arises is a sense of anxious children to be separated from parents. Psychologists call it separation anxiety disorder that is fear and excessive stress on the child when asked to separate from the main bonding figures. This stress can appear in the form of concerns over the safety of people who parted from him, refusing to go to school, sleep disturbances, and complaints of physical pain. Barlow & Beck (in Weems & Carrion, 2003) explains that anxiety in children generally occur because of the role of learning, thinking, and physiological aspects of anxiety disorders.

When problems like this happen to your child, do not force the child to quickly adapt to his new environment because it can increase children’s negative experiences that resulted in the emergence of a series of subsequent problems. Besides need to know the main reason, you also need to do something before the next problem appears. One of the things you can do to achieve these two goals are invited to play. Axline (1947) says that the play is a natural medium for self-expression. The game you do with this child can become a therapy, called play therapy (Schaefer, 2003). With play therapy, children have the opportunity to ‘play’ feelings and problems, the child feels to be the most important, regulating the situation and himself, no criticism and rules, and can be received in full (Axline, 1947). A situation like this is very conducive for a child who is experiencing anxiety.
(more…)