• Play this game with a partner
  
• Put letter or numeral cards on the floor, and when the music stops each child must pick one up and identify it.
• This results from a certain force. Examples of physical stress include carrying heavy objects.
• BIOLOGICAL OR PHYSICOLOGICAL STRESS
  This is the result of injury to the body, for example, burns.
  
• PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS

These are threats to the individual's peace of mind, for example, complaints from school, poor school results and an inability to cope with schoolwork.
All the above examples have one thing in common: they are threats to the individual's well-being either directly or indirectly.

Stress and Children
Storms make trees take deeper roots
~ Claude McDonald ~

Stress is a term synonymous with modern life and people cope with stress in different ways. When adults are stressed, they seek comfort by talking to others about their difficulties. They may also attend stress management seminars or simply work it off at a gym. When children are stressed, they have fewer avenues they can turn o for relief and help. Often their cries for help are either ignored or misinterpreted. Children under stress need the help of adults who can help them cope.

WHAT IS STRESS?

Stimulus or environmental change of such intensity or duration
that it taxes a person's previous adaptive capacity to its limits.
~ V.L. Rees ~

A feeling of doubt about being able to cope.
~ Lancet editorial ~

The word "stress" is taken from the Latin word stringere which means "to draw tightly or bind." The term stress may define a physical force which, when applied to a system, modifies its form. For example, a stick will bend when force is applied to it. Psychological and social forces in the form of events or situations can be referred to as stressors when they exert a distorting effect upon a person's equilibrium. Dr Hans Selve was the first to develop a theory of stress applied to living systems. Defined broadly, stress is an adverse event that causes a response from the individual. It is a situation that requires him to adjust and make changes to his normal routine. These changes may be physiological, psychological or social and the individual may not be conscious of these changes.
Children, like adults, have to cope with stressful situations. Some situations they may have to cope with include:

• Movement from one class to another
  
• A birthday celebration
  
• Having a baby as a sibling
  
• Parental divorce
  
• Failure at a test
  
• Having a romantic relationship
  Whether something is stressful or not depends on how people perceive the situation. Stress may be categorized into three groups:
  
• PHYSICAL STRESS

Interacting With the World: Extraversion and Introversion

The attitudes of extraversion and introversion are easily observed even in very young children. The extraverted child is drawn to interact with the world and may touch things first and think to ask for permission later. Introverted children prefer to observe before interacting. "Let me watch first" seems to be a motto.
Figure 3 lists characteristics of extraverted and introverted children. Such descriptions can be misleading if taken out of context. The characteristics should be viewed as examples of possible behaviors that children with theses preferences demonstrate, not as absolute criteria for the preferences. These descriptions provide a means for adults to become aware of the possible variations in the behaviors of extraverted and introverted children, but should not be used to suppress an individual's uniqueness. Examples for applications of type in the home are followed by examples for applications in the school setting. Sometimes the examples are generic and apply to both the home and school setting.

HOW DO MY CHILDREN COPE WITH STRESS?
Unlike adults who grumble and complain about being stressed, children usually do not. Most children are not able to recognise they are under stress. So they send out "distress signals". These include bodily complaints and changes in their emotions and behaviour. They may react in five ways:

• FURY (ANGER)
  
• FEAR
  
• FUGUE
  This refers to confused behaviour that is associated with loss of memory and aimless wandering.
  
• FREEZE
  Children may be so overwhelmed by stress they may not be able to react. Instead, they become quiet and withdrawn.
  
• FAREWELL (SUICIDE)
  Children under stress are more likely to show academic underachievement and learning failure at school. They may start showing repressive behaviour as a cry for help. For instance, Charlie, a 10 year-old boy started behaving like his 4 year-old sister and asked his parents to bathe, spoon-feed and carry him around.
  

WHAT STRESSES MY CHILDREN?
Stress occurs as a natural part of life. This includes day-to-day events relating to school, traveling, family life, recreation and often involves relationships. It is not possible to list all sources of stress pertaining to daily life. Children today are under constant pressure to make coping adjustments, for example, weather changes, bus breakdowns, unexpected illnesses, test failures, friction with schoolmates, to name a few.

Honoring type differences is a way to show children they are loved and accepted.

How can parents know what to do or how to encourage the development of normal differences in their children? First, all children need to know they are loved and accepted. Normal development needs to proceed in a secure and loving environment. Otherwise the needs of the environment will hinder the child's development progress.

Honoring the developing differences in children and providing them with an environment that encourages exploration and the development of differences addresses their developmental needs. Parents can honor differences in two primary ways: The first is through their attitude; the second is through their actions. Bridging the gap between parents and children through attitudes requires parents to accept the right of children to prefer a personality pattern different from their own. Bridging the gap through actions requires adults to proactively provide experiences in their children's worlds that enhance the development of their natural gifts.
Many parents may just want to know specifically what kinds of things will work with each child. There is no magic cookbook of answers, because each child is unquestionably an individual. Type can explain natural preferences, but all the functions and attitudes described in the personality types can be found in each person and can be used in any situation. Type can help us understand behaviors we have observed and help us define better ways to teach and communicate, but it does not predict behaviors.

(Taken from: The Developing Child Using Jungian Type to Understand Children, by Elizabeth Murphy, p.p. 74)

Sources of stress include:
Family

• Disturbed parent-child relationships and interactions (parental rejection, hostility and neglect)
  
• Parental mental illnesses and personality disorders
  
• Marital disharmony and parental divorce
  
• Lack of care, control and discipline
  
• High and unrealistic parental expectations
  
• Sibling rivalry and birth of a sibling
  
• Death of parents and close relatives
  
• Hospitalisation of self or a family member
  School
  
• Disturbed teacher-pupil interactions and poor relationships
  
• Frequent change of teachers
  
• Poor discipline
  
• High expectations from school
  
• Homework and project overload
  
• Learning and reading difficulties
  
• Primary or secondary school entrance
  
• Tests and examinations, for example, PSLE and "O" levels
  

Peers

• Adverse peer influence in the neighbourhood
  
• Rejections and non-acceptance by peer group
  
• Bullying and teasing
  
• Intense competition with classmates and schoolmates; jealousy
  
• Relationship conflicts with peers

Taken from: Help Your Child To Cope - Understanding Childhood Stress by Dr. Cai Yi Ming & Dr. Daniel Fung, pp.10 - 14

Course Objectives
This course provides both theory and practical knowledge for those interested in working with children with speech and language difficulties. The focus is on young children and the course will combine theory and clinical practice. On completion of the course students will be offered case attachments.

CONTENT
Introduction to Learning Disabilities

Types of learning disabilities
Eg Developmental Delay
Intellectual Disability
Cerebral Palsy
Autism
Hearing Impairment
Assessments
Intervention and therapy
Project and case studies

Special Thanks to Mrs. Lim
My child was assessed by KKH when she was close to three years old. She was diagnosed as verbal dyspraxia. She was non verbal and liked to mouth objects then. She also had very short attention span.
KKH referred her to Kits4Kids Special School. My child demonstrated very bad separation anxiety by kicking and crying when she reached school initially. That was her first time in school. It took us two weeks to settle her into the school. She is now happy to go to school.
She is now talking in 2 to 3 word phrases. She is even singing some phonetic songs that she learnt in school.

I would like to thank the therapists and teachers for the patience with my daughter.