Parents are, mostly, busy with work and may be tempted to get to the bottom of things swiftly when dealing with these children.
Psychologically, children are just like adults, who will definitely want to come home to a warm bath, warm meal and total rest!
This is why parents need to carefully compel their children in spilling the beans about how they spent their day in school.
According to Dr. Linda Papadopoulos and Deiros Collado, asking children how school was is not the right way to get them to open up, because they may not know how to express things vividly.
To avoid the everyday “It was okay’, “I don’t know”, or “Leave me alone” responses and get your children to tell you exactly how things went in school, perhaps you may need to change your questioning approach
Instead of “How was your day?” or “How was school?”, present your questioning like these and watch those children open up like magic!
- “You look so happy. Something fun must have happened at school today.”
- Tell your child about your day first.
- “What made you laugh today?”
- “What did you enjoy most at playtime?”
- “What was your favourite thing that happened today?”
- “What did a teacher/friend say today?”
- “Were you feeling sad today? What happened to make you feel better?”
- “Who did/didn’t want to play with you today?
- “Did your friend eat all his/her lunch? How about you?”