June 27. Pinegrove School, Dharampur (Himachal Pradesh) hosted an insightful seminar on ‘Dealing with Adolescents’, including the impact of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act of 2012, for member schools of the Boarding Schools Association of India (BSAI) and CBSE Hubs of Learning Schools, and the school’s faculty members.
The seminar aimed at addressing the excessive peer pressure, impact of social-media, over-exposure to the internet and Parental Guidance (PG) labelled content at a very young age, which is becoming an enormous challenge for parents and teachers alike. Balancing ‘permission vis-à-vis affection and protection’, is fast becoming a parent-teacher-child contest encountering defiance and disobedience due to lack of emotional maturity and understanding. Clinical counselling, psychoanalysis and therapy for children are also becoming increasingly more challenging for the teaching community as well as professionals.
At the seminar, Dr. Ruby Ahuja, senior consultant psychologist, founder Cognititvee and chairperson CII IWN, addressed different facets of adolescence, including puberty-related physical, cognitive, social and emotional changes as well as the impact of social media on their mental health and personality.
The delegates learned about various types of eating disorders, developing tendencies to inflict self-injury and different forms of bullying leading to anxiety, substance abuse, addiction and other numerous issues that affect adolescents. The importance of understanding their emotional needs, building their self-esteem and maintaining effective parent-teacher-student communication, and trust, along with daily sports and physical activity, were emphasised.
Various aspects of the POCSO Act were discussed. The enriching sessions provided crucial information on recognising signs of child sexual abuse and associated myths, types of sexual offences, and guidelines on reporting. They also emphasised the need for adopting a mature, confidential and non-judgmental attitude while dealing with such cases.
The sessions were made lively and interactive with all the participants invited to engage in open communication with Dr. Ahuja. Questions were addressed while numerous doubts and many myths were clarified.
The event served as an enlightening pathway towards holistic adolescent development. True to its objective, it did an excellent job of equipping educators and caregivers with knowledge and strategies to support adolescents, through their formative years and to help protect them from potential risks.
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