The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

A helping hand for quiet ones
Therapeutic group activities can help encourage children gain confidence and manage their thoughts and emotions
Hilary Wilce

EVERYONE knows about behaviour problems in school. Children with behaviour problems are loud, rude, angry and disruptive. But what about the other children whose behaviour is a worry? Children who are shy, anxious and find it hard to make friends?

There are many more such children in schools than their disruptive peers, but their needs are often overlooked because such children don’t cause problems to their classmates, only to themselves. Yet these problems are serious.

Children who can’t contribute in class, make a friend, or navigate the rough and tumble of the school day often fail to thrive and learn, and this pattern intensifies as they go on to secondary school, leaving them vulnerable to dropping out, falling behind, or taking up with the wrong kind of friends.

However, for more than 30 years a short and inexpensive early intervention has been helping awkward, timid children overcome their difficulties. Pyramid clubs in the UK offer 10 weeks of carefully structured therapeutic group activities that encourage children to gain confidence and manage their thoughts and emotions. Clubs run for an hour and a half once a week after school, and work with children showing the first signs of problems. Research from the University of West London, published in the spring, shows that the clubs have a positive and lasting effect.

The study, reported in the British Journal of Educational Psychology, took 385 seven- and eight-year-olds, from seven schools in Ealing and Manchester, screened them for social and economic difficulties, then allocated them to a pyramid club or to the control group. Three months later, teachers screened the children for emotional skills, the ability to get on with their peers, and good social behaviour. Across the board, Pyramid graduates had not only made good personal progress, but had also made greater gains than the children who had not been given any support.

But Charlotte, one of eight Year Three pupils attending the pyramid club running this term at Parlaunt Park School, Slough, doesn’t know anything about that. What she does know is that there are visitors in the room that she hasn’t seen before, and that the snack that the school kitchen has provided for the club is something she doesn’t like. It is all too much. She pulls her hair across her face, pushes her head into her hands and cries. Other club members are equally withdrawn. The initial snack-time session is hard work for the helpers as they try to get them to talk about something interesting they’ve done since the last club session. Cody, a blond boy with earrings, says he played in the garden and bumped his head. Janat, a shy Asian girl, whispers that she played in the garden and played on her keyboard. Ben peers through his glasses and says he helped his mum and his sister.

Next everyone gathers around for a game where, with a mask on their face, someone has to act out a feeling, while the others guess what it is. The group warms up, and quickly guesses “proud”, “excited”, “bored” and “frightened”.

“How do you know how people are feeling?” says Paula Fearon, a welfare worker at the school who has been running pyramid clubs for 15 years. “If you can see their face, you can see that they’re smiling, but what happens when you can’t see their face? That’s right. You have to guess from what they are doing with their body. If someone’s sad, they might have their shoulders down and be dragging their feet.”

“If they’re sad, you can ask them what’s the matter and cheer them up,” volunteers Matthew. “And if they’ve got no one to play with,” says Cody, “you can be their friend.”

After that the children make kebabs of fresh fruit to take home, and are so relaxed and busy that they happily chat about their families and about that evening’s school variety show. Then they are allowed 10 minutes to play outside on the grass. Independent of any helpers, they organise a game of grandmother’s footsteps, and, at the end of it, rush back in and cram and hide under one of the classroom tables. Flushed and laughing, they are completely transformed from the shy children of an hour earlier.

During the final round-table session, each child takes a turn to hold Homer, the club’s soft-toy mascot, and say what they like most about Pyramid club. They come up with running, drawing, hiding and making things. “Everything!” says Jake, beaming through his freckles.

The children’s difficulties are not dwelt on. Paula Fearon says Matthew has had a stroke, which has left him with speech problems, Ben might have some special needs, Abhay is new to the school and Janat is just very quiet. What she does know is that Pyramid clubs work. “There was one girl we had, the teacher said she didn’t even know she had a Welsh accent until she came here. She’d never spoken before. And we’ve had about three children who were originally in Pyramid volunteering themselves as mentors for younger children in our peer mentoring scheme.” Teachers often collar her to complain that children who’ve been through her hands “are being naughty now” — a definite sign of success.

And the school head, Tara Moran, who describes the cost of the programme as “peanuts” compared to its enormous benefits, says one parent of a Year Six child told her that her child’s pyramid club experience, three years earlier, had been “the best thing about the whole school”.

“Pyramid clubs run on a very clear model, which is all set down in a manual that people follow,” says Bronach Hughes, emotional health and well-being co-ordinator with ContinYou, the education charity that administers Pyramid clubs nationally. “If they implement the model, they get results.” However, much of the therapeutic work goes on almost unnoticed in side conversations around group activities. “Food always plays a big part — both making and sharing,” says Hughes.

Pyramid clubs can throw up problems that normal school has not uncovered. “In one club they found that three of the children had lost a sibling. One girl talked about visiting her sister’s grave, another had a twin who had died, and one had suffered the death of a teenage brother. All these children had unresolved bereavement issues, yet the school had no idea.” But busy schools, she points out, rarely have the time for relaxed conversations, and if a child isn’t able to ask for help, no one will know the problems are there.

The Pyramid model was developed in the 1970s by a social worker, Kay FitzHerbert, who was struck by the lack of help available to struggling pupils who did not have special needs, or who weren’t disruptive in class. Programmes are now available for three different age groups, through primary school and into early secondary school.

Clubs run in more than 40 areas of the country, and the new research adds to previous studies which have shown that clubs improve children’s self-esteem, help them with friendships and relationships with adults, improve their coping and problem-solving skills, and help them do better in class. — The Independent

4 in 10 children struggle to read basic words: Study

FOUR in 10 children struggle to read basic words at the age of six amid concerns over standards of early education, a study has found. Figures published for the first time show that 40 percent of pupils – almost 240,000 – fail to achieve the expected standard in reading after a year of school.

Data from the Department for Education, based on a new-style test, revealed that boys are already slipping far behind girls in terms of their ability to accurately decode a list of 40 words, the Telegraph reported.

White British boys from the poorest backgrounds officially performed worse than any group, other than those from gypsy and traveller families. Just 37 per cent of these children reached the standard expected of their age group.

The disclosure will raise concerns that some groups of children — particularly boys — are being failed in the early years. It comes just a week after Sats results showed that more than 20,000 boys finished primary school this summer with the reading age of a seven-year-old or worse.

Experts claim that a lack of male role models at home and school may be turning boys off reading at a young age.

But ministers insisted the new assessment would enable schools to pick out pupils falling behind at the start of compulsory education — giving them targeted catch-up lessons.

“The reading check helps teachers identify those pupils who need extra help in learning to read. Many thousands of children will now receive the extra support they need to develop a love of reading,” Elizabeth Truss, the Education Minister, said. — ANI

Campus Notes
Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak
Focus on community health

A psychologist can play effective role in making people health conscious and creating a positive health scenario in society. This was stated by eminent psychologist Prof. N.K.Chadha of the University of Delhi in his valedictory address at a workshop on "Community Psychology and Health" organised by the Department of Psychology of the university recently. Professor Chadha said community health initiatives must include senior citizens in its ambit, as they are a neglected lot in society. He also called for effective social support to promote the health cause in society at individual as well as community level. Resource person Dr Vandana Sharma from Patiala called for cognitive as well as behavioural restructuring for promoting community health. She said psychologists should come forward for the sensitisation of people vis-à-vis community health. She said individuals must try for work-life balance for personal happiness and suggested breathing exercises for better health. Earlier, noted psychologist Prof. Girishwar Mishra in his keynote address said need of the hour is to take out psychology from classes to the masses and work for community causes. Dr G. P. Thakur advocated using psychological interventions for developing community health strategies. The UGC visiting professors, Dr Vedagiri Ganeshan and Dr Venkateshan, and the UGC-SAP co-ordinator, Prof. Rajbir Singh, also spoke on the occasion. Besides this, a community health camp was organised by the department under the UGC Special Assistance programme at Madhodi village, where over 200 villagers attended the camp.

Lecture on impression management

Creating a winning image, developing a personal brand, inculcating confidence in oneself, improving one's personality are all essential features of creating and developing effective impression. This was stated by eminent psychologist Dr Urmi Nanda Biswas, Professor, Department of Psychology of M.S. University, Vadodara, in her lecture on the essential components of impression management. She explained the verbal and non-verbal components of effective communication skills. She also conducted mock interviews and extempore sessions for students. Professor Promila Batra, Head, Department of Psychology, in her address said controlling one’s emotions is necessary for effective communication. She also focused on listening skills.

IMSAR Day observed

The Institute of Management Studies and Research (IMSAR) of Maharshi Dayanand University celebrated IMSAR Day recently. MDU Vice-Chancellor R. P. Hooda presided over the function, while Managing Director and Chairman of LPS Bossard Rajesh Jain was the chief guest on the occasion, said Prof. H.J. Ghosh Roy, Director, IMSAR.

Zonal youth fest schedule

The university has finalised its schedule for the zonal youth festivals to be organised in its affiliated colleges. According to officials concerned, Rohtak Zone Festival will be held from October 6 to 8 at Pt. NRS Government College, Rohtak, while Technical Zone Youth Festival will be held from October 9 to11 at KIIT, Gurgaon. While Gurgaon Zone Youth Festival will be held from October 12 to 14 at Government College, Tigaon, Bhiwani Zone Youth Festival will be held from October 15 to 17 at Government College, Bhiwani; Sonepat Zone Youth Festival will be held from October 18 to 20 at Government College, Bahadurgarh; and Mohindergarh Zone Youth Festival will be held at KLP College, Rewari, from October 25 to 27.

Career guidance programme

The Department of Library and Information Science of the university organised a career guidance programme on the campus recently. Speaking about various career opportunities in the field of library science, guest speaker Dr K. Veeranjaneyulu urged students to improve their communication skills and work on personality development, besides upgrading technical knowledge.

— Contributed by Bijendra Ahlawat