Life coaching for very young children

Interesting thoughts. There is absolutely no doubt that the pandemic has had an impact on children's mental health on all children whatever age even babies and toddlers. CAMHS services (like all NHS services) are full and huge waiting lists and only catering for children seriously ill however sometimes very young children maybe are expected to have adult feelings which they don't have or need. So we lost our cat on Friday. She was 18 +. All DGC have been used to her, chased her, cuddled her. Our own DC are very upset (as we are) and tonight DD2 decided to light a candle and remember the cat - say a few words - meant to be outside under her favourite bush but lashing rain! DGS2 is used to candles and associates them with birthdays. Mummy was trying to say a few words about the cat however he began singing Happy Birthday to the cat - so that is what we did. Really there was no advantage in trying to make the occasion sad as he was too young to understand. DD1 lost a great friend to cancer at the start of the pandemic. Friend's daughter and DGD are same age (4) and see each other a lot. Friend's daughter often says to DD1 "My mummy is dead, why are you not dead?" This is heartbreaking for DD1 but she teaches P1 and the response is "Your mummy was ill and too sick and died but I am not ill". The child says "Ok" and goes back to her play. Now a life coach might make more of these things and probably in the future as the little girl is older there may be a need for more psychological input but for pre school children mostly things need to be matter of fact then they move on to the next thing. It is sad that some children as Marydoll has indicated have not had the family foundations that our DGC have had and it has to be addressed in school. I watched a series called "Don't exclude me" recently and the children featured were 6, 7 and 9. The teacher helping class teachers was very experienced and the interventions (also followed at home - a bit) helped all 3 children stay longer in class and understand how to deal with being overwhelmed but I felt very sorry for the class teachers who tried their best to follow the guidance but were often reduced to tears by it not always working. I do remember children like that when I was at school. They were often put out of class, took up an inordinate amount of teacher's time and by high school ended up in the classes that never sat exams and left at 15 if not expelled before. Probably could have been helped by life coaching I expect.

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I read your post with interest marydoll. I taught in secondary school and although we had groups to help children with anger management and other emotional difficulties I felt that for many of the students this intervention was too late and too little. So it’s great that this work is started in primary schools where it can be more effective. Did your school run any classes on parenting skills? This is something which I feel is badly needed but whether the parents who most need this support would attend is another matter.