Father and son!

I returned to a drawing made by Ms Sudha John in 1987, while she was at ASHIRVAD Child Development Centre at Chennai. This drawing formed part of a series we made to bring an awareness on communication time between parents and children. We used these illustrations for the two courses we ran for creating awareness about child development for parents, teachers and professionals. 

Looking back, I trace a journey which began then, to explore different dimensions of child development particularly in the setting of a home. 

Most of our homes have changed over the years. Personal communication has suffered and children are more into screen times of all sorts, because they seem to find the animation and imagery captivating. 

Yesterday, an elderly parents confessed to me that they found it easier to let their daughter watch cartoons whenever she is free in the hope that she would pick up conversational skills in English. They found it difficult to engage her in conversation or play because she preferred TV to human conversation. She is thriving on a habit which was introduced to her from her early childhood.  

What is a conversation time! A child brings a toy to a parent, while the parent is occupied at his or her desk. The child might interrupt a few times and might move away if attention is not offered. When and if attention is offered, it would lead to listening to what the child has to say and to build on his or her conversation content. All conversation with young children are resources for their learning and ideas. A parent is in a  position to plant some seeds of thinking or observation or information during such engagements.  The pattern now is to let the child use a phone to watch a video, while parents want to be involved in their 'work'. 

I wish there would be designated and regular times for and with children, which is both responsive to children as and when they are ready and when we can get them ready through activities which fascinate them. 

A child usually gets less attention or time from a father. It is usually less than half an hour from my enquiry with parents. We loose our children when we do not have 'bonding times'!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)