I have read a New York Times article about the lack of doctors specializing in adolescents. Here in the Philippines, that is a relatively new field. If I am not mistaken, there is a unit like this at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) and/or Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC). You can click on the link to read the article, thank you.

That adolescence is a critical stage with the development of children, I agree. I have interpreted in the article that this is a time when these children are “looking for their identity, their niche” and if they successfully go through this stage, they are more or less okay to face bigger and more difficult challenges as they grow older. If however, they have had a difficult passage of rites in this stage, they could either end up in prison or being an underclass, according to the article.

To me these negative outcomes mean having low self-esteem, not being able to know what they want to do enjoy doing, not having the right mindset, behavior and skills to reach their goals. Though really, this is still a time when their goals are still very much so idealistic, at least, they have developed a pattern, a plan on how to somehow achieve these goals. I know this for a fact because I have an adolescent, a tween daughter who will turn 12 come August. Since kindergarten, her “what I want to be when I grow up” dreams have changed half a dozen times. When she wanted to be a vet, we always visited pet shops, we let her take care of the dogs: bathing them and going with them to the vet. When she wanted to be an interior designer like her tito, we let her design houses using the SIMS cd. Now she wants to be a dog breeder. Though my reaction was like “Huh?” I am happy of course that at this stage, she has goals and that she is looking for ways to make herself do her best in ways that will help her achieve what she wants.

But then again, I want to say this this stage is somewhat a little difficult for both the child and the parents. Because adolescent’s body is changing, the physical, emotional, social and mental changes affect the behavior. My daughter has become more assertive, more outspoken, “dictatorial” according to my husband. She makes her wants known but she patiently waits for the gratification of these things that she wants, and for that I am thankful. Her mood changes a lot and has become sensitive but everything is still manageable. To those who have toddlers, preschoolers it is best to be prepared when your children become adolescents. In the meantime, I think I may have to arrange an appointment with an adolescent medicine doctor for my daughter before her 6th grade school year starts.

Good touch, bad touch. What are these? These phrases are about touching. Yes, as in physical touch. For me these things are very important matters. Why so? With children we have to tell them about the following things:

• know when to say “NO” to unwanted touching or tickling or hugging
• know and realize the importance of personal privacy
• know that his/her body is private and nobody is supposed to touch it without a parent present
• know what to do when you are feeling that something is wrong
• know the importance of confiding to a trusted adult when you think/feel something is wrong

When my daughter Trixie started going to school at age 5, I talked to her about not allowing anyone to touch her. Anyone, meaning students who ride the school bus with her, classmates, and even adults in the school and school bus. This time, I am talking about these things to my almost-6yo son Julian. Even little Tania, who is 4yo, I tell her about not allowing anybody to touch her. Am I being paranoid? Am I being overprotective? Are they still too young to be suspicious of others? Am I teaching them to repel when being touched? I know I am just relying on my instincts about these things because I don’t want them to go through the trauma of being groped at, or touched maliciously by others. They don’t repel being kissed or hugged by us but with the little ones, they refuse to be bathed nor have their clothes changed by others. I don’t even let Julian go to the men’s bathroom alone or without his father just in case something like this happens.

What do you do about this issue? What have you said and done about this issue?

One of the noticeable language problems of children with special needs is communication and socialization. They do have these skills especially if they have had or have speech and language intervention. For some of them though, initiating a conversation, staying on topic and maintaining an exchange of ideas seem to be very complicated. Today is the second day of our Social Skills group for pre-teens and I decided to go with the objective of staying on topics.We learned about greeting other people appropriately last week. Some of our objectives today are the following:

OBJECTIVES:

• To be able to demonstrate the ability to maintain conversational topics for _______ exchanges.
• To be able to identify topics that can be appropriately pursued: music, vacation, sports, computers, eating out, weather, animals, movies, shopping, TV, cars and trucks, work, video games.
• To be able to identify topics that are not appropriate: weight, age, personal things

When I was doing this specific program, one of the things that came to mind was: “Hmm..this topic would not just be very useful for these children but for other people (including adults) as well.” You know what I mean, for those who prefer to ask the last part of the objectives rather than talk about the second part?

April 22 is Earth Day. This is also the day when my husband celebrates his birthday. I gives me a thrill to know that people from all over the world celebrate his birthday together to remember the importance of our environment. What is more important is knowing the ways how our immediate environment and neighborhood in particular, and the world in general, are being prioritized to be able to help in its protection and preservation (I hope).

Why do we have to raise the level of knowledge about the vulnerability of Mother Earth as well as raise consciousness about conserving and helping to improve the quality of life on this planet? Let’s face it, even if we would not be around in the next hundred years or so, we still need to do our part in the protection of our (global) environment. Who wouldn’t want crystal clear spring water running down smooth rocks? Or the sight of colorful, lovely and vibrant flowers? Or the sight of big, sturdy and tall tress offering protection and shade during hot, scorching days? Or layers upon layers of white water cascading down the mountain to caress the thirsty land? Or turtles and schools of fish joyfully swimming at the depths of a deep blue ocean?

Ahh..such wonders that only Mother Nature can offer. Can we not do our part, however little or grand it may be, in helping save what she has to offer? What can you do to help?

Photo1: unidentified little white flower (by TJ). Photo2: neighbor’s bright pink bougainvillea (by TJ). Photo3: big trees near UP Diliman Sunken Garden (by DH Brian). Photo4: Mag-aso Falls in Bohol (by DH Brian)