Jointly reported by:
Chloe Chan Po Yi JR1Z(3)
Chloe Soh Ke Er JR1Z(3)

On the 30th of October 2021, the entirety of Junior Middle One level students has been invited to participate in a special event. More than 250 participants gathered via the Zoom video platform to attend the talk. Only this time they have their parents by their side.

Our host, Mr. Tan Yong Chin, Head of the School Counseling Department who is also a Registered and Licensed Counselor in Malaysia then introduced himself to the audience. Mr. Tan proceeded to elaborate on the main points of the talk, one of them being the bread and butter of the cooperation between student, parent, and teacher. 

 Mr. Tan taught the audience on how to control their negative emotions using the mindful – STOP method. He then led a practice round and the audience followed all the way. The feedback given by the attendees showed that most of them feel like it is meditation. Overall, the audience felt more calm and relaxed after that exercise. A point was also made to use this method whenever their blood is boiling. 

Mr. Tan then proceeded to go into detail about how parents should talk to their child, he gave an example of how one of the parents talked to him. He said that the parent raised a finger at him while engaging in a conversation with him. Mr. Tan immediately knew what was wrong with the parent’s way of engaging with their child. Mr. Tan politely asked to mirror the parent’s behaviour. As soon as Mr. Tan got into character, the parent was intimidated with just a few seconds into the demonstration. Mr. Tan then said the story ended with the parent meekly smiling, saying that they knew what was the problem. 

Then, there were multiple interaction activities where all the children and parents showed cooperation. One of them where they were asked to annotate on the screen on which activity they carried out. There were lots of choices for them such as shopping, music and cooking. Most of the children and parents spent time online. Mr. Tan then continued to show them some pictures of him and his child carrying out some activities at home. They did exercise, baking, and all sorts of fun activities. They were seen enjoying the activities.

At last, was the Q&A session. There was a moment of silence before a brave parent decided to ask for help. The parent stated that her child doesn’t respond to her when she asks her child questions. After confirming the situation, Mr. Tan politely requested to act as the parent’s child and carry out a small simulation where they arrive at a restaurant and the parents ask what her child wants. After a small scene simulation, Mr. Tan concluded that the parent was nice when she gave choices to the child on what to eat, but she should give her child more time to make their decision. 

After the Q&A session, participants were told to fill out a feedback form. In the feedback form, there were also some helpful links to videos for the participants. The talk ended on a high note and left all participants with a renewed sense of optimism.