Mental health experts urge parents to manage reactions to SEA results

Carisa Lee

Re­porter

[email protected]

Men­tal health pro­fes­sion­als are cau­tion­ing par­ents and guardians of stu­dents who re­ceived their Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment (SEA) ex­am re­sults on Thurs­day night to man­age their re­ac­tions to the out­comes.

Psy­chi­a­trist Dr Var­ma Deyals­ingh re­mind­ed par­ents to re­main calm re­gard­less of how the child per­formed in the ex­am, as they can sense it.

“Be­cause your chil­dren will feed on that, and that will al­so make them more anx­ious... what you have to do is re­alise that what­ev­er the re­sult is, try not to show dis­ap­point­ment...Hug them up af­ter the re­sults, if it's, you know, what­ev­er it is, if it's good ju­bi­la­tion, run­ning, danc­ing, if it's bad, you hug them,” he said.

He al­so ad­vised that par­ents avoid mak­ing com­par­isons to oth­er sib­lings or stu­dents and al­low the chil­dren to vent about their re­sult, whether it’s good or bad.

Child and fam­i­ly ther­a­pist Dr Sarah Sub­han had a sim­i­lar sug­ges­tion for par­ents/guardians. She said par­ents’ re­ac­tions are like­ly to im­pact chil­dren in the long run, es­pe­cial­ly if they are un­con­trolled.

“Many chil­dren will feel hap­py and proud, while many may ex­pe­ri­ence dis­ap­point­ment. There is a place for all emo­tions, and adults have an op­por­tu­ni­ty to mod­el how to cope. If need­ed, seek out a trust­ed per­son to ex­press your feel­ings to,” she ex­plained.

The head of Fam­i­ly Tree Psy­cho­log­i­cal Ser­vices told par­ents that SEA was just a step­ping­stone, as the jour­ney ahead will be filled with many op­por­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges.

“Con­tin­ue to sup­port your chil­dren for the long term,” she said.

Speak­ing on CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew pro­gramme on Thurs­day, clin­i­cal trau­ma­tol­o­gist Dr Hanif Ben­jamin said par­ents are not ob­lig­at­ed to re­veal their child’s re­sults to any­one, and the on­line method helped with that.

“We're out of time, bad, we're out of tim­ing re­al bad with how we ap­proach peo­ple,” he said.

Psy­chother­a­pist Gre­go­ry Isaacs told par­ents/guardians that even if their child has fall­en short, cer­tain­ly at this age, they will have time to make up for it. But he added that it will mean maybe some more sac­ri­fice on their part.

“It will mean al­so a new plan go­ing for­ward, es­pe­cial­ly this Ju­ly, Au­gust, get­ting ready for the Sep­tem­ber new term and new school,” he said.

Is­sacs told par­ents, as a for­mer school guid­ance coun­sel­lor, that their sup­port for their chil­dren is vi­tal no mat­ter the re­sult. He added that they have to be there to sup­port, nav­i­gate, and help their chil­dren make the best choic­es for their lives, which is more im­por­tant than any re­sult.

In a mes­sage ahead of the SEA re­sults, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath con­grat­u­lat­ed the 17,870 stu­dents for reach­ing a ma­jor mile­stone in their ed­u­ca­tion­al jour­ney. He said their ded­i­ca­tion, per­se­ver­ance, and fo­cus de­serve to be cel­e­brat­ed.

"The en­tire na­tion cel­e­brates you," he said.

The min­is­ter al­so con­grat­u­lat­ed the par­ents and teach­ers for their guid­ance, sac­ri­fices, and be­lief in the young minds that will be­come the lead­ers of to­mor­row.