Trying to educate young people and cater for widely varying capabilities learning style and content is always a challenge In the education of a child, a future young adult, there are usually three primary parties to the exercise
• The child • The child’s teachers, of which there are usually many, but more importantly the child's parents should also be involved The secondary parties to these exercises are of course, social norms, religions, the news, and the on-line world of social media, games and many others In terms of learning ability there are also three prime factors that were involved in whether the student performs well or doesn't The first one • Intellectual intelligence or IQ The second one which is quite often neglected • Emotional intelligence, sometimes known as EQ and of course the third one which also tends to be ignored but we have greater and greater levels of the evidence now that the child’s biochemical environment, basically the way the nervous system is nourished or poisoned because of environment and diet In developing a child into a young adult, all of these factors are important in fact it is essential that they be addresses in a balanced approach
But do you know the one key factor that has been proven by extensive longitudinal study to be THE most important factor in whether a child thrives later in life? The Harvard Grant study carefully observed and tested a sample population for over 75 years, from early adulthood through to death and a The single factor that dramatically stood out above all else was whether a child had warm connected parental and social relationships And when I use the term thrive here I mean not only feeling good about themselves, but actual success in all areas of life – academic, income, relationships and health Why am I telling you this? Because to most people today it is obvious that there is something wrong with our society Mental health issues, anxiety, depression and suicide are all on the increase Greater numbers of young people are killing themselves at younger ages
People are angry, anxious and depressed in greater numbers than ever before Communication between individuals is breaking down, as are relationships at all levelsI see these things on a daily basis I’m Gary Johnston – and for the past 38 years I have been a clinical psychotherapist, specializing in anxiety disorders and trauma Over that time the incidence of mental health issues in our society has doubled
Now they are increasing at a rate of 124% per year, and accelerating There are a number of reasons for it, but in terms of key fixable items on the agenda, there are three that can be fixed, and fixed relatively easily on an individual and small group level 1 Re-connecting, especially parents with their children
Research has shown that over 50% of people don’t feel loved, and have never felt loved, especially by their parents I find that kind of sad, because that one key factor in a thriving, flourishing life is the ability to loved and feel loved If we can’t even get that right, we are in serious trouble as it produces entire groups and populations of disenfranchised young people 2 Develop social empathy, or in other words, stimulate the learning of emotional intelligence
This seems to be seriously lacking in today’s society, and has filtered through our younger populations Self-focus is very dangerous, and is one of the foundations of anxiety disorders and suicide 3 Also needed is the education process that everybody needs to go through in the critical role of lifestyle, diet and toxic elements in the environment which in fact result in the destruction nervous system A poorly maintained new system destroys learning ability and breeds a whole raft mental illnesses and disorders
It changes the way we see the world and in the worst case scenario (about 7% of the population) causes hallucinations At the moment 25% of the population suffers from a mental illness in any one year, and 50% of us will suffer from a mental illness at some time in our lives and these figures a growing every year When I first started this work the five years ago I would have said the the level of disruption to mental health was relatively low Now it is indeed is a serious problem
OK, so how do we fix it? Initially it has to be done in a way that includes the parents and their children It is important to lower anger levels, and create understanding that re-establishes or supports the reconnection of these relationships It is important to teach an understanding and implementation of emotional intelligence (which research shows has an added benefit of increasing IQ by 15-20 points) And everyone needs to understand that the typical diet most kids eat, and often their parents, seriously limits learning ability and causes enormous emotional load The Neuro-Com Positive Engaged Parenting (PEP) program does exactly this
This is a five week program, one evening per week, with an ongoing support methodology, that re-educated parents in the essentials of engaged parenting, development of relationships and emotional intelligence We also run a parallel program for the children, in communication, relationships, emotional intelligence and practical mental health support programs There are many organisations in the study skills and motivation space, but their success is generally limited to individuals who do not carry the burden of anxiety, thought and behavioural disorders Unless these issues are addressed, with both children and their parents, many young people will never Our special programs fit snuggly next to the concepts and teaching of positive education that has started to become a preferred teaching and support methodology in schools However our expertise is on a totally different level, specializing in helping the large % of students, and their parents, who cannot respond well to positive education principles or motivational programs
Unless their self-image, relationship and emotional issues are addressed, they will always struggle and never reach their full potentialAnd we work with their parents in a way that enhances all aspects of emotional and educational stability, creating deeper connections in far wider experience for the children If you are a school administrator we would like to spend a few minutes with you to explain this program in a little more detail One of the benefits of the programs we offer is that they do not interfere with normal school operations in any way There are no costs for the school but the benefits in performance of students, and improved interaction between teachers and students are rapidly observable
Below this video you'll see a contact point to get in touch with us We hope that you've got something out of what I've been talking about There is a lot more to be gained from sitting down with us and seeing exactly what we doing We are very dedicated to supporting both parents in students in the mental health field but also in life skills generally offering tools never understood by most people in our society so give us a call and we look forward to talking to you in the future thanks for watching