Children are precious gifts to parents. However, raising them right is a great responsibility and a difficult task.
Opinions about how to raise a child vary even in individual homes, with parents and guardians often facing challenges over how to discipline children effectively without harming their self-image.
Professor Angela Ofori-Atta, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Ghana Medical School, has added her voice to the discussion.
Allow them to speak to us
Speaking to Jackie Ankrah on Asaase Radio’s Lifestyle ABC, in an interview on the theme “Does the child have a voice in the Ghanaian home?”, Professor Angie said parents should raise their children to know the appropriate times to speak.
“I think right from the start, we encourage them to speak and then we teach them when to be quiet. Because, there are things they need to tell us when they are little which they may not be able to if we’ve been telling them to be quiet all the time. Like, ‘Somebody punched me in school’, ‘Somebody touched me’ when they shouldn’t have, and so on.
“So … we allow them to speak to us all the time. But we teach them when to be quiet, because there are times when a child needs to be quiet.
”You know when there is a gathering of family, for example, and the eldest is about to speak or someone else is about to speak, a child needs to know when to come in,” Professor Angie said.
Listen to the full conversation on Lifestyle ABC here.
Nana Abena Boakye-Boateng
Professor Angie is also the host of “Beautiful Minds” on Asaase Radio every Monday at 8pm. Tune in: it’s for your psychological well-being.
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