Health presents a new guide for families
The Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the La Caixa Foundation, has just presented the Positive Parenting Guide, which summarizes the most important measures to help parents and professionals create a climate of positive family coexistence to educate their children.
The document is based on the report Parenting in contemporary Europe: a positive aproach and both organizations have followed the recommendations of the Council of Europe that, already in 2006, aware of the importance of the family institution, urged public institutions to promote and encourage new parental responsibilities.
La Positive parenting guide and your support needs develops measures to support positive parenting, among which the creation of a new model of attention to families, a new psycho-educational approach and community for the orientation of the measures adopted and the objectives to be reached through the support measures. And do not forget the local support policies to positive parenting, through services, programs and support activities for the promotion of positive parenthood.
Principles of positive parenthood
- Warm, protective and stable affective bonds so that children feel accepted and loved. This involves strengthening family ties throughout the development, modifying the forms of manifestation of affect in relation to the age of children.
- Structured environment, which provides model, guidance and supervision for children to learn the norms and values. This supposes the establishment of routines and habits for the organization of the daily activities where these learnings are carried out.
- Stimulation and support for daily and school learning for the promotion of motivationand its capabilities. This involves observing the characteristics and abilities of the sons and daughters, stimulating and supporting their learning as well as taking into account their progress and achievements.
- Recognition of the value of sons and daughters, show interest in their world, validate their
experiences, get involved in their concerns, respond to their needs. This supposes
consider them people, to whom we must understand and take into account their points of
seen so that they take an active and responsible part in the decisions of the family.
- Training of sons and daughters, enhancing their perception that they are active agents,
competent and capable of changing things and influencing others. For this it is recommended
create in the family spaces for listening, interpreting and reflecting the messages of the
school, peers, the community, the leisure world and the media. The great diversity of family models existing in today's society and the cultural and gender differences, increase the variability in the task of being fathers and mothers.
- Education without violence, excluding any form of degrading physical or psychological punishment, considering that corporal punishment.
Objectives of positive parenthood
According to the Committee of Ministers of the Member States, positive parenting means that * the main concern of parents must be the well-being and healthy development of the child, to whom they must educate so that they can develop as best as possible at home, in the school, with friends and in the community. Children do everything better when their parents are affectionate and understanding, spend time with them, know their life and understand their behavior, and encourage them to communicate openly with them ... ", summarize from this body.
1. Care and protection: to respond to the need for greater and safety of the child. The child needs acceptance, sensitivity, receptivity, involvement and support from their parents ... Parents can show their children affection and happiness, comfort them if they are distressed, talk with them about what worries them, maintain a positive affective climate in the home and offer security and basic care.
2. Structure and orientation: that provide the child with security and a predictability to help him accept responsibility for his own behaviors, allow him to become aware of the needs of others and develop their self-control. Parents should establish an orderly (but not rigid) daily routine with regular schedules for family activities. It is important to be flexible, talk and negotiate with the child as he grows up.
3. Recognition which refers to the child's need to be seen, heard and valued as a person. It requires that parents show interest in their daily experiences, listen to them, try to understand their point of view and help them express their feelings.
4. Training, which refers to improving the sense of competence and personal control of the child and the ability to influence the attitudes and behaviors of others.Parents can focus on the positive aspects of the child and express confidence in their potential. In addition, parents can create situations that allow them to learn, discover new experiences and develop their social relationships.
María Espín
