Hot Momma’s advice: Health impacts education in more ways than one! Make sure your child’s eyes, ears and teeth are getting checked with the New Year on the way!
2011 is coming to an end and all over Guyana students are finishing exams and the school term.
But with every end, comes a new beginning! With the new school term right around the corner, there will be plenty of opportunities for your children to learn more and keep on moving forward in their education! Now that your child knows the teachers, his/her classmates and the routine of the day, going to school has become a predictable part of his/her daily life. However, one thing that we often overlook when thinking about education is health and how health could be affecting learning.
My Hot Momma suggests doing the following things at the beginning of the year to help keep your child healthy and to keep him/her learning at his/her own level.
Get your child’s eyes checked!
Every year thousands of students are labelled as “slow learners” simply because they are not seeing accurately. A lot of the work that is done in the classroom has to do with reading, writing and copying from a blackboard. Often, if children are having sight problems, they make many mistakes in these areas because what they see isn’t connecting to what is there. If your child is rubbing his/her eyes a lot, squinting, complaining of headaches, or simply struggling in school with copying or is finding it hard to write between the lines, your child might have a sight problem. Having your child’s eyes checked yearly to ensure that s/he is seeing properly and getting glasses if needed is one of the most important things you can do to aid the progress of your child’s learning and education.
Get your child’s ears checked!
Just like children struggling with seeing, if your child has a hard time hearing it could be impacting the progress of his/her learning. The most popular cause of hearing problems is impacted wax in the ear. This happens most frequently with children who are cleaning their ears with cotton swabs and push too deep down into the ear canal forcing wax to build up. This can also damage other parts of hearing. If your child is not responding to you when being spoken to in a normal voice, is talking at a louder than usual volume or is asking for you to repeat things consistently, your child might have a hearing problem. Taking your child to get his ears checked yearly is a great way to ensure your child’s hearing health!
Go to the dentist!
Everything that enters the body is put directly into the mouth first. That is why having good dental health is so important. Having your child brush morning and night, as well as flossing and using mouth rinse will help keep your child’s teeth and gums healthy! It could also decrease the amount of times your child gets sick per year, which means your child won’t miss school! Making sure you are taking your child to the dentist once (if not twice) a year and s/he is practicing good dental hygiene at home will help keep your child healthy and smiling!
These are simple things my Hot Momma made time for in the beginning of the year to ensure I was healthy, as well as to get the most out of my education! Getting involved in your child’s education also means staying on top of your child’s health!
Please send specific or general questions about your child’s education or way to teach them to: classroomguyana@gmail.com
