April 2017    --     Counsellors Corner

Last month we focussed on ways to take a break from tec in this fast paced, technology heavy world.  I can’t stress enough the importance of unplugging from time to time to relax and take time for yourself, family, and friends.  One important piece about taking this time to unplug is how it models appropriate tech use for our kids.

With how technology driven society is now, sometimes we forget the extreme importance of face to face interactions.  Humans are social beings. Interacting with others in person allows for us to give and receive emotional support, where body language and tone of voice are able to be taken into account and understood.  Social skills are best learnt with this face to face interaction. Watching body language, eye contact, facial expressions, etc allows kids to observe appropriate responses and also allows them to start to learn sympathy and hopefully later, empathy.  This is huge for character development, and social media is far more isolated, removing these opportunities for kids to interact with each other. Being present with others affects multiples senses, not just the visual sense of what you see on the screen.

 

 

Modeling social skills and making sure our kids have as many opportunities as possible to interact directly with others is very important and can sometimes be forgotten about in this face paced tec world.  Encourage those face to face interactions!
 

Check out the following link to see Gibbons Schools Counselling and Wellness Plan: https://docs.google.com/a/sturgeonstudents.com/document/d/1ZFj5iiVOGbx-7BjpLgDxy4GyDcMqW1H_NOJ7k-DLPHI/edit?usp=sharing