4th SYLP cohort hosts parenting session |24 June 2016

Parents and their teenagers learned how to ‘bridge the gap’ between their adolescent children through a workshop held last Friday at the Youth Centre, English River.

This workshop was part of the social project being implemented by the fourth cohort of the Seychelles Young Leaders Programme (SYLP).

The objective of the project is to help parents better understand their child development during adolescence, enhance the relationship between parents and adolescents, and emphasize on the need for parents to be involved in their child’s life including internet and mobile.

The three young leaders -- Julianna Agathine, Diana Monthy and Jeanine Leon -- stated that this project is their last before graduating from their course but they pledged to continue organising these classes as it is being recommended by the parents.

To tackle the shift in the life of a child from primary 6 to secondary one, three experts were brought in to educate the parents and their kids on emotional development of adolescents, communication between parents and adolescents, keeping parents in tune with technology.

The discussions were led by Julitta Agathine, Robert Ah-Weng and Kitson Agathine.

Mother of 12-year-old son, Sylvianne Legaie, said she attended the workshop to learn new ways to help out his son since he is entering the adolescent stage. Julianna Agathine said: “There are quite a few challenges we face as parents when dealing with adolescents and at one point you may think you have failed as a parent when you look at your child’s behaviour, but we want to share information with the parents to help in their personal life and in decision-taking roles.”

She pointed out that this topic is rather vast and that the subtopics they are covering are very small compared to the iceberg.

“I can see many changes going on from when he was younger and now that he has just started secondary, so I came to find out how to keep up with his transformation and to help him out when he has certain issues to face,” she said.

She said the discussions were very interesting and provided her with a lot of knowledge so she is encouraging other parents to take part in such activities for their own benefit.

R.H.