Is your child stressed out?

DANIEL, eight, tries his best to work out the math problem in his textbook but, with his father breathing down his neck, he can hardly concentrate. His father, with a scowl on his face, says angrily: “How to solve this problem? You’ve already learned it in school, right? How?”

Daniel feels tremendous pressure not to let his father down, and fears that his father may get angrier if he does not solve the problem. After a while, his father does get angrier, and bellows: “You’re lazy! You never do your homework! You’re doing this just to make me angry, aren’t you?”

Imagine, for a moment, a different scenario. Let’s say Daniel’s father wasn’t angry but shows a lot of patience with him. When Daniel isn’t able to solve the math problem, his father shows him how, and then lets him solve the next one all by himself. When Daniel is able to, his father rewards him with a “Well done, son!”