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Malta
Today Campaign
| Growing pains
Most
of us acknowledge that growing up is no longer child's play. In
the second report in our series analysing the pressures of childhood,
the director of psychiatric services at Mount Carmel, Joe Saliba,
is interviewed by NADINE BRINCAT
The psychiatrist's view
"In the education of children we need to strike the right balance
between achieving a good level of education, and the way in which
education itself is imparted."
These were the words spoken by the Director of Psychiatric Services
at Mount Carmel Hospital, Joe Saliba, on the subject of helping
children learn without subjecting them to too much pressure.
Dr Saliba emphasises that education is very important, but adds
that the child's educational potential and abilities must be considered.
"Education methods should respect the child's coping capacity
and parents should not push children to do more than they are able
to do," he explains, "while finding time for leisure activities
is also important."
The Director of Mount Carmel believes that teaching methods should
foster a love of learning, making education an enjoyable experience.
"This would make children approach education as a quest for
knowledge, so that they are not put off learning," he explains.
According to Dr Saliba, the Maltese competitive education system
produces a high percentage of achievers, when compared to abroad.
However, he adds, while those who do well achieve high standards,
the cost to those who do not is high, as they risk being marginalised
and demoralised.
He explains that children have different ways of dealing with pressure.
"Children who cannot cope may internalise problems, appearing
unhappy or anxious," he says. "Others who externalise
their problems, especially if they have good interpersonal skills,
rebel against the system. They misbehave, stop going to school and
may join gangs. Children in similar circumstances, with poor interpersonal
skills, may also externalise their problems, but are solitary and
many are bullied. Bullied children, in turn, bully others younger
than themselves, lower down the ‘pecking order.' Bullying is
very common."
He believes that there are healthy and unhealthy aspects to competition.
"We speak of losing with dignity and being a ‘good sport',
but for many this is a poor consolation prize," the psychiatrist
says. "For some, competing is only about being the over all
winner and not about improving one's own standard. In this respect
it is easy to become one's own worst enemy."
Dr Saliba also expresses scepticism about the examination system,
pointing out that one of the problems is the fact that people are
judged on examination performance, at a time when anxiety may be
at its peak, causing some students to under-perform.
On the plus side, he concedes that exams help prepare youngsters
to deal with stress, which they will inevitably encounter later
in life.
Advocating balance as the answer, he says, "Children should
be judiciously exposed to reasonable levels of stress that they
can cope with. It is desirable for continuous assessment to form
an important part of measuring skill and knowledge acquisition.
But we should not completely do away with examinations, because
in real life people are required to master a body of information
and to be able to deliver this on demand, sometimes under stress.
Examinations do measure this capacity."
Dr Saliba also highlights the difficulties that the local system
can face when trying to implement inclusive education as a means
of avoiding emargination.
"The difficulty is that in the Maltese achievement-oriented
system, children compete against each other, and a child with disabilities
may not be able to compete on the same level," he says. "The
child may perceive this difference and become conscious of being
one of the lowest achievers in his immediate peer group."
Turning to some of the emotional problems that children can experience,
Dr Saliba mentions Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, where the child
becomes fixated on something, such as fear of contamination or illness,
the need to check things constantly, or a thought which they cannot
get rid of.
"There may also be phobic and anxiety disorders, where the
child is afraid that something will happen to her or to her loved
ones, or other problems which tend to emerge in adolescence, such
as anorexia and bulimia," Dr Saliba explains.
He points out that whereas in the United States, there has been
a trend to go to an analyst even to cope with normal everyday stress,
in Malta the situation is almost at the other extreme, where there
is still some stigma attached to visiting a psychiatrist.
"If seeking help is delayed excessively the problems may become
more deeply entrenched and more difficult and complex to deal with,"
he warns.
Dr Saliba believes that a well-balanced environment is important
to safeguard normal childhood development, but points out that some
children are more biologically prone to psychological problems.
"If parents see problems that they cannot handle, they should
seek professional help," he says. "Unfortunately there
are some rare serious disorders, which emerge in the teenage years
of adolescence, including psychotic disorders where the individual
loses touch with reality and may develop hallucinations and false
beliefs. For these, it is very important to get psychiatric medical
treatment without delay.
However, many of the most common disorders which affect children
and adolescents will still allow them to lead a normal and productive
life."
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