POLOKWANE – Child therapist and integrated learning practitioner, Annamarie de Villiers, explains why it is important for children to participate in extracurricular activities.
“Participation in sport develops fitness, ability to concentrate, perseverance, courage and daring, problem solving, muscle development, hand-eye coordination, discipline, balance, stamina and competition in children. They also learn how to work as a team.”
She says every child is unique and it is important that parents consider their child’s temperament and natural abilities when helping the child choose an extracurricular activity.
“Too often in our schools, children are pressured to participate in sports that they are doomed to be unsuccessful in. In our education system it is often expected that every child’s value is ascertained through achievement in a specific test or sport. It is after all impossible for the penguin, fish, elephant, seal and dog to climb a tree, but give the fish and penguin water to swim in, for example, and they shine.”
De Villiers says not all children have the necessary temperament for team sport. For a child who is an introvert and has an arty temperament, solo sport such as horse riding, kayaking, or swimming could be more their forté.
“For a child to benefit from an activity, he or she must enjoy it and want to do it in the first place. Rather take time to get to know your child and find the right sport or other activity for him or her. It might be a process of trying out several before the right one is found.”
When extracurricular activities go together with excess pressure to achieve, when it becomes more important than character development, when it excludes others because they do not achieve (bullying behaviour) and is coupled with bad language and behaviour by parents, participation is only disadvantageous to the child’s development, she says.
“With the explosion in technological development, children should be encouraged more to be active and not spend all their spare time before the TV, computer or cell phone screen.
“The best way parents can actively encourage their children to be active is through their own example. Parents who set an example by being active themselves, for example to rather go jogging or play squash instead of lying in front of the TV, are encouraging their children to be active. It is all about the values and priorities parents unconsciously communicate to their children.”
De Villiers further says more children have learning problems these days and there is a direct link between the appearance of learning problems and a lack of activity. An active lifestyle and participation in extracurricular activities from an early age can help to prevent learning problems.
For assistance with learning problems contact De Villiers at annamarie.devilliers@gmail.com and for more information go to www.ilt.co.za.
