The digital era has led people to have less verbal communication and more digital communication. The culture of sitting together in groups and chatting verbally is being replaced by WhatsApp and Skype groups. Emojis are taking the place of human emotions. The status of a person in society is now decided by the number of followers they have on social media platforms. Alexa has taken the place of ‘Dadi ki kahaniyan‘ (Grandma’s stories).
Youtube rhymes have taken the place of sweet lullabies. These things have impacted the parent-child relationship to the greatest extent and as a result, the problem of child sexual abuse has become prevalent in our society.
Verbal communication provided by human-to-human or parent-to-child interaction is critical for learning and language development. Since electronic devices have started to take on the role of pacifiers, parents need to take serious steps and become more aware of their child’s communication health.
Communication is a vital bridge that decides the parent-child relationship. A good parent-child relationship allows children to voice their opinions and improves the bond. It helps them express themselves in front of their parents.
It strengthens their emotional and mental capacity. When they express themselves, they feel free and liberated. On the other hand, lack of emotional strength can lead to frustration and severe mental disorder. It helps them resolve their problems in a better way. This leads to emotional literacy in children.
Communication leads to understanding their problems. Most of the parents are not able to understand the problem which in turn leads to worsening of the situation. But an understanding of the problem and eradicating it by mentoring the child can bring positive thoughts in a child.
This brings the feeling of being heard and valued and helps in the all-round development of the child.
This helps them learn different ways of interacting with different people, which promotes the feeling of respect for others. A positive personality trait is developed through such interactions. Practising these skills in regular communications with your children will help them establish firm boundaries for their behaviour.
This can be done by regular exchange of thoughts and ideas. Knowing their opinion and giving your opinion can improve the bond. Walking down a long road in the evening or spending leisure together helps in building such relations.
When parents talk about themselves, it reminds the kid about things in his/her memory. And this leads to the sharing of incidents. After knowing any bad incident about your child, discuss together how they might handle the situation differently next time.
Ask for their ideas, and don’t be afraid to give yours. Try not to lecture, and pay attention to those subtle signals of going on too long. Keep it short, and use your life-wisdom to guide.
Children don’t always open up about what bothers them or about their lives, in such situations, behaving like a friend can help solve the situation, being an authoritative parent can guide kids through an increasingly tough academic and social world.
By the end of March, with much of the country under lockdown, there was a 22% increase in monthly calls from people younger than 18, and half of all incoming contacts were from minors. That’s a first in RAINN’s history, Camille Cooper, the organization’s vice president of public policy, tells NPR.
Of those young people who contacted the hotline in March, 67% identified their perpetrator as a family member and 79% said they were currently living with that perpetrator. In 1 out of 5 cases where the minor was living with their abuser, RAINN assisted the minor in immediately contacting police.
Child sexual abuse prevention programs were developed in the United States of America during the 1970s and many such programs came up after that, but parent-child communication plays the most important role.