It’s real, and it’s a bitch
After-school restraint collapse happens to children who really struggle to follow expectations at school and students who are overwhelmed by school (the sensory environment, social expectations, rules, etc.).
When children are having a hard time meeting the demands, or adapting to the environment, this can show up in a few different ways. The most common way is through concerning or challenging behaviours. Another, which is lesser known and often misunderstood, is after-school restraint collapse.
These children may be too anxious, feel unsafe, or feel too much pressure to comply to express their stress through their behaviours. Instead of acting out, they internalize and bottle up their feelings. All day long. On the outside, they look “fine”, but on the inside they most certainly are not.
These students are often overlooked because they are compliant and cooperative, they’re “convenient” and easy to have in school because they are so well-behaved.
The problem is that we can only keep the lid on that pressure cooker for so long before it becomes too much to hold in.
What often happens is once these children return to their safe spaces at home, everything they held back all day comes pouring out (or explodes). This is the collapse of the self-restraint they’ve been working hard to hold on to all day.
Brought to you by the letter J…
This article was inspired by some very ignorant comments made by a former T.V. personality who is a self-declared “global parenting expert”, despite having no qualifications whatsoever.
Granted, Jo Frost has three decades of experience working as a nanny, but her lack of academic knowledge or training are very apparent. She has obviously made no effort to study child development and uses extremely out-dated, harmful methods to force children into compliance.
As a celebrity and former T.V. personality, Jo relies on followers and fans to stay relevant (she’s failing). She needs people to pay for private consultants and buy her books and other useless products.
Instead of putting time and energy into becoming knowledgeable, perhaps going back to school or at least reading some books by actual experts, Jo Jo is playing childish games online in order to gain views. This isn’t the first time she’s done this and likely won’t be the last.
The most recent abomination came this past weekend…
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