School Psychology

Your child is constantly unfocused or disrupts the lessons? There are already tears in the morning on the way to school? You hear more and more often the sentence "I don't want to go there anymore"? School problems can have many faces. Parents are often at a loss in such situations and do not know what is going on with their child. One way to get support is through the school psychological counseling centers. The trained professionals work confidentially and free of charge for you. Read here how school psychological counseling can support you.

Do you know this? First it couldn't go fast enough with the start of school - and now: your child suddenly doesn't want to go to school anymore. School is suddenly stupid. The teacher is unfair, the other kids are mean. Or: your child doesn't want to go out on dates anymore, seems depressed, maybe has a stomachache or headache, or wets the bed again at night. And then there are those constant calls from the teacher because your child isn't behaving as expected at school. These are all alarm signs that rightly worry parents. Increasingly, even elementary school students are showing a wide variety of difficulties with life at school. Some things can be clarified and resolved through calm parent-child discussions or conversations with the head of the class. Where this is not enough, the school psychological service can be a very good point of contact.

In these cases, the school psychological service can help:

• Your child refuses to go to school and neither talks with the class leader nor with you can do anything.
• Your child is fundamentally afraid of school.
• Your child reacts with frequent stomachaches, headaches or sleep disorders to school, but the pediatrician's office can not find anything.
• Your child has very great difficulty with the subject matter and feels overwhelmed.
• Your child can only very difficult to concentrate and thus often disrupts the lessons or but does not get the learning material with.
• Your child feels excluded and is bullied.
• Your child is repeatedly involved in violent quarrels and it is difficult for him to control his emotions.
• Your child needs more challenges because he is bored at school.
• You do not get along with your child's teacher.
• You are unsure about the further school career of your child and want expert advice.

The goal of counseling is to find the causes of your child's problems and develop possible solutions with you. The school psychology is well networked and can, depending on the problem, also recommend other counseling centers and establish contacts upon request. For example, to educational counseling centers, youth welfare offices, social services as well as other contact points.

The consultations are always free of charge, absolutely confidential and independent. That is, the counseling center will try, regardless of any wishes of others, to find with you a good and suitable solution for your child.

You can be sure that what you discuss there will not be passed on in any case. It is also important to note that counseling is voluntary. Nobody can force you to a school psychological counseling.

You can either make contact with a school psychological counseling center through the teacher or take up the contact directly yourself. The phone number or email address can be found on the page of the Ministry of Education of North Rhine-Westphalia.

This is how school psychological help can look concrete. A few examples:.

• If your child refuses to attend school, the mental health professional will first talk to you. Later, conversations with your child will follow, perhaps also with the teacher. First, you will look together for possible causes. Subsequently, it is about ways for your child in school.
• If it is about school anxiety, first describe the problem. In further discussions with your child, possibly additionally with the teachers and you, causes and solutions are sought.
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• If lack of concentration is the issue, perhaps still associated with greater restlessness, the procedure is usually different. The school psychologist visits the lessons in coordination with the class management and makes so a picture of the school situation. This observation is important for further counseling. Often it is useful if the teacher is also involved in this case.
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• For problems with aggressive behavior, the school psychologist spends observing break times in the school. Such observations can be very informative. Here, too, it makes sense for the teacher to take part in the subsequent discussion. Since it will then be about concrete first solution steps.
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• Should the specialist of the school psychological counseling center find a test important to gain clarity about ADD, ADHD, giftedness or the like, it usually recommends a specialist medical practice.