Johannesburg - Orphans need trauma counselling so they can better deal with the deaths of their parents and do well in school.
This is one of the findings of research by University of Johannesburg student Shirley Mogano. For her master’s degree in education, she did research on 20 orphans in grades 4 to 6 at three Soweto public schools.
At a seminar on vulnerable children where she spoke about her findings recently, Mogano said death should be seen as a distressing experience, especially for young children.
“Death is traumatic for everyone. These children do not understand the meaning of death. One of the children I interviewed said she still talks about her mother because she does not want other children to laugh at her. It shows that there is a problem.”
Mogano said orphaned children were able to cope better with death once they were given trauma counselling.
“They will not be ashamed that their parents have died. Public schools unfortunately do not have the services. This is something they need to look at.”
Mogano said that because they did not receive counselling, orphaned children’s school work deteriorated at times.
“Children need grief counselling. Nothing is done in schools about how the children feel. They will just tell you that the academic performance has dropped. No one ever says the children should go for counselling. It is very important because death is traumatic.”
Mogano said underperfomance in schools could lead to low self-esteem.
The bad performance, she said, might also be attributed to children not having someone to help them with their work because most of them lived with their grandparents.
“The curriculum has changed a lot over the years. Even if the grandparents want to help the children, they don’t understand the schoolwork. Inadequate learning support and lack of parental support lead to poor academic performance.”
Mogano also found that orphans were more at risk of being bullied because they were seen as soft targets who had no one to stand up for them.
“When children realise that a child doesn’t have a mother or father, they tend to pick on that child. Orphans are at higher risk because they’re vulnerable.”
She suggested that anti-bullying strategies needed to be implemented in schools, and teachers should be trained on how to deal with vulnerable children who’ve experienced trauma.
“These children are stuck with teachers the whole day. Teachers are frustrated with all these factors that children are presenting. They become overwhelmed,” Mogano said.
The Star