Online Education Blog

Besides conducive teaching-learning situations, there are many other factors which influence the development of a child. Proper adjustments with surrounding environment that a student has to face on a daily basis both at outside and inside of the school is one of such major factors that can shape the life of a child.
By nature a child needs some psychological, biological and social needs to fulfill in order to maintain the mental and physical equilibrium and those needs vary at different stages of his life till adulthood. But when he can’t fulfill those needs (personal and social) due to various problems that might come on his way, he is lead to behave in an abnormal way which is being called maladjustment. Apparently, there are many reasons for the child to develop those harmful habits. Some might be due to disturbance at home, some due to peer-group pressure, school and teacher related or simply personal.
During my teaching career so far, I have come across quite few of those so called maladjusted students as it is not too difficult to mark out the differences between a well adjusted student from that of a maladjusted one. A well adjusted student always seems to behave in a balanced manner showing maturity in thinking and understanding others.
There are also numerous signs suggested by psychologists which I can follow to identify maladjusted children. Foremost among them is to observe how they behave in the classroom. A maladjusted student behaves awkwardly most of the times as he is withdrawn and shy in his nature. He is also very self conscious as he is there to prove something which might not be actually possible for him with the level of IQ that he possesses. But still he feels responsible to achieve that high aspiration which he was forced to develop for some reasons.
These children also are always charged emotionally. Some create tantrums that causes big headache for peers and teacher at school and family members at home. Some of them might get excessively aggressive. They tend to be very sensitive too and like to remain to themselves only.
Additionally, a child who can not adjust with the environment that surrounds him might also express his discomfort in many other ways. He might be very anxious, fearful, tensed and feel very insecure. Normally, he would suffer from inferiority complexes that force him to strive for higher achievements than he is capable of thus creating imbalance in his otherwise normal life. If so, he would also suffer from delusions or impractical thoughts and imaginations.
Personally, I would deal with these types of children with very delicate care. I think the most important thing to deal with them is to reach out to them and get as close as possible so that I would know what type of problem the incumbent is going through. In my view, except some family problems such as economic status of the family and so on, a teacher can really help maladjusted children to come to terms with life and adapt with the surrounding environments that exist around them. If they have personal problem, I would befriend them, act as a friend, philosopher, guide and show that everybody has some or the other problems of their own but still they carry on with their life and take those problems in their stride. An individual must learn to take both success and failures as it is part of life and one must remember that there is always success after any failure.
On the other hand if they have problems in adjusting with the society, I can definitely make them understand that man is a social animal and nobody can live outside society. So, I would have encouraged them to participate more in co-curricular activities both at the school and outside of it. I could also show them that through interactions with other members of the society, one can only learn from others that would enrich them more in knowledge and experience. I would also advise them to participate into interest specific peer-groups as those groups can really cultivate the creativity and imaginative talent that would have lied hidden within them otherwise.
The might also suffer from psychological problems such as emotional distress, temperamental disorders, fear or anxiety. If I find anybody having psychological problems, I would first try to know the root cause of the problem and then try to convince them to consult a psychologist. If still no result, I would inform their parents about their children having some problems and request them to look into the matters very delicately.
So, as I teacher I could play a great role in helping maladjusted children