Introduction The Phenomena of “Crying”

101 The Unique of Children The Phenomenon of ‘Crying’ and How to Say “No” to Our Children Muhammad Sukrianto

A. Introduction

The word “Unique” can mean in some ways: 1 “not the same”, means different from everyone or everything else; 2 “unusual”, means different and not ordinary often in a way that is interesting or exiting; 3 “special” means different from normal things, or used for a particular purpose Cambridge Dictionary. Based on the meaning of the word “Unique” above, we may get the inference on the meaning of “the unique of children.” “Children” is unique or different, unusual and special. Some experts say that children are unique since they have their own world. The study of child development, that is the study of the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes that children undergo from the moment of conception onward, have invented the unique of children. Each of us begins life as a single cell. By the time we are born, we are incredibly complex organism. We breathe on our own, explore the world with our senses, eat, and begin to take our place in the family and community that created us. Two years letter we come to new phase as a child, we can walk, talk, feed ourselves with help, to be sure and play pretend games. Entering this phase, we have our own world that is “children world” and it is said unique by adults. One of the unique of children that will be discussed in this short essay is the unique of “crying”. The inspiration comes from my experience when I saw a child that is unique in crying. The child was the son of my neighbor. One day he wanted his mother to buy a toy but his mother didn’t accepted what he wanted. And then the child cried and he didn’t stop his crying until his mother bought the toy. What actually the phenomenon of crying? and how to say “no” to our child? All concerning with these will be shortly discussed on the following.

B. The Phenomena of “Crying”

One of the most difficult problems parents face is when his child is crying. A child cries have a powerful effect to who hear them. Sometimes parents respond in different way on their child’s crying. Before, experience parents and childless adults alike respond to the infant with increases in heart rate and blood pressure, both of which are physiological sign of anxiety. But later, when the child growth enough, more often the parents respond rudely and angrily to their child’s crying. Crying is a complex behavior that involves the coordination of breathing and movements of the vocal tract. Initially it is coordinated by structures in the brain stem Roberts et al., 1995. Infants obviously cannot articulate more their need or feeling, but they do have one important way of signaling that something is wrong- they can cry. Crying increase from birth to approximately 6 weeks of age and then begins to decrease. A child who has been able to articulate his or her need and feeling still use “crying” as the power to force their parents. As the case I have told above is one of the phenomena, where the child forces his mother to fulfill his need. 102 Another example is when parents asked their child to do something but the child does not want to and then cries. With this condition, parents often can not decide what to do. When their child is crying parents often punish and be angry to their child. A child who is crying can not concentrate to what he is doing. When parents ask their child to study, for example, a child can not do it while crying. Actually, a child cries can be caused by some factors at least because he doesn’t feel comfort with the condition or cannot have what he needs.

C. How to Say “No” to our children