Effect of Difficult Family Situation on Teaching Young Piano Students
Again I want to stress to you that children between the ages of 4 to 7 are very sensitive to the world around them and often do not know how to handle what they do not understand. Because of this it is important for you to know about any difficult situations in a family if at all possible.
Is a new baby expected? That is exciting news, but how will your young student be affected by this new addition. It will certainly change his/her placement in the family which we have already discussed. Could there be a problem with jealousy that you will need to deal with for awhile until life has settled into a new routine with in the child’s family.
If there is a child within the family that has special needs of any type it could have an affect on your young student. The child might feel they do not get enough attention, causing him/her to act out or be very quiet and withdrawn. They might try extra hard to do will to please their parents, trying to give them extra pleasure and gain their approval.
Parental problems are a touchy area, but one that can be very important to you as you work with your young student. How the parents are getting along with each other definitely does affect the children in the family. If there is strife between the parents, whether they are married, separated or divorced, the young child often feels they are the cause of the problem, something they do not know how to handle or solve. This can result in the child withdrawing, not caring to try, or coming to lessons in a very bad mood.
In all of these situations you as a teacher need to be understanding, patient, gentle and kind, but you must also be firm in your attempts to keep the child focused on what you are trying to teach them. Practice at home might be hopeless, so carefully go over the pieces being worked on several times at lessons until things straighten out at home, then return to pushing for the child to play the assigned pieces at least once a day at home.
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