An urgent question for parents is where to send the child in the summer? Preferences can be very different, but one aspect is definitely important for everyone: I want camp leaders to be able to get along and communicate with children. Elena Beregovaya, a psychologist, teacher, director of the Vladimir Smirnov Public Foundation, curator of the Proflub* project, tells about the experience of studying at the school of counselors.
The requirements for the skills of a counselor today are much higher than even ten years ago. What should an ideal leader be able to do? First of all, communicate effectively with children. You can learn this in a kind of “school of counselors”, a special project “Proflub”. “This is the name of the Foundation’s new program,” says psychologist Elena Beregovaya. – A professional laboratory where we train instructors-counselors. The fact is that we organize a variety of camp programs where everything is intertwined: recreation, creative realization, sports, psychological support for children in difficult life situations. Not only children from a prosperous environment come to us, but also children from difficult families, the disabled, orphans. We are convinced that all of them, regardless of their abilities, can and should be together. And in such a complex, “colorful” camp, it is first of all important for an instructor (counselor) to be able to be flexible. There is one job with disabled children, another with their parents, and a third with very young children. We develop the concept of camp programs separately, we specially come up with multi-level tasks so that each pupil can complete them. The difference, of course, is big: a healthy child does in five minutes what a child with disabilities will do in twenty. Therefore, the people who work with them must be able to cope with tasks of different levels. Today to communicate with deviant teenagers, and tomorrow – with gifted children. To do this, you need to be able to quickly rebuild.”
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A good instructor is by no means an animator. He must know (or learn this at the school of counselors) the basics of psychology, methods of working with different children, be able to resolve conflicts, understand what parental competencies are – in the camp he becomes a person who replaces the child’s loved ones. In addition, he must know what security is, how to provide first aid … “This is a whole range of knowledge,” continues Elena Beregovaya. – In addition, the counselor must be able to draw attention to their activities. It’s not enough to say: “So, the guys got together and went.” No, the task of the instructor is to organize training and recreation in such a way that the children themselves go to him, prefer his program to master classes of other teachers. In order for all this to work out, we carefully select the team, taking into account that in the camp adults and children “cook” together for two weeks. It’s difficult: after a shift, someone is sure to drop out, can’t stand it, burns out. As a result, the backbone remains, the team unites, and this is important: instructors must accept and understand each other. Counselors come to us with a certain motivation: they really like to work with children and want to move forward and develop themselves. They work because they are extremely interested. In addition, their efforts are always rewarded: children simply “stick” to a good counselor.”
Not only (potential) instructors are invited to the school of counselors “Proflub”. This is an open program for everyone, everyone can come, including parents. Moreover, they make up almost a third of all course participants. Obviously, modern moms and dads lack some important skills in communicating with a child. “And this is not surprising: nowhere in our country are they taught to be a parent. And this is a very important and complex matter, – Elena Beregovaya explains. – For example, being a mother and creating a fragile family world that can line up askew, crooked, and then grown-up children will struggle with this with the help of a psychotherapist or alone. Neither at school, nor at home, nor at the institute do they teach us this, we do not know our parental competencies. In the Proflaba program, we took this into account. You can get specific tools from us to effectively spend time with children, to be able to be together. In addition, I am convinced that parents need a course in Ethics and Psychology of Family Life. Now the schools do not even have that old program. Sheer puritanism. I dream of doing a separate parenting competency course someday.”
All the skills acquired at the Proflub counselors school are applicable at home. Each of us is faced from time to time with the fact that, for example, we need to entertain several children, come up with something for a birthday. Of course, you can invite “professional animators”, but what we can do ourselves is much more valuable. Let less professionally, but the child will appreciate our lively participation much higher. “Parents should be able to play with a child, spend time with him in joint activities, no matter if it is sports, cooking or sewing,” says Elena Beregovaya. – Take an interest in his life. Not only by whether he made it to the section and what grades he has. Ask him what he thinks, what worries him. It is important to be able to interact with the friends of the son or daughter. After all, everything that we get by adolescence, by the age of 15-16, is the fruit of how we interacted with the child and his environment up to this point. Be for him an assistant, a friend, so that in a difficult situation he does not go somewhere on the side, but comes to his parents, his adult friends. And for this, sometimes you just need to stop and see what kind of parents we are. Shake yourself.”
Often, in order to look at yourself and the situation from the outside, you need such classes as in the school of counselors of the Proflub project. A slice of psychology and pedagogy, lectures by the authors of interesting programs (“Antarctica near Moscow”, “Robinson to Yourself”), competent experts, psychologists Lyudmila Petranovskaya, Alexander Kolmanovsky. Becoming a competent adult and/or counselor will be much easier with their help.
* The project “Proflab – Professional Laboratory” of the Vladimir Smirnov Public Foundation is a training program for specialists to work with children in the field of charity and not only. Proflub is a series of lectures, trainings and practical exercises where psychologists and practitioners offer tools for working with children that volunteers, counselors, parents can use.
The Vladimir Smirnov Public Foundation is a private charitable foundation established in 2010. He supports Russian charitable organizations, develops and implements his own projects. The Fund co-finances rehabilitation programs and programs aimed at providing medical, pedagogical, resource and information assistance to families with disabled children, orphanages, hospitals, seriously ill children. Off-site vacation programs are conducted for children from orphanages. This year, the foundation is launching its own summer camp for children. “The purpose of our foundation is to help socially vulnerable groups of people,” says Vladimir Smirnov, founder of the Foundation. “These are abandoned old people in nursing homes, sick children, orphans who are alone and need help to survive in this world. The main idea is also the promotion of charity. It is necessary to convey to society that charity, firstly, is hard and serious work, like in a bank, at a factory or somewhere else. And, secondly, doing this work well is pleasant and beautiful. This work improves us. People need to understand that without this it is impossible: just as we eat or sleep, we help others.” smirnovfund.ru