While researching, I learnt that mental health issues, like ADHD, experienced by Primary School children can cause them to face inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity issues. Some examples include being easily sidetracked, talk a lot, interrupts when others are speaking and face difficulty focusing. These may then lead to problems like low rates of homework completion, forgetting to bring study materials to schools and negative peer interactions. Hence, when planning programmes for the children, we included activities that involve moving about, kept our instructions short and sweet and prepped ourselves with scenarios of the child with ADHD disrupting the session, so that we do not panic when it really happens. When we were planning the programmes, I learnt that it is not an easy job to be teachers, especially if you need to take care of children with mental health issues. There are many things to consider and take note of. 

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I also learnt the difficulties of handling children with ADHD when we interact with the child during the three sessions. It was quite difficult to get him to settle down for long and not interrupt others' speech. However, I understand that those are the symptoms of ADHD and hence I told him things like "You want others to listen to you right? If you listen to your friends, they will listen to you too!" and "You will get to move around later if you sit down with your friends now!" in attempt to get him settle down and listen to others. 

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This learning matters because it allows me to understand more about the behaviors of children with ADHD and be patient with them. It also made me realise that I do enjoy myself in the process even though it was tough.

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In light of this learning, in future, I will participate in more volunteer work which involves working with children suffering from mental health illness and also, research more on mental health illnesses among children. This will allow me to gain more experience and knowledge in this area, hence I will be less afraid and worried of interacting with children suffering from mental health illnesses.

I learnt that working with Primary School children requires a lot of patience and it is necessary that we come up with ground rules with them, so as to 'discipline' and train them to not do inappropriate things, like scolding their friends or not paying attention when someone else is speaking. Also, it is important that we form good rapport with the children but at the same time, we need to be firm and tell them off if they did something wrong.

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I learnt that ground rules are important during the first session as the children were shouting and saying whatever they want when we were having the ice breaker games before the ground rules session. Also, they touched our belongings without permission. However, after setting of ground rules, they stopped shouting, raised up their hands whenever they want to say something and asked for permission before touching our things as these are some rules agreed upon and to be followed by everyone. This difference in behavior makes me realize that in the process of growing, discipline is necessary, whereby basic manners and appropriate behaviors should be taught since young.  Some examples include respecting others, not interrupting when someone else is talking and respecting other's privacy. 

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This learning matters because it allowed me to grow as a person and be more patient and understanding towards others. It also made me reflect on whether I still have the basic manners I was taught when young. I admit that sometimes, I do not pay attention to people when they are talking and interrupt others' speech, which I will make myself improve on. Adding on, this experience also made me realize that I do not particularly go well with primary school children as they are too rowdy but being with them still makes me happy. Teaching them about impulse control was a meaningful journey and I am glad that they learnt something useful from us.

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In light of this learning, in the future, I will be more patient yet firm with primary school children, so that they do not sense my annoyance and also, will not think that they can 'bully' me and do whatever they want just because I keep quiet and not tell them off when they did something wrong.