Breaking new ground with children

July 2014 Health

Photo Credit: Vladimir Voroin-http://www.123rf.com

ESRA, which is the largest English-speaking volunteer group in Israel, broke new ground last week. The idea behind this was to bring to the awareness of the younger generation the importance of ESRA and its contributions to the community.

Parents of young children were invited to a workshop conducted by a recent newcomer to Tel Aviv from London. Dr Judy Silver, an educational psychologist, with vast experience in teaching academic and practical spheres of working with young children, offered her expertise to ESRA.

She outlined the importance of developing thinking skills and cognitive strategies in young people to enable them to cope with the challenges of schoolwork, homework, scheduling their tasks and their lives and maintaining motivation. She emphasized the important contributions of both emotional strength and stability and cognitive skills in achieving these goals. To this end, Dr. Silver uses the concepts and methodology of Israel's own Professor Reuven Feuerstein as well as other internationally recognized methods for enhancing and structuring cognition.

The workshop participants were given some fascinating and challenging cognitive exercises to do, in order to illustrate and understand these ideas. Possible problem-solving strategies were then presented and discussed.

There was an opportunity for questions, so parents' concerns could be addressed.

A comment from a participant was: "Thank you to ESRA for organizing the workshop on Friday and to Judy Silver for an incredibly insightful talk. I feel that the change in my responses and help with my kids has been instantaneous."

It is probable that Dr Silver will run similar introductory workshops in other areas of the Sharon, as well as a short series of such workshops in the future.

Anyone interested should contact ESRA at 09 748 2957 or 09 950 8371.

About the author

Juliet Rostowsky

Juliet Rostowsky is a South African registered and now retired Industrial Psychologist. After completing her MA in Industrial Psychology (Witwatersrand University, South Africa), she completed the required internship. She also has a Post Graduate Teaching Diploma - HED PG from Wits and is qualified to teach English and Guidance (Lifestyle subjects).

Juliet worked as a consultant Industrial Psychologist in Johannesburg for 25 years. Juliet says of her career: “I have always loved what I did, and every day in practice was a treat and a surprise and it never lost its fascination for me”. She has consulted and worked in the fields of training and development, leadership development, individual and group communication skills, assertiveness training and career guidance and career planning. Latterly, for 10 years, she worked almost exclusively as an expert witness for both plaintiff and defendant in the medico-legal field, in matters of loss of earning capacity. She has also trained and supervised the training of Psychometrists and Psychologists. In the early years of her career, she trained and worked as a Marriage Guidance Counselor and Sex Educationist. Juliet has also studied graphology, which holds great fascination for her, and she has used it in her work.

Juliet retired from practice in 2003 when she and her husband Rusty came to live in Israel to join two of their three children and their families living in Israel.

Juliet has been involved with ESRA since her arrival in Israel. She is a member of the ESRA Executive Committee, she heads the Volunteer Committee and the Counseling Service and is active in placing and orientating volunteers and in training counselors and befrienders for ESRA.

They have seven grandchildren in Israel and three in Toronto, where their elder son has lived for the past 30 years.

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