At the beginning of each academic year, children’s agenda of extracurricular activities is organized. Children attend English, tennis, karate, computer, or painting lessons. On top of this, they attend to catechism, music lessons, or private lessons for the subjects they are weak in. During this period, parents look for one or more extracurricular activities to keep their children busy in the afternoon during the school year.
Experts point out that it is advisable that children spend some of their time playing, in combination with educational activities. However, too many activities can cause children to suffer anxiety or stress, if they cannot keep up with all their daily demands.
Antonio Muñoz Hoyos, a professor of the department of Paediatrics of the Universidad de Granada states that “it is necessary for the child to live in a favourable environment, in which there is a reasonable balance between the educational activities and the extracurricular activities. Any excess which destabilizes this balance can be harmful to the child.”
Although there are few studies on this kind of children’s stress, some authors contend that there is a significant increase in the number of cases in recent years, and estimate that it affects some 8% of the children and 20% of the teenagers in Spain. Muñoz Hoyos explains that the benefits that extracurricular activities can have for children depend on two main factors: “Firstly, the child himself, his temperament, interest in certain activities, learning skills, age, etc.. For a child or teenager who has too much free time, who tends to spend most of his time playing video-games or watching television, any extra activity can serve as a stimulus. We should not forget that the eagerness to better oneself and the effort to do so are part of the learning process”. However, if the child is active and has enough motivation for a specific activity “to overload all his time with activities or to try to overload a specific activity more than the child wants, taking up his spare time, can cause stress and anxiety to the child.
Secondly, the effect of extracurricular activities on the child depends on the activities offered. «In general, the child should like the activities, and for this reason children should complement their education with sports, playing, and cultural activities or other activities they are interested in, such as English or learning computer skills. In this sense, it is important to point out the mistake frequently made of overloading the child with a series of activities because they satisfy the parents (such as a strict sport training)» explains Muñoz Hoyos.
Physical and Psychological symptoms
The researcher from the UGR observes that children’s stress caused by an overloaded school and after-school agenda can manifest itself in physical as well as psychological symptoms. Among the physical ones, the most common are headaches, stomach aches, sleeping problems, nightmares and a clear loss of appetite. The main psychological symptoms of children’s stress are anxiety, appearance of exaggerated worries, inability to relax or control one’s emotions, aggressiveness, and regression to behaviour typical of previous growing-up stages”.
Professor Muñoz Hoyos points out that, in principle, it is better for the parent not to impose any extracurricular activity on the child, but rather to try to decide together, according to the child’s interests and preferences. The teachers, the parents, and the child should work as a team to decide the child’s timetable».
Another question is whether it is better for the child to choose intellectual or physical activities. Professor Hoyos holds that » a priori, all activities can be interesting and can be overloading at the same time». The key in order to choose whether to register the child for an extracurricular activity or not, and which one to choose, is found in the characteristics of the child, his skills and preferences, how the child is doing in school, and other aspects related to his general development. “After a minimal analysis of these aspects, the parent will be in the position to increase or reduce the number of activities, and to know which ones are the more advisable” concludes the professor from the UGR.
Reference:
Prof. Antonio Muñoz Hoyos. Department of Paediatrics of the Universidad de Granada.
Phone: 958 023 394 – 958 240 740. E-mail: amunozh@ugr.es
