Definition
Educational counselling is a service of the child and youth welfare service and falls within the scope of educational assistance according to the Child and Youth Welfare Act. Educational and family counseling centers, which are either public or belong to a non-profit organization, help children, young people and/or parents with family conflicts or other problems. Educational counseling is made up of specialized personnel from various fields, such as psychology or pedagogy. Educational counseling can be used after contacting the counseling center without any costs for the person seeking advice, since it is part of the social benefits and is anchored in the SGB VIII. This topic might also be of interest to you: Intercultural education
What are the requirements for educational counselling?
Educational counseling is intended to help families to solve and overcome individual, family problems and conflicts. A prerequisite for educational counseling are correspondingly situations within a family that cannot be mastered without outside help. Generally speaking, there is a general lack of orientation in the family at such moments, the parents are insecure about raising their children or question their own ideas about bringing up their children.
Parents usually suffer from helplessness and helplessness, which is why they seek support in parenting counseling. Very concrete family problems and, therefore, a prerequisite for educational counselling can be, for example, a divorce, separation or death. In addition, it is also useful to take advantage of educational counseling in cases of massive problems at school.
These can be bullying at school, bad grades, truancy, inappropriate behaviour towards the teacher, etc. In addition, other problems in the social context can also lead to educational counselling. For example, the child may show a strong withdrawal behavior within the family or, contrary to this, it may always seek quarrel, be very defiant and stubborn.
Parents can also seek help if they observe above-average anxiety with nightmares and highly insecure behavior in their child. Another area for educational counseling is crime and the abuse or consumption of drugs by minors. You can read everything about the topic of raising children here: Is my child ready for school?
All articles in this series: