They say the mindset of children is like molten metal, what we imprint on it shapes their ideologies as adults. This molten metal cools and hardens and eventually, sets the foundation of who they are as individuals. They are quick to pick up on our behavioural patterns and what is seen around them. Child psychiatry is a tricky subject, because there are various things that you can do to promote better development of their mindset, but at the same time, there are several things you must avoid to prevent detrimental effects to their psyche.

First and foremost, what can we do as adults is teach our children the importance of sex education. This includes prevention of assault in retrospect to 'good touch' and 'bad touch.'

Child Psychiatrist Dr Helal Uddin Ahmed, Associate Professor, Child Adolescent and Family Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health, recommends as soon as children start analysing their own bodies and body parts, we can teach them about sex education. This allows children to become more conscious. This allows them to take preventative measures and a chance to protect themselves against predators and paedophiles.

Another prospect that is encouraged is for us adults to understand the difference between bribe and reward when it comes to conditioning our children to promote better behaviour, while reward is given after a good task is performed and child appears cooperative. Bribe is manipulating the child to perform tasks for an assured 'reward.' This is detrimental to the child's mental development, and promotes greediness.

Children learn better through activity-based dissemination of information rather than vocal lessons. Teach your children to become self-sufficient adults by encouraging them to do tasks on their own that previously required your assistance; give them a chance to fail and to achieve and overcome rather than constantly setting examples through yourself and life lessons. It is absolutely necessary for children to be in a positive environment, it is best for the child to be exposed to positive teachings such as talking positive of their country, their situation, family members etc. This promotes the child to grow into a positive mindset.

Dr Ahmed said the following, "Children should not be exposed to any sort of negative discussions about the government, their country, their standard of living, because what that does essentially is create a ripple effect of negative connotations that travels well into their adulthood. Children exposed to depreciating discussions about these issues turn out to be depreciating adults themselves."

He also added, "Children are more susceptible to change than adults, and whatever they see they will quickly learn to adopt said behaviour, which later gets implemented into their adulthood. As adults, we should exhibit certain behaviour traits that we want to see in our children, rather than promoting bad habits."

This just goes to show that children are like sponges, so the time to be appropriate is now. Children are a gateway to a new generation that will develop their own identity and ideologies, so it is absolutely crucial to note that the foundation for those identities and ideologies be built on a positive and healthy note.

Whether it be parents, relatives or siblings, any adult around children should be conscious of the notion that whatever behaviour that they exhibit today becomes the norm for these children who later on become the adults of tomorrow. Our actions have immense consequences as to how we raise our children and how we teach them to behave and become their own person.

In that respect, being a good example to children raises the ultimatum of setting a standard for ethical goodness, and this, in turn, suggests that ethical goodness provides a beneficial outcome in terms of promoting adequate psychiatric health of children. A child that develops a sense of ethical goodness in their mindset with a healthy attitude towards life becomes a pillar for the generations that comes next.

Model: Mehrin, Shehran, Anaya