Listen First: The Science of Patience

Listen First is a UNODC initiative to support happy, healthy and happy family relationships.

This video demonstrates how patience makes children feel cared for and loved and is key in creating meaningful relationships and good communication.

Key messages:

• Science proves that the less punishing the parental style, the better for the child.

• When parents lose their patience, they remove a child’s attention from the lesson at hand and create stress and frustration for their children.

• Neuroscience shows that the brain of a child is not mature enough to calmly handle frustration. It is up to the parents to remain patient and soothe the child.

• Nurturing patience, self-control and emotional intelligence helps a child’s brain to mature.

• Children whose parents express a lot of anger are more aggressive and more depressed than peers from calmers families. They also perform worse in schools.