October 2021
In this edition: Our workshop about exam results, a new conversation about emotional outbursts, and what's in store for November!
We blinked and October passed us by!
As we are in the final few months of 2021, some may be winding down for an end-of-year break, while others may be shifting gears for a different kind of busyness. 😅 Our seasons of work at Bramble ebb and flow too – this is what we’ve been up to lately.
Workshop: How to talk to your child about their exam results 📃
This month, we started running a new workshop to support parents during “exam results” season 😰😳 So far, we have conducted 3 Saturday morning sessions, with 345 parents from 24 different primary schools!
Here’s some of the encouraging feedback that we’ve received so far:
“The role play was very good! V realistic portrayal of standard things parents say, and so reminds us to take a step back and rehearse how to really listen to our kids and respond rather than react.” ❤️
“Thank you for the time and efforts! The blind spots was especially helpful to me, I am not so conscious of it but it happens!” 🙈
"This is one of the more practical workshop for me. “It’s who they become that matters” I will remind myself that!" 🙌🏻
At the same time, we are still striving to improve the content and delivery of the workshop, as well as boost up the number of participants who eventually download and use Bramble. Our app is offered as a take-home activity after the workshop, with a specific conversation topic on “Waiting to receive exam results” that pairs with what parents learn during their session!
On average, we about 50% of workshop attendees download the app, and about half of those parents will have a Bramble conversation. In order to understand this and learn how we can improve, we have also been holding focus groups with the leaders of PSGs in order to hear their feedback.
One encouraging pattern we’ve noticed throughout all our workshops is that parents love our Q&A sessions! 😍 For the past 3 weeks, we were joined by Mdm Nafisah of YMWB as a guest panelist, and she brought tremendous wisdom and compassion to our Q&A. After the scheduled end-time of 11am, we often go into a “bonus extension” of 15 minutes to squeeze in as many questions as possible! ⏰
The buzz on our social media 🐝
Inspired by the enthusiasm and engagement of our workshop Q&As, we decided to bring those burning FAQs to our social media platforms! This post features one of the learning points from our workshop: appreciating your child’s efforts and growth 🌟
A new FAQ series on our blog directly features questions asked by parents during our workshops, with the first 3 posts being about:
What to do if you think your child doesn’t take exams seriously 😤
How to support a discouraged child and remind them that grades aren’t everything 😔
Last but not least, we’ve started a new newsletter for our workshop participants! 📬Unlike this email you’re reading, which takes subscribers behind the scenes of Bramble’s development, our new mailing list seeks to deliver parenting tips and communication strategies to parents looking for advice and techniques.
If you’re interested in receiving this new newsletter as well, simply reply to this email or reach out to Bern or Shao Yuan so we can help you out 😄
New conversation: Feeling upset 😭
This month, we tested out a new conversation graph that helps children speak to their parents about what is making them feel upset. We imagined that this could be used to debrief emotionally intense moments; to help parents unpack what triggered their child’s emotions in the first place.
We ran a Beta test to gather feedback on the conversation structure and content, and were also glad to receive additional comments from a few regular Bramble users who tried it out with their children. This is what we learned:
Using cognitive distortions was helpful for some families to unpack the thinking behind their child’s behaviour
However, we also noticed that some kids either did not need, or did not relate to the particular way that the ‘thought traps’ were presented to them
When given the space and support to do so, children were all able to express their specific emotion as well as the triggering thought behind it
We want to include a wider variety of calming/de-escalation techniques, so that users aren’t limited only to “deep breaths”
For a heavy subject like feeling upset, it’s important that the conversation is full of empathy and compassion (coming from both the parent & the Bramble guide)
Some parents expressed this more comfortably or naturally, while others may need more guidance from the app to repeat & rephrase how their child feels
Lastly, we noticed that a good number of conversations under the “Feeling upset” topic were actually about sibling conflicts!
That brings us to our final update…
Upcoming topic: Sibling conflicts 💥
A new conversation graph is in the works, and it will help parents address their children’s conflicts, as well as the topic of “favouritism” among siblings! This has been one of our most highly requested subjects, so in preparation, we’ve also been conducting mini-interviews with parents in our network to better understand their struggles and goals.
Stay tuned for our next monthly update to hear about how this Siblings conversation goes!
Thank you for reading our October update and for supporting Bramble! Wishing you a restful weekend and a mindful month of November ahead. 💕