Teacher’s Role in a Child’s Psychosexual Development

A 10-year-old boy was referred by endocrinologist to rule out gender dysphoria. During our interview, it was learnt, the boy’s “unusual girl like behaviour” was noticed by class teacher. It was reported that the boy is mostly in company of girls and evades boys and his voice is like that of a girl!

For the past couple of years, parents were already concerned that neither the size of the testicles and nor the length of penis was increasing. In addition, he used to play with his only sibling sister’s toys and liked dressing her up and occasionally trying on her ornaments as well.

Patient reported that constant teasing and bullying from his male peers forced him to seek the company of girls. There was no distress or rejection to the assigned sex, nor a pervasive pattern of a feminine behavior or attributes could be established. Our clinical evaluation, hormonal assays (serum testosterone, prolactin, FSH, LH, thyroid profile) were normal. However, USG abdomen revealed bilateral small-sized testis. Subsequently, we liaised with the urologist and endocrinologist both of whom came to a consensus that no diagnosis could be achieved at this point of time with the current physical findings. The existing literature also corroborates these findings.^1-4

We considered serial visits with the boy and parents for psychosocial management. However, parents were resistant to psychoeducation, but eventually understood the current juncture of their child’s psycho-physiological journey. However, the “false alarm” raised by the boy’s teacher created chaos in the whole family, most importantly the boy himself. The damage was already made at large, as he was subjected to multiple interviews by so called “well-wishers” including neighbors, relatives, parents, and by the teacher.

School, the primary habitat of a child plays a major role in carving a well-rounded human being. Teacher’s hand-holding, and guidance is inevitable in this long process. Therefore, it is crucial that teachers are aware of the multitude of psychological problems these children may face during the formative years.

Teachers should devote time and effort in learning about these disorders and more importantly use the knowledge and experience in a pragmatic observation and evaluation of the child. There are several credible resources ⁵ from where teachers can acquire knowledge that they can disseminate to children such as sexual health journals, conferences, and collaborating with experts in the field. Another source to gain a pragmatic knowledge in managing adolescence and its related attributes including sexuality is from the recently initiated Adolescence Education Programme (AEP) by the Government of India. ⁶

At the national level, AEP is coordinated by the National Council of Educational Research and Training in partnership with the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). This program component works by a cascading training approach through various resource levels and eventually enriching school students of classes 8, 9, and 11, ages 13 through 18 using interactive methodologies of various themes including the facilitation in understanding and challenging stereotypes and discrimination related to gender and sexuality, recognizing and reporting abuse and violation, prevention of substance misuse, and HIV/AIDS.

we acknowledge that imparting sexual knowledge to the young minds can be a tedious task, but it is achievable. Moreover, it is an imperative responsibility as we are aware that the lack of this knowledge misguides the individual and potentially paves the way to several negative repercussions in their own lives and the society at large. As a country, we are well behind in the sexual education concept due to various reasons and culture is one among the most critical ones. ⁷ However, recent changes in the attitude of public bolstered by initiatives by the government promise that we are in the path of progress and our beloved teachers are best positioned to guide us all in the right direction.