THE CONCEPT OF PCC DRAMA

 I have been looking at some effective writing for change strategies that I have used over the years and decided I would like to share some of them. Please do feel free to contact me if you need further details. What is PCC? It is simply parent/child communication strategies. In today’s age when we all speak at the top of our voice a language that is not understood across the divide, particularly for those of us that have teenage children, sometimes learning a few strategies could be helpful.

Now scriptwriters would find a veritable goldmine in using these guides to write BCC. Ugh! Seem to be doing a lot of acronyms today. BCC simply is Behavioral Change Communication which is what writing for change is all about.

So how do we use BCC strategy to write for better communication between parents? BCC drama follows certain set pattern.

You need to identify what the goal of the BCC drama seeks to achieve and it is best to write it down to serve you and your client. An example is something like: The goal of this series is to enhance better communication tips for parents and children with particular emphasis on teenagers.

Then you will need to identify what category of teenagers you are talking about and intend to reach.

This is important as it would be significant what type of language you will need to use.

If for example the scripting and production of these series will be teaching both parent and child advocacy skills, then you will need to have certain definitions clarified and identified as generally understood.

You will also need to identify some general assumptions for writing the BCC drama.

What are the assumptions we can make about the types of parents we are appealing to in the drama? One such assumption could be:

·        That parents generally love their children and want the best for them.

·        Parents generally have a faith and values system.

·        Parents need to be given more capacity in negotiating better communication with their children.

 A general assumption for the children may therefore be:

·        That the adolescents generally are cool, intelligent, and inquisitive.

·        Adolescents generally start evolving from dependent to independent identity as their bodies mature and are usually at their most vulnerable, they will thus need to be taught communication skills.

Parents are the first educators of life skills for adolescents but this is usually not the case because for a lot of reasons like religion, social and cultural constraints parents are somewhat shy of discussing sexuality issues with their children and wards at home. In these days of information technology and uncensored viewing of electronic materials, the adolescent of today is bombarded with all kinds of information.

This leaves the child with the wrong information processing ability. Adolescence is the transition period between total social economic dependence to relative adult independence. It is a period fraught with confusion.

A poorly informed parent is a risk to the adolescent who thus sources for his information from other (just as risky) sources sometimes resulting in devastating consequences for parent, government and society.

It is thus necessary to conduct ‘refresher courses’ for parents on the needs to educate their wards and children on sexuality issues.

Alarming messages or strictures do not always have the intended effect.