In his talk, Mr Kung sought to help the audience:

* realise how one's childhood experience could affect his or her own parenting;

* foster a more healthy and interactive parent-child relationship, and

* learn the skills of consolidating children's mind, EQ and AQ.

Firstly, he introduced the relationship between human cognition and the brain structure. After that, he adopted John Bowlby's Attachment Theory to highlight a baby's need for an "attachment target", namely parents or stepparents. Through contact and interaction with the "attachment target", the baby can sense the existence of his or her own identity. The positioning and development of one's own identity could influence the baby's future ability in social, emotional, cognitive aspects, as well as AQ. Repeated positive attachment experiences could establish the child's sense of security to face challenges. Furthermore, the child's later positive experience could improve his or her own AQ and neural development, whereas his or her relationships with relatives, teachers and elderly friends could be patched up.

Mr Hung further pointed out that human must have basic emotional interchange in order to have a deeper connection. Basic emotions include happiness, anger, sadness, fear, love, guilt, shame and hatred. Both the verbal and non-verbal emotional resonance could help people establish in-depth memory, connection and relationship. If a child could realise that his or her own parents could feel the child's feelings, the child could sense being cared for, valued and treated with dignity. This is the essence of parenting. However, it would be a great challenge to achieve an in-depth emotional interchange, and break down the communication blockages. He pointed out that unhappy childhood experience, internal conflicts between a couple, together with the pressure and negative impacts of police work, have built a psychological "bullet resistant vest" for each person. This "bullet resistant vest" inhibits contacts and expression of feelings, not to mention hindrance to the sensational interflow with children. Patient exploration, in-depth understanding and creation of resonance are in fact the keys to unlocking communications blockages.

Mr Kung cited several examples to illustrate various parenting theories, and used group discussions to help the audience understand their own experiences, and reflect on their own parenting attitudes and behaviours.

Lastly, he said that in the process of parenting, parents might inevitably damage their relationships with their children because of their own bottom-line and home discipline. Parents should take initiative to patch up the relationship in order to set a good example to their children. Hence, firstly parents should patiently explore and review their own mind. Before reconciling the relationship with their children, parents should plan the opening remarks, process and content. With the development of the children, parents should provide room for self-development and avoid over preaching. Meanwhile, parents should develop their own interests, lives and relationships, and renew their methods and attitudes towards interactive parenting.

Besides Mr Kung's lecture, other programme events included educational workshops conducted by the Hong Kong Professional Training Alliance, visit to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, lecture on Chinese medicine food by Wong Tai Sin District Training and Staff Relations Officer, Lawrence Lo, and a film show.

The Family Life Education Programme is a big success