Course Tag: safe

Young children have important basic needs to feel secure and they need family life to remain pleasurable in uncertain times. Participants will be able to: 

● Recognize the unique social-emotional needs of young children during stressful times 

● Apply parenting strategies that support children to sustain feelings of optimism and security 

● Identify realistic self-care practices that are essential to effectively support young children.

Little Kids, Big Emotions: Help Young Children Thrive

The emotions center of your young child’s brain is developing faster than the thinking part of their brain. That is why they sometimes get swamped with emotions and have unreasonable meltdowns. Your young child needs your calm energy to help their overwhelmed brain calm down. You have probably already noticed that timeouts, threats and punishments really don’t help and actually often make things worse. So how do we help young children manage their emotions and their behavior? This series of classes will help you:

• Recognize the importance of developing practices to calm your brain when your child is upset
• Apply effective strategies to reduce and respond to tantrums and help your child manage their emotions
• Create routines and apply positive discipline approaches that support cooperation in young children

The transition back to work from Family Leave can be challenging. Birthing mothers strive to balance involvement in the world of work with the biological and emotional changes that accompany a recent birth. Parent involvement with baby’s total care can be immensely rewarding as well as exhausting, and relinquishing some of that care to others is often anxiety-provoking. Parents gain easy access to expert information and guidance from the Welcome Baby – Welcome Back to Work library while on Family Leave and as they return to work. From eating, sleeping and just surviving to answering questions like, “Will work harm my relationship with my baby?” busy parents appreciate quick evidence-based solutions to everyday challenges as well as major concerns.

When your child is coping with medical issues, communication is key to helping them adjust to challenges. It can be difficult to know how much information to share and how best to discuss it with your child. While it is human nature to want to reassure kids that it is no big deal, or that “it doesn’t hurt,” kids deserve the truth in a way that they can understand and helps them feel supported. Classes in this series address health related issues as simple as brushing teeth everyday or as complex as preparing for surgery. Participants will be able to 

• Apply strategies that help children cope with hospitalization and healthcare experiences
• Recognize the value of play in preparing for medical procedures
• Identify tips for using gentle honesty about difficult topics
• Prepare children to visit a loved one in the hospital
• Apply effective ways to stay connected to loved ones in the hospital
• Support children through loss and grief

Routines are powerful tools. They bring you and your young child closer and reduce power struggles. Routines help little ones predict what comes next, trust that you will meet their needs, and feel more confident. Transitions between activities can be challenging and routines ease those difficulties and help children learn. Routines also decrease behavior corrections and increase cooperation in your child.

Parents who participate in “Routines that Work with Little Ones” Library will be able to:

• Apply effective strategies to help your young child cooperate with daily activities like getting dressed or eating meals
• Create routines that are enjoyable, include key child learning principles  

• Recognize the role parents play in carrying out routines that work
• Address ‘hot spots’ that frustrate parents, like transitions between activities, and get in the way of parents attending to their responsibilities.