Focus on Pediatrics: Teaching good parenting skills
Focus on Pediatrics
Teaching good parenting skills
Classes help parents through knowledge
There are many nuances to parenting that can improve skills, if taught. These include the knowledge of child development stages, appropriate discipline and its purpose, effective communication, and conflict resolution. That’s why parenting classes provide a valuable service to parents.
At the Family Assessment Counseling and Educational Services (FACES) in Fullerton, CA, parents come to the classes for many reasons. Sometimes, enrollment is court-ordered. At other times, enrollment is fostered by an impending marriage to a man or woman who has children, or a parent might have been given custody of the children and need to brush up on his or her skills. "Sometimes, a person feels they need a little bit of help, but don’t want to come in for counseling. They like the group process," says Pang Rhodes, a marriage and family therapy intern at FACES.
The curriculum to build good parenting skills is broken into eight sections. Topics were selected to address the major concerns that parents have, says Rhodes.
Parents can enter the eight-week program at any time as long as they cycle through all the classes that are an hour and a half each. The cost is $10 per session plus a $15 materials fee. "Parents are given a packet of information at each class that is used as an outline," says Rhodes. The curriculum for each class includes the following:
• Developmental stages.
In this class, parents are made aware of the needs of the child and his or her abilities in each age group. "We try to explain how a parent should care for a child at each developmental stage," says Rhodes. In this way, parents will not have expectations for their children that are unrealistic.
• Communication.
While this section focuses on appropriate interaction with children and how to help a child express his or her feelings, it also covers communication between adults. Many times, divorce results in communication problems between parents, explains Rhodes.
• Discipline.
The curriculum in this class focuses on the purpose of discipline, which is training. Children must be taught right from wrong and how to have self-control. "We talk about positive reinforcement, as well as having consequences when you break a rule and how these practices should be balanced," says Rhodes.
• Conflict resolution.
The steps for resolving conflict are the focus of this class, and communication skills are a big factor. Domestic violence and its impact on children is discussed because it is often a result of not having the skills to resolve conflict appropriately. Often, children of domestic violence become abusers or become involved in an abusive relationship.
• Self-esteem.
Parents are taught how to recognize a child with low self-esteem and how to guide a child’s self-esteem at the various developmental stages. Parents are taught how to help their child become an individual and feel good about their strengths.
• Co-parenting.
This class targets both intact and separated families. "We talk a lot about how to handle the relationship between the parents so that it doesn’t interfere with the relationship with the child," says Rhodes. They teach people to think of co-parenting as almost a business arrangement if they don’t get along with the other parent.
• Drugs and alcohol use.
While the focus of this class is in preventing children from using drugs and alcohol, there also is some discussion about how these substances impair parenting skills. Parents are taught what the popular drugs are and what a person looks like if he or she is using a particular drug.
Parents are encouraged to begin the conversation early. Often, schools discuss drug and alcohol use in kindergarten and first grade. Therefore, when a child begins talking about what they learned in school, that is a good time to initiate the conversation, explains Rhodes.
• Boundaries.
In this session, parents are taught how to teach children to keep themselves safe, how to keep things that will hurt them outside, and take in things that are nurturing, says Rhodes.
Source
For more information on creating a parenting class, contact: Pang Rhodes, MFT Intern, Family Assessment Counseling and Educational Services, 1966 E. Chapman Ave., Suite G, Fullerton, CA 92831. Telephone: (714) 879-9616. Fax: (714) 879-2041. Web site: www.facescal.org.
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