Knowing what to expect: an important step to parent success ...

By Heather Dawkins Stalker, special to Children?s Trust of South Carolina

Developmental stages are beacons of cuteness in the sometimes difficult road of parenting. A child?s first word, first steps, and even first time sucking her thumb warm our hearts. But these same milestones also bring new challenges for parents?like the infinite dangers for the toddling 18-month-old (and the endless messes they can make), the defiant ?no, no, no!? of the two-year-old, and the struggle to get our sweet infant thumb-sucker to stop sucking her thumb when she?s three.

Knowledge of child development?knowing what to expect from your child and how to handle the behavior appropriately?is one of the most powerful tools in a parent?s arsenal and is a cornerstone of child abuse prevention. Knowing your child?s actions are normal and the appropriate reaction keeps tempers from flaring and makes for a healthier parent-child relationship. Not surprisingly, numerous national programs seek to spread that knowledge to parents.

Carolina Health Centers in Greenwood is affiliated with several of these programs. ?As part of a pediatric hub for children from six counties, we provide a continuum of services for our families,? says Sally Baggett, Director of Family Support and Child Development. Top among those services is enhancing parents? understanding of what is appropriate at different stages of their children?s lives.

?Many of the families that use our services have multiple needs: many are living in poverty; many didn?t finish high school and might not have a habit of reading or accessing internet information, Baggett says, noting ?Many might not have had parents who were strong role models or who knew a lot about positive parenting themselves. You tend to parent the way you were parented unless there?s some intervention.?

And so Carolina Health Centers intervenes for these at-risk families. They intervene through home visits, through print materials like free newsletters and books, through free parenting classes, and even through a child development telephone line where parents can call with their questions or their frustrations. ?The more parents hear the same message, the more likely they are to change their behavior and really pay attention to it,? says Baggett. Armed with information about ages and stages, parents are less likely to react with frustration or violence when their two-year-old throws a tantrum or their 4-year-old wets the bed.

And, in many cases, the training provided by Carolina Health Centers begins even before the baby is born. The Nurse-Family Partnership program matches low-income first-time mothers with a nurse home visitor, who meets regularly with the mother in her home from pregnancy until the child turns 2. First they ensure proper prenatal care and, then, monitor the baby?s health and development, answering questions and imparting information about what is appropriate at each stage. And Healthy Steps for Young Children reaches parents through their child?s well-visits, as well as through home visits, and keys them in on important developmental tasks, such as child-proofing when the baby is ready to crawl.

These programs also help identify developmental delays in young children so that they can be addressed and pinpointing problems within the home like domestic violence that adversely impact a child?s development. ?We are always on the look-out for things like depression in the parents, because that can impact the way they attach to their child and interact with their child,? Baggett says.

Healthy parent-child interaction is at the heart of all the family support programs offered by Carolina Health Centers. ?For higher risk parents, it?s critical that they have a trusted relationship with someone who can give them information in a way that is easily understood and then model it for them?how you behave, how you interact with your child. This promotes that all-important bonding and attachment between parent and child.?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012 at 3:09 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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