Interactions with administrative staff

This module, because I am the Director of the center I am doing my field work in, I interacted with the administrative assistant, the Board President, and the co founder and Board Secretary of the center. I had the opportunity to talk candidly with two of the board members about the topic of early childhood mental health.

Christine Spikes, the board president is a licensed social worker. She has worked in the area of early childhood mental health with children in the Help Me Grow program and individual counseling.  Some of the challenges she had was very little parent involvement, unless there are severe behavioral concerns, which usually prevents the parent from taking the child to child care or preschool.  The parent then may address the problem. Another challenge would be limited resources which results in long waiting lists for services. From her experience, one insight is that children show us how they feel through their behavior and bad behavior could indicate a traumatic experience.

Sherrie Zagorc, a co-founder of Kiddie City feels that she knows and realizes the importance of nurturing good social/emotional health in young children. Before co-founding Kiddie City she was a family and consumer science teacher at the high school level and taught parenting and child development classes to high school students. She also felt it was important for her to personally have good mental health so it is something that she values and she wasn't afraid to seek help for herself or for her son Matt - as they both were growing up.   She thinks that it’s tough enough sometimes for parents to deal with the physical health or the educational component of a child's development.  Those areas are "more visible" and so maybe are "easier" to deal with.  This "mental stuff" is difficult for a lot of people and something that is just left up to chance - and not nurtured. She feels that sometime parents think if there child is physically ok and their physical needs are met than that’s enough. Parents don’t realize the need for bonding and emotional well-being and development.

Dayna White, the administrative assistant has 5 children of her own and has had to be an advocate for her children in the area of early childhood mental health. 4 of her 5 children have been diagnosed with ADHD and her youngest at the age of four has signs of ADHD and is being monitored for a mood disorder. Three of her children have an IEP for their educational needs, including her four year old. Since her four year old did well in preschool this past year the school wanted to close his IEP. She had to work closely with his doctors and provide documentation to be able to keep him on an IEP, as she was afraid that if he did not get special preschool services he would not be where he needs to be to be successful in kindergarten.  His psychologist agreed, and she was able to maintain his IEP. Because she knew her rights as a parent of a child with special needs and she advocated for her child, there was a positive outcome. Dayna feels that many parents do not know their rights and that the school districts tend to do the minimum necessary by law because of funding issues. Because of this she advocates for the children and the families at the center who have educational and behavioral concerns and shares her story and struggles with other families and is available as a resource to help families go through the process and get the help they need.

I feel that I got a lot of information from this experience about the importance of partnering with parents and helping to inform them of their rights and options when they are dealing with a child who had emotional, developmental, or educational concerns. Because parents may be in denial or they may want help but may be frustrated with the process and the waiting lists it is important to provide support and understanding and to meet families where they are. It is our responsibility as early childhood educators to advocate for the children in our care and try to get them the extra assistance and supports that they need.