A strong self-esteem is an essential ingredient in a child's positive development. During this webinar parents will reinforce their current skills and learn new tools to help them continue to help their children develop a strong sense of themselves that will be necessary to meet the increasing demands as they grow and mature. We will also identify potential challenges a child will face if they have low self-esteem, and offer guidelines to help parents use encouragement appropriately to support their child's growing self-image.
As children grow and develop, they go through predictable stages with expected behaviors. When parents (or other significant adults) know what to expect, they can let this understanding influence the ways they interact with their children. Understanding child development encourages acceptance of what is typical behavior - even when it is frustrating or unfamiliar. Children have phases of "odd" behaviors that are linked to development. Since all parents worry about their children being "normal," learning about development can either be reassuring or support the need to find resources for a child that may have a delay or disability.
The National Center for Family & Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University just released a new family profile publication on "On the Road to Adulthood: Leaving the Parental Home." It examines the residential trends of 18 - 24 year olds by gender, ethnicity and race, and educational attainment.
Whereas poor women used to migrate primarily to reunite with family, they are increasingly migrating in search of wages to support their children. This trend is rooted in an increased supply of poor women in the South who cannot secure living wages. But more importantly it is fueled by the feminization of the low-wage care industry in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East, where there is a high demand for poor women to clean our homes, hospitals, and hotels and to care for our children. Women who cannot afford to be with their own children are migrating en masse to care for the children of others.
By Linda Burton and Andrew Cherlin. Reprinted from NCFR Report.
"Trust is jiggly, and it can look like something it is not. You can't trust trust, and you can't trust Jell-O. That's what I've learned from working with [low-income couples]."
Carolyn Pape Cowan is Professor of Psychology Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley where she is co-director of 3 longitudinal preventive intervention projects: Becoming a Family, Schoolchildren and Their Families, and Supporting Father Involvement. Dr. Cowan has published widely in the professional literature on family relationships, family transitions, and the evaluation of preventive interventions. She is co-editor of Fatherhood today: Men's Changing Role in the Family (Wiley, 1988) and The Family Context of Parenting in the Child's Adaptation to School (Erlbaum, 2005), and co-author with Phil Cowan of When Partners Become Parents: The Big Life Change for Couples (Erlbaum, 2000), which has been translated into 6 languages. Prof. Cowan consults widely on the development, training, and evaluation of interventions for parents.
Philip A. Cowan is Professor of Psychology Emeritus and Professor of the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley. He is co-director of 3 longitudinal preventive intervention projects with Carolyn Pape Cowan. Dr. Cowan served as Director of the Clinical Psychology Program and the Institute of Human Development at UC Berkeley. In addition to authoring numerous scientific articles, he is the author of Piaget with Feeling (Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1978), co-author of When Partners Become Parents: The Big Life Change for Couples (Erlbaum, 2000), and co-editor of four books and monographs, including Family Transitions (Erlbaum, 1990), and The Family Context of Parenting in the Child's Adaptation to School (Erlbaum, 2005).
For a number of years a group of Minnesota parenting educators have worked together to develop the document Parent Education Core Curriculum Framework: A Comprehensive Guide to Planning Curriculum for Parent Education Programs in the Domains of Parent Development, Parent-Child Relationships, Early Childhood Development, Family Development, and Culture and Community. It has recently been updated and is available online and in hard copy through the National Parenting Education Network (NPEN) website.
