May 10, 2001

New Program Offers Children Bright Beginnings

A new parenting curriculum that’s focused on enhancing the growth and development of young children from pre-natal to 8 years of age will be offered by the Extension service starting in June. "A nine-county needs assessment in North Dakota suggested that children’s growth and development are important issues," according to Sean Brotherson, North Dakota State University Extension family science specialist. "Important research shows that this issue of parenting children when they’re young and getting them off to a healthy start is really critical. Helping children have a bright beginning is reinforced by research on the importance of brain development, strong secure relationships with parents and a good start for social and emotional development."

The curriculum is focused around key issues in the growth and development of children where parents play a critical role, according to Brotherson. One of the early issues in the curriculum for parents or child care providers is development of the child’s brain and what stimulates it. "We’ll discuss how parents can support and enhance their children’s development in terms of physical development such as their motor skills," says Brotherson. "They will also learn about their children’s social development or how they interact with other children."

Parents will also learn about their child’s emotional intelligence through how children understand their own emotions, how they regulate them and how they respond to others.

"In addition to going through some of those issues, we will talk about some other critical items like reading with children and playing with children," says Brotherson. "We’ll try to cover the key elements of development and then go into some specifics that parents may need to pay attention to for a child’s growth."

Drug and alcohol prevention will also be addressed in the curriculum.

The program is designed as a series of 10 lessons. However, it is also designed to be adaptable to different settings based on educational needs. "An educator can do a series of lunch brown bag seminars for a company or a childcare center director could use it as a basis for parenting night workshops once a month," notes Brotherson.

Parents have indicated they are interested in a variety of ways of obtaining parenting information including newsletters, discussion groups, one-on-one home visits, videos, reading books, newspaper columns, workshops, books and playing games that teach better parenting.

The information will eventually be distributed in multiple ways that meet some of those preferences.

Training will be offered across the state for people involved in parent and family life education. They will receive a copy of the curriculum and be trained in its principles, its development, how to apply it and how to teach it.

The program is a collaborative effort between Extension parent resource center coordinators and faculty and staff in the NDSU department of child development and family science.

Brotherson says work on the project should be completed by the end of May with training beginning sometime in June.

For more information contact Brotherson at (701) 231-6143 or by e-mail at sbrother@ndsuext.nodak.edu .

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Source: Sean Brotherson, (701) 231-6143, sbrother@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Editor: Rich Mattern, (701) 231-6136, Richard_Mattern@ndsu.nodak.edu

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