KidsFirst in Yorkton has always focused on innovative ways to help children and their parents.
The latest of those efforts has been to produce two books.
The first; ‘The Hand you Hold is the Legacy you Leave’, was released a couple years ago.
And this summer ‘My Curious Brain’ was released.
“Both books are our team’s attempt to provide all around early childhood information to parents,” said Lois Okrainec, Program Manager with KidsFirst in the city.
Okrainec said a major element of their work is to provide parents with information as a tool to help them be better parents to their young children. To accomplish that she said councillors have to develop relationships with families.
The two books can be part of building that relationship as they are in turn tools parents can use when councillors are not around.
“They’re tools for us and other professionals who work with parents,” said Okrainec, adding the books provide a good reason to do home visits that are not associated with a particular issue. “… We don’t want to just see parents just for a crisis.”
The initial book is designed to help parents build early, positive relationship with children.
“Understanding attachment relationships is a reminder that children have essential needs for love, security and comfort that only caring and responsive adults can meet. Parents and other caregivers provide the ‘attachment web’ of relationships a young child needs to thrive,” notes the forward from the first book.
“Based on more than 40-years of research, including the fact that children’s first three years of relationships, when brain neurons undergo formation and sculpting, are the most important for developing healthy connections throughout the rest of their lives.”
The book incorporates short passages relating to research into the benefits of positive relationships such as; “when we act in ways that are warm and accepting, we teach baby to trust that you are available to their needs and signals. They learn that you are reliable and trustworthy and won’t let them down. This is where babies learn to trust in others, and believe they matter and are safe.”
Then there are actions given to reinforce how to build that foundation of early childhood development through a positive relationship between child, parents, and other family members.
Supporting the written material in the book are photographs of area parents interacting with their children.
Okrainec said one of the great aspects of the book, and the current ability to essentially print on-demand is that the book can have photographs from any family on the pages, making it a much more personal tool.
“It really is to support the attachments between mom, or dad and baby,” she said. “It provides some help on what actions people can do.”
The key is making sure, as a parent, you interact with children in the best way possible.
As an example some actions for parents include:
*Hold baby close so that your face and voice become their familiar comfort
*Sing and talk to baby always – they can hear you and distinguish your voice prior to birth
*Make eye contact
*Comfort baby when they are upset – this will help them deal with big emotions as they grow
“It’s about spending time,” said Okrainec, adding the book can help with actions to do during the time spent together.
‘My Curious Brain’ focuses in more on early childhood development.
“The first five years is critical in building the architecture of the brain,” said Okrainec.
“Every parent wants their children to be happy and healthy,” details the book’s introduction. “As caregivers, we instinctively care for the physical body that we can see, but what about our children’s brain? This story is a starting point for you and your child to understand what’s going on inside their brain and how to keep it healthy. Newborns are born with 100 billion nerve cells (neurons) in their brain just waiting to make a connection (that’s as many as stars in the Universe). Each neural connection is a building block to a healthy brain and although babies are born with some neural connections, parents have the ability to shape billions more. As babies grow, so do their brains and the early years (0-5) are truly the foundation for good brain health. Experiences (good or bad), create who we are and it is actually the brain which shapes responses to all our experiences. This book gives an introduction to how the brain is built and explains how it can affect behaviour. When children and parents have a greater understanding of how their brain works, they will then know how to support their child and help create a healthy brain.
“The language in this book gives children understanding of their brain, and caregivers an opportunity to see their child’s behaviour from a different perspective. The story is meant to spark children’s curiosity about how their brain works and provide caregivers with the tools to support their children’s brain health. The book offers a variety of exercises for both parents and children that will calm the monkey, and allow the wise owl to work in harmony with the rest of the brain. Repeating the process of calming the monkey and giving children access to the wise owl becomes a skill that will follow them throughout their lives. The more this is practiced, the more natural children will become using all three areas of their brain to experience the world around them.”
Okrainec said the book helps parents understand the brain has different parts which influence behaviour at different times. For the book the three covered are identified as the dinosaur, the monkey and the owl.
The book from the perspective of a little boy’s perspective.
Parents need the tools to recognize the different reactions the three parts of the brain can illicit in childhood behaviour, and then how best to deal with those influences.
“All the behaviours you see are clues to how they (the child) is developing,” said Okrainec, adding the book “… helps parents and caregivers see behaviours through a different lens.”
The book also offers some ‘coping skills’ for parents.
“It’s helping them understand behaviours by adopting some strategies,” said Okrainec. “… It’s a road map for parents … What you can do to support a healthy brain.”
The book helps with that through a number of interactive activities for parents and children to not only understand the dinosaur, monkey and owl aspects of the brain, but how to deal with the differing influences.
The newest book has found an eager and varied audience, from schools to daycare centres to individual parents, said Okrainec, adding it is selling simply on a cost recovery basis being amiable through the KidsFirst office.
