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Childcare Aware at Chaffee Crossing teaches parents, teachers, professionals

Times Record - 7/10/2017

July 10--Some of the students have to be there, some don't -- but they can all learn something.

Childcare Aware at Chaffee Crossing in Fort Smith provides child-care classes for parents, foster parents, teachers and child-care professionals, Project Coordinator Erica Holland said. The classes focus on a myriad of topics such as how to manage anger or frustration when dealing with kids, preventing discipline problems, fostering language development, CPR and first aid and how to better parent children with specific needs such as ADHD.

Most of the classes have five to 10 people in them -- some are court-ordered to take parenting classes, some are professionals there for professional development and some are others looking to learn how to be better parents, teachers or child-care workers. The mixed bag means that the students are able to share their experiences and hear other perspectives.

"They are welcome to share what they feel comfortable with," Holland said.

Holland gave an example of a parent who was court-ordered to take classes. He was frustrated that his child was excessively talkative. The staff worked to show him that excessive talking is normal at a certain age, and it's an opportunity to harness a child's language skills, Holland said. He left with a different perspective.

"It was a good eye-opener for him to realize that this is a phase. Everybody gets frustrated as a parent. It's OK to be frustrated. We want to give them the tools to succeed at parenting because it doesn't come with a manual," Holland said.

In the anger management classes, the students learn how to identify triggers and how to know when to take a breather.

"When you get frustrated with your children, it's OK to say, 'I need a few minutes. I need to calm down because I'm getting frustrated, and we'll talk about this in a little bit,' instead of lashing out because once you say it, you can't take it back," Holland said.

Kids need help managing anger sometimes, too. There are classes to help students learn how to teach kids what do when they are angry and how to better control their impulses, such as telling a person when they are upset instead of hitting them.

Jennifer Rudder, executive director at Lincoln Childcare in Fort Smith, has sent her staff to Childcare Aware for CPR training and professional development. She and staff have taken classes that have helped them to identify why a child may be behaving a certain way, she said. Instead of passing their behavior off as just acting up, they can better identify if the child is going through some sort of crisis at home.

The classes have also taught them to show the kids that they can get their point across through words, she said.

"That gives them empowerment," Rudder said.

Holland had a student who said in class that some of the strategies Holland had taught her on how to make transitions for kids easier had worked.

"Transitions can be very difficult for teachers," Holland said. "The child being transitioned from school to home, transitioning from the playground to the lunch table, transitioning to nap time -- all those times when they're moving the kids about."

Holland had taught her to make transitions fun for the kids -- they can hop like a bunny or swim like a shark from the playgound to the lunch table.

Cheryl Smithson is a teacher at Promise Kids Academy in Lavaca. She said she's learned about taking care of infants at Childcare Aware, such as how to prevent sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), what to look for if a child might have an infection, the best ways to feed them and how easily shaken baby syndrome can occur, she said.

Childcare Aware is at 7200 Mahogany Ave. in Fort Smith. All of the classes are free, except for the CPR training course.

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(c)2017 Times Record (Fort Smith, Ark.)

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