Services for Parents
Why do parents call ChildDC?
Parents call out of frustration because their child is having difficulty in his/her existing program. They contact Child Development Consultants after repeated calls from school regarding problems their child is experiencing: in playing, listening, socializing, dealing with separation issues, following group directions, displaying a very high activity level or in some cases, demonstrating disruptive or unsafe behaviors. Parents are often confused about their child’s classroom behavior and are eager to find help and direction. Parents may also contact Child Development Consultants when they are frustrated by their child’s behavior at home. During a virtual parenting consult, they will brainstorm and strategize to develop highly specific strategies to implement at home, to support their child’s behavior.
When there are concerns about a child’s development or behavior, we can help! Parents and teachers provide background information, an observation is scheduled, and we have a follow-up meeting a week or two later where a report is shared with detailed, individualized strategies for both school and home. We do not test, diagnose, or directly treat children – we simply observe them in their natural “habitat” and identify what’s working, what’s not, and what the adults can do to provide support. If we feel that a closer look at some aspect of development would be helpful, we can suggest clinicians in the area who provide more formal evaluations or support.
Sometimes, a child is a model citizen in school and… the opposite at home. If you’d like support for recurring hotspots in your daily routine, we are available for short, informal consults with you, the parents, via phone or Zoom – no reports, no observations, just talking through the issues that you’re having at home from a parent education framework where we help you apply best practices from the classroom to the home environment. We are not mental health professionals, but can make referrals if needed.
We do not provide 1:1 support staff but we may train someone once they have been identified by you or your center. If you and your child’s center have agreed that your child needs 1:1 support and you have identified a person to provide that support, we can provide the training, over a couple of sessions in the classroom.
