My Garden of Thoughts: Reflection #1 for HDFS 670

Hello & welcome to my academic blog! 

My name is Eden & I am currently majoring in Human Development & Family Science. I am passionate about becoming a therapist for young women & first responders. 

I am excited to be a part of this course, Working With Parents, because I believe it will equip me for meeting future clients' needs concerning their own parents or their plans to become parents. I plan to use this blog to share my reflections concerning the course material & the skills I am learning. 

Thank you for reading along!

REFLECTION #1

    For this week's class reading, we were assigned 2 resource documents: the National Parenting Education Network (NPEN) and the Parent Education Core Curriculum Framework (PECC Framework). Both were resources aimed at providing informative guidelines and specific skills that they felt Parent Educators needed to perform in their jobs.

    The NPEN document outlined 4 Domains of competencies that were imperative to a career as a Parent Educator. These Domains specifically stood out to me because I was impressed that the authors wanted to begin their resource by suggesting that Parent Educators must assess themselves to see whether they possess these traits or not. Many resources dive into the surface level issues, like what a curriculum has to look like or the setting in which programs need to take place. It was plain to see that this resource got to the heart of main area we should focus on: the attitude, disposition, and skill set a Parent Educator should have. They provided a list of individuals or groups who would benefit from having a an outline of parent educator competencies. In addition, they believed that knowing what these competencies were would allow organizations and companies to have a set standard of specific qualifications they needed to look for when assessing current or prospective Parent Educators.

    I was intrigued mostly by Domain 2: the Knowledge of Parent Development, Parenting, Parent-Child and Family Relationships, and Other Systems. I feel that this Domain is essential for Parent Educators to know, especially if they wish to be successful in the realm of teaching about the interconnected role of both parents and their children. This Domain covered research and theories of parent-child development. It also explored the many roles and responsibilities of parents in their child's life along with community, culture, and contextual factors that influence these roles. I believe that when Parent Educators are knowledgeable about this Domain, they can better equip parents who are in any stage of life to handle and provide for the needs of their children. It's a versatile skill and one that allows the Parent Educator to deliver effective techniques and skills in their program. 

    When reading the PECC Framework document, I realized that I have largely been unaware of the effort to begin holding education programs accountable and begin instituting standards for Parent Educator programs. It seems as if parent-child educational courses are a nuanced topic that has been brought about by the in-depth research done on early childhood development. Recently, there is now interest in making sure the curriculums used in these education programs are both streamlined and updated so the information can be clearly communicated and used to benefit families to the fullest extent. 

    The document also made it clear that it was not a curriculum in and of itself, but that it was a framework in which Parent Educators were given flexibility to use it to create a tailored educational experience for the groups and courses they would be facilitating. I loved how they also made it adaptable for educational programs to not only be directed to parents of young children, but to parents who had children at various ages. The versatility of the framework seemed to be the beginning of a standard that would led to influential programs and consistent experiences for parents across the nation. This is imperative for making sure we provide parents everywhere with the tools they need to be successful so that the next generation of children are better developed emotionally, mentally, and physically. 

DESIRED TOPICS FOR PARENTING CURRICULUM PROJECTS:

1. First Time Parents: The Transition to Parenthood

2. Adolescent Depression

3. New Parents

Thank you & see you all next week!

- E.