WEBVTT

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Sharon McNamara: My name is Sharon McNamara, and I am the Family Support Facilitator

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for Everett Area School District.

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And what I do is I facilitate the workshops that go hand-in-hand with the programs

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that the school has implemented in helping children with problem behaviors.

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What I do is I actually help the parents learn techniques

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to assist the children in correcting problem behaviors.

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I coordinate the workshops, and I also host the workshops.

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The workshops span the whole grade-from kindergarten up through eighth grade,

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and we speak to parents about issues that are pertinent

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to all age groups, including adolescence.

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We speak with them about proper parental monitoring, bullying, cyber bullying, Internet safety,

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all the topics that parents care about today,

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and technologies that they may not be familiar with.

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One of the skills that we teach the parents to assist the children with is refusal skills,

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and an example of that would be if one of their peers came to the child and said,

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"Let's go down to the store and steal a candy bar."

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Well, the child would know how to handle that situation.

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They would know how to refuse the behavior and maybe even offer a different opportunity

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to go back to the playground or to the child's house and play

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and still maintain the peer friend.

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McNamara (to workshop participants): What are some alternatives to things you can do instead

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of throwing rocks at Mr. Turner or smoking?

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Student: You could help him instead with groceries or something.

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McNamara (to workshop participants): You could do something helpful.

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That's a good idea.

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Any other ideas?

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Student: You could play your Wii or something.

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McNamara (to workshop participants): You could play your Wii, that's a lot of fun.

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Student: Listen to your mp3 player.

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McNamara: It becomes second nature for the children

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to use the refusal skills that they're being taught.

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The parents are there to aid them, and they actually practice the skills

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at different locations-during a family meeting, maybe in the ride of the car,

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on the playground with their friends-so that when the child is approached by a peer

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to do a behavior that would get them both into trouble,

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the child knows second nature how to refuse without having to think about it.

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They know the terminology to use, and they use it in their own words.

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Male speaker at workshop (role-playing): Hey Lis, why don't we go down to the pizza shop?

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Female speaker at workshop (role-playing): What are we going to do there?

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Male speaker at workshop (role-playing): Well,

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I got a friend down there who can give us free pizza as long as the boss isn't around.

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Female speaker at workshop (role-playing): Oh, that's not good.

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That's not right.

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We're not supposed to get free pizza.

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Students: Trouble!

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[laughing]

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Male speaker at workshop (role-playing): Well, why not?

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The boss isn't around, who knows?

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I mean that's free pizza, we get sodas to drink.

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Female speaker at workshop (role-playing): That's stealing.

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Male speaker at workshop (role-playing): Well, yeah, so what?

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The boss doesn't know.

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They'll never find out.

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Female speaker at workshop (role-playing): No, why don't we go roller skating instead?

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Sharon McNamara: These are very informal and interactive workshops.

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Parents get to know their peers.

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We offer dinner, which helps supplement the family time.

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The children are invited, and the parents are invited, and everyone has a dinner together.

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And then the groups split, and the children go to a daycare where they're doing activities,

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sometimes supporting the same techniques that we're learning

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in the parenting session, and it helps.

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Again, it works on the bonding between the parent and the child but also interjects the school

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into the bonding, so we become an intricate part of their lives.

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An interesting aspect of these workshops is that to raise healthy children,

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a child needs to not only bond with their parents and the teachers in school

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but other community members, and these workshops are the perfect opportunity for this

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to take place because not everyone who attends a workshop is a parent.

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Some are grandparents.

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Some people are aunts and uncles.

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Some people don't even have children or have children that have left the home,

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but it's important that they know, the children know, that they're part of the community as well

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as part of the school, and it's an interactive prosocial program

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where everyone becomes involved.

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One of the positive aspects of the parenting program is that the skills that the children learn

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in school are carried through to the home.

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The parents also are aware of the skills and the practices that the teachers are implementing

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into the classroom, being implemented school- and countywide, so they're on the same page.

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They can reinforce those skills they can give the recognition for the skills

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that they're learning in the school at home and on the playground, in the park.

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And not only the parents, the other community members can also give children the recognition

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that they need.

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They needed to know that the community is recognizing what they're doing,

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and so the other community members are sure, and they know what the school is implementing.