The “Early Years Opportunity”Skills for Life and Learning

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Hosting Notes

• strengthened awareness of “the core story” and the early years opportunities.

• fostering relationships, connections and mutual support by bringing people together in dialogue.

• validating the current knowledge and capacity of parents and caregivers by creating a space for sharing of successes and challenges.

• highlighting and sharing available resources and supports.

• learning together to support capacity building that inspires further learning and action.

Early Years Parent Café Goal:

To build awareness and capacity of parents and caregivers in support of early childhood development through:

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Welcome&Introductions

Explore:

How did your attempts to try something new go?

Were your goals realistic?

What supports or resources that might be helpful?

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Hosting Notes

Suggestions:

• Commend participants on their efforts to learn and try something new.

• Make a point of letting all parents be heard.

• Validate parents efforts and commitment to their child by being here.

• Emphasize the shared interest among the group in their children – talking with other adults offers a great support and chance to share knowledge and experience.

Welcome! The fact that you’re here shows you love and care for your child.

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For you, what was most important about our last conversation?

Note: You might wish to review the video clip from the last conversation.

Explore:

Did you share anything with another parent or caregiver?

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Hosting Notes

Suggestions:

• What made the biggest impression? What sparked you to try something new? Did you have the chance to share this information with others?

• Collecting the ideas that parents felt were most important as well and the ways that they have integrated ideas and responded can spark further discussion and exchange.

• Recording these ideas can be helpful for further reflection and is very important for monitoring the impact of the conversations.

• Depending on numbers of new participants – you may wish to review the key messages from the core story of brain development.

Parents sharing impressions from the last conversation…

The Early Years OpportunitySkills for Life and Learning

Conversation Overview

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Why is it so important for a child to develop

a strong “air traffic control

system”?

What experiences, activities and

games can help children to

practice these essential skills?

What skills do you think your child will need to be ready to

start kindergarten?

Who are the people, places and resources that can help

support us and our children?

How can we support our children to

develop these essential skills?

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Hosting Notes

Suggestion:• Use a flipchart/blackboard/newsprint on table/ to record

these questions and revisit them at the end of the session.• Invite parents to offer questions throughout the

conversation.

Are there particular questions about early years development you would like to discuss?

Suggestion:

Introduce parents to how the conversation might flow with a few sample questions from the overview.

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Thinking ahead …

What skills do you think your child will need to be ready for kindergarten?

Explore:

Reflect on the general abilities that you have needed to for both school and the workplace?

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Hosting Notes

Examples:• Attention• Ability to follow directions, routines and rules.• Listen to the teacher.• Cooperate with other children.• Work independently.

Skills that helped me at school and in the workplace:• Independence• Flexibility and problem solving• Ability to listen to others opinions but make

my own decisions• Creativity and adaptability• Persistence• Motivation

Foundational skills that children will need to begin kindergarten:

Explore:

Alberta Education’s Inspiring Action: Competencies of an Educated Albertan(in the 21stCentury).

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Explore together:

Executive Function: Skills for life and learning, Center on the Developing

Child, Harvard Universityor

Building Better Brains: Executive Function

, Alberta Family Wellness Initiative

What stood out for you?

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Explore:

Why is it so important for a child to begin to develop a strong “air traffic control system”?

Hosting Notes

• focus and pay attention (inhibitory or self control)• remember mental tasks and follow rules (working memory)• make and revise plans and decisions (cognitive or mental flexibility)• avoid “collisions” through hasty actions.

A child’s ‘air traffic control system’, self-regulation and executive function skills allows them to:

These skills will impact all future social behavior and learning, impacting all realms of development:

Enabling children to move from depending on others to beginning to manage themselves.

Children will function better in kindergarten and beyond.

Lags in this area are associated with longer term struggles.

“Qualities essential for the 21st century workplace all build from these skills… creativity, flexibility, self-control and discipline all have their origins in executive function.”

While the frontal lobe of the brain responsible for these skills develops into adulthood, essential foundational skills are learned from infancy and into early childhood.

“Life is easier and a lot less stressful with these abilities!”

“These skills enable a child to take initiative but also to comply; be emotionally expressive, but also to regulate expression; to sustain attention and stay focused but also to run and play; to interact socially with other children and adults and to become conscientious.”

- Harvard Centre on the Developing Child

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How can we support our children to develop these essential skills?

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“As essential as they are, we aren’t born with the skills that enable us to control impulses, make plans, and stay focused. We are born with the potential to develop these capacities—or not—depending on our experiences during in-fancy, throughout childhood, and into adolescence.”

– Centre on the Developing

Child

Hosting Notes

• Modeling these skills of reflective rather ran reactive response in your day to day interactions: pause, breath and reflect before responding when frustrated; expressing your emotions verbally; modeling planning and deliberate behavior (writing a grocery list, making and keeping plans…)

• Care-giving: sensitive and responsive interactions, responding to the individual child, support of emotional regulation, promoting joint attention, valuing persistence and completion.

• Ordered and predictable environments with clear limits and expectations: daily routines, planning, physical exercise; limiting and moderating stress, distractions and technology.

• Supporting the child in the gradual transition from being dependent on adults, to relying on their own skills: supports like routines, cues, breaking down instructions, letting the child know what to expect, what comes next

• Opportunities to practice: experiences with give-and-take interactions with others; opportunities for the child to direct their own activities; self-directed and make believe play that promotes planning and problem solving, and the opportunity to deal with frustration and learn self-control; playing games and enjoying activities that “pull” on these skills.

Remember: The process of moving from ‘other-regulated’ to ‘self-regulated’ develops over a long period of time. Having developmentally appropriate expectations helps to find the child’s zone of challenge rather than frustration.

Parents support development of executive function andself-regulation through:

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What experiences, activities and games can help children to practice these essential skills?

Explore:

“Play is important to learning and provides an environment where children can work together to solve a problem.”

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Hosting Notes

Examples:

• Self-directed time to explore and discover • Household chores and responsibilities• Reading and oral story telling• Games with rules and turn taking• Freeze Tag, moving to the beat of music, Simon Says• Memory games• Make-believe play

Incorporating any opportunities to plan, focus, direct, remember, problem solve and adapt into your day models and contributes to developing these essential skills. Remember to have developmentally appropriate expectations!

Activities and experiences that support the development of these essential skills…

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We know that children can’t do this on their own! It takes a village to raise a child...

Who are the people, places and resources, than can support us and our children? Explore:

Where can you go to find out more about local supports and resources?

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Hosting Notes

Examples: • Parent Link Centres• Alberta Health Services

– Family physicians/Pediatricians

– Community health centres– Healthy Parents – Healthy

Children• First 2000 Days• Parenting programs, including

Circle of Security• Inform Alberta • 311• Alberta Family Wellness Initiative

Harvard Centre on the Developing Child

• Other parents and family members• Local preschools and playgroups• Calgary Public Library• Faith based groups• Community associations• Others?…

People, places and resources that support us and our children:

These are all people and places that can help build those relationships that make up ‘social capital’ a key indicator of success. Access these and other quality resources with the consolidated listing provided in Parent Cafe’s Early Years Resources handout or resource link.

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After our discussion today,what will you try that is new to you?

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Explore:

It takes a village…how might you further support all children?

Hosting Notes

Examples:

• Share some of what I learned with other parents at playgroup.• Involve my child in planning events and shopping.• Explore local resources for information and programs. • Others? Reminder: provide any follow up information requested and remind

participants of any further conversations.  If this is the last conversation for your group:• Thank all the participants for their contributions, and commend

them on the work that they have done.  • Request that participants complete the evaluation. We

appreciate and value their feedback. Input will be used to inform our work to improve this resource.

Great ideas from parents …

Suggestion: Summarize key learnings from the series of conversations.