Parent Express for 21-Apr-2006

Welcome to Parent Express, the PCI e-zine! Here you will find updates on the Parent Coaching Institute, along with ideas and practical tips for the parenting journey.

Next week, April 24-28 is Turn Off the TV Week and there are various local and national events that turn our attention to the hazards of overusing television and other forms of screen machines. Locally King County Health Department has launched an important campaign. In their words, “Watching television, including movies and video games, takes time away from the physical activity that children need every day to be healthy and happy. This month, Public Health - Seattle & King County and the King County Overweight Prevention Initiative are launching the ‘Live outside the box’ educational campaign, informing families about the risks of too much television on the health and well-being of children.”

To see the full press release, along with links to research studies, please go to: http://www.metrokc.gov/health/news/06040601.htm

The article below, discussing the recent interest in television for babies, spurred by Sesame Street’s new DVDs, contains useful information and links that will affirm your gut feelings and probable question, “Why is it that now we have to defend our arguments against TV for babies and toddlers?”

Michelle Golingo, parent educator and PCI parent coach in training, shares this precious gem:

After reviewing a segment of a Sesame Street DVD, I asked my 4 year-old daughter, Joanna, a couple of questions. Keep in mind this child loves to watch TV.

Me: Joanna, should babies watch TV?
Joanna: No
Me: Why not?
Joanna:  They’re supposed to play .

Beautifully put. Thank you Joanna!

Gloria DeGaetano, Founder and CEO

Applications are being accepted now for Summer Quarter for both our one-year and our six-month training programs. (Application deadline, May 26.) If you are a forward-thinking professional with an undergraduate degree and a deep calling to work with parents, welcome home. We seek the “best of the best” for our acclaimed distance-learning Parent Coach Certification Training Program™ and Professional Certificate Program. Please click here for more information. As a PCI Certified Parent Coach™ you’ll have the opportunity to create a parent coaching practice, working with moms and dads who want to take their parenting to the next level. Call today for an application packet: 425-401-1519 or email: info@thepci.com.

Working with a PCI Parent Coach is giving yourself the gift of time out for reflecting, re-grouping, and renewing. To find a PCI Parent Coach in your area, please click here. Or call 425-401-1519 for a referral to a PCI Parent Coach selected especially for you. PCI Certified Parent Coaches™ are caring, thoughtful professionals with years of experience working with parents. PCI Certified Parent Coaches™ have successfully completed the PCI Parent Coach Certification Training Program™ —a comprehensive academic one-year, graduate-level program in collaboration with Seattle Pacific University.

Through a series of coaching conversations that can be either by telephone or in person, PCI Parent Coaches help you re-discover your dreams and design your life for more joy and satisfaction.

Moms and Dads, tune in every Saturday morning at 11 a.m. on 1150 AM for true understanding, authentic affirmation, and real-world solutions to parenting challenges while sharing laughter and conversation. We want to hear your stories too! So call us on Saturday!

In the Seattle area, call 425-373-5527. Out of town, call 888-298-5569. Listen to us on the web: www.1150kknw.com

Upcoming topics and guests:

When Should Children Begin Watching Television?
by Gloria DeGaetano

Although the American Academy of Pediatrics ( AAP) “discourages television viewing for children younger than two years of age,” Zero to Three, a respected organization, decided to partner with Sesame Street and create DVDs for babies and toddlers. This decision stirred a tsunami of protest within the community of experts and professionals who support parents, including the AAP, and spurred a nation-wide effort to stop the project by the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood.

Because confusion often accompanies controversy, I think this article will shed some light on the issues for moms and dads, so they can gather the pertinent information and make the best possible decision for their youngster.

As an educator, speaker, and writer on media-related issues since 1987, I know that a large body of research over the last two decades demonstrates that 2-D entertainment is completely unnecessary for humans averaging 14 pounds or under. Screen technology is a great tool as we all know, but there’s growing evidence that it isn’t the best tool for babies and toddlers. Yet, at the same time, the video/DVD industry for babies is a billion dollar a year industry, marketing incessantly to parents about the “many benefits” of these videos. It’s normal for parents to feel that they are not giving their little ones the best start possible if they don’t use the videos.

In making the decision to use TV and DVDs with children younger than two years, I urge parents to seriously consider the following points:

1. In order to develop the capacity for healthy emotional bonds, babies and young children need to look at and relate to their parents and caring people as much as possible.

Most youngsters won’t even be able to sustain attention long enough to look at the screen without prompting from mom and dad. Babies want to interact with the loving people around them—flesh and blood people, not people on 2-D screens. In fact, this is the primary developmental task at this age. Young children’s brains are wired to pick up subtle clues that will affect them either positively or negatively in their future ability to become emotionally healthy and autonomous individuals. For instance, in an interesting study secure mothers interacted in more appropriate ways with their babies than insecure mothers. Secure mothers and their children engaged in a more fluid, synchronous process of give-and-take than insecure mothers and their children. In addition, secure mothers expressed more warmth and affection, and their style of relating was less intrusive and more encouraging of child autonomy than insecure mothers. The babies picked up on the different styles of relating and accommodated to them.

In their wonderful book, A General Theory of Love, the authors, (all medical doctors) point out, “…when we engage in relatedness, (we) fall under the gravitational influence of another’s emotional world, at the same time that we are bending his emotional world with ours.” (p. 142) In other words, relating between humans is a highly reciprocal act with each person adjusting to and learning from the other. This type of adjustment and learning does not take place with characters on a screen. The young child responds to screen characters, but she relates to live human beings. This is a critical distinction. Love actually alters the young brain. That is the main point in A General Theory of Love. I advise parents to read this book before deciding to use videos with little ones.

Read More

The PCI has joined the latest revolution in commentary communication. We now host the PCI Blog. This is a wonderful, and important opportunity, to discuss significant issues and to provide relevant information, and ways to find relevant information, for parents and professionals. I decided to open up this pathway of commentary because it seems that so much air-play is given to confusing information and industry-generated messages. With the PCI Blog, you can exchange ideas and resources in meaningful ways with me and the PCI coaches. I invite you to share your thoughts and expertise with us by making comments on the PCI Blog as often as you like!

Podcasts of Parent Appreciation Radio are now available. We are beginning to put up podcasts of my radio interviews with PCI Certified Parent Coaches from around the country who speak on a variety of topics of keen interest to parents. Eventually all the interviews will be available in this format. For now, you can find and easily listen to: The Teen Brain, Thinking Like A Toddler, Sexualized Little Girls: Who’s to Blame? and The Importance of Controlling Screen Time. Check these out and let me know what issues you’d like to hear more about by emailing me: gloria@thepci.com. And PCI Coaches will address them. I will let you know when the interview on your topic will air.

With April bringing showers, this month’s topic of Gloria’s syndicated column, Your Parenting Coach is: Rainy Day In-door Activity

It’s not too early to register for either of these workshops.

 June 23, 1-5PM, Reston, VA Workshop with Morris Berman, author of Twilight of American Culture and other books, will present a workshop for PCI coaches and friends on issues he discusses in his latest book, Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire. Berman, a controversial intellect with amazing academic breadth provides astute analysis to America’s growing challenges and will dialogue with workshop participants regarding his beliefs in the basic unsolvability of the downward trends and the emerging American empire. There are a few spaces left. Call 425-401-1519 to register today. Cost of workshop is $150.00.

July 7, 8:30 AM- 4PM, Bellevue, WA Your Vocation Identity: Blessing Your Calling
A workshop with Diane Dreher Ph.D., Professor of English and member of the Spirituality and Health Institute at Santa Clara University. Diane has credentials in spiritual counseling and holistic health, is the author of The Tao of Inner Peace, Inner Gardening, The Tao of Womanhood, The Tao of Personal Leadership, and a forthcoming book on vocation, and leads workshops on leadership, callings, and personal growth throughout North America. Each season of your life offers new opportunities to develop your calling, to:

• Discover your personal strengths,
• Detach from energy drains and distractions,
• Discern the values that inspire you with joy and purpose,
• Direct your life with meaningful goals and vital strategies for success.

Drawing insights from Renaissance lives and the latest research in positive psychology, this workshop will help you affirm your vision, overcome obstacles, uncover hidden stepping stones to success, and create powerful new possibilities in this season of your life. Please call 425-401-1519 to register for this workshop. Cost: $129.95 (includes lunch)

To engage Gloria DeGaetano for a keynote or workshop, contact her at 425-401-1519 or 1-888-599-4447.

After TV Turn Off Week: Now What? Maintain a Media-Literate Home Environment Parents can promote wise use of TV, video, and computers by making sure the family home environment supports children’s optimal brain development. These simple actions can make profound positive differences in your children’s academic abilities. 1. Turn Off the TV When No One is Watching It. Using the TV as “background noise” is not a good idea. When children are playing or doing homework near a blaring TV set, they cannot focus attention, process information, or use higher level thinking functions very well. 2. Keep Your Child’s Bedroom TV Free. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no TV in a child’s bedroom. Instead, put in bookshelves, big pillows to recline on to read, and an audio CD player, with plenty of story CDs. You will be developing in your child a life-long reading habit that will go far to build school success and your child’s imagination! 3. Make Educational Programs a Family Event. Once a month, watch an educational TV program or video as a family. Afterwards discuss the content with your child. You are modeling how TV and video can be used to grow smart brains! 4. Set a Few Realistic Rules. No watching TV until homework is done; nixing violent shows, and limiting all screen time to one hour a day or less, are rules that will help your child’s school habits and develop healthy media habits, as well!