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Free parenting program set for Havre

Starting next week, area parents of young children have the opportunity to participate in a no-cost Circle of Security parenting program taught by Amber Spring, a licensed clinical professional counselor and counselor at Montana State University-Northern.

The class is not teaching specific skills, Spring said, it is about attachment.

“It helps parents looks at children’s behavior. It is about a child needing attention in a loving way, not a spoiled way … needing support and encouragement,” she said.

The course is designed to help caretakers of young children “learn how to provide a loving, safe and secure base for their children,” the promotional poster for the event says. It said it will help parents change the way they ask their questions so “we start to see that the need for attention is actually a need for connection.”

Decades of research on best-practice parenting for healthy child development was used to prepare the course, which uses video of real families and behaviors to display how a parent’s choice can impact parent-child relationships.

“Parenting is one of the most difficult jobs on the planet,” the poster says. “We find ourselves asking: ‘Why would she behave like this just to get attention?’”

Though the course was developed with parents of children aged 0-5 in mind, it is open to anyone who is raising children.

“It is ideal for young children,” Spring said,” but it is applicable for caretakers for all adolescents.”

“It’s never too late to find new ways to connect,” the promotional material says.

It also lists the ways the program can help parents to:

• Understand a child’s emotional world by learning to read emotional needs

• Support a child’s ability to successfully manage emotions

• Enhance the development of a child’s self esteem

• Honor the innate wisdom and desire for a child to be secure.

“I have found that most parents who go through this program say they have better relationships with their children,” Spring said. “Raising a secure child leads to them having higher self-esteem, being secure and positive … going on to college.”

This program, which is supported by the Hill County Early Childhood Investment Team, or ECIT, lasts for eight weeks and is held Tuesdays from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Havre-Hill County Library; it runs from June 12 until July 24.

ECIT was formed because a need was found for early childhood education back in 2004, Spring said, and it then continued as a group to address the continuing need.

Spring, who, along with being a counselor, has a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy and is a registered Circle of Security Educator, offers this program free just once a year.

She became certified to be a Circle of Security Educator through a program in Nebraska, she said, after she and four other community members received scholarships for the training.

“The requirement of the scholarship was to continue to participate in ECIT and to teach the classes,” Spring added.

Videos about the program can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6DhnbgRAOo&feature=youtu.be and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wpz8m0BFM8&feature=youtu.be/.

More information can be read about their program in “Raising a Secure Child,” a book published in 2017 by the founders of the Circle of Security program.

Registration is required for the class and space is limited, but there are still some spots remaining, Spring said.

People can register by calling or texting 399-1919.

 

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