Texas Border Business
By Joey Gomez
McALLEN, Texas – Children may not come with instructions, but South Texas College is ensuring the community receives the next best thing through innovative courses that will serve as an introduction into the world of child care for current and soon-to-be parents.
STC’s Child Development and Early Childhood program introduces its “Smart Start to Your Parent Journey,” which will be held at Mission’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (CEED) beginning on Feb.18 through Feb. 27 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
“We feel a parenting class would be good for the area so we can reach out to people who might have questions in regard to caring for their kids,” said Eric Reittinger,” Ph.D., STC dean for Social and Behavioral Sciences. “I felt it was something that could be valuable for the community as well as be a resource to improve relationships with their children.”
The free course will include four distinct sessions twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, that will cover vital topics in parenting and child care taught by faculty from STC’s Child Development and Early Childhood Program.
Topics that will be covered include prenatal development, safety practices with infants and toddlers, attachment and brain development, an overview of developmental milestones, creative expressions through play and the importance of partnership between primary and secondary caregivers.
STC faculty say the courses will be open to anybody interested in learning about new strategies and techniques available in caring for young children.
“This is targeted to current parents or those parents-to-be who are set to bring their new baby home and help them answer the big question of ‘how do we do this?’. Consider this an introduction into parenting, into development for the child, what to expect, what are the things to be looking out for,” said Veronica Rodriguez, department chair for STC’s Child Development program. “Our faculty has come together to develop sessions built for their strengths. Whether it’s attachment or it’s guidance or newborns, they reached back into their specialties, if you will, and came up with two-hour sessions that will comprise this course.”
STC Child Development faculty member Ana Castillo said she will be instructing prenatal development and beginning-of-life courses for infants and toddlers. Through the course, Castillo said she hopes parents get an even better understanding of the child’s developing brain in their first three years of life.
“I hope this can be an eye-opening experience for parents, so they understand how important it is for children to be exposed to different experiences and that they help their children make the connections to become functional and happy individuals,” Castillo said. “These are critical periods where children learn human interaction, conversation, language development and social skills that will equip them as they start their journey in school and further into whatever road life takes them.”
STC faculty member Helen Meave said she will be focusing on the important partnerships that early childhood educators need to form with parents.
“We all become parents without receiving a formal book. We don’t have anybody or anything giving us step by step instructions on what to look for regarding the milestones that their children go through,” Meave said. “These particular sessions will really benefit our parents and hopefully other community members, particularly our child care providers or the early childhood industry workers.”
Students will receive Continuing Education Units (CEU) as well as a certificate of completion for the course.
“One of the reasons we wanted to partner with the CEED is really because we wanted to extend our reach. We wanted to offer courses outside of our area and just see if we can get those in our community more comfortable to come in and take some college-like courses and get a feel for what college is like,” said Daniela Masten, director of Continuing Education and Workforce Development. “This is an easier way to partner with CEED and be able to offer programs to the community and in an area that is closer and more familiar to them.”
For more information on the Smart Start event for parents or to register visit www.southtexascollege.edu/cpit/ceed-courses.html.
