Parenting Process for Your Child's Success Podcast

0:00 MUSIC

0:07 ANNMARIE MCMAHILL:

Hello, I'm Annmarie McMahill and this is a Tools for Your Child’s Success podcast.. In this podcast, we'll be learning about a parenting process for your child's success.

BARBARA HOPKIN:

Having a process to follow, to build relationships and communication skills really sets kids up for positive things in their future.

ANNMARIE MCMAHILL:

I'd like to introduce our guest today, BARBARA HOPKIN. Barbara earned her bachelor's degree in English Education from Florida State University. After teaching middle and high school students, she earned her master's degree in counseling from the University of Wyoming. Barbara's worked with children and families as a community, mental health counselor, and school counselor. So welcome Barbara.

BARBARA HOPKIN:

Thank you.

ANNMARIE MCMAHILL:

Thanks for being here. We are talking about a parenting process for a child success today. A step by step process parents or someone in a parenting role can follow. So let's start today by having you explain a little bit more about what this is.

BARBARA HOPKIN:

The parenting process is a way for parents to interact with their children. It can be used to address simple challenges or more complex challenges. But it's intentional and it can really build your child's skills. It can also really improve your relationship with your child, as well as your communication with your child as you use the process.

ANNMARIE MCMAHILL:

So I'm pretty certain that when I was growing up, my parents didn't have a process they were following. And early on with my own kids, I know I read books and I soaked up theories on parenting, but once they arrived, a lot of what I learned, it just went out the window. So using a parenting process sounds a bit daunting. How do you even get started?

BARBARA HOPKIN:

So you begin slowly and you choose one issue or topic that you'd like to practice the process to address. Maybe you'd like to work on confidence with your child, or maybe you're hoping to grow, to grow their reading skills. Then once you decide where you'd like to start on the website, you pick a tool for your child's age and begin working through it as a guide, there's step by step ideas of how to get started and what to say. There are summaries to print out so that you have the ability to post the tool that you chose somewhere, and it's easy to access. And as you become more familiar with the process, you become more comfortable and you might even find yourself using it without a specific tool to address things that come up in daily life with your child.

ANNMARIE MCMAHILL:

So I know that throughout the day, I have a lot of conversations with my kids. But I don't plan out each one like that. How, how would you even get started, doing something like the parenting process?

BARBARA HOPKIN:

So you think about areas that you'd like to see a change, maybe a behavior that isn't going well. And then by using the process, you really get to have an engaging conversation with your child about what's going on, how they're feeling about what's going on, and then you get to decide, you know, what skills you would like to teach them and be able to support them through using the process to grow new skills and change behaviors.

ANNMARIE MCMAHILL:

So it's not, it's a process, it's not a script, right? It's just a way of interacting with your kid?

BARBARA HOPKIN:

Exactly. It's a way of interacting and it's some steps to follow, but you don't have to follow them in order every time either. So it's just a way of interacting in a process to communicate that really conveys respect and helps children gain...