Parents learn techniques to change children’s behavior through classes

By Katherine Rosario
1st Inf. Div. Post

As part of Child Abuse Prevention Month, the Family Advocacy Program taught a three-week class on parenting to help couples and single parents learn how to set their children up for success April 21 at Army Community Service.
The class, “Becoming a Love and Logic Parent,” aims to give parents tools to help their children be better prepared for life by using worksheets and videos.
“Children don’t make enough mistakes, and each mistake is an opportunity to teach,” said Earl Robinson, FAP specialist and clinical social worker who helped teach the class.
Parents often fail to hold their children responsible for mistakes and yell at their children, thus accepting responsibility for their mistake, he said.
The class teaches parents to give children two positive choices for any situation and not to lecture them.
“Children’s attention spans are about 30 to 40 seconds, and after that, they zone out,” he said.
The most challenging part of the program, he said, is teaching parents that it is OK to hold their child responsible for the mistakes they make and remaining calm through the process.
“The idea is to minimize the arguing and not let them see you as the bad guy,” he said, adding that sometimes playing dumb will force the child to put the blame on them and seek ways to fix the problem.
Playing the empathic parent will force a child to look upon him or herself as the cause of the problem, he said, causing them to see their parents as good and them as bad.
Staff Sgt. Patrick Franzen, 601st Aviation Support Battalion, Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, said he attended the course because he recently became a single parent.
“I am exploring different ways of parenting and raising my children in a healthy and safe environment,” he said.
Through the course, he has learned how to give his children two positive choices and how to communicate with his ex-wife.
“The lessons taught here have helped me in real-life situations,” he said.
For more information, call 785-239-9435.

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