Placement: Ontario Early Years (Cumberland)

Purpose:
Today I attended the parent education session on
Reason for completing the task.
childrens mental health. The purpose of this workshop
This could be based on an
was to help the caregivers understand the role that
observation you made, a
mental health plays in the early years.
conversation between you and your
site supervisor, etc.
Task:
What are you planning in response Objectives:
to your purpose?
1. To explain to the caregivers how mental health
-Label your task (e.g. bulletin
works and its role in the lives of their children.
board focused on the importance of
2. To allow the children to interact with other
play-based learning).
children and to build their social skills while
-What are your 3 objectives for this
their parents listened to the session.
experience? (i.e. Why are you
3. For the participants to learn to recognize their
creating a bulletin board on the
role in their childs mental health.
importance of plat based learning?
4. For the caregivers to better understand what
What message are you sending?)
mental health looks like and how to foster a
beneficial environment for their childrens
Describe the experience:
mental health.
-Describe the completion of the
Description:
task, with a step by step
1. The room was set up so that the caregivers
description.
could sit and listen to the workshop, while still
within their childs view. There were ECEs
available to help the children as well.
2. We spoke about the importance of mental health
and the impact it can have on a child.
3. We asked if there were any specific concerns
from the parents that we could focus on.
4. We answered a lot of family specific questions
that seemed to resonate with the whole group.
5. Examples of how to recognize a mental health
issue were given and coping mechanisms were
established.
Reflection:
-What went well?
Provide examples of how you know
it went well.
-What didnt go well? Provide
examples of how you know it didnt
go well.
-What did you learn?
-What might you do differently next
time you implement this same task
and why?

I felt that the session went extremely well. Many

parents were very interested in their childs mental
health. This was great to see. I think that the most
beneficial thing about this session was that due to the
setting, the participants felt safe. As a result, a lot of
them opened up about their own mental health issues
and issues within their family history. This was great
because we were able to address their specific concerns.
Many worried that due to their family history their child
may have a mental health issue. These parents were
concerned about being able to notice it. Other parents

-Did you make any adaptation or

modifications? If so, what were
they?
-What type of experience might you
plan to extend on this one?

were aware of mental health issues in their child, such

as anxiety, and they required help understanding how to
assist their child. Some parents even spoke of their own
mental health issues and feared that their own matters
may be affecting their children. It was great to hear
these parents ask the questions that they had major
concerns about. I think that without this session those
questions may have gone unanswered. I definitely
believe that the parents appreciated and benefitted from
this workshop today.

Field Supervisors Feedback:

Signature:

Date: Thursday November 3rd 2016