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Helping babies and their parents
 When the babies in Nina Hewitt's care get fussy, she has several new techniques for soothing them. "Gently massaging their backs really works to calm them down and help them get to sleep," she said. "And if I get stressed, I know to take some deep breaths and calm myself before trying to calm the baby."
Hewitt learned the tips at a Parenting Counts workshop provided by WILL-TV's Young Learners Initiative. Although Hewitt has been a child care worker for 32 years, she's always on the lookout for ways to help the babies and their parents.
The Parenting Counts workshops are designed to help parents and caregivers improve their parenting skills based on the latest research about how children think, feel and learn. Hewitt said she came back from the workshop with fresh ideas for her infant room at Champaign's First United Methodist Church and for parents of the children in her care."I loved being able to share what I learned with the parents," she said.
WILL's Molly Delaney said child care providers can pass on materials and tips to parents, increasing the reach of the workshops. And, she said, the repeat follow-up messages that child care workers can provide every day for parents can really make a difference in the lives of children. Among those messages: Read to your children every day. Learn to read your baby's cues as he or she tries to communicate. Realize children learn by imitative behavior. Recognize how stress affects young children.
"In this world, everybody needs help. You can always learn something more about children," Hewitt said.
For more YLI stories, click one of these links.
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