Date of Award
1-1-1992
Document Type
Practicum
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Child and Youth Care Administration
Advisor
Mary Ellen Sapp
Committee Member
Bonnie Swanson
Keywords
community health resources, coping skills, developmental disabilities, emotional well-being, fetal alcohol syndrome, home visitation programs, infant development, infant play, parent and child relationships, parent awareness education, parent education, parent educators, parent resources, parent training, parenting skills, positive parenting, prenatal cocaine exposure, primary caregivers, social support systems, substance-exposed infants, support groups, volunteer support programs, nurturing relationships, mother-infant bonding, child protection workers, community resource utilization, family support services
Abstract
This practicum was designed to increase nurturing relationships between primary caregivers and infants prenatally exposed to cocaine. Goals were to increase the general emotional well-being of the caregivers within the family unit, to increase the interpersonal competence of the caregivers’ use of formal social support systems availed to them.
Through individual and group training sessions, ten caregivers were actively involved in monthly home and group meetings. The solution strategy was designed to include parent educators who guided caregivers through pertinent stress relieving coping skills derived from strategies and techniques of appropriate parent training during the 1-hour monthly home visitations. The caregivers were encouraged to improve their relationship with the infants by utilizing positive responses through knowledge of normal infant development. Additionally, parent educators and volunteers facilitated monthly group support and parent awareness education sessions designed to increase the access of appropriate community resources.
The outcomes of practicum implementation cited increases in many relationship-building behaviors. Parent educators and child protection workers reported that each caregiver demonstrated an increased usage of identified coping behaviors. Post-evaluations indicated that all caregivers improved their relationship with the care receiving infants. Additionally, three of the ten caregivers increased their access from four community resource services to six, three others increased their usage from three to five, and the remaining four increased their usage of community resources services from a minimum of two to a maximum of seven. Through encouragement exposed infants were able to develop nurturing mother and infant bonding relationships.