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Transcript of Episode 8:

 Ep 8: The Importance of Parent-Teacher Relationships in Early Learning

[00:00:00] Dr. Kimberly Bell: Hi, and welcome to The Hidden Language of Children Podcast. Are you interested in knowing your young child in a whole new way, understanding what’s really going on in their developing mind? Does your child say or do things that make you stop and wonder, where did that come from? I’m your host, Dr. Kimberly Bell, the clinical director at the Hanna Perkins Center for Child Development in Shaker Heights, Ohio, where we work with families to help children know how to handle their own feelings to become the boss of themselves. Today we’re talking with Pam Millar, who runs the community engagement Division here at Hanna Perkins, where a big part of her job is consulting with childcare centers and preschools about the important intersection of social emotional development and early education.

Or to put it simply. She teaches the teachers the stuff they don’t teach at teaching school. Today we are talking about the important relationship between parents and their teachers. Welcome Pam.

[00:01:00] Pam Millar: Thanks Kim. I’m glad to be here.

[00:01:03] Dr. Kimberly Bell: So when we start talking about the relationship between parents and teachers I know I have strong feelings about how parents need to get involved. But your specialty is really helping teachers relate back to the parents of all of the children that they have in the classroom.

[00:01:22] Pam Millar: I would say yes. It’s very important to have that relationship with parents.

[00:01:27] Dr. Kimberly Bell: So tell us a little bit about tell me a little bit about yourself.

Let’s let the listeners hear about this idea of the relationship between teachers and parents.

[00:01:36] Pam Millar: I have worked in the early learning field for over 40 years, and when I started, I worked at the Centers for Families and Children, which was actually a part of Hanna Perkins.

And at that time there were no courses to teach us about child development and how to work with children and families. So we would every other week come to Hanna Perkins and [00:02:00] take courses in it. And that’s how I learned how to first of all, understand children’s behaviors, but also learn to be respectful to parents.

[00:02:10] Dr. Kimberly Bell: OK, so why don’t we start there. What is when you are teaching teachers, what is the first thing that you tell them about what they need to understand about parents?

[00:02:22] Pam Millar: The parents are the child’s first teacher, and frequently when children are enrolled in an early learning center, it’s the first time that child has been away from familiar family or familiar people, and the family is actually entrusting you to a very difficult job. And part of that is trusting you to take care of their child the way they would do it, which we know we cannot do. So when I’m talking with teachers, I said, the best thing you can do from the beginning is start to form that respectful, kind relationship with parents that helps them feel less guilty about leaving their child with you all day, but also you’re not judging them about how the child has been raised.

[00:03:11] Dr. Kimberly Bell: That is that’s not an easy feat because I think certainly teachers are parents too, right? It’s, you have that teacher slash parent role, and I think teachers have to be careful not to impose their parenting values on the parents that are bringing their child in. And I know when I, at the college level, when I teach child early childhood teachers in undergrad, we talk about things like cultural diversity and understanding that sort of thing, but there’s not usually anything in the textbook about parenting style.

[00:03:49] Pam Millar: And we have to understand if we are a parent that just because another parent has different parenting skills than we do, it doesn’t mean [00:04:00] that it’s wrong. Every parent I ever worked with over the years had the best intentions for their child , but sometimes they just didn’t have the resources.

So that also becomes a job of a teacher, is to help parents gather the resources. And you can do that if you have a good relationship with them.

It’s been proven by research that parents who feel that their relationship is strong with the teacher will participate more. And it’s a community of the teacher and the parent working together to support the child’s development.

And when the parent sees that you have that commitment, it makes them relieved. But it also helps them want to participate more. That’s the first thing. The second thing is we want to share with parents every day something good the child has done.

And usually you can, but I’ve worked with a lot of teachers who don’t seem to get that. How difficult is it for a parent every day when they pick their child up to hear Johnny did this, Johnny did that. You wanna be positive because otherwise that parent is gonna start avoiding you.

So if you have a good relationship and there comes a time where you might have to ask the parents to help you with Johnny’s behavior, you can do that because the parent knows that you’re genuinely interested in this child succeeding. And I’ve done that many times with parents when a child has had a bad day where I just simply say, I need your help with this.

[00:05:38] Pam Millar: And it seems to me that he has some questions about – I’m gonna say it’s very typical – where a baby comes from. And that is something that you really can talk to him about. It’s not a teacher’s job, it’s a parent job. And that’s another thing that is something that teachers have [00:06:00] to do is understand you’re not the parent.

And when something comes up in your daily time, that is not something that you should be delving into – something personal or whatever – you have to have that good relationship so you can share that with the parent and let them know how they can help at home.

And you can give them some tools. I would approach it like this. I would say it like this, but it’s one of those things where we have to have those boundaries that say, this is the parent. And this is the teacher. And that’s so it doesn’t confuse the child also. Because children at a young age do attach to their early learning teachers, it happens.

[00:06:40] Dr. Kimberly Bell: I think the important word that you put in there that I think we should circle around a little bit more is this idea of building trust.

The parent has to trust that the teacher has the child’s best interest in mind. And the teacher has to trust that the parents, regardless of their situation, are keeping the best interest of their child in mind. The goal is the same.

One of the things I used to share with my teachers was how to use. parent nights or any kind of parent introduction meeting to lay out like, here’s the way that we communicate, here’s the way that we work as a team. This is the kind of information I’m gonna be sharing with you because I think you also mentioned this, and I wanna underline it, is this idea that trust comes from communication.

And I encourage parents to develop that communication, but I think, it’s always like that balance, right? Who’s responsible for that, the teacher or the parent? And I think when I coach parents, I certainly am like, you need to communicate what’s going on with your child to the teacher and trust that the teacher is on the same team as you are. But at the same time the teacher is the one who’s [00:08:00] receiving the child, and the parent has to feel comfortable walking away.

[00:08:05] Pam Millar: Yeah. And this is how we do it. This is from the very beginning. This is how you start. So I would get a family to come for to enroll their child and for their first visit, and they would come in the center and I would talk to them briefly about a couple of a couple of points that they need to be aware of. But then I would take the time to turn them over to the teacher and have them meet with the teacher so they can talk about things like curriculum, scheduling how we do things here, and it starts that relationship. So the parent knows as the director, I’m there for you, but this is the person that you’re going to be having the the closest relationship to, because this is the person that your child is gonna be with every day.

And then when we start the child, the parent does do what we called an orientation or a settling in period where the parent is actually there onsite with the child to help that separation come about in a hopeful, smooth way. But the other part about it is it also allows the parent to see exactly what the child goes through every day.

This is what happens. This is what your child experiences. Yes. Every day we do this, we do that. This is what they’re doing. And so it starts right there from the beginning. I’m here for you. I’m here to talk to you. And then, we sit down and we set some goals for the child with the parent as to what are your expectations for your child in this classroom?

What, what, do you have any concerns that we need to work with? So you’re trying to make the parent feel comfortable first. The second thing is — I know this sounds really basic — but smile. You know when the family comes in, yeah, it’s the worst child you’ve ever worked with. [00:10:00] But I’m still gonna smile and say, “Hi, Johnny. It’s so great to see you today.” And so the parent already feeling guilty about dropping the child off and leaving him and knowing he’s probably having a bad day already is willing to share with you.

And then talk to the parent and say, “Is there anything I need to know? ” And that way you’re opening it up for them to share with you: “Yeah, we had a bad morning. He couldn’t get his socks on. He didn’t wanna wear this shirt…” whatever it is. Because we all know when we work with young children, something that small can have a terrible effect on the child the whole day.

And if you can stop that right then and there when they walk in the door, your day’s gonna be better too. If you can figure it out and talk it through with Johnny, so I mean that, that’s, then that’s the beginning. Continue that every morning. Be consistent with your greetings. Be consistent with the way you respond to parents.

Try and always find something positive to say every day, because then when you have to say something that might not be so positive, the parent’s gonna listen to you. And they’re gonna say, “Oh, she’s not always complaining about him.” Because one of the things you don’t want to do is continue having a child disrupting your class and not having the parent know about it.

I learned through the many years of being a teacher and director a couple of things about parents: They always feel like they’re criticized. Always. And we have to help them with that.

I remember when I realized how difficult parenting was for a lot of the families I worked with, and just for them to get up at a certain time in the morning, get their four kids ready for preschool, get them dressed, on the bus, into school on time. I’d sit there and I finally said, I don’t know if I could do that. And that’s when everything just turned around for me. And I said, man, these people work [00:12:00] hard. This is a hard job. And I have a huge respect. But again, you have to have the relationship that that makes you the person that when they need help about something, you’re gonna be there for them.

[00:12:14] Dr. Kimberly Bell: From the parent perspective — I think we’ve talked about this in previous podcasts — this idea that part of good parenting is being self-aware.

And by that I mean know that parenting comes with a lot of guilt because I think sometimes parents rush into a school and drop their kids off and rush out because they’re running late for work or, whatever other reason creates this sort of busyness, and I think I would wanna point out to parents that’s not where you catch up on your time. Do you know what I mean? And I would say that for daycare, I would say that for preschool, I would say that for certainly elementary school — that morning goodbye time and that handoff from one trusted adult to another trusted adult that’s not the place where you save time in your day; and that you need to be available to create that connection. No matter how difficult a day you had, no matter whether it’s one of those days where you barely got your kid out of his pajamas and into his street clothes and maybe you just put his socks and shoes on in the parking lot before coming in the building because it didn’t happen before you left.

I’m thinking about those kinds of days, right? Like when you have those kinds of mornings. And then you get to school and you just wanna go, “OK, go.” And then the teacher is met with this not knowing, right? This child who’s just ugh. Stumbling in with juice.

Right? And what we’re saying to the teacher is, don’t judge the parent. But on the parent side they have to know that everybody has those kinds of days. And that it doesn’t help your [00:14:00] child for you to be like: Shyoo!, tagging out and just taking off. And sometimes when we feel guilty, there is the impulse to do that.

I think also parents have a fantasy that they’ve shifted environments and the child will go in and forget about how the morning went . You know what I mean? The shoes got on and so the problem must be solved now. The issue must be solved now.

But I think taking five minutes to create a better transition, and letting your child know, look, we had a difficult morning. Let’s let your teacher know. Here’s what I expect for you for today. Now we’re here, you enjoy school. Let’s… whatever your expectations are, right?

[00:14:45] Pam Millar: You’re making me laugh and bringing back many memories. So I would always be there at opening for drop off just for that very reason. OK. Because we had to help our parents understand how important drop off is. So sometimes, you know what I would do with a child like that in the afternoon when mom picked up, I would say, he had a difficult day, and I think what would help him is if you could spend a little more time with him in the morning.

I know you’ve gotta be at work on time, but he really misses you during the day. And we’d work it through, and they’d get it after a while, but I’m also gonna share something else about that drop off and run that I found was a little common too — especially with the toddler group: Drop off and run because I don’t wanna start crying.

[00:15:38] Dr. Kimberly Bell: Oh.

[00:15:38] Pam Millar: And so what would happen was I finally had an area in my office where, when the separation period was over, the orientation and everything and the parent went back to work I had an area where they could just come in and sit down and cry. And they would .

” But he didn’t cry when I [00:16:00] left” and I said, “it’s OK, he’s gonna miss you. But right now he’s starting to make friends” and all of that. But a lot of times that was it too. They just didn’t want… “Oh, I just don’t want people seeing me cry because no one else is crying and I’m the only one.”

And, they’d run out the door. Parents are so hard on themselves sometimes it just breaks your heart, and I would say, everyone does this, it’s OK. And he is gonna miss you. I promise you. He is gonna miss you. But right now he’s having a good time and just be happy that he is having a good time.

[00:16:32] Dr. Kimberly Bell: Let’s underline that too. These are like, these are gems that you’re putting out here because the feeling that parents often have — and I don’t care how many of these podcasts you watch or how many parenting columns you read or books you’ve read that say that what you’re experiencing is normal — when you’re in the heat of the emotion, you can forget that parenting is a universal difficult experience. Oh yeah. And this idea of I don’t want people to see me crying, or I don’t want people to see my child having a tantrum in the parking lot of the school. Are there, is there 1% of people who might be out there judging?

But their day will come, where their kid is gonna not do what they want them to do if they haven’t had it yet. But I would say 99% of people are just saying, that’s where I was a week ago. And so I think parents need to understand that embarrassment, that feeling of embarrassment comes from within.

Because the thing we don’t wanna do as parents is feel like somehow we are failing in the job. The most important job that we’ve ever been given and that we’re failing in it. And when your child is the only one that day that’s on the ground, without a coat on in the middle of winter, you know that’s your child today.

That the inside, the embarrassment is really self-judgment most of the time. This idea that, oh [00:18:00] my, this is, I have failed. I’m the worst mother in the world. I’m the worst, father in the world. And, and that gets projected out into embarrassment. And so you need to quiet the inside voice and just say, this is where my child and I are at right now.

[00:18:14] Pam Millar: And being embarrassed does nothing to help me… Yeah… get emotional modulation down with my child so they can go in and have a good day at school.

I worked with a lot of families that were multi-generational and so you, you’re a young parent and here’s everyone in the family telling you’re not parenting correctly, and then you go to the grocery store and the kid starts acting up and the lady behind you with their shopping cart is telling you what to do with your child.

[00:18:43] Pam Millar: So you’re in this position where everyone knows everything but me. Why is this? And then you do, you’re right, you start putting yourself down. And you just have to be there for those parents. I remember the first time I actually went up to a parent and said —, she was having a very bad morning, it was a bad separation — and I said, “you’re doing a great job.” And it was like she almost passed out. Yeah. What? Who’s saying? But she was, and so we need to tell parents that if they are, I mean if be genuine, with what you’re saying ’cause everyone can tell when you’re not. But she was just my best friend from then on.

[00:19:22] Dr. Kimberly Bell: A thought just came to me and I tell, I say this to my students as well, that are about to be teachers, especially early childhood teachers.

Because I think parenting and early childhood teaching gets a bad rap in our society.

[00:19:38] Pam Millar: Oh my gosh.

[00:19:38] Dr. Kimberly Bell: Like it’s the easy, they call it the… what do my students tell me? That they call it the, I don’t know, like the “crayon and coloring degree.”

Oh yeah. And so it was like our joke that I said, OK, the next time somebody comes up to you and says, what’s your major?

And you say, early education, and they’re like, oh, a coloring degree. And they’re feeling all proud of themselves ’cause they’re an engineering major. Tell them that without [00:20:00] an early childhood educator, they would’ve never learned how to read the book that had all of the engineering information in it, they would’ve never learned how to add or subtract or multiply or divide and study what they’re studying now if it wasn’t for an excellent early childhood teacher. And I think there’s that message to the teachers and so they carry themselves with this confidence in their expertise in terms of teaching young children the basic foundation of everything that they need to survive in this world.

[00:20:32] Pam Millar: It’s huge. Because I’m gonna tell you today’s early learning teacher does more than any elementary school teacher as far as documentation, as far as screenings and assessments. I remember doing a training one day, and during the training, I let them complain because I know what it’s like. You went from spending time and making serious relationships with young children to doing paperwork, and one of the teachers said to me, she goes, I was a third grade teacher here and I thought I’d move to being a preschool teacher because it just didn’t seem so difficult.

And she said, if I knew then what I know now, I never would’ve done it. She goes, this is a hard job. It’s hard and it’s hard physically, it’s emotional. It’s draining. And I’ve had teachers come right out of college and have their degree and start working. And three weeks later I go in on a Monday and there’s a resignation letter under my door saying, I didn’t know it was this hard.

[00:21:41] Dr. Kimberly Bell: Because they’re dealing with the most primitive form of little human beings to leave their parents. All of the feelings and all of this stuff is all at the surface, and that’s what they get for the entirety of the day. And I think we say this at this moment in this podcast, so that whether a teacher is listening to this or a parent is out there listening [00:22:00] to this, that you begin to have empathy for one another and that you’re a team, that’s what we’re really saying is that you find a way to develop trust and you find a way to be a team. And I think every teacher I… I talked to — I had gotten some feedback from someone that I know who is a teacher and has been for 30 years, and I said what would you want parents to know? We’re gonna be taping this podcast. What would you want parents to know? — and she said, “Trust us. And when we tell you something’s not quite right, trust us. Trust that we have your child’s best interest in mind and that we know what we’re talking about.”

And and I do think that if you are a teacher who a parent sees in the morning or in the afternoon and you feel welcomed, you feel understood then when you say to that parent we’re having a parent night, or whatever, that parent is oh, that’s a, that’s an environment that makes me feel good about myself.

And they’re more likely to put aside other things and, and go to that. And I think, historically it’s always very funny to me ’cause people are like parents will come if you have food. And I’m like, I don’t know. I think there’s been enough psychology studies done that nurturing beats out food every single time in terms of the hierarchy of human wants and needs. I think there’s nothing more powerful than being understood.

[00:23:18] Pam Millar: Or just listen to and sharing.

[00:23:20] Dr. Kimberly Bell: Yeah. All right. So any other tips or thoughts before we wrap up and go into our next segment?

[00:23:26] Pam Millar: Just really quick, one of the things I touched on was separation anxiety and how that happens in the school.

And what I see when I’m in, in preschools a lot is the child crying for mommy, and the teacher doesn’t know what to do and so what they do is they ignore it or they walk away. I just wanna give a couple of tips here for teachers what to do when a child is going through that period. I would just walk up to the child and say, you’re missing mommy. And that’s OK because she loves you and misses you too. And soon she’ll be [00:24:00] here for you. But right now, let’s write her a letter.

Let’s make her a picture. Let’s… let’s give something to mommy when she picks you up so she knows how much she miss you, missed her and you love her. And Kim, it’s hysterical because they will put that in their little locker area and every time their face starts crinkling up ’cause they’re gonna cry, they run to the locker and get it and they hold it.

And many people do this in many different ways and there’s pictures and all of that. But I’ve always found the best thing is when you let them communicate their feelings in a couple of ways.

[00:24:32] Dr. Kimberly Bell: Ahh. Underline, underline, star it. That’s what I say to students when I’m teaching them, and I want them to really remember something.

Because too often teachers are taught in college to distract. Yes. And we push against that so hard that…

[00:24:49] Pam Millar: Oh, thank goodness

[00:24:50] Dr. Kimberly Bell: … because distraction is like a game of whack-a-mole, right? …that you can distract, but then you’re gonna be like, why did that kid fall out on the playground? Or why did that kid knock over somebody else’s blocks? It’s like you’re not really distracted from those missing feelings. And so get them out. I think we maybe have said this in every podcast so far — you don’t have to fix, handle or change a feeling that a child has expressed just because you’ve let them express it.

And I wanna add to your little point there about writing the letter, drawing the picture, making the phone call potentially…

[00:25:26] Pam Millar: Sometimes, yeah.

[00:25:27] Dr. Kimberly Bell: Having a picture of the child and the parent together. Having a book. I have often asked parents to take pictures of themselves at their office throughout their day, whatever their job is.

Having a book so you can be like, OK, what time is it? This is what mom’s doing right now. This is what dad’s doing right now. To keep that person in mind. And then on the parent side that when you come to pick up your child at the end of the day and the teacher hands you a note that’s ” Mommy, I missed you and Daddy, where were you?” And whatever else they had the teacher write for them, that is not a [00:26:00] condemnation of you having to leave. It is a beautiful expression that you can say, “and I missed you too.” Yeah. And isn’t it great now that we have this time together after school, we both went and did our jobs, and now we have this time together after school.

That’s really beautiful. That’s beautiful. OK, so now having said all of that, I’m gonna do a little promo here for the school. Little commercial. Great. If you are a parent in the Cleveland area and like what you’ve heard about our approach to early childhood education, you might consider enrollment for your little ones in our toddler group or preschool.

Hanna Perkins was an early pioneer in social emotional education way back in the 1950s when it was still called nursery school. We have rolling admissions, and so as long as we have seats available, we are always giving tours and taking applications. You can get lots more information on our website at hannaperkins.org: H-A-N-N-A-P-E-R-K-I-N-S dot org.

OK, that’s our little commercial. Now, Pam, we have to go into this segment. We’re gonna try something a little different. This is the section that we call, let’s rephrase that, where we walk through some of the things that grownups say when they are in the heat of emotion to children and some alternatives that we might offer for some of these phrases.

Are you ready? OK. OK. Now, this one is right up your alley because it is for the teachers. It’s preschool. The children have been coloring as a quiet activity. The teacher might walk from table to table saying to each child, good job. Good job. Oh, does this sound familiar to you, Pam? A lot of people might think that supports a child’s self-esteem.

So first, why would you rephrase that? And so second, how would you say that?

[00:27:52] Pam Millar: I would probably one-on-one say something about each picture. Wow, you really [00:28:00] like purple, don’t you?

I like purple too. And your picture. Tell me about it — because I learned the hard way when they bring a picture to you and they say, look at my picture, and you say, oh, it’s a cute puppy and they’re like, Uh-uh. So you’re like, OK. So I learned that from Hanna Perkins directly. Just ask, “so tell me about the picture.”

[00:28:22] Dr. Kimberly Bell: That is so brilliant. Because you’re not saying, what is it? Right that, that’s so beautiful. That’s a rephrase it right there. You’re not saying, what is it you’re saying? Tell me about your picture. Exactly. That’s cool.

[00:28:35] Pam Millar: Because you don’t wanna hurt their feelings because their face is… I spent all this time on this. Oh, is that your family? No. So you have to do it.

[00:28:44] Dr. Kimberly Bell: It’s a dinosaur. Yeah. And then they think it’s not good.

[00:28:48] Pam Millar: Because all they wanna do at that age is please; they’re at that ” Please, I want to please you.”

[00:28:53] Dr. Kimberly Bell: You first start by saying, I’m so proud of you. And then you switch it up to, you must be so proud of yourself.

[00:29:00] Pam Millar: Exactly. You turn that around.

[00:29:01] Dr. Kimberly Bell: You turn it around. Yeah. OK. One more. One child is regularly needier than the rest, wanting more attention or having more complaints, or needing more help, whatever that might be.

[00:29:15] Pam Millar: Anybody who has ever run a classroom probably knows that child and in a moment of exasperation, the teacher might say, I don’t have time for this. Why would you rephrase that and what might you say?

These are the child that always, children that always got my hearts the most because there was something missing.

[00:29:33] Pam Millar: I would always have to talk with that child about, tell me, let’s talk, hold my hand, let’s work this through. You have to make time for these children because if you don’t, and again, I guess this is my selfish part to it.

If I don’t make time for that child right now, my day’s gonna be awful. You’re gonna constantly be battling with this child. So you wanna say, come on, let’s talk about it. What’s going on? Are you missing mommy? [00:30:00] If it’s, if that’s what I can help you with, let me help you with that. And again, I would go to one of these suggestions that we already talked about with the pictures…

I had a mom that brought in her wig one time. It was hysterical, but the kid knew. He knew that was her wig and it just made him so happy and you couldn’t take it away. I’m sorry. These are truths.

[00:30:25] Dr. Kimberly Bell: That’s why I love them so much.

[00:30:27] Pam Millar: But that mom knew. She knew her child that well, that he knew it was her wig, and it was just wonderful.

[00:30:35] Dr. Kimberly Bell: Fantastic. So you’ve gotta meet the child. You’ve gotta just find out what’s wrong, and it doesn’t hurt. Sometimes we assume what’s wrong. We can’t do that. We have to actually look at the behavior and understand it because when we start assuming it is the old adage, I’m not even gonna say it… but we have to understand that every behavior is telling you there’s something going on. Yeah.

So there are I think two things there that I wanna underline in what you’re saying, which is one that if a child is being that needy then something hasn’t been taken care of. Some feeling behavior is communicating something that hasn’t been addressed, and so the need doesn’t dissipate.

[00:31:15] Dr. Kimberly Bell: Two, I wanna add that if you have to help another child and you have a child who’s struggling to manage on their own, one of our phrases is, I am helping Joey. But I’m also keeping you in mind. And you can say that from a distance. I’m in keeping you in mind.

I can hear you. I see you. And sometimes that’s enough to stave it off while you help another child.

[00:31:38] Pam Millar: You checking in is huge.

[00:31:40] Dr. Kimberly Bell: Yeah. So we… all right, we have one more because Bob had a lot of ideas because, oh, I’m gonna read you me. I’m gonna read you what he sent me.

This comes from our producer Bob, who says he knows exactly how you will answer this. Oh. All right. Let’s find out. The place that takes care of children younger than preschool age when parents are at [00:32:00] work commonly called a daycare center. What would you like to suggest as a way to rephrase that?

[00:32:07] Pam Millar: It’s called a childcare center because we take care of children, not days,

[00:32:16] Dr. Kimberly Bell: Pam, that is brilliant.

He was right. He knew exactly what you would say. And somehow though, I’ve never heard you say that before.

[00:32:25] Pam Millar: Oh my. I get so tired of saying it ’cause everyone looks at me like, oh, shut up.

[00:32:30] Dr. Kimberly Bell: I’m gonna have to change my language. I think I’m guilty.

That is fantastic. OK. I don’t think we could, I don’t think we could wrap up better, better than that. I really don’t. OK. We didn’t have time today because Bob, our producer, had too many rephrases that he wanted Pam to do. So we did not take questions from our listeners. However if you have a question, you can email it to us at Hidden Language of children@gmail.com. And I think as you can start to see is if you listen to our previous podcasts in this one, there isn’t a question we won’t try to answer.

So again, you can send it in an email to us at Hidden Language of Children at gmail.com. You can also visit our website at hidden language of children.org. Thank you for joining us. We are grateful for all of our listeners today.

The Hidden Language of Children Podcast is a production of the nonprofit Hanna Perkins Center for Child Development in beautiful Shaker Heights, Ohio. Our audio video editor is Greg Romano. Bob Rosenbaum is the managing producer, and Dan Ratner is our consulting producer. If you like this podcast, please subscribe to hear future episodes and share it with friends and family.

We welcome your comments and your questions. For more information about our approach to healthy child development, don’t forget to check out our website at hidden language of children.org. I’m Dr. Kimberly Bell, and we will see you next time. [00:34:00]