Parent/Toddler program provides learning environment

Kristin Villalpando

Mesa Community College is giving new parents and their toddlers a chance to jump start their relationships and enhance parenting skills, while preparing the children for life in a play based environment. Supervisor Rochelle Ramirez-Clark and education faculty member Annapurna Ganesh are both part of the Education Studies Department at MCC.

They are both involved in the Everlyn H. Warren Child Development Lab.

The development lab offers two programs, the Preschool Program and the new Parent/ Toddler Program. Rochelle Ramirez-Clark says,

“Parents want to provide the best possible experience so that their child can succeed throughout life and these programs offer that.

“The Parent/Toddler Program helps parents understand developmental milestones in their 2-3 year olds and embrace their child as an individual,” Ramirez-Clark said.

“It will teach them things such as, self confidence, positive self-esteem, social development, cognitive development, physical development, and language development, both English and Spanish.”

The laboratory provides a place for parents and their children to come discover and learn new things about themselves and their surroundings, while building confidence in themselves their social skills, language skills, and interaction skills.

It also provides those students who are participating in Early Childhood Education a chance to observe the children from the observation room.

This gives students a chance to study the behavior and habits of the child without actually entering the environment.

The observation room is equipped with two way mirrors, cameras connected to monitors in the observation room, and microphones, so a student can hear what is going on inside in the play room and outside on the playground.

One parent believes that this program gives her and her child a chance to bond.

She also thinks it gives her son the chance to learn good social skills and behavior habits early on and prepares him for what lies ahead in pre-school.

The Parent/Toddler program lets the child explore their surroundings at their own pace and allows them to learn things by trial and error.

  • Mesa Legend Staff

    These are archived stories from Mesa Legend editions before Fall 2018. See article for corresponding author.

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