Decrease Parent Stress to Help Children

Check out the 2018 Summer calendar!

Read the detailed description of Quest's Summer Camp information!

For this month’s newsletter I decided to write about the research that I just can’t seem to get out of my mind. As a scientist-practitioner it is always about using sound research and evidence-based interventions as a guide for solid practice, but there are some times when a piece of research or a study will get under my skin and infiltrate my mind and it will then make its way through our Quest program. This has happened in several ways over the years. More recent additions to Quest have included the interventions we have added in mindfulness, neuroplasticity, the growth mindset model by Carol Dweck, and the research regarding how best to teach social thinking and the research regarding what works and what doesn’t work in social skills groups presented by Michelle Garcia Winner. What I can’t get out of my mind currently is some of the research being conducted at UCI by Douglas Granger regarding how parent stress can impact child stress levels.

I first heard Dr. Granger speak about his research in salivary bioscience at the CHADD conference back in October for a panel by UCI professors discussing the impact of new findings on ADHD. Dr. Granger spoke about how it is possible to measure cortisol levels, as is an indicator of stress, for both children and parents in real world testing situations and how this moment-to-moment sampling is demonstrating how increases in cortisol occur when people are upset or experience defeat. Dr. Granger also discussed how parent stress impacts a child’s level of stress and then drew the connection of how critical it is to treat parents’ stress as a key target for intervention. [1]

I have been thinking about the importance of intervening with parents on a higher level since this talk. I believe it is especially important to assist parents with children who have special needs for several reasons. First, often when thinking about children with special needs, it is common for them to be even more sensitive to their environments than their peers in a variety of ways (dietary concerns, noise sensitivities, touch sensitivities, etc.). In addition, there has been a lot of research over the years detailing the high levels of additional stress for parents who have a child with special needs. “Children who are biologically reactive to stress are at greater risk of developing adjustment problems than resilient children, who are less reactive when confronted with the same set of stressors…Researchers have proposed that high-reactive children are more sensitive to their environment, being more vulnerable to a negative stressful context, but they also are more reactive to a positive nurturing context. Consequently, children who are more sensitive to their context would have a greater capacity to benefit from a positive environment.” [2]

When thinking of ways to decrease stress for parents, there are many things that can be helpful to combat both temporary stress as well as more chronic stressors.

1). Prioritize your own self-care as a parent–The image I get for this is about the direction given to adults when flying to secure their own oxygen mask first before helping children when given the safety directions in case of an emergency. Just like in this example, it is crucial for parents to first take care of themselves so that they will be able to then provide the care that will be needed to their children. Not only is this prioritization crucial so that a parent will be able to provide good care for a child, but this is also the best way to model the types of behaviors that kids are supposed to be doing as well. What also can fit into this category is taking time away from kids to spend time as a couple on a date or to go out with friends.

2. Get back to basics with sleep, exercise, and a healthy diet–All three of these areas have received press in recent years due to many findings about their importance in having a healthy, balanced life. Taking time to evaluate these areas and then decide if it is time to alter behaviors in these three areas could be helpful.

3. Take 20 minutes a day minimum for self-care–Anxiety has been found to be significantly less for people who prioritize their self-care and relaxation strategies for at least 20 minutes per day. This could be in doing a preferred activity, taking a walk, enjoying a bubble bath, taking deep breaths, engaging in progressive relaxation, or other relaxing activity. [3]

4. Use strategies to evaluate your current level of stress and various emotions. At camp, we teach our campers and parents to use a number scale that corresponds to emotions so that they can utilize more coping strategies when needed.

5. Have a solid team in place–It is crucial to have people to problem solve with, laugh with, and tag team with when needing a timeout in the moment to take a break and regroup to be able to engage in the type of parenting that is desired. Part of this team often may include licensed professionals to help craft quality interventions and opportunities for new skill development.

These tips are by no means meant to be an exhaustive list. The more parents can realize that their emotions are powerful and can be a key component to helping their children the more we can use strategies to decrease parental stress to have large, positive gains for children. For Quest, I am excited for this upcoming summer since we are greatly expanding our energy directed towards our parents based on this research since we believe this will further help our parents and campers.

[1] Granger, Douglas. Presentation at the CHADD Conference, October 2016. Costa Mesa, CA.

[2] Ha. T. and Granger, D.A. (2016) Family Relations, Stress, and Vulnerability: Biobehavioral Implications for Prevention and Practice. Family Relations, 65, 9-23.

[3] Bourne, E. J. The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook. New Harbinger Publications.

UPCOMING PROGRAMMING

School Year Programming

School year therapy groups are ten-week afternoon therapeutic groups that are designed to provide therapy by specifically targeting individualized goals for our campers.

A minimum of one hour includes therapeutic activities that heavily target the development of social skills, emotion regulation, and positive behaviors, while the next hour focuses on further skill development by providing a variety of experiential activities as part of a group to create opportunities to observe the child in a natural setting and intervene to facilitate change. Some quarters provide a special emphasis to improve skills, while other quarters have a more general offering based on the campers’ interests and often include programming in areas such as video game making, drama, art, movie making, etc.

Spring Group Started March 19th (Fullerton)

Summer Programming

Quest’s intensive summer program offers 7 weeks of programming (6 weeks of day camp and 1 week of residential). The summer program includes individualized behavior plans, group therapy, occupational therapy, a social thinking curriculum, mindfulness activities, yoga, soccer, games in the park, and field trips (beach, Boomers, Rockin’ Jump, Discovery Science Center, bowling, etc.) to create a fun and engaging, therapeutic camp experience for children.

Weekly parent meetings are also included. The summer program has been found across multiple studies to significantly reduce hyperactivity, impulsivity, aggression, and inattention, while improving peer relations, family relations, athletic competency, behavioral control and self-esteem. Quest has also been found to improve social awareness, social cognition, social communication, and social problems.

Summer Camp Dates are:
June 25 through August 9th

Decrease Parent Stress to Help Children

Check out the 2018 Summer calendar!

Read the detailed description of Quest's Summer Camp information!