As a college student I had a course that dealt with guidance of children and I felt that I had a certain knack for working with individual children. However the best experience of my professional life came when I was hired as an instructor and supervising teacher with Michigan State University’s Child Development Laboratories. My first semester there I was required to attend a course taught by a faculty member who was the Director of the program (Dr. Marjorie Kostelnik). It was important that I learn the specific skills taught because I would be required within my job to give direction and feedback to the students in the lab about their use of guidance skills. This also meant that I had to be a good role model in using those same skills. I can say that those Thursday evenings were some of the best professional development experiences of my career. A couple of years later Marjorie and others turned that course into a textbook, Guiding Children’s Social Development.
Throughout my career I have given over 100 workshops to parent and professional audiences about various content in that book. It is important to remember that learning a new skill takes time and practice. Children will sometimes act out for a short while because you are not handling things the way you might have in the past. Stick with it. Remember the goal of all guidance is to help children to be self disciplined and effective social problem solvers. These skills will do just that.
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