Symposium places priority on children

Claude Mills, Staff Reporter

THE JOINT "Young Children Priority One" symposium held at the St. Patrick's Foundation, Bay Farm Road on Saturday proved to be an enlightening experience according to parents and children who came to participate in the discussion.

There were several presentations by psychologists, child care specialists and social workers on the special needs of children, creating the perfect environment for the sharing of information that would hopefully lead to better parent-child relationships.

Miss Jennifer Vassel-Millen, a social worker, gave one of the more interesting presentations. She began by handing out three wrapped presents to adults and children in the audience.

As they unwrapped the presents, they discovered several layers of newspapers, and finally, a few minutes, and several layers of paper, afterwards, a badge declaring 'God is Love'.

The message behind the package-within-a-package? "Many of us expect that when we get a baby in our lives that this baby will grow to be a great adult, and that we're going to close our eyes, open them...and one day, they will automatically be wonderful adults. That has not been my experience. It requires a lot of hard work, and sometimes we don't get the desired results that we hoped for, but we must not give up," she said.

"All children are precious, all children are gifts. When there is a pregnancy, it is like a gift, we don't know how it is going to turn out, maybe the baby will be handicapped, or its head will be too big. But we must be able to see the gifts in the child...the child who may not be the brightest may be the best cook. We need to identify and bring out that particular talent children have inside, each child is special in his or her own way," Ms. Vassel-Millen said.

Ms. Vassel-Millen suggested that parents pay closer attention to what their children were watching on TV and the books and magazines they are reading. She also emphasised on the importance of a healthy nutritional habits for children, and offered nuggets of nutritional wisdom for the audience.

Other presenters included Mrs. Sonita Abrahams of Addiction Alert, child psychologist Dr. Dennis Edwards, paediatrician Dr. Sonia Thompson, and Claudette Richardson-Pious of Children's First.

The symposium was hosted by the Kiwanis Division 23 and the St. Patrick's Foundation.

"We decided that with all the negative things that were going on in society, it would be good if we could bring the parents and kids together under an umbrella of information. The parenting factor is key, because children are often direct results of the influence of their parents, so parenting plays a huge role," Mr. Leroy Gordon, president of the Kiwanis Division 23, said.

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