Parent Champions baby brain development and trauma training for Coram

We were invited to create a one day virtual course on baby brain development and trauma for the Parent Champions volunteers at Coram Family and Childcare service.  The role of the Champions is to be a source of support to other parents in their own community, offering non judgemental relationships and advice and guidance where appropriate.  Coram felt it was important therefore for the volunteers to have a basic grounding in the evidence base around baby brain development and trauma.

The training was a one day course, split over two half days, and was carried out virtually. 

The learning objectives were as follows:

• Understand the impact of poverty, neglect and poor parenting on the developing brain.
• Understanding the impact on practice and be able to compile effective interventions based on child/teenage developmental needs.
• Consider the impact of external factors - environment, culture, religion school and media.
• Build effective communication strategies with children and teenagers.

 Some of the course feedback was as follows:         

The training is wonderful, I am particularly enjoying learning about the strategies

The trainer has a depth of knowledge

It was very interesting to take time to consider how we can relay these messages about co-regulation and sources of support from a volunteer based perspective to families you may already know in your own community.