The best part of Tiara Slingerland’s job is seeing the growth in the children who attend CASA Mental Health’s Preschool Day Program, and also their parents.
The Preschool Day Program helps children ages four and five who experience severe challenges managing their emotions and behaviour. Tiara has been with the program for four years, first as a therapy support assistant and now as a mental health therapist.
Children attend two full days a week during the school year and receive early childhood mental health care in a small classroom setting.
“We have about nine kids in each cohort, so that also helps that we’re able to really give our full attention, and also our empathy and our capacity to give intensive interventions to each kiddo,” says Tiara. “Because we are a smaller group and we have a big team, we have all those capacities.”
Children who attend the program struggle with Common conditions seen in the Preschool Day Program are behavioural and mood disorders, along with ADHD and anxiety.
“A lot of times, kiddos come in and because they have extreme dysregulation or these tantrums, they want friends, but they can’t really make friends. Then that causes a whole other problem where they’re feeling socially isolated,” says Tiara.
She sees successes that start out with kids play next to each other without interacting or yelling at other kids to play.
“They didn’t have play skills, and now I look at them on the playground at the end of the year. They initiated a game of tag, and they got everybody involved.”
Early intervention at a young age, says Tiara, significantly improves outcomes. Without it, there can be deterioration and development of other disorders.
“Coming in with such intensive support systems – teaching, therapy, education, all those different things that we get to provide from our program at such an early age – I think can just create such a different trajectory for the kiddo and the family,” she says.
It can be tough, says Tiara, seeing families coming in who are struggling, feeling defeated and at their wit’s end. But on the flip side, witnessing the growth of parents and children who attend the program is rewarding.
“Parents have someone that’ll listen and give them the things they need, and maybe even challenge them sometimes,” says Tiara, adding that the program provides a safe space where they are not judged.
“This why we have the program; this happens for
kiddos and families. It’s not isolated, it’s not just you, you’re not a bad parent. You (have) got a kiddo who’s struggling, and it’s hard, and so seeing their confidence and their ability to kind of cope and understand and then connect with their child … it’s nice to see the growth from that and see the kids themselves implement skills that you teach them.”
The Preschool Day Program receives funding from the Alberta government and from donors. Donor funds may be used for classroom supplies and tools that help with emotional regulation, like noise-cancelling headphones and weighted toys, and for purchasing bus tickets to help families get to the program.
