LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Childhood experts from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences will work with preschool teachers to help new parents, especially fathers, with the issues of raising a child.
Patti Bokony, a UAMS assistant professor of psychiatry, and her colleagues in the pediatric department received a five-year, $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The money is to be used to expand parent-education programs that focus on teacher-parent interaction.
The UAMS team will bring preschool teachers up to date on the latest findings in child discipline, nutrition and other aspects of raising children.
The effort will begin later this year with a training session for 55 teachers of infants, toddlers and preschoolers in the North Little Rock School District. Other schools will be added later.
As part of the program, teachers will be trained to engage fathers, in particular, especially when parents are divorced and the father is not living with the child.
