Publication
Needs Assessment Toddler Parenting Resource
| Contents: | 1. Introduction 2. Main findings 3. Overview 4. Conclusions Appendix 1: Toddler resource questionnaire Summary |
3. Overview
This section aims to draw together the toddler parenting issues raised by both parents and professionals working in this area, with a view to illustrating the areas of similarity and difference.
The diagram below illustrates the perceived interconnections of the practical and emotional issues raised by both parents and professionals. Whilst it was acknowledged that the use of such a toddler parenting resource may be topic driven, with users dipping in and out, there appeared to be a strong need (from both parents and professionals) for these topics to be presented within a consistent framework. It was envisaged that this would provide a foundation of key principles from which other advice would naturally emerge. This would have the advantage of providing parents in particular with some fundamental tenets of toddler parenting from which they might be able to develop their own specific solutions once their confidence, stemming from such knowledge had been established.
From the perspective of experienced professionals, this framework is one of promoting positive parenting.
Whilst some priority areas fell primarily into the categories of either practical (eg toilet training) or emotional (eg emotional development) issues, others quite clearly incorporated both of these elements (eg behaviour management and social development). In the case of the latter, it was felt that the two aspects of the topic area were equally important and so closely inter-related that their coverage in the resource should reflect this.
The priority issues raised by both parents and professionals were identical, with the key differences lying in the way in which ‘priority’ was interpreted. For parents this tended to start with the practical issues with which they were dealing on a day-to-day basis. However, whilst these were foremost in their minds, many were also concerned about (but often less ready to voice) more emotional issues. However, more in-depth discussion with respondents indicated not only the presence of these issues, but also the extent to which they were troubled by them. As discussed in the body of this report, it was often because of embarrassment or a lack of willingness to “expose” what was perceived as failure, that led to these emotional issues not being raised early on in the interviews.
Professionals, on the other hand, immediately acknowledged the central importance of the emotional topics, emphasising the extent to which many of the aspects of toddler parenting are linked to the issues which arise in this “emotional” area.
As such, whilst the overt priorities of parents were generally the mirror image of those highlighted by professionals, they do in fact reflect the same concerns which have been simply expressed from different perspectives. Thus parents might tend to approach a resource with a specific (practical) issue or problem in mind and absorb/evaluate the related emotional information in this context. Professionals, with the benefit of their experience, were able to identify the extent to which emotional and practical issues within certain topic areas were closely interlinked.