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11
Mar 2023
Harrogate pair offer to help parents become calm and confident
Two Harrogate parents are uniting to help children navigate the challenges of the modern world.
But rather than speak to the children themselves, Alison Stubbs and Andrea Edmondson are focusing their efforts on the parents.
They established ParentSmart Learning based on their belief that giving parents the tools to deal with their children's behaviour would deliver the most benefit to families.
Both women have dealt with challenges in their own children, including dyslexia and autism, as well as being trained teachers.
Alison, who is a primary school teacher, said:
Alison considered doing a cognitive behavioural therapy course to enable children to feel more empowered in dealing with challenges they faced. However, she said:
Meanwhile, fellow teacher Andrea experienced her own difficulties when raising her four children in the United States. She said:
Andrea decided to undertake research and training in child development, focusing on how children deal with stress and how they can be helped to live with it more easily in the modern world, before moving back to the UK.
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A chance conversation between Andrea and Alison at a friend's house in 2021 led the pair to realise they had similar views and aims.
After sharing their own experiences and ideas, they begin looking at ways to give parents more confidence in supporting their children.
They tested some of their theories with communities around the Harrogate district, running monthly workshops in a room they were given free at the Pickled Sprout restaurant in the Yorkshire Hotel.
After receiving "excellent" feedback from the participants, Alison and Andrea began working on pilot projects with schools.
However, with budgets already stretched, the pair found many schools were unable to commit to paying for help – even when it might reduce many of the challenges they faced in the classroom.
They said even "very intelligent, caring parents" often struggle to know how to handle their children's behaviour at home, leading to more issues being brought into schools.
The covid pandemic exacerbated this, with many children missing out on key periods of social development and not having been supported to catch up since.
Andrea said:
Outside perspective
The pair have developed a short online course, Confused to Confident, to help parents develop a better understanding of their children's behaviour and its causes, as well as ways to respond that will restore calm.
They said the course is suitable for parents whose children are any age, from pre-school through to adult. The parents may be dealing with conflict with their children, concerned about their mental health or potential neurodiversity, preparing for school transitions or exams, or simply wanting to feel more confident in their parenting strategies.
ParentSmart Learning is also partnering with community organisations and businesses to deliver workshops and courses
Alison said modern, busy lives often leave people without opportunities to share their concerns and get advice from other parents. The course is designed to fill that gap, with expertise and distance.
She added:
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