Lesha Workman expected that there would be benefits in providing therapy to emotionally and behaviorally challenged children at the child development center she directs. What she didn’t expect was that it would help other children at the center, and her staff as well. Workman is director of the Carl C. Staley Jr. Child Development Center in High Point, N.C., one of three centers where Family Service of the Piedmont is testing a program to enhance day care for children with emotional and behavioral challenges. Under the program, Family Service hired therapists and a Healthy Start home visitor to work with families of children at the centers. The therapists also provide classroom observation, consultation, parent education, and coordination of community-based services, as well as training for teachers at the centers. Workman says that once teachers identified children suspected of having emotional or behavioral disorders, the therapists worked individually with those children and their parents to help them address the children’s problems. “That got parents more involved and made them aware that their children needed a little something extra to be successful in kindergarten,” Workman says. Therapy also helped identify some children needing more serious treatment — including psychiatric care and medication — for which they were referred. The therapists also helped teachers at the center by improving their knowledge of typical child development, and “helping them identify new methods of problem-solving” to address children’s emotional and behavioral challenges. And Workman says social skills development training — provided in group settings, and modeling appropriate methods of self expression and peer interaction — proved beneficial for all the young participants. “This program has really made a difference,” Workman says, “not just for the children with behavioral concerns, but for all the children and teachers at the center.” | 
