Brooklyn Letters provides a variety of parenting services. We offered a Park Slope Daddy Group for those with an interest in learning more about childhood development, coping skills for parent-related stress, and effective communication; there was a group specifically geared toward stay-at-home fathers; and a mom parenting group, which offered support and strategies for coping with stress and the benefits of music and play as an aid toward healthy development. We also welcome our Special Education Parent Advocate, Patricia Connelly (see below)!
If you are interested in a parenting group, contact us!
Craig’s Communication Team: We are experts in early childhood communication and its communication delays. We provide a supportive environment to help you learn strategies to improve your connection with your toddler and/or preschooler. We are experienced to work with almost any type of communication delay and we are also knowledgeable about children without delays. One of the most important aspects of early childhood development is the parent/child bond. Many parents want to learn the best ways to spend quality time with their child and learn techniques to better connect with their child. We teach clear communication versus using time-outs and bribes to “control” your child. In addition, we show you how to talk and play with your child, while strengthening your emotional bond with your child.
Laurie Yankowitz: Laurie can provide counseling and assistance with parenting skills to parents of children age 3 through adulthood who have special needs, especially children with autism and/or intellectual disability. She can work with parents on gaining cooperation from their children without yelling or nagging, helping children to better express themselves, and suggest ways to encourage independence and promote social skills, making friends, and broadening their range of leisure activities. Laurie believes it is especially important for parents of children with special needs to be supported in expressing the many different, deep feelings that are difficult to face, including feelings of guilt, embarrassment, anger, resentment, isolation, jealousy, and frustration, not to mention anxiety and depression. When these feelings are given their due, there is more freedom to look at one’s own strengths as well as the strengths of individuals with special needs, who in spite of, or sometimes because of their limitations, persevere; often exceed expectations; and show us how being understood is key to human happiness.
Jean Davis: Parenting is among the most fulfilling, complex and exhausting of life’s pursuits. I help parents discover and come to peace with their feelings around parenting. This includes finding agreement about roles and arriving at ways of strengthening the relationship as well as the functioning of the full family.
Patricia Connelly: As a Special Education Parent Advocate, Patricia counsels, assists, coaches and, when necessary, advocates directly on behalf of families of children with disabilities. Her services include: Consultations via telephone and in-person; review of IEP and relevant evaluations and other documents; attendance and support at school and program-related meetings, including IEP conferences, evaluations, and meetings with teachers, school and district administrators, among others; research needed to support the child’s needs; correspondence with schools, district, city/state agencies and others as needed, as well as; preparation for and attendance at mediation and/or due process hearings.
