Pediatric Emotional Regulation and Parental Wellness: An Educational Program at a Child Development Center

Abstract

Pediatric emotional regulation strategies can facilitate increased emotional development, positive interpersonal relationships, and increased self-efficacy. Caregiver wellness can have a direct impact on a child’s emotional, social, and psychological development. Additionally, staff members at an early childhood development center identified a need to improve students’ emotional regulation abilities and address caregiver wellness through capstone program development. The purpose of this capstone project was to meet the identified needs through the: implementation of a pediatric yoga program and outlining of a caregiver wellness workshop. At the conclusion of the capstone, teachers were satisfied with the yoga implementation, believed it helped promote emotional regulation development in the students, and stated they had a high likelihood of continuing yoga sessions after the capstone. The capstone student identified common caregiver stressors, which in turn highlighted client-centered topics to be considered for a caregiver wellness workshop.