The Southern Penobscot Regional Program for Children with Exceptionalities (SPRPCE) is hosting workshops for parents and teachers to help children who have various social-emotional needs.

Heather T. Forbes, LCSW, will present “Helping Children Regulate,” a free workshop for parents, on Thursday, March 7 from 6:30 – 8:30 pm at the William S. Cohen School, 304 Garland Street, Bangor. Ms. Forbes explains that when children are in constant states of stress and overwhelmed, especially during their early childhood, one of the most profound results is that their regulatory systems are compromised. Simply stated, they don’t know how to calm down nor do their systems know how to remain calm for extended periods of time. Ms. Forbes will give numerous suggestions, strategies, and techniques that parents, professionals, and teachers can use to help children and adolescents learn to regulate. Her list will include both regulatory activities that can be done within the context of the adult/child relationship as well as regulatory strategies to equip children to self-regulate on their own. When we recognize that acting out behaviors are a regulatory issue, rather than just a behavioral issue stemming from the child making a bad choice, we can finally get to the root of the issue and get long-term results. Ms. Forbes is an internationally published author on the topics of raising children with difficult and severe behaviors, the impact of trauma on the developing child, adoptive motherhood, and self-development.

On Friday, March 8, SPRPCE will be hosting a collective professional development day at Bangor High School for 1,400 teachers from 22 Eastern Maine school districts and PREP. The workshop day will consist of a variety of presentations around the topic of social-emotional learning. This workshop was made possible by the Maine Department of Education regional service center grant.