November 13, 2024 • 59 mins
Research on early childhood development is unequivocal: the first five years of life are pivotal to a child’s neurological, cognitive, and social-emotional growth. Today, Erin is joined by two experts in child development from the San Bernardino City Unified School District, Dr. Latashia Kelly and Nancy Carrillo, to discuss these formative years, their lasting impact, and what they are doing to make the most of them.
Studies from Stanford University reveal a staggering reality: low-income 5-year-olds can be as much as three years behind in early numeracy and two years behind in literacy compared to their wealthier peers. While many catch up in later years, they never quite bridge the gap, as they continue to learn at the same pace as their more privileged classmates. The foundation laid between birth and age 5 is critical; it determines a child’s readiness for kindergarten. Students who start behind face an uphill battle to catch up, often struggling to overcome this early deficit throughout their education.
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Episode Transcript
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Erin Brinker (00:05):
Good morning, everyone. You're listening to
the making hope happen radioshow, and I'm Erin Brinker. I
say good morning because we airon two radio stations in Inland
Southern California. That's X95.7 and 92.5 KQLH on Sunday
mornings at nine and 10amrespectively. Okay, you're gonna
love the conversation today. Oneof my passions is early
(00:27):
childhood education and thestrength of families. It's where
most of my work in the nonprofitsector has centered, and where I
think we can make the greatestimpact in the health and
stability of our communities andour nation, if you think about
it, families are the core ofeverything. Families are the
(00:48):
start of everything. You cannothope to have a stable,
productive, good, solid, safecommunity, if your families are
chaotic, if your families are inturmoil. And so my work, in the
work of many, many others, hasbeen focused on strengthening
families right from the verybeginning, and it means Healing
(01:11):
the Hurts of adults. It meansmaking sure kids are ready for
school, that they havenutritious food to eat, that
they have a quiet place tosleep, that they you know, have
people around them who lovethem. And in order for the
adults to give the love, theyneed to feel the love, right?
And so they need to be healed,and they need to be healthy so
that they can focus on what'simportant, and that's their
(01:33):
children and their spouses. Andyou know, because the best gift
you can give to your kids is asolid, stable marriage
relationship. Now, I'm a big fanof merit marriage. If you're
just cohabitating, but you'reproviding that. I think that's
good for kids too. So you know,I'm not judging your family
structure. I'm just saying thata that a loving, predictable,
(01:57):
supportive family home, isabsolutely critical to human
development. It's absolutelycritical to everything. All
right, so my next guest,actually, two guests are working
in this field right now,specifically in early childhood
development at the public schoollevel, and there's a lot going
on in that area now because ofthe addition of mandatory TK and
(02:21):
focus on school readiness, etc.
One last note, this was recordedbefore the election, so there's
references to the election. It'sbecause it was recorded before
All right, here we go. Well, Iam absolutely thrilled to be
sitting down again with thedirector of child development
from the San Bernardino CityUnified School District, Dr
Latasha Kelly and her newlyminted coordinator for the
(02:45):
program master's level, NancyCarrillo, welcome both of you to
the show.
Nancy Carrillo (02:54):
Thank you.
Erin Brinker (02:55):
So we're here to talk about early childhood. And
anybody who who knows mepersonally or has been listening
to any my radio shows over thelast 15 years, knows that early
childhood education is a majorpassion of mine. You know, how
you start out in life really hasa huge can hugely predict, or
largely predict, what your lifewill be like as you grow older,
(03:16):
both, you know, mental healthand physical health and all of
those things we know. There'slots of research on the adverse
childhood experiences, forexample, that's when 80% or 85%
of neurological developmenthappens in that first five
years. So the window of thosefirst five years are critical
for that human as they grow up.
So just to set the table, firstof all, tell me about
(03:37):
yourselves, and we'll start withyou. Dr Kelly, what led you to
choose early childhood educationas a career? What's your
background?
Dr. Latashia Kelly (03:46):
Well, honestly, I didn't know what I
wanted to do after high schooland into college until I took an
early childhood class and wasable to intern at the Child
Development Center at ChaffeyCollege. That changed
everything. I absolutely lovedworking with the little ones
birth to five, and so my I have28 years in the field of early
(04:07):
childhood, and I've worked withchildren from birth to 12 years
old. I've been a teacher, a sitesupervisor, a coordinator, and
currently a director for the SanBernardino City Unified School
District Child DevelopmentProgram.
Erin Brinker (04:24):
How about you?
Nancy, so, okay, so
Nancy Carrillo (04:28):
I would say about 34 years ago, I was a teen
mom, and I wasn't quite sure howto be a mother, right? So I
thought the best bet was to takean early childhood education
class, because it was veryimportant for me to raise my
daughter correctly, and thatstarted my path into early
childhood education. I took oneclass, the very core basic
(04:51):
classes at San Bernardino ValleyCollege, and I started at a
family daycare. I went to aprivate. At corporate daycare,
and eventually ended up here atthe Child Development Program as
an infant toddler teacher in2001 I taught infant toddlers.
I've taught three and four yearolds. I also led a parent I was
(05:17):
a parent educator for our teenparents, so I was able able to
give back in that area. I thenwent on for my bachelor's
degree, with the push fromdoctor Kelly, she would just
always, always encourage all ofus to get our education. And
then about in 2018 I went backfor my master's degree. I have
(05:38):
become the newly appointedcoordinator here,
congratulations, yes. Thank youso much under the direction of
Doctor Talley, and it's just,it's this is the most rewarding
field that anyone can be in. Imean, just working, working with
these, these precious children,from birth to two five and
(06:02):
watching them grow so we Itdoesn't stop, right? It doesn't
stop at five year olds. We justdon't cut the cord and we never
see them again. We've beeninvited to weddings and
graduation. That's so great.
Yes.
Unknown (06:14):
So love that
Nancy Carrillo (06:16):
these are lifelong relationships, and not
only with the child, becausesometimes a child doesn't
remember you, right? They're soyoung, but with their family, so
doctor Kelly and I both run intochildren all the time, all the
time, and first, it usuallystarts with the parent. Of
course, hey, I remember you.
You're my child's teacher. Andthen they show us their adult
child. You know
Erin Brinker (06:39):
this what used to be a little, tiny boy walks up,
Hi, how you doing? I thinkyou're Wow
Nancy Carrillo (06:45):
When they remember you from four and from
three and four years old. Imean, you less than impact.
Yeah, you've that's awesome. Sothat that that right there is
the, the reason we do this. Andyou know, we both have our
different reasons for startingin this field, but we're
basically at the same point nowwhere this this is just our
passion, right? So
Erin Brinker (07:07):
this is, and I know many teachers at all levels
who have talked about this,everyone thinks they could run a
school or a daycare because,well, they were in school, they
were children once. Of course,that isn't true. Tell me about
your approach to early childhoodeducation, and we could start
with you. Dr Kelly,
Dr. Latashia Kelly (07:26):
well, first, you have to love children and
have a passion for the work, andnot just some children, but all
children. Second, you need tohave early childhood classes.
Take many early childhoodclasses and get educated in the
field of early childhood. Andthird, you have to know all
(07:47):
about regulations, becausethere's so many entities
involved and changing andchanging all the time. Because
you have, you know, CDE, whichis the California Department of
Education, you have theDepartment of Social Services,
you have community carelicensing. So there's so many
(08:08):
entities with rules, regulationsand mandates for running a
school or early childhoodprogram. So people, there's a
lot of people out there thatthink all it is is just, you
know, telling teachers what todo with their the children. No,
it's, it's not that first. Youhave to love the children first,
and know early childhood, andknow all the mandates involved,
Nancy Carrillo (08:32):
right? And some think it's, it's as simple as,
you know, this is a taboo word.
We hate this word. They thinkit's as simple as babysitting.
It's hot, it's not. It is farmore. It is far more than that.
I
Dr. Latashia Kelly (08:44):
mean, which is a pet peeve of ours? Oh
Nancy Carrillo (08:46):
yes, big pet peeve. So you can't just, you
can't just open your doors andsay, I'm going to run a daycare
from my home. There is so muchstate requirements and but it's
not impossible. So if it is yourpassion is something you want to
do, then I suggest you startwith knowing the rules and
(09:08):
regulations. Look at them all.
There is so many. And as the asthe newly appointed Coordinator
here at the department, I amstill learning them. And when
you think you've learned themall, no, yeah. News coming out.
So this, it's great to have amentor. Find a mentor who knows
the program, and you know, theycan help you through
(09:31):
understanding these rules andregulations. Because it's not as
simple as, you know, oh, it'sonly 12 to 112, children to one
adult. You know, it's so muchmore. So much more. You
Erin Brinker (09:41):
know, I when I had two kids in in two years, and so
because I had two in diapers, itdidn't, it didn't make sense for
for us to for me to work,because I would have been
everything I earned, would havegone to childcare. And so I
opened up a licensed childcarecenter in my home, and I was
shocked by. How much there wasto get set up, to get on the
(10:02):
food program, to to, you know, Itook, obviously, read everything
I could read and, and I have abachelor degree, but it was in
political science. There wasn'ta whole lot of early, early
childhood development going on.
So I read everything that Icould. And it was, I mean, I
loved it, and I'm very, verygrateful that I had the
opportunity to do it, but I'venever worked so hard in my life.
Nancy Carrillo (10:24):
That's an everyday job.
Erin Brinker (10:26):
Yes, daycare, yes,
Nancy Carrillo (10:30):
even on your week hours. Yes,
Erin Brinker (10:32):
I was sick, you can't, and I was up at 5am
making sure that everything wasclean and ready and prepped,
that everybody's diapers werein, and everybody, all the BOP
the the little, everybody hadtheir little cubbies, and they
were all full, and all the toyswere clean and mopped the floors
and get breakfast started,because my first kids got
dropped off at 6am and and thenat the end of the day, it was,
(10:54):
you know, cleaning up everythingat night. That's when I mopped
the floors. Was at night, and,you know, and it was, it was, it
was 12 to 15 hours a day. Iloved it. I'm really glad I did
it, but my hat's off to you.
There is so much to makingeverything you know up to code
and running the way that thatthey should. And when I put the
kids down for a nap, holy cow, Iwould sit on the couch and just
veg
Nancy Carrillo (11:18):
and and even running running the program
here, you know, you you wouldthink that, oh, okay, we work
seven to four. No, no, no, no,to run an efficient center. I
mean, I mean doctor Kelly and Iare talking at night. Sometimes
are working on a shareddocument, you know, because this
is such a passion of ours, andbecause we know the impact that
(11:41):
we're making on the communityand with the children and the
support we want to give to theteacher. It is, it's a long day,
but it's, but it's, it's worthit, because love what we are
doing exactly well.
Erin Brinker (11:52):
And to put it in perspective, it's not work,
yeah, it's a it's a passion, butit's, it is work. I mean, to put
it in perspective, everyexperience for the children has
to be prepped and planned, andso it's, it's not an accident.
When they're when theyexperience, they have enriching
play, and they have, you know,experiences that that are brain
developing and social, emotionaldeveloping and and cognitive
(12:16):
they create. You know, cognitivedevelopment, you know, is going
on during the school day. That'snot an accident,
Dr. Latashia Kelly (12:23):
right? It's all planned. It's all prepared.
Yeah, it's it's all intentional,intentional.
Erin Brinker (12:29):
So what does learning look like for very
young children? How? How arethey different? So how do they
learn?
Dr. Latashia Kelly (12:37):
Well, it looks like hands on experiences.
It looks like a lot of play andhappy children who are engaged
in activities with their peersand educators. And when you say,
how do they learn? They learnthrough play and hands on
experiences. So educators shouldbe setting up learning
experiences that providechildren with that rich
language, number, concept, musicand movement, science, outdoor
(13:00):
play art. There's so muchchildren can learn within a day.
And
Nancy Carrillo (13:06):
not only that, but the main word is fun. You
know, yes, fun. Our children, Idon't even think they realize
they're going to school. Yeah?
So great, very excited. ,because
Yeah they're they're coming in,excited to be here. They're,
they're not coming to a daycare,you know? They're coming to a
(13:26):
school where we have acurriculum. We use frog street
curriculum, which is verylanguage rich in both English
and Spanish. It's very socially,emotionally driven. We, you
know, and also we, we also havedual language preschools, yes.
So, you know, some of our kids,you know, that don't know
(13:47):
Spanish, are coming into ourprogram, are leaving our program
bilingual, because they'regetting 5050, English and
Spanish. So,
Erin Brinker (13:57):
so I remember being in kindergarten getting we
had an aide in the classroom whowas bilingual, and she was
teaching us how to count inSpanish. I was five, and I still
remember, you know, what shetaught us. And I remember her, I
remember, right? I don'tremember her name,
unfortunately, but I do rememberher face and and what they're
like, little sponges at thatage. What a great time to teach
(14:19):
them another language. Yeah,
Nancy Carrillo (14:21):
right, and, and where we have dual language
preschools, but all of ourinfant toddler centers, there's,
there is bilingual staff inevery one of our centers. So it
might not be a dual languageinfant toddler classroom, but
they are hearing the language,especially if it is their home
language. We, you know, reallyembrace that.
Erin Brinker (14:45):
So what are you seeing with the little ones that
concern you? Are they learninglike they should be? Are they
ready like they should be? Arethey socially and emotionally
ready? What are you seeing?
Unknown (15:00):
So, what concerns me are, when we get four year olds,
or, you know, who come to us whoare not potty trained, and
parents say they can't be pottytrained, yeah, and can't is not
in our vocabulary, right? Yes,when children come to us, we
(15:23):
have a plan of the teacher, youknow, creates a plan of action
with the parent on how we'regoing to potty train their
child, and they're potty trainedin no time. What? Days, weeks?
Yes. And so when parents come inand say, Oh, they can't be potty
trained or we don't want topotty that's just a disservice
to their child, and that concernthat really concerns, yeah, I'm
(15:44):
thinking,
Erin Brinker (15:45):
does that parent think they're gonna, it's their
45 year old is still gonna bewearing a diaper? Of course,
they could be body trade,
Nancy Carrillo (15:52):
right? And what's, what's so amazing about
this is the children learn soquickly. Yeah? I mean, they walk
in with a pull up, they'releaving, you know, fully, fully
potty trained within days,because they're watching their
peers. Yeah,
Erin Brinker (16:08):
say, how much? How much is that peer interaction
plays into that,
Nancy Carrillo (16:12):
a lot, a lot, because our our bathrooms are
opened and, um, you know,there's really no expectation of
privacy in the preschoolclassroom for their safety. So
they they are, you know, when wesay, Hey, we're, let's go potty.
We're all going potty. You know,we have a line of children
getting ready to take care ofbusiness, and they're doing it.
(16:35):
And these ones that are that,these three and four year olds
that are coming in, not pottytrained, they are catching on,
Dr. Latashia Kelly (16:40):
right? And they want to mimic what their
period? Sure, sure. Well, they
Erin Brinker (16:44):
don't want to be the baby, right, I'm a big kid.
Nancy Carrillo (16:48):
And another concern is the problem solving.
You know, we're seeing a lot ofchallenging behaviors, a lot of
aggression, a lot of hitting.
So, you know, we have PBIS,which is our positive behavior
intervention supports that weimplement in our classrooms. We
(17:08):
are working on tier oneinterventions, which means we
are teaching our children theexpectation in the classroom so
they're just not coming in,like, hey, free for all. It's
there's there's expectations,there's rules, there's
procedures for everything, andthey're all geared to meet them
developmentally. So forinstance, if we're in the
(17:32):
classroom, I was a four year oldteacher, and I asked the
children, alright, come on. AndI had a new student, I said,
Alright, everybody, we're goingto clean up, Clean up, clean up.
So I have this little four yearold who just started, and she's
walking behind me, mimicking me,yes, Clean up, clean up, clean
up. Clapping your hands. I said,No, sweetie, you need to go
clean up your toys. And she sheliterally looked at me and said,
(17:55):
Miss Nancy, what does that mean?
Really, yes, because parents aredoing that for them. Yeah,
right. Which I get it, you'renot teaching those skills. You
know? It's, it's faster for usto go into the child's room at
home and just put all their toysaway than it is to sit there and
teach them how. So when, when Irealized that I came up with an
(18:19):
idea of, okay. What does cleanupmean? Well, it means stock what
you're doing, put your toysaway, put them where they
belong. That's why we haveindividual pictures on every
single cabinet in ourclassrooms. Which is Eckers
early what is Eckers earlychildhood? Environmental waiting
Dr. Latashia Kelly (18:38):
skills?
Yeah. So we have it for infantsand toddlers as well, right? So
Nancy Carrillo (18:41):
it those, it's like those things that are that
are concerning to us, but weembrace that, right? We embrace
that. We teach it. And not onlydo we teach it to the children,
when their parents see whatthey're doing, because we have
open door policy, they're like,how did you get them to do
Erin Brinker (18:58):
that? And we teach the parents, Oh, see, that's
good, yes. So yeah,
Nancy Carrillo (19:02):
I'd love to talk more about PBIS, but that's
probably a whole,
Erin Brinker (19:06):
whole different conversation. Yes. So I remember
getting my little ones to cleanup, and we would sing the Barney
cleanup song, yeah, I don't knowwhat people still do that, but
it, you know, they would sing itand put their little toys away.
And you know that that helped,because they when they heard the
song, they knew it was time topick up their toys. Now, one of
(19:27):
my kids is on the spectrum, soit was still a little
challenging to switch gears. Sohe needed lots of warnings, 15
minutes, 10 minutes, fiveminutes, you know, right? And
that's
Nancy Carrillo (19:37):
what we're doing in the classroom, right? We have
a lot of children on thespectrum, we have inclusion.
We're all inclusive. So if yourchild's on the spectrum, we're
not going to say, oh, send themto a sped sped classroom, a
special ed classroom. We embracethat. We want to work with them.
We have daily schedules that wefollow in order to help that
child be successful. We havetimers. We. Um, there's so much
(20:01):
we do in the classroom to helpthat child thrive and be
successful and
Dr. Latashia Kelly (20:08):
develop needed skills, right?
Erin Brinker (20:10):
So, and that's hard, because I know you know
when, when he started. Now, myson was, was in some ways, very,
very gifted. He was reading atthree, but in in other ways, he
was, he was way behind hispeers, the social, emotional,
the self regulation, all ofthat. And so transitions in
school, like any transition was,they were really, really tough,
(20:33):
and sometimes he did them well,and sometimes he just wasn't up
for it, and would melt down inclass. You know, what do you
what is your approach whensomething like that happens? Oh,
my goodness.
Nancy Carrillo (20:43):
Behaviors. I love behavior, yes. So when with
special Yes, that's my passion,because I know that they're not
being intentional, trying to getunder our skin, right? They're
trying to communicate somethingto us. So when something like
that happens, luckily, we're atan eight to one ratio, and we
are able not to provide one onone, but able to provide a
(21:06):
little bit more support, givethe child a little bit more time
when those meltdowns happen. Weare able to
Dr. Latashia Kelly (21:13):
anticipate what is going to happen, because
we know that child right,because
Nancy Carrillo (21:17):
we have them for so long in the classrooms, we
get to know the families. So wereally try to give the child the
tools before the meltdownhappens. So if we notice that
transitions are difficult forchildren, then we give that
child a job, right? So it's notreally so much of a transition
for him. He's got a job to donow. Mm, hmm,
Erin Brinker (21:38):
excellent idea.
Nancy Carrillo (21:40):
Yeah, we're lining up. So your job now is to
make sure you know, to be theline leader, to count our
friends, to flash the lights onand off. That gives us that
signal. And we do a lot ofvisuals we I mean. And when I
say visuals, I don't mean thatthey're on the wall. They are on
our person, right? They arehanging from lanyards. They're
(22:01):
in our apron pockets to to showthe child, okay, we're going to
be cleaning up. We allow them tohold the timer so we really try
to get in front of the meltdown.
But, but it still happens,right? It still happens their
children, and we just give themtheir space. We allow them to
fill those feelings. We allowthem to, you know, flip their
(22:22):
lid to say, and once they'reable to comprehend and listen.
Because who can listen whenyou're at a level 10, right?
Yeah, you
Erin Brinker (22:34):
just can't.
There's no communication goingon. You can't. You can't
communicate
Nancy Carrillo (22:38):
with a child that's already in a full on
mountain. We let it happen. Wemake sure they're safe, we let
them cry, and we're very closeby, right, very close by. And
when they're ready, it give themthat nice, that nice hug and
say, Okay, now let's go try itagain. You know, let's try it
again. And we learn every dayfrom our students, yeah, so what
(23:00):
worked today might not worktomorrow, you know? So every
day, every day we learn and wetry to meet the needs of the
child, because every day couldbe different.
Erin Brinker (23:10):
You know? It makes me think, and I think that's
wonderful. You know, they callthree year olds three majors,
because they are, they arereally feeling their
independence at that point, andbut they have absolutely no
judgment and no frame ofreference. They just are are
recognizing that they'reindividuals, that they're
(23:31):
separate from mommy, and youknow, all of that, yes. And so,
you know, talk to me. Talk to meabout some of the Defiance
issues and, and this is not onlyadvanced advice for child, you
know, childcare providers andearly education teachers and but
also for parents andgrandparents, right? You know,
as their as their kids are beingdefiant, it's age appropriate,
(23:52):
but it's maddening. So kind oftalk about some of the tools,
some of the things that theymight be able to do to to work
through those issues.
Nancy Carrillo (23:59):
So, one thing that I find very powerful is
talk to your child about whatthey can do, not what they can't
do. You know, get off the couch,put your feet on the you know,
get your feet off the table, cuzthat's all they hear, right? No,
don't stop. Yeah, right. So wehave to take those words out of
our vocabulary. There's three,they're four. They're testing
(24:21):
boundaries. It's about what theycan do. You know, what's it?
Yes, what can you do? He'sswinging his sweater in the air.
Hey, buddy, you can either holdyour sweater or Mommy can hold
your sweater. You can eitherhold your sweater or we can put
it in your cubby. But one thingthat we're not going to say is,
Don't swing your sweater likethat. You're going to hit
somebody,
Erin Brinker (24:41):
because then it'll just become a helicopter,
because he'll just do
Nancy Carrillo (24:44):
it's about what you can do, not what you can't
do. So you can hold yoursweater, or I can hold your
sweater. You can hold yoursweater, or we can put it in
your cubby. You can sit on yourbottom on the couch, or you can
sit on your bottom on the floor.
Right? It's, we're not saying,Don't put your feet on
Dr. Latashia Kelly (25:02):
the couch, right? Stop, don't that's just
so negative, and it gets thechild that
Nancy Carrillo (25:06):
is, that is what PBIS is, positive behavior in a
courts. It's about what you cando, not what you can't do.
Erin Brinker (25:14):
So I have to think that you come against some
family cultures that are aresome are more disciplined than
others, right? And you know,from family to family, it can
vary widely, where some somefamilies are just, let's just
say, more animated than others,and then they come to school and
they're getting differentdirection. How do you how do you
navigate those waters? Becauseyou want to support the parent,
(25:36):
but you also the child has toknow how to behave in public.
And so what does that look likefor you?
Dr. Latashia Kelly (25:43):
Well, that's when we sit down with our
parents and go over whatever itlooks like, you know. So we like
to meet, not just a regularparent conference, you know,
talking about development, butwe want to make sure we have a
relationship with our parents.
Sit down with our parents. Sowhat do you do at home when he
does this? Or what do you do?
(26:04):
What do you do at home when yourchild does this? How can we work
together as a team to help yourchild? And that's why we have
parent meetings to go overdifferent topics needed for
parents. And a lot of times onour parent survey, parents will
state what they need, and weprovide them with those topics.
(26:27):
Oh, not
Nancy Carrillo (26:27):
only that. I mean, culturally, we will come
into some differences where theparent, like you said, is a
little more animated. They arejust disciplinarians, and it's
like they are not doing this. IThey are not. For instance, I
don't want my children to getdirty. Don't let them get dirty.
You know that that's a real bigpet. That is a big one, yeah, in
(26:50):
our early childhood, becausethat's how they learn. You know,
I had a little girl who wantedto be a cat, so she crawled
everywhere, everywhere, and, oh,her mother would get so mad, her
father would get so mad. So mysuggestion was, how about we
bring her to school, some playclubs, you know, let's just
always have these specific pantson, because during this two
weeks, it wasn't that long,right, that she wanted to be a
(27:12):
cat, but she'd seen a videosomething, you know, and then
she wanted to play in the dirt.
She wanted to play in the mud.
And it worked out. It workedout, you know, we were able to
talk with the parent. We wereable to suggest parenting
classes. Our teachers areteaching these parenting
classes. So it's not like it'san unfamiliar adult talking to
(27:33):
you about your child. You'vealready built a relationship
with the teacher. So ourteachers teach monthly parenting
classes to their parents and anyother parent that wants to join
on on what we're doing in theclassroom to help not only the
families but the child thrivewith these challenging behaviors
and to meet the needs of theparents. Because you're right,
(27:55):
there are cultural differences,and we do respect those and but
we always come to the same goal,I guess, understanding, yeah,
the same understanding is we'rejust here to help your child.
That's all we're trying to do.
We're here to help coach allabout
Dr. Latashia Kelly (28:10):
the child at the end of the day. Sure.
Erin Brinker (28:13):
You know, I was thinking about family culture,
just in our own family. Myfather in law grew up, he was
one of six on a farm with norunning water or electricity. Of
course, this is in the 40s, whenhe was a child. And they
eventually got it all. But atthe time, they didn't have it
and it they were just a rowdygroup, group of boys, one one
(28:37):
daughter. So five boys, onegirl. And, you know, so we would
joke that Jack, who was ended upbeing a very, very, very
successful man. But you know,when it when the when they food
was served family style, hewould dive in and pile on his
plate, not looking at whateveranybody else was getting,
because in his family, if theydidn't do it, you didn't get it
right away. You weren't going toyou weren't going to eat. And so
(29:00):
whereas other families, like,you know, you you kind of look
around make sure everything's,you know, given out evenly, and
that sort of thing. And you'rethinking about family culture
that's, you know, versus, youknow, exactly, portioning out
each plate versus, you know, afree for all and to each each
party, each family, that wasnormal, right? And so, you know,
(29:21):
when I'm talking about familyculture, that's kind of the
things, you know, some are veryloud at the dinner table. Some
eat all their dinner in front ofthe TV. Some, you know, and and
so they come to school, kind oftheir first what, what they've
always known to be normal maybeisn't normal for other families.
And so you have to kind of crossthat with parents and cross that
with the kids so that they learnwhat's
Dr. Latashia Kelly (29:45):
expected of what's, yeah, what's
Erin Brinker (29:47):
expected of them.
That's
Nancy Carrillo (29:48):
good, right? And you, you're talking about that.
I mean, it's not only just likemeals and food, it's, it's some,
some families come in andthey're huge sports fans, right?
And all this child wants to do.
Was, play football, playfootball. Which leads me to
really just kind of toot our ownhorn here, you know, we have
Heisman Trophy winner, JadenDaniels, right? Do we do? And he
(30:08):
started at our schools, youknow. He started in our infant,
toddler classrooms, you know.
And we know that,
Erin Brinker (30:17):
right? So, great,
Nancy Carrillo (30:18):
yeah, we embrace that love of whatever it is, you
know, he was throwing balls. Andwe're out there. You know who,
who would have known you wouldbeen played for what you place,
for Washington. Now, you knowwho, who have known, you know,
but that's you know. We embracethese cultures that are coming
in, whether it be sports arefood are the way you discipline.
(30:45):
You know, we want to embrace andsupport families.
Erin Brinker (30:49):
Excellent, excellent. So, um, if money were
no object, what would a perfectschool or school environment for
the in for Inland Empirechildren look like,
Dr. Latashia Kelly (31:03):
it would look like a state of the art
early childhood center thatencourages ongoing engagement,
indoor and outdoor learning,exploration and unique, a unique
design element. And it wouldalso look like providing
experiences that may they thechildren may not get at home,
(31:26):
like field trips to places theywould not normally go to.
Nancy Carrillo (31:32):
I'm thinking also it would be an environment
where, you know, we have lowerratios, you know, because, of
course, we have to pay staff, somaybe some lower ratios to help
with those with those specialneeds students, a little bit
more one on one, maybe to helphave a little more intimate,
(31:52):
intimate time with the childrenwho's struggling with those
meltdowns, who's struggling withpotty training. So if money were
no object, I think I would havemaybe, maybe a couple more staff
members who are fully educated,and maybe in early childhood.
Yeah, in early childhood, butwith like, like ABA knowledge,
(32:13):
which is
Dr. Latashia Kelly (32:15):
applied behavior analysis.
Nancy Carrillo (32:16):
Yes, are somebody who's like,
demonstration teachers, for ourteachers that are struggling on
how to hold attention. So, youknow that that that would be
ideal, you
Erin Brinker (32:30):
know, I am. I've, I've seen articles and talk to
people about variousphilosophies about early
childhood and the Scandinavianmodel of of kind, of the forest
school where, of course, theyhave very dense forests there,
but just being where, that'swhere the kids have access to
being outdoors. And there'sdifferent textures, and there's
different, you know, trees andleaves and rocks and dirt and,
(32:56):
you know, different surfaces andand all of that, where kids can
experience and explore. Thereare things to climb and things
to, you know, throw and thingsto just engage their bodies. And
I know that that school campuseshave those things, you know,
that maybe not, maybe not theforest itself, but there's lots
of play space and lots of placesto stretch, stretch their bodies
(33:18):
and stretch their minds. Youknow, I, I would love the idea
of of that. Now, obviously itmay not be a forest, because
water is an issue for us. Maybeit would be, I don't know. You
know, have you all haddiscussions about kind of
expanding in that way?
Nancy Carrillo (33:33):
We actually have. We, we are trying to
incorporate outdoor gardens intoour centers. We encourage the
outdoor learning. So when you gooutside, it's not just about
riding bikes and playing onslides and swings. It's about
being able to explore in thegrass. Have circle time outside,
(33:53):
eating our meals outside in asanitary environment, because we
don't co mingle with K 12. So weusually have our own play area,
so we're able to reallyincorporate a more outdoor
learning environment. All of ourclassrooms are play based, and
we try to include, like,especially at meals, the family
(34:16):
style eating. So, you know,bringing that to our students,
allowing them to see that. Hey,you know, the adults are sitting
down with us, eating as well andhaving these conversations at
the table. We're able to dooutdoor learning, like with mud
and what is that other texturewe have on the grounds? The
(34:38):
chips, the chips, you know. Sowe utilize all this stuff, the
tree branches, the tree bark,the brass, the lady bugs, the
environment. We try to bring allthat and allow children to
explore just the typical outdoorenvironment of the classroom,
bringing the indoors outdoors,right, putting all that even
(34:59):
into. Science areas, bringing intelescopes, microscopes,
microscopes, microscopes, yes,into the classroom so they can
really look at things like this.
I was at a center and there wasa cricket, just a simple
cricket. The kids are screamingin the classroom because it was
a cricket. So I just went overthere and grabbed it with my
hand, and I put it in a jar, andthe kids were just frantic that
(35:21):
they weren't touched it, that Ijust touch it. The teacher, the
teacher was, I would have been,and I just grabbed my hand, and
I put it in a center, and Igrabbed a magnifying glass, and
we kind of looked at it, andthen we gently put it back out
into the wild, you know, put itback out into a bush or
something. A beetle comes blindby, and everybody's screaming,
(35:44):
you know, I just reach out andgrab it. Oh, you know, let it
crawl on my hand. It's like,but, of course, so
Dr. Latashia Kelly (35:52):
amazing.
Erin Brinker (35:52):
I bet they are.
I'm right. I was with you withthe cricket. I don't know that
one of those big buzzing greenbeetles. I don't think I could
pick that out of the air,
Nancy Carrillo (36:00):
yeah, yeah. And it's not so bad. They don't hurt
you. They're just loud. It'sjust, they are loud, yeah, it's
just an ugly sound. But the kidsare just, yeah, they love it.
And we try to, you know, showthem to to also be gentle. We're
not stomping on, you know,ladybugs and bees and we're this
is their environment too. Solet's just put them out near the
(36:22):
trees. Let's let it go, youknow. So it's a lot of fun,
Dr. Latashia Kelly (36:26):
but everything is play based.
Erin Brinker (36:29):
Say that again, I'm so sorry. Everything is
Dr. Latashia Kelly (36:31):
just play based and exploration. Yeah, in
our in our program, and
Erin Brinker (36:38):
let's be honest, we adults like that too. That's
why we go camping. That's whywe, you know, travel to
different places. That's why wetry new foods. You know, that
that's a little bit of the childwithin us, that's that still
loves to do those things, and itneeds to be embraced, right?
Nancy Carrillo (36:54):
And and now that you say that, you know, the
trying new foods, we had anutrition program that would
come in once a month, and theywould bring us different fruits
or different vegetables. And wewere we would be able to let the
children try all avocados,carrots, I know, papaya,
zucchini, just different things.
And, you know, some would tryit. Some would be daring and and
(37:15):
they would try it. Others, theywouldn't, but they would see
their peers, and they're like,Okay, well, maybe I'll, I'll
look a little closer at it allor or I'll smell it or
something. But we try to createthose experiences for the
children as well. That's great,well, and it's
Erin Brinker (37:31):
certainly if you have, you know, if you all end
up putting a garden in at, say,the all red, excuse me, child
development center, you know,kids are more likely to eat food
that they've grown themselves,exactly, right?
Nancy Carrillo (37:41):
And that was fun. We did do that. When I was
there, we were growing some. Itwas just like basil and
cilantro, because that was theeasiest to grow. But they
managed that area, you know,they went out and they watered
it, they went out and they wepulled weeds.
Dr. Latashia Kelly (37:56):
They really wanted to take care of it,
because they're stairs, right?
Nancy Carrillo (37:59):
And then when the when we were able to pull
bunches off and send home withthem, it was, it was pretty
exciting.
Erin Brinker (38:06):
So all of this, and this is, I mean, it's been
such a great discussion, it begsthe question about workforce,
because, you know, the kids dohave a they they need a higher
teacher to student ratio than,say, in a in a K 12 classroom,
they need more, one on one, andthey need people who are
educated, highly educated, inthat to give them the best
(38:27):
experience. Unfortunately,typically, child development
staff don't get paid as well assay, you know, other teachers
maybe that's changed. Kind oftalk about that environment, the
difficulty in recruiting, andthen some of the things that you
want people who are maybethinking about early childhood
development as a career to know.
Dr. Latashia Kelly (38:46):
So right now, we have High School
Pathways where children, wellhigh seniors are interested in
early childhood, and they arebeing introduced to early
childhood via these pathways andso also community outreach. You
(39:09):
know, we do a lot of but when itcomes to choosing the career, we
always tell folks, you have tohave a passion. And when it
comes to money, private schools,private early childhood
development centers, don't getpaid as much as they would at a
(39:34):
district.
Erin Brinker (39:36):
Well, that makes sense, because private schools,
K 12, are paid less, too, aren'tthey?
Dr. Latashia Kelly (39:42):
No, it's a lot different, and it depends,
because private schools aretitle 22 instead of Title Five,
so there's different fundings.
So it depends on the fundings,but district, if you are. Are
employed by the district, you'remore likely to have a higher
paying teacher job, you know,with our field, then you would a
(40:08):
private sector.
Erin Brinker (40:14):
Well, that's good.
So, so okay, if you'reinterested in early childhood
development, work hard to get inat a district. So, you know,
right? Is the best way to startout as an aid while you're going
to school. Do you, you know, howdo you, how do people start? Can
Dr. Latashia Kelly (40:30):
you can start as an intern, you can
start as an aide. And we haveemployed plenty of teachers that
has been recreational aids,instructional aids. We like to,
we like to hire our AIDS, right?
Yes, right.
Nancy Carrillo (40:48):
I started off as a recreational aid with the with
the summer new school district,so that kind of got my foot into
the district. And then I becameinfant toddler teachers. So
that's where you're going to getyour most experience, and that's
where you're going to find outif you have the passion and love
for children, right? Because ifyou can't do the recreational
(41:08):
instructional aid job, thenmaybe this isn't the job for
Dr. Latashia Kelly (41:11):
you. If you don't like it and you don't care
for it, then don't go on toteach great
Erin Brinker (41:16):
well. And kids can feel when you don't
like them. They know they'revery intuitive.
Nancy Carrillo (41:22):
Yes, they know.
They know. And they know. Thething about kids is they're,
they're resilient, right? Theycan have a horrible day, kick
you, throw a chair at you. Idon't know, you know, I'm just
talking about a horrible day,but the next morning, they're so
excited to come in and see you.
Yep, you know, nothing happened.
Yeah, they're just so they're soexcited to see you, whereas
we're like, you just whateveryou learn from the kids. They're
(41:47):
like, Yeah, but Today's a newday. Mm, hmm, today's okay,
like, you're right, buddy,Today's a new day, and I'm happy
you're here with me. I stilllove you. Yeah? So that's the
type of passion. You have to letit go. You have to let it go.
But doctor Kelly and I have anopen door policy. So we are
willing to talk to community.
(42:08):
We're willing to talk to ourAIDS. We're willing to guide
those that are truly, trulyinterested. But you're going to
get the brutal, honest truthfrom us. If you don't have the
passion, you can't work for us.
If you don't love children, youcan't work for us. And that
isn't just from our somethingthat we believe in, but that's
what our superintendent has saidto many of us, you have to want
(42:29):
to work with children, not theperfect child that listens and
comes to school and gets in lineand does their work. But all
children, even the one that getsunder your skin, because they
need us the most. Yup, you haveto work with all children. So if
anybody is out there and youwant to become an early
(42:51):
childhood education teacher,give us a call over here we
will. We would love to talk withyou and
Dr. Latashia Kelly (42:59):
get you started. Right Track, right?
Nancy Carrillo (43:01):
Our aids are constantly calling us, what do I
need to do? What do I need todo? And, you know, doctor Kelly
and I, we just, we give them thematrix, we try to set them on
their right foot to startworking towards that goal.
Because we need teachers. Weneed teachers as our new
teachers are coming in. Youknow, our older teachers are
(43:21):
leaving. They're retiring.
They're enjoying life. Sure, youknow, so we need teachers. We
need good teachers that want tomake a difference in the lives
of children.
Erin Brinker (43:34):
So I in the kits program, the DR Albert Carnegie
toddler Success program thatI've been involved with, and we
have a partnership with thedistrict that we're very
grateful for. You know, we haveseen parents who you think
Junior might need to be assessedbecause maybe they're on the
spectrum, maybe there's adevelopmental delay, maybe
there's something going on andthe parents are not open to
(43:57):
hearing that feedback, you know,and I know that you all are very
straightforward and very direct,I mean, not in a rude way, but
very direct in a productive way.
And you know, how do you dealwith parents that are that are
kind of intractable or indenial? That's great. Yeah,
they're living in Egypt.
Nancy Carrillo (44:16):
You know what I never heard that?
You know? What we try to do iswe try to show the parents,
right? If you're in denial,you're not going to believe it,
because all you see is yourchild and your baby, yeah, and
and you have nothing incomparison. Not we compare
children, but they're alldifferent, yeah? Because they
(44:37):
are all different, but we invitethat parent to come in and
support us, right? So if yourchild's hitting, and we believe
there might be somedevelopmental delays, of course,
that's not our expertise, but wedo have that experience with
many children. So we'll invitethe parent, hey, can you come in
and kind of support us with yourchild? And that way they will
(44:59):
see. See that 80% of ourchildren are able to do this
right, but your child is havingsome difficulties, maybe an
assessment might be somethingyou want to do. So we don't ever
push them to do something theydon't want to do, but we try to
educate them, educate them andgive them the resources to help
Dr. Latashia Kelly (45:21):
their child grow, right, to be successful,
you know. And then, you know, atthat point, parents will
reevaluate their thoughts andsay, Well, maybe they do need
to, you know, get assessed.
Maybe I want my child to beassessed so they can, you know,
be successful, right? We also,
Nancy Carrillo (45:39):
we also have a developmental screening, which
is called Ages and StagesQuestionnaire. So if the parent
is still in denial, we will havethem fill out this
questionnaire, which is socialemotional, and they will be able
to see that it asks some verydevelopmental questions and see
where they land. Yes, they cando it. No, they can't do it. Or,
yeah, sometimes they can do it,and we score this, and we're
(46:03):
able to show them where theirchild is falling. And we can
either ask them, okay, now takethis to your primary, or we give
them some tools on how to helptheir child be successful in
some of the areas where theywere low. Or we can say, let me
get you in touch with our speddepartment, which we have an
amazing, yes, preschool, specialeducation preschool department
(46:26):
that would be happy to help withthe assessment or either or even
just some guidance,
Erin Brinker (46:34):
because you know that, especially with when
you're seeing the kids, ifyou're talking about autism,
which is the area Where I havelived experience. I'm not an
expert. The earlier you diagnoseand then set up, start working
with the child and set up thefamily so that they understand
what this means for the child,and you do the early
(46:54):
intervention, that's the word Iwas looking for, the better, the
more likely it is for them to beable to to adapt and be able to
live their life. I mean, they'realways going to be
neurodivergent, but there are,but they certainly can be be
taught, and they certainly canlearn, if they're high
functioning, to to exist in thisworld and find a happy life for
(47:14):
themselves. But if you wait toolong that the the likelihood of
that intervention beingsuccessful diminishes,
Nancy Carrillo (47:24):
right, right?
And I think parents are alsoworried that if they're
assessed, they're labeled, ifthey're assessed, they will have
to go into a special edclassroom. And we hear that a
lot, right? And that's not thecase. We have inclusion
classrooms, where our classroomsare all inclusive. So just
because your child is on thespectrum. Just because your
child may have somedevelopmental delays doesn't
mean they have to go into aspecial ed classroom,
Erin Brinker (47:47):
but that's new. I know even when my kids were
little, there was the inclusionwasn't a thing. The you were
assessed, you were bam, you werein sped, whether that was best
for you or not. And so that'schanged. And so parents may be
thinking, well, I know when Iwas a kid what it was like, and
they don't realize that, that weunderstand so much more now,
Nancy Carrillo (48:09):
yeah, right. And they don't realize the authority
they have. They're their child'sfirst teacher. They have a right
to say, Okay, this is what youdiagnose them, but I do not want
them in a special ed classroom.
I want them in a general edclassroom, and if they will
thrive in that area, then wewill support that. We absolutely
want to work with every singlechild and our teachers, you
(48:32):
know, they're on board. Theythey will get the experience and
the knowledge and the education.
We will send them to trainingsto help to meet those needs of
the children.
Erin Brinker (48:44):
Oh, that's excellent. That's excellent. I
love that because, you know,it's scary, and we have seen and
and I've known people that theydidn't want the diagnosis,
because there's nothing wrongwith my kid, and they don't want
them with the label, right?
They're they're embarrassedabout the label, and what does
that mean? And my kids just fineand and the reality is, it's
it's just finding a way thatcould work the best for your
(49:07):
child to learn and besuccessful, right?
Nancy Carrillo (49:11):
And that that label allows you to do that, you
know it? Well, I take that back.
It's not a label that diagnosisexactly allows you to to do
that. You know, my son, I alwaysthought that he was add. So I
had him tested, and it wasn't. Ididn't get him tested because I
wanted to put him on medication.
I got him tested so that I cando more research on what I can
(49:33):
do to better meet his needs,right? You know, because putting
him on medication or putting himin any special school was out of
the question. It was just morefor me to do my child right,
right, because I knew at thatyoung age of having children
that I knew I had a right to myown child and their education.
So parents need to understandthat you have a right to your
(49:56):
child's education and what youfeel is best for them.
Erin Brinker (49:59):
Well. I gotta say, you must have, as a young
parent, it's so proactive. Youmust have freaked some teachers
out.
Nancy Carrillo (50:07):
I freaked my parents out, my own personal
parents, you know, because Ijust wasn't going to go into
this blindly. You know, I knewthat I did not want my child
because it's a it's a rollingball, right? You have a baby at
a young age. Your children havebabies that, you know,
unfortunately, it'sgenerational, sure. So I knew
that I had to educate myself. Iknew I had to be there for my
(50:30):
children. I knew it was going tobe hard. And, you know, to say
that I was a successful parent,you know, I don't know. I don't
know, but my children are grown.
They have degrees and theyweren't teen parents, so yay for
that, you know. But you know,it's a lot. Don't
Erin Brinker (50:47):
we all feel like that, though? To say we were, I
was a successful parent,
Nancy Carrillo (50:52):
nope, nope, many, many errors, many fails,
you
Dr. Latashia Kelly (50:56):
know, and that's gonna be normal, right,
Nancy Carrillo (50:58):
right, but you know, they didn't follow down
the they didn't follow the lifethat I led. You know, being a
young mother, you know, theythey both had children once they
were married and in, you know,their early, late 20s. So it's
doable. So the mistakes we makeas parents, don't beat yourself
up, don't beat yourself up, justeducate yourself, right? Educate
(51:22):
yourself. And, you know, educateyour children. Be honest, be
loving, be you know, and andguide our children. You know,
some of our parents are justthey're so overwhelmed, you
know, they're so overwhelmedwith work in the just the
economy, you know. So when weunderstand that in our centers,
(51:43):
you know, we really, really havea relationship with our
families, so we are able tosupport them in some of these
difficult times with our withour entire district. You know,
we have a lot of resourceswithin our district that will
support families that arestruggling.
Erin Brinker (52:02):
I imagine that you have, and we have just about, I
think about five minutes left. Iimagine that you have a lot of
students or children whosefamilies come from a country
other than the United States,and so this is their first
connection to the school systemhere in the US. And how, you
know i How does that? How doesthat work for you? How do you
(52:27):
help people become comfortablewith the school system and
understand the school system andwork with parents?
Dr. Latashia Kelly (52:34):
So when we get, you know parents from, say,
Cambodia, because we just had aparent come through. And of
course, they don't know how toenroll. They don't know what's
required. You know, inCalifornia us. So we truly help
them. We help them to adapt.
We're patient with them andwhatever their needs are, we
(52:58):
help them. We try to help themas much as possible. We're not
going to just assume they knowwhat to do. We're going to guide
them. And then when their childcomes into our classrooms, we
are going to try to build arelationship with, you know,
those parents, and, of course,the child and we're going to
(53:20):
maybe learn a few words, youknow, to help them feel
comfortable. Oh, that's crazy,and let them know that, you
know, we embrace their culture.
We embrace them,
Nancy Carrillo (53:34):
right? And in our district, it has so many
they have, like a translator, soif we get a parent that calls us
and sign language, right? Theythey only speak sign language,
we have a translators that comethrough different language.
Cambodian, you know, we havetranslators that we just call
(53:56):
and they sit on the phone withus. So we try to make this
process easy for the parent. Wewill walk them through the whole
process. We will make the phonecalls for them to get them in
touch with how to get that birthcertificate, how to get those
immunizations that we need toenroll them, how to get help in
(54:17):
obtaining their pay stubs ortheir electric bill. We have
laptops and and iPads here thatwe can help them get those
because we get grandparentsright that have taken custody of
their children, and I'm talkinggrandparents in their 60s or 70s
who don't even know how to use acomputer. So wow, right? So
(54:38):
we're able to say, Okay, let'ssit down. Let me show you how to
create this account so we canpull up your Edison bill, for
instance, and we will help themand sit with them during that
process. We just don't say,Well, go figure it out.
Erin Brinker (54:52):
Too bad. So sad,
Nancy Carrillo (54:53):
right? Let us know when you know how to do it,
right? We want to help them getthat so we can get their job.
Child in school. Oh, that'sexcellent. Get them, get them
all thriving, to get even, givethe grandparent a break for a
moment while their child ishere, learning with us, right?
Erin Brinker (55:11):
And that certainly, you know, builds
trust, right? So you took thetime to create an on ramp for
them.
Nancy Carrillo (55:17):
These are the parents that I'm talking about.
You know, we're helpinggrandparents. Gosh, years and
years ago, at at Sierra, infant,toddler, I had a parent who,
unfortunately a grandparent, whogot custody for children.
Unfortunately their their motherhad had passed in a very ugly
way, and the baby's seen it. Oh,that grandparent still is just
(55:42):
like I remember, I remember, andwhen that grandparent had those
difficult days, she would be soupset with me because her
children's clothes were dirtythat that they got mud on it.
But, you know, the next day,she'd be so thankful that I was
there, you know, to take care ofher child when he had a fever,
and I had to watch them untilshe could get there. So, you
(56:04):
know, we understand, weunderstand the struggle that our
grandparents are having, and wedon't want to put a bigger
burden on them. We want to behere to support you, to walk you
through, and, you know, to helpyou help your children.
Erin Brinker (56:20):
So we have about a minute left. How do people learn
more about the Child DevelopmentServices at the San Bernardino
City Unified School District andenroll their children
Dr. Latashia Kelly (56:32):
so they can call us at 90988067061, more
time, 909-880-6706and we will get them started
within our program. Within ourprogram, they
Nancy Carrillo (56:54):
can also go to our website, which is SBC, USD,
dot, child, Dev, C, H, I, L, d,d, e, v.com, and you will find
out about our entire program. Wehave full day program and a half
day program. We have birth tofive. We want your little ones.
(57:15):
They they will be cared for byeducated, certificated
credential teachers,
Dr. Latashia Kelly (57:20):
and we potty train your children who are
not babysitters, right? Well,you too
Erin Brinker (57:29):
are amazing. We're completely out of time. I'm so
grateful that we took this timetogether to tell people about
the wonderful programs and aboutchild development in general.
Latasha Kelly and NancyCarrillo, thank you for all of
the incredible work that you do,and thank you for joining me
today.
Dr. Latashia Kelly (57:46):
Thank you.
Erin Brinker (57:48):
Well, that is all we have time for today. I
realized that I neglected to saywhat I'm grateful for. I started
tradition last week and secondweek, and that tradition went
out the window at the beginning.
So please forgive me. So I'mgoing to say it now. I am
grateful for fall weather, warmsweaters, extra blankets, hot
tea, chicken soup, and you onthis Sunday morning or whenever
(58:10):
you are listening on podcast,please know that you are loved,
you are important, and you areworthy of the good in this
world. And easy life is notpromised, but we aren't in it
alone. Create community. Youfeeling lonely, volunteer
somewhere, volunteer at ananimal shelter, at a food bank,
at a faith community, whetherit's a church or synagogue or
(58:33):
mosque or nonprofit organizationthat is aligned with your values
and meet purpose driven peoplejust like you. No matter your
age or abilities. You can find aplace. You've been listening to
the making hope happen radioshow and podcast. I'm Erin
Brinker. If you have ideas thatyou think would be interesting
for the show, we do a deep diveevery week, please let me know.
(58:56):
You can email me at show atmaking hope.org. That's show at
making hope. Dot O, R, G. Have agreat week. Everyone. You.
Good morning, everyone. You're listening to
the making hope happen radioshow, and I'm Erin Brinker. I
say good morning because we airon two radio stations in Inland
Southern California. That's X95.7 and 92.5 KQLH on Sunday
mornings at nine and 10amrespectively. Okay, you're gonna
love the conversation today. Oneof my passions is early
(00:27):
childhood education and thestrength of families. It's where
most of my work in the nonprofitsector has centered, and where I
think we can make the greatestimpact in the health and
stability of our communities andour nation, if you think about
it, families are the core ofeverything. Families are the
(00:48):
start of everything. You cannothope to have a stable,
productive, good, solid, safecommunity, if your families are
chaotic, if your families are inturmoil. And so my work, in the
work of many, many others, hasbeen focused on strengthening
families right from the verybeginning, and it means Healing
(01:11):
the Hurts of adults. It meansmaking sure kids are ready for
school, that they havenutritious food to eat, that
they have a quiet place tosleep, that they you know, have
people around them who lovethem. And in order for the
adults to give the love, theyneed to feel the love, right?
And so they need to be healed,and they need to be healthy so
that they can focus on what'simportant, and that's their
(01:33):
children and their spouses. Andyou know, because the best gift
you can give to your kids is asolid, stable marriage
relationship. Now, I'm a big fanof merit marriage. If you're
just cohabitating, but you'reproviding that. I think that's
good for kids too. So you know,I'm not judging your family
structure. I'm just saying thata that a loving, predictable,
(01:57):
supportive family home, isabsolutely critical to human
development. It's absolutelycritical to everything. All
right, so my next guest,actually, two guests are working
in this field right now,specifically in early childhood
development at the public schoollevel, and there's a lot going
on in that area now because ofthe addition of mandatory TK and
(02:21):
focus on school readiness, etc.
One last note, this was recordedbefore the election, so there's
references to the election. It'sbecause it was recorded before
All right, here we go. Well, Iam absolutely thrilled to be
sitting down again with thedirector of child development
from the San Bernardino CityUnified School District, Dr
Latasha Kelly and her newlyminted coordinator for the
(02:45):
program master's level, NancyCarrillo, welcome both of you to
the show.
Nancy Carrillo (02:54):
Thank you.
Erin Brinker (02:55):
So we're here to talk about early childhood. And
anybody who who knows mepersonally or has been listening
to any my radio shows over thelast 15 years, knows that early
childhood education is a majorpassion of mine. You know, how
you start out in life really hasa huge can hugely predict, or
largely predict, what your lifewill be like as you grow older,
(03:16):
both, you know, mental healthand physical health and all of
those things we know. There'slots of research on the adverse
childhood experiences, forexample, that's when 80% or 85%
of neurological developmenthappens in that first five
years. So the window of thosefirst five years are critical
for that human as they grow up.
So just to set the table, firstof all, tell me about
(03:37):
yourselves, and we'll start withyou. Dr Kelly, what led you to
choose early childhood educationas a career? What's your
background?
Dr. Latashia Kelly (03:46):
Well, honestly, I didn't know what I
wanted to do after high schooland into college until I took an
early childhood class and wasable to intern at the Child
Development Center at ChaffeyCollege. That changed
everything. I absolutely lovedworking with the little ones
birth to five, and so my I have28 years in the field of early
(04:07):
childhood, and I've worked withchildren from birth to 12 years
old. I've been a teacher, a sitesupervisor, a coordinator, and
currently a director for the SanBernardino City Unified School
District Child DevelopmentProgram.
Erin Brinker (04:24):
How about you?
Nancy, so, okay, so
Nancy Carrillo (04:28):
I would say about 34 years ago, I was a teen
mom, and I wasn't quite sure howto be a mother, right? So I
thought the best bet was to takean early childhood education
class, because it was veryimportant for me to raise my
daughter correctly, and thatstarted my path into early
childhood education. I took oneclass, the very core basic
(04:51):
classes at San Bernardino ValleyCollege, and I started at a
family daycare. I went to aprivate. At corporate daycare,
and eventually ended up here atthe Child Development Program as
an infant toddler teacher in2001 I taught infant toddlers.
I've taught three and four yearolds. I also led a parent I was
(05:17):
a parent educator for our teenparents, so I was able able to
give back in that area. I thenwent on for my bachelor's
degree, with the push fromdoctor Kelly, she would just
always, always encourage all ofus to get our education. And
then about in 2018 I went backfor my master's degree. I have
(05:38):
become the newly appointedcoordinator here,
congratulations, yes. Thank youso much under the direction of
Doctor Talley, and it's just,it's this is the most rewarding
field that anyone can be in. Imean, just working, working with
these, these precious children,from birth to two five and
(06:02):
watching them grow so we Itdoesn't stop, right? It doesn't
stop at five year olds. We justdon't cut the cord and we never
see them again. We've beeninvited to weddings and
graduation. That's so great.
Yes.
Unknown (06:14):
So love that
Nancy Carrillo (06:16):
these are lifelong relationships, and not
only with the child, becausesometimes a child doesn't
remember you, right? They're soyoung, but with their family, so
doctor Kelly and I both run intochildren all the time, all the
time, and first, it usuallystarts with the parent. Of
course, hey, I remember you.
You're my child's teacher. Andthen they show us their adult
child. You know
Erin Brinker (06:39):
this what used to be a little, tiny boy walks up,
Hi, how you doing? I thinkyou're Wow
Nancy Carrillo (06:45):
When they remember you from four and from
three and four years old. Imean, you less than impact.
Yeah, you've that's awesome. Sothat that that right there is
the, the reason we do this. Andyou know, we both have our
different reasons for startingin this field, but we're
basically at the same point nowwhere this this is just our
passion, right? So
Erin Brinker (07:07):
this is, and I know many teachers at all levels
who have talked about this,everyone thinks they could run a
school or a daycare because,well, they were in school, they
were children once. Of course,that isn't true. Tell me about
your approach to early childhoodeducation, and we could start
with you. Dr Kelly,
Dr. Latashia Kelly (07:26):
well, first, you have to love children and
have a passion for the work, andnot just some children, but all
children. Second, you need tohave early childhood classes.
Take many early childhoodclasses and get educated in the
field of early childhood. Andthird, you have to know all
(07:47):
about regulations, becausethere's so many entities
involved and changing andchanging all the time. Because
you have, you know, CDE, whichis the California Department of
Education, you have theDepartment of Social Services,
you have community carelicensing. So there's so many
(08:08):
entities with rules, regulationsand mandates for running a
school or early childhoodprogram. So people, there's a
lot of people out there thatthink all it is is just, you
know, telling teachers what todo with their the children. No,
it's, it's not that first. Youhave to love the children first,
and know early childhood, andknow all the mandates involved,
Nancy Carrillo (08:32):
right? And some think it's, it's as simple as,
you know, this is a taboo word.
We hate this word. They thinkit's as simple as babysitting.
It's hot, it's not. It is farmore. It is far more than that.
I
Dr. Latashia Kelly (08:44):
mean, which is a pet peeve of ours? Oh
Nancy Carrillo (08:46):
yes, big pet peeve. So you can't just, you
can't just open your doors andsay, I'm going to run a daycare
from my home. There is so muchstate requirements and but it's
not impossible. So if it is yourpassion is something you want to
do, then I suggest you startwith knowing the rules and
(09:08):
regulations. Look at them all.
There is so many. And as the asthe newly appointed Coordinator
here at the department, I amstill learning them. And when
you think you've learned themall, no, yeah. News coming out.
So this, it's great to have amentor. Find a mentor who knows
the program, and you know, theycan help you through
(09:31):
understanding these rules andregulations. Because it's not as
simple as, you know, oh, it'sonly 12 to 112, children to one
adult. You know, it's so muchmore. So much more. You
Erin Brinker (09:41):
know, I when I had two kids in in two years, and so
because I had two in diapers, itdidn't, it didn't make sense for
for us to for me to work,because I would have been
everything I earned, would havegone to childcare. And so I
opened up a licensed childcarecenter in my home, and I was
shocked by. How much there wasto get set up, to get on the
(10:02):
food program, to to, you know, Itook, obviously, read everything
I could read and, and I have abachelor degree, but it was in
political science. There wasn'ta whole lot of early, early
childhood development going on.
So I read everything that Icould. And it was, I mean, I
loved it, and I'm very, verygrateful that I had the
opportunity to do it, but I'venever worked so hard in my life.
Nancy Carrillo (10:24):
That's an everyday job.
Erin Brinker (10:26):
Yes, daycare, yes,
Nancy Carrillo (10:30):
even on your week hours. Yes,
Erin Brinker (10:32):
I was sick, you can't, and I was up at 5am
making sure that everything wasclean and ready and prepped,
that everybody's diapers werein, and everybody, all the BOP
the the little, everybody hadtheir little cubbies, and they
were all full, and all the toyswere clean and mopped the floors
and get breakfast started,because my first kids got
dropped off at 6am and and thenat the end of the day, it was,
(10:54):
you know, cleaning up everythingat night. That's when I mopped
the floors. Was at night, and,you know, and it was, it was, it
was 12 to 15 hours a day. Iloved it. I'm really glad I did
it, but my hat's off to you.
There is so much to makingeverything you know up to code
and running the way that thatthey should. And when I put the
kids down for a nap, holy cow, Iwould sit on the couch and just
veg
Nancy Carrillo (11:18):
and and even running running the program
here, you know, you you wouldthink that, oh, okay, we work
seven to four. No, no, no, no,to run an efficient center. I
mean, I mean doctor Kelly and Iare talking at night. Sometimes
are working on a shareddocument, you know, because this
is such a passion of ours, andbecause we know the impact that
(11:41):
we're making on the communityand with the children and the
support we want to give to theteacher. It is, it's a long day,
but it's, but it's, it's worthit, because love what we are
doing exactly well.
Erin Brinker (11:52):
And to put it in perspective, it's not work,
yeah, it's a it's a passion, butit's, it is work. I mean, to put
it in perspective, everyexperience for the children has
to be prepped and planned, andso it's, it's not an accident.
When they're when theyexperience, they have enriching
play, and they have, you know,experiences that that are brain
developing and social, emotionaldeveloping and and cognitive
(12:16):
they create. You know, cognitivedevelopment, you know, is going
on during the school day. That'snot an accident,
Dr. Latashia Kelly (12:23):
right? It's all planned. It's all prepared.
Yeah, it's it's all intentional,intentional.
Erin Brinker (12:29):
So what does learning look like for very
young children? How? How arethey different? So how do they
learn?
Dr. Latashia Kelly (12:37):
Well, it looks like hands on experiences.
It looks like a lot of play andhappy children who are engaged
in activities with their peersand educators. And when you say,
how do they learn? They learnthrough play and hands on
experiences. So educators shouldbe setting up learning
experiences that providechildren with that rich
language, number, concept, musicand movement, science, outdoor
(13:00):
play art. There's so muchchildren can learn within a day.
And
Nancy Carrillo (13:06):
not only that, but the main word is fun. You
know, yes, fun. Our children, Idon't even think they realize
they're going to school. Yeah?
So great, very excited. ,because
Yeah they're they're coming in,excited to be here. They're,
they're not coming to a daycare,you know? They're coming to a
(13:26):
school where we have acurriculum. We use frog street
curriculum, which is verylanguage rich in both English
and Spanish. It's very socially,emotionally driven. We, you
know, and also we, we also havedual language preschools, yes.
So, you know, some of our kids,you know, that don't know
(13:47):
Spanish, are coming into ourprogram, are leaving our program
bilingual, because they'regetting 5050, English and
Spanish. So,
Erin Brinker (13:57):
so I remember being in kindergarten getting we
had an aide in the classroom whowas bilingual, and she was
teaching us how to count inSpanish. I was five, and I still
remember, you know, what shetaught us. And I remember her, I
remember, right? I don'tremember her name,
unfortunately, but I do rememberher face and and what they're
like, little sponges at thatage. What a great time to teach
(14:19):
them another language. Yeah,
Nancy Carrillo (14:21):
right, and, and where we have dual language
preschools, but all of ourinfant toddler centers, there's,
there is bilingual staff inevery one of our centers. So it
might not be a dual languageinfant toddler classroom, but
they are hearing the language,especially if it is their home
language. We, you know, reallyembrace that.
Erin Brinker (14:45):
So what are you seeing with the little ones that
concern you? Are they learninglike they should be? Are they
ready like they should be? Arethey socially and emotionally
ready? What are you seeing?
Unknown (15:00):
So, what concerns me are, when we get four year olds,
or, you know, who come to us whoare not potty trained, and
parents say they can't be pottytrained, yeah, and can't is not
in our vocabulary, right? Yes,when children come to us, we
(15:23):
have a plan of the teacher, youknow, creates a plan of action
with the parent on how we'regoing to potty train their
child, and they're potty trainedin no time. What? Days, weeks?
Yes. And so when parents come inand say, Oh, they can't be potty
trained or we don't want topotty that's just a disservice
to their child, and that concernthat really concerns, yeah, I'm
(15:44):
thinking,
Erin Brinker (15:45):
does that parent think they're gonna, it's their
45 year old is still gonna bewearing a diaper? Of course,
they could be body trade,
Nancy Carrillo (15:52):
right? And what's, what's so amazing about
this is the children learn soquickly. Yeah? I mean, they walk
in with a pull up, they'releaving, you know, fully, fully
potty trained within days,because they're watching their
peers. Yeah,
Erin Brinker (16:08):
say, how much? How much is that peer interaction
plays into that,
Nancy Carrillo (16:12):
a lot, a lot, because our our bathrooms are
opened and, um, you know,there's really no expectation of
privacy in the preschoolclassroom for their safety. So
they they are, you know, when wesay, Hey, we're, let's go potty.
We're all going potty. You know,we have a line of children
getting ready to take care ofbusiness, and they're doing it.
(16:35):
And these ones that are that,these three and four year olds
that are coming in, not pottytrained, they are catching on,
Dr. Latashia Kelly (16:40):
right? And they want to mimic what their
period? Sure, sure. Well, they
Erin Brinker (16:44):
don't want to be the baby, right, I'm a big kid.
Nancy Carrillo (16:48):
And another concern is the problem solving.
You know, we're seeing a lot ofchallenging behaviors, a lot of
aggression, a lot of hitting.
So, you know, we have PBIS,which is our positive behavior
intervention supports that weimplement in our classrooms. We
(17:08):
are working on tier oneinterventions, which means we
are teaching our children theexpectation in the classroom so
they're just not coming in,like, hey, free for all. It's
there's there's expectations,there's rules, there's
procedures for everything, andthey're all geared to meet them
developmentally. So forinstance, if we're in the
(17:32):
classroom, I was a four year oldteacher, and I asked the
children, alright, come on. AndI had a new student, I said,
Alright, everybody, we're goingto clean up, Clean up, clean up.
So I have this little four yearold who just started, and she's
walking behind me, mimicking me,yes, Clean up, clean up, clean
up. Clapping your hands. I said,No, sweetie, you need to go
clean up your toys. And she sheliterally looked at me and said,
(17:55):
Miss Nancy, what does that mean?
Really, yes, because parents aredoing that for them. Yeah,
right. Which I get it, you'renot teaching those skills. You
know? It's, it's faster for usto go into the child's room at
home and just put all their toysaway than it is to sit there and
teach them how. So when, when Irealized that I came up with an
(18:19):
idea of, okay. What does cleanupmean? Well, it means stock what
you're doing, put your toysaway, put them where they
belong. That's why we haveindividual pictures on every
single cabinet in ourclassrooms. Which is Eckers
early what is Eckers earlychildhood? Environmental waiting
Dr. Latashia Kelly (18:38):
skills?
Yeah. So we have it for infantsand toddlers as well, right? So
Nancy Carrillo (18:41):
it those, it's like those things that are that
are concerning to us, but weembrace that, right? We embrace
that. We teach it. And not onlydo we teach it to the children,
when their parents see whatthey're doing, because we have
open door policy, they're like,how did you get them to do
Erin Brinker (18:58):
that? And we teach the parents, Oh, see, that's
good, yes. So yeah,
Nancy Carrillo (19:02):
I'd love to talk more about PBIS, but that's
probably a whole,
Erin Brinker (19:06):
whole different conversation. Yes. So I remember
getting my little ones to cleanup, and we would sing the Barney
cleanup song, yeah, I don't knowwhat people still do that, but
it, you know, they would sing itand put their little toys away.
And you know that that helped,because they when they heard the
song, they knew it was time topick up their toys. Now, one of
(19:27):
my kids is on the spectrum, soit was still a little
challenging to switch gears. Sohe needed lots of warnings, 15
minutes, 10 minutes, fiveminutes, you know, right? And
that's
Nancy Carrillo (19:37):
what we're doing in the classroom, right? We have
a lot of children on thespectrum, we have inclusion.
We're all inclusive. So if yourchild's on the spectrum, we're
not going to say, oh, send themto a sped sped classroom, a
special ed classroom. We embracethat. We want to work with them.
We have daily schedules that wefollow in order to help that
child be successful. We havetimers. We. Um, there's so much
(20:01):
we do in the classroom to helpthat child thrive and be
successful and
Dr. Latashia Kelly (20:08):
develop needed skills, right?
Erin Brinker (20:10):
So, and that's hard, because I know you know
when, when he started. Now, myson was, was in some ways, very,
very gifted. He was reading atthree, but in in other ways, he
was, he was way behind hispeers, the social, emotional,
the self regulation, all ofthat. And so transitions in
school, like any transition was,they were really, really tough,
(20:33):
and sometimes he did them well,and sometimes he just wasn't up
for it, and would melt down inclass. You know, what do you
what is your approach whensomething like that happens? Oh,
my goodness.
Nancy Carrillo (20:43):
Behaviors. I love behavior, yes. So when with
special Yes, that's my passion,because I know that they're not
being intentional, trying to getunder our skin, right? They're
trying to communicate somethingto us. So when something like
that happens, luckily, we're atan eight to one ratio, and we
are able not to provide one onone, but able to provide a
(21:06):
little bit more support, givethe child a little bit more time
when those meltdowns happen. Weare able to
Dr. Latashia Kelly (21:13):
anticipate what is going to happen, because
we know that child right,because
Nancy Carrillo (21:17):
we have them for so long in the classrooms, we
get to know the families. So wereally try to give the child the
tools before the meltdownhappens. So if we notice that
transitions are difficult forchildren, then we give that
child a job, right? So it's notreally so much of a transition
for him. He's got a job to donow. Mm, hmm,
Erin Brinker (21:38):
excellent idea.
Nancy Carrillo (21:40):
Yeah, we're lining up. So your job now is to
make sure you know, to be theline leader, to count our
friends, to flash the lights onand off. That gives us that
signal. And we do a lot ofvisuals we I mean. And when I
say visuals, I don't mean thatthey're on the wall. They are on
our person, right? They arehanging from lanyards. They're
(22:01):
in our apron pockets to to showthe child, okay, we're going to
be cleaning up. We allow them tohold the timer so we really try
to get in front of the meltdown.
But, but it still happens,right? It still happens their
children, and we just give themtheir space. We allow them to
fill those feelings. We allowthem to, you know, flip their
(22:22):
lid to say, and once they'reable to comprehend and listen.
Because who can listen whenyou're at a level 10, right?
Yeah, you
Erin Brinker (22:34):
just can't.
There's no communication goingon. You can't. You can't
communicate
Nancy Carrillo (22:38):
with a child that's already in a full on
mountain. We let it happen. Wemake sure they're safe, we let
them cry, and we're very closeby, right, very close by. And
when they're ready, it give themthat nice, that nice hug and
say, Okay, now let's go try itagain. You know, let's try it
again. And we learn every dayfrom our students, yeah, so what
(23:00):
worked today might not worktomorrow, you know? So every
day, every day we learn and wetry to meet the needs of the
child, because every day couldbe different.
Erin Brinker (23:10):
You know? It makes me think, and I think that's
wonderful. You know, they callthree year olds three majors,
because they are, they arereally feeling their
independence at that point, andbut they have absolutely no
judgment and no frame ofreference. They just are are
recognizing that they'reindividuals, that they're
(23:31):
separate from mommy, and youknow, all of that, yes. And so,
you know, talk to me. Talk to meabout some of the Defiance
issues and, and this is not onlyadvanced advice for child, you
know, childcare providers andearly education teachers and but
also for parents andgrandparents, right? You know,
as their as their kids are beingdefiant, it's age appropriate,
(23:52):
but it's maddening. So kind oftalk about some of the tools,
some of the things that theymight be able to do to to work
through those issues.
Nancy Carrillo (23:59):
So, one thing that I find very powerful is
talk to your child about whatthey can do, not what they can't
do. You know, get off the couch,put your feet on the you know,
get your feet off the table, cuzthat's all they hear, right? No,
don't stop. Yeah, right. So wehave to take those words out of
our vocabulary. There's three,they're four. They're testing
(24:21):
boundaries. It's about what theycan do. You know, what's it?
Yes, what can you do? He'sswinging his sweater in the air.
Hey, buddy, you can either holdyour sweater or Mommy can hold
your sweater. You can eitherhold your sweater or we can put
it in your cubby. But one thingthat we're not going to say is,
Don't swing your sweater likethat. You're going to hit
somebody,
Erin Brinker (24:41):
because then it'll just become a helicopter,
because he'll just do
Nancy Carrillo (24:44):
it's about what you can do, not what you can't
do. So you can hold yoursweater, or I can hold your
sweater. You can hold yoursweater, or we can put it in
your cubby. You can sit on yourbottom on the couch, or you can
sit on your bottom on the floor.
Right? It's, we're not saying,Don't put your feet on
Dr. Latashia Kelly (25:02):
the couch, right? Stop, don't that's just
so negative, and it gets thechild that
Nancy Carrillo (25:06):
is, that is what PBIS is, positive behavior in a
courts. It's about what you cando, not what you can't do.
Erin Brinker (25:14):
So I have to think that you come against some
family cultures that are aresome are more disciplined than
others, right? And you know,from family to family, it can
vary widely, where some somefamilies are just, let's just
say, more animated than others,and then they come to school and
they're getting differentdirection. How do you how do you
navigate those waters? Becauseyou want to support the parent,
(25:36):
but you also the child has toknow how to behave in public.
And so what does that look likefor you?
Dr. Latashia Kelly (25:43):
Well, that's when we sit down with our
parents and go over whatever itlooks like, you know. So we like
to meet, not just a regularparent conference, you know,
talking about development, butwe want to make sure we have a
relationship with our parents.
Sit down with our parents. Sowhat do you do at home when he
does this? Or what do you do?
(26:04):
What do you do at home when yourchild does this? How can we work
together as a team to help yourchild? And that's why we have
parent meetings to go overdifferent topics needed for
parents. And a lot of times onour parent survey, parents will
state what they need, and weprovide them with those topics.
(26:27):
Oh, not
Nancy Carrillo (26:27):
only that. I mean, culturally, we will come
into some differences where theparent, like you said, is a
little more animated. They arejust disciplinarians, and it's
like they are not doing this. IThey are not. For instance, I
don't want my children to getdirty. Don't let them get dirty.
You know that that's a real bigpet. That is a big one, yeah, in
(26:50):
our early childhood, becausethat's how they learn. You know,
I had a little girl who wantedto be a cat, so she crawled
everywhere, everywhere, and, oh,her mother would get so mad, her
father would get so mad. So mysuggestion was, how about we
bring her to school, some playclubs, you know, let's just
always have these specific pantson, because during this two
weeks, it wasn't that long,right, that she wanted to be a
(27:12):
cat, but she'd seen a videosomething, you know, and then
she wanted to play in the dirt.
She wanted to play in the mud.
And it worked out. It workedout, you know, we were able to
talk with the parent. We wereable to suggest parenting
classes. Our teachers areteaching these parenting
classes. So it's not like it'san unfamiliar adult talking to
(27:33):
you about your child. You'vealready built a relationship
with the teacher. So ourteachers teach monthly parenting
classes to their parents and anyother parent that wants to join
on on what we're doing in theclassroom to help not only the
families but the child thrivewith these challenging behaviors
and to meet the needs of theparents. Because you're right,
(27:55):
there are cultural differences,and we do respect those and but
we always come to the same goal,I guess, understanding, yeah,
the same understanding is we'rejust here to help your child.
That's all we're trying to do.
We're here to help coach allabout
Dr. Latashia Kelly (28:10):
the child at the end of the day. Sure.
Erin Brinker (28:13):
You know, I was thinking about family culture,
just in our own family. Myfather in law grew up, he was
one of six on a farm with norunning water or electricity. Of
course, this is in the 40s, whenhe was a child. And they
eventually got it all. But atthe time, they didn't have it
and it they were just a rowdygroup, group of boys, one one
(28:37):
daughter. So five boys, onegirl. And, you know, so we would
joke that Jack, who was ended upbeing a very, very, very
successful man. But you know,when it when the when they food
was served family style, hewould dive in and pile on his
plate, not looking at whateveranybody else was getting,
because in his family, if theydidn't do it, you didn't get it
right away. You weren't going toyou weren't going to eat. And so
(29:00):
whereas other families, like,you know, you you kind of look
around make sure everything's,you know, given out evenly, and
that sort of thing. And you'rethinking about family culture
that's, you know, versus, youknow, exactly, portioning out
each plate versus, you know, afree for all and to each each
party, each family, that wasnormal, right? And so, you know,
(29:21):
when I'm talking about familyculture, that's kind of the
things, you know, some are veryloud at the dinner table. Some
eat all their dinner in front ofthe TV. Some, you know, and and
so they come to school, kind oftheir first what, what they've
always known to be normal maybeisn't normal for other families.
And so you have to kind of crossthat with parents and cross that
with the kids so that they learnwhat's
Dr. Latashia Kelly (29:45):
expected of what's, yeah, what's
Erin Brinker (29:47):
expected of them.
That's
Nancy Carrillo (29:48):
good, right? And you, you're talking about that.
I mean, it's not only just likemeals and food, it's, it's some,
some families come in andthey're huge sports fans, right?
And all this child wants to do.
Was, play football, playfootball. Which leads me to
really just kind of toot our ownhorn here, you know, we have
Heisman Trophy winner, JadenDaniels, right? Do we do? And he
(30:08):
started at our schools, youknow. He started in our infant,
toddler classrooms, you know.
And we know that,
Erin Brinker (30:17):
right? So, great,
Nancy Carrillo (30:18):
yeah, we embrace that love of whatever it is, you
know, he was throwing balls. Andwe're out there. You know who,
who would have known you wouldbeen played for what you place,
for Washington. Now, you knowwho, who have known, you know,
but that's you know. We embracethese cultures that are coming
in, whether it be sports arefood are the way you discipline.
(30:45):
You know, we want to embrace andsupport families.
Erin Brinker (30:49):
Excellent, excellent. So, um, if money were
no object, what would a perfectschool or school environment for
the in for Inland Empirechildren look like,
Dr. Latashia Kelly (31:03):
it would look like a state of the art
early childhood center thatencourages ongoing engagement,
indoor and outdoor learning,exploration and unique, a unique
design element. And it wouldalso look like providing
experiences that may they thechildren may not get at home,
(31:26):
like field trips to places theywould not normally go to.
Nancy Carrillo (31:32):
I'm thinking also it would be an environment
where, you know, we have lowerratios, you know, because, of
course, we have to pay staff, somaybe some lower ratios to help
with those with those specialneeds students, a little bit
more one on one, maybe to helphave a little more intimate,
(31:52):
intimate time with the childrenwho's struggling with those
meltdowns, who's struggling withpotty training. So if money were
no object, I think I would havemaybe, maybe a couple more staff
members who are fully educated,and maybe in early childhood.
Yeah, in early childhood, butwith like, like ABA knowledge,
(32:13):
which is
Dr. Latashia Kelly (32:15):
applied behavior analysis.
Nancy Carrillo (32:16):
Yes, are somebody who's like,
demonstration teachers, for ourteachers that are struggling on
how to hold attention. So, youknow that that that would be
ideal, you
Erin Brinker (32:30):
know, I am. I've, I've seen articles and talk to
people about variousphilosophies about early
childhood and the Scandinavianmodel of of kind, of the forest
school where, of course, theyhave very dense forests there,
but just being where, that'swhere the kids have access to
being outdoors. And there'sdifferent textures, and there's
different, you know, trees andleaves and rocks and dirt and,
(32:56):
you know, different surfaces andand all of that, where kids can
experience and explore. Thereare things to climb and things
to, you know, throw and thingsto just engage their bodies. And
I know that that school campuseshave those things, you know,
that maybe not, maybe not theforest itself, but there's lots
of play space and lots of placesto stretch, stretch their bodies
(33:18):
and stretch their minds. Youknow, I, I would love the idea
of of that. Now, obviously itmay not be a forest, because
water is an issue for us. Maybeit would be, I don't know. You
know, have you all haddiscussions about kind of
expanding in that way?
Nancy Carrillo (33:33):
We actually have. We, we are trying to
incorporate outdoor gardens intoour centers. We encourage the
outdoor learning. So when you gooutside, it's not just about
riding bikes and playing onslides and swings. It's about
being able to explore in thegrass. Have circle time outside,
(33:53):
eating our meals outside in asanitary environment, because we
don't co mingle with K 12. So weusually have our own play area,
so we're able to reallyincorporate a more outdoor
learning environment. All of ourclassrooms are play based, and
we try to include, like,especially at meals, the family
(34:16):
style eating. So, you know,bringing that to our students,
allowing them to see that. Hey,you know, the adults are sitting
down with us, eating as well andhaving these conversations at
the table. We're able to dooutdoor learning, like with mud
and what is that other texturewe have on the grounds? The
(34:38):
chips, the chips, you know. Sowe utilize all this stuff, the
tree branches, the tree bark,the brass, the lady bugs, the
environment. We try to bring allthat and allow children to
explore just the typical outdoorenvironment of the classroom,
bringing the indoors outdoors,right, putting all that even
(34:59):
into. Science areas, bringing intelescopes, microscopes,
microscopes, microscopes, yes,into the classroom so they can
really look at things like this.
I was at a center and there wasa cricket, just a simple
cricket. The kids are screamingin the classroom because it was
a cricket. So I just went overthere and grabbed it with my
hand, and I put it in a jar, andthe kids were just frantic that
(35:21):
they weren't touched it, that Ijust touch it. The teacher, the
teacher was, I would have been,and I just grabbed my hand, and
I put it in a center, and Igrabbed a magnifying glass, and
we kind of looked at it, andthen we gently put it back out
into the wild, you know, put itback out into a bush or
something. A beetle comes blindby, and everybody's screaming,
(35:44):
you know, I just reach out andgrab it. Oh, you know, let it
crawl on my hand. It's like,but, of course, so
Dr. Latashia Kelly (35:52):
amazing.
Erin Brinker (35:52):
I bet they are.
I'm right. I was with you withthe cricket. I don't know that
one of those big buzzing greenbeetles. I don't think I could
pick that out of the air,
Nancy Carrillo (36:00):
yeah, yeah. And it's not so bad. They don't hurt
you. They're just loud. It'sjust, they are loud, yeah, it's
just an ugly sound. But the kidsare just, yeah, they love it.
And we try to, you know, showthem to to also be gentle. We're
not stomping on, you know,ladybugs and bees and we're this
is their environment too. Solet's just put them out near the
(36:22):
trees. Let's let it go, youknow. So it's a lot of fun,
Dr. Latashia Kelly (36:26):
but everything is play based.
Erin Brinker (36:29):
Say that again, I'm so sorry. Everything is
Dr. Latashia Kelly (36:31):
just play based and exploration. Yeah, in
our in our program, and
Erin Brinker (36:38):
let's be honest, we adults like that too. That's
why we go camping. That's whywe, you know, travel to
different places. That's why wetry new foods. You know, that
that's a little bit of the childwithin us, that's that still
loves to do those things, and itneeds to be embraced, right?
Nancy Carrillo (36:54):
And and now that you say that, you know, the
trying new foods, we had anutrition program that would
come in once a month, and theywould bring us different fruits
or different vegetables. And wewere we would be able to let the
children try all avocados,carrots, I know, papaya,
zucchini, just different things.
And, you know, some would tryit. Some would be daring and and
(37:15):
they would try it. Others, theywouldn't, but they would see
their peers, and they're like,Okay, well, maybe I'll, I'll
look a little closer at it allor or I'll smell it or
something. But we try to createthose experiences for the
children as well. That's great,well, and it's
Erin Brinker (37:31):
certainly if you have, you know, if you all end
up putting a garden in at, say,the all red, excuse me, child
development center, you know,kids are more likely to eat food
that they've grown themselves,exactly, right?
Nancy Carrillo (37:41):
And that was fun. We did do that. When I was
there, we were growing some. Itwas just like basil and
cilantro, because that was theeasiest to grow. But they
managed that area, you know,they went out and they watered
it, they went out and they wepulled weeds.
Dr. Latashia Kelly (37:56):
They really wanted to take care of it,
because they're stairs, right?
Nancy Carrillo (37:59):
And then when the when we were able to pull
bunches off and send home withthem, it was, it was pretty
exciting.
Erin Brinker (38:06):
So all of this, and this is, I mean, it's been
such a great discussion, it begsthe question about workforce,
because, you know, the kids dohave a they they need a higher
teacher to student ratio than,say, in a in a K 12 classroom,
they need more, one on one, andthey need people who are
educated, highly educated, inthat to give them the best
(38:27):
experience. Unfortunately,typically, child development
staff don't get paid as well assay, you know, other teachers
maybe that's changed. Kind oftalk about that environment, the
difficulty in recruiting, andthen some of the things that you
want people who are maybethinking about early childhood
development as a career to know.
Dr. Latashia Kelly (38:46):
So right now, we have High School
Pathways where children, wellhigh seniors are interested in
early childhood, and they arebeing introduced to early
childhood via these pathways andso also community outreach. You
(39:09):
know, we do a lot of but when itcomes to choosing the career, we
always tell folks, you have tohave a passion. And when it
comes to money, private schools,private early childhood
development centers, don't getpaid as much as they would at a
(39:34):
district.
Erin Brinker (39:36):
Well, that makes sense, because private schools,
K 12, are paid less, too, aren'tthey?
Dr. Latashia Kelly (39:42):
No, it's a lot different, and it depends,
because private schools aretitle 22 instead of Title Five,
so there's different fundings.
So it depends on the fundings,but district, if you are. Are
employed by the district, you'remore likely to have a higher
paying teacher job, you know,with our field, then you would a
(40:08):
private sector.
Erin Brinker (40:14):
Well, that's good.
So, so okay, if you'reinterested in early childhood
development, work hard to get inat a district. So, you know,
right? Is the best way to startout as an aid while you're going
to school. Do you, you know, howdo you, how do people start? Can
Dr. Latashia Kelly (40:30):
you can start as an intern, you can
start as an aide. And we haveemployed plenty of teachers that
has been recreational aids,instructional aids. We like to,
we like to hire our AIDS, right?
Yes, right.
Nancy Carrillo (40:48):
I started off as a recreational aid with the with
the summer new school district,so that kind of got my foot into
the district. And then I becameinfant toddler teachers. So
that's where you're going to getyour most experience, and that's
where you're going to find outif you have the passion and love
for children, right? Because ifyou can't do the recreational
(41:08):
instructional aid job, thenmaybe this isn't the job for
Dr. Latashia Kelly (41:11):
you. If you don't like it and you don't care
for it, then don't go on toteach great
Erin Brinker (41:16):
well. And kids can feel when you don't
like them. They know they'revery intuitive.
Nancy Carrillo (41:22):
Yes, they know.
They know. And they know. Thething about kids is they're,
they're resilient, right? Theycan have a horrible day, kick
you, throw a chair at you. Idon't know, you know, I'm just
talking about a horrible day,but the next morning, they're so
excited to come in and see you.
Yep, you know, nothing happened.
Yeah, they're just so they're soexcited to see you, whereas
we're like, you just whateveryou learn from the kids. They're
(41:47):
like, Yeah, but Today's a newday. Mm, hmm, today's okay,
like, you're right, buddy,Today's a new day, and I'm happy
you're here with me. I stilllove you. Yeah? So that's the
type of passion. You have to letit go. You have to let it go.
But doctor Kelly and I have anopen door policy. So we are
willing to talk to community.
(42:08):
We're willing to talk to ourAIDS. We're willing to guide
those that are truly, trulyinterested. But you're going to
get the brutal, honest truthfrom us. If you don't have the
passion, you can't work for us.
If you don't love children, youcan't work for us. And that
isn't just from our somethingthat we believe in, but that's
what our superintendent has saidto many of us, you have to want
(42:29):
to work with children, not theperfect child that listens and
comes to school and gets in lineand does their work. But all
children, even the one that getsunder your skin, because they
need us the most. Yup, you haveto work with all children. So if
anybody is out there and youwant to become an early
(42:51):
childhood education teacher,give us a call over here we
will. We would love to talk withyou and
Dr. Latashia Kelly (42:59):
get you started. Right Track, right?
Nancy Carrillo (43:01):
Our aids are constantly calling us, what do I
need to do? What do I need todo? And, you know, doctor Kelly
and I, we just, we give them thematrix, we try to set them on
their right foot to startworking towards that goal.
Because we need teachers. Weneed teachers as our new
teachers are coming in. Youknow, our older teachers are
(43:21):
leaving. They're retiring.
They're enjoying life. Sure, youknow, so we need teachers. We
need good teachers that want tomake a difference in the lives
of children.
Erin Brinker (43:34):
So I in the kits program, the DR Albert Carnegie
toddler Success program thatI've been involved with, and we
have a partnership with thedistrict that we're very
grateful for. You know, we haveseen parents who you think
Junior might need to be assessedbecause maybe they're on the
spectrum, maybe there's adevelopmental delay, maybe
there's something going on andthe parents are not open to
(43:57):
hearing that feedback, you know,and I know that you all are very
straightforward and very direct,I mean, not in a rude way, but
very direct in a productive way.
And you know, how do you dealwith parents that are that are
kind of intractable or indenial? That's great. Yeah,
they're living in Egypt.
Nancy Carrillo (44:16):
You know what I never heard that?
You know? What we try to do iswe try to show the parents,
right? If you're in denial,you're not going to believe it,
because all you see is yourchild and your baby, yeah, and
and you have nothing incomparison. Not we compare
children, but they're alldifferent, yeah? Because they
(44:37):
are all different, but we invitethat parent to come in and
support us, right? So if yourchild's hitting, and we believe
there might be somedevelopmental delays, of course,
that's not our expertise, but wedo have that experience with
many children. So we'll invitethe parent, hey, can you come in
and kind of support us with yourchild? And that way they will
(44:59):
see. See that 80% of ourchildren are able to do this
right, but your child is havingsome difficulties, maybe an
assessment might be somethingyou want to do. So we don't ever
push them to do something theydon't want to do, but we try to
educate them, educate them andgive them the resources to help
Dr. Latashia Kelly (45:21):
their child grow, right, to be successful,
you know. And then, you know, atthat point, parents will
reevaluate their thoughts andsay, Well, maybe they do need
to, you know, get assessed.
Maybe I want my child to beassessed so they can, you know,
be successful, right? We also,
Nancy Carrillo (45:39):
we also have a developmental screening, which
is called Ages and StagesQuestionnaire. So if the parent
is still in denial, we will havethem fill out this
questionnaire, which is socialemotional, and they will be able
to see that it asks some verydevelopmental questions and see
where they land. Yes, they cando it. No, they can't do it. Or,
yeah, sometimes they can do it,and we score this, and we're
(46:03):
able to show them where theirchild is falling. And we can
either ask them, okay, now takethis to your primary, or we give
them some tools on how to helptheir child be successful in
some of the areas where theywere low. Or we can say, let me
get you in touch with our speddepartment, which we have an
amazing, yes, preschool, specialeducation preschool department
(46:26):
that would be happy to help withthe assessment or either or even
just some guidance,
Erin Brinker (46:34):
because you know that, especially with when
you're seeing the kids, ifyou're talking about autism,
which is the area Where I havelived experience. I'm not an
expert. The earlier you diagnoseand then set up, start working
with the child and set up thefamily so that they understand
what this means for the child,and you do the early
(46:54):
intervention, that's the word Iwas looking for, the better, the
more likely it is for them to beable to to adapt and be able to
live their life. I mean, they'realways going to be
neurodivergent, but there are,but they certainly can be be
taught, and they certainly canlearn, if they're high
functioning, to to exist in thisworld and find a happy life for
(47:14):
themselves. But if you wait toolong that the the likelihood of
that intervention beingsuccessful diminishes,
Nancy Carrillo (47:24):
right, right?
And I think parents are alsoworried that if they're
assessed, they're labeled, ifthey're assessed, they will have
to go into a special edclassroom. And we hear that a
lot, right? And that's not thecase. We have inclusion
classrooms, where our classroomsare all inclusive. So just
because your child is on thespectrum. Just because your
child may have somedevelopmental delays doesn't
mean they have to go into aspecial ed classroom,
Erin Brinker (47:47):
but that's new. I know even when my kids were
little, there was the inclusionwasn't a thing. The you were
assessed, you were bam, you werein sped, whether that was best
for you or not. And so that'schanged. And so parents may be
thinking, well, I know when Iwas a kid what it was like, and
they don't realize that, that weunderstand so much more now,
Nancy Carrillo (48:09):
yeah, right. And they don't realize the authority
they have. They're their child'sfirst teacher. They have a right
to say, Okay, this is what youdiagnose them, but I do not want
them in a special ed classroom.
I want them in a general edclassroom, and if they will
thrive in that area, then wewill support that. We absolutely
want to work with every singlechild and our teachers, you
(48:32):
know, they're on board. Theythey will get the experience and
the knowledge and the education.
We will send them to trainingsto help to meet those needs of
the children.
Erin Brinker (48:44):
Oh, that's excellent. That's excellent. I
love that because, you know,it's scary, and we have seen and
and I've known people that theydidn't want the diagnosis,
because there's nothing wrongwith my kid, and they don't want
them with the label, right?
They're they're embarrassedabout the label, and what does
that mean? And my kids just fineand and the reality is, it's
it's just finding a way thatcould work the best for your
(49:07):
child to learn and besuccessful, right?
Nancy Carrillo (49:11):
And that that label allows you to do that, you
know it? Well, I take that back.
It's not a label that diagnosisexactly allows you to to do
that. You know, my son, I alwaysthought that he was add. So I
had him tested, and it wasn't. Ididn't get him tested because I
wanted to put him on medication.
I got him tested so that I cando more research on what I can
(49:33):
do to better meet his needs,right? You know, because putting
him on medication or putting himin any special school was out of
the question. It was just morefor me to do my child right,
right, because I knew at thatyoung age of having children
that I knew I had a right to myown child and their education.
So parents need to understandthat you have a right to your
(49:56):
child's education and what youfeel is best for them.
Erin Brinker (49:59):
Well. I gotta say, you must have, as a young
parent, it's so proactive. Youmust have freaked some teachers
out.
Nancy Carrillo (50:07):
I freaked my parents out, my own personal
parents, you know, because Ijust wasn't going to go into
this blindly. You know, I knewthat I did not want my child
because it's a it's a rollingball, right? You have a baby at
a young age. Your children havebabies that, you know,
unfortunately, it'sgenerational, sure. So I knew
that I had to educate myself. Iknew I had to be there for my
(50:30):
children. I knew it was going tobe hard. And, you know, to say
that I was a successful parent,you know, I don't know. I don't
know, but my children are grown.
They have degrees and theyweren't teen parents, so yay for
that, you know. But you know,it's a lot. Don't
Erin Brinker (50:47):
we all feel like that, though? To say we were, I
was a successful parent,
Nancy Carrillo (50:52):
nope, nope, many, many errors, many fails,
you
Dr. Latashia Kelly (50:56):
know, and that's gonna be normal, right,
Nancy Carrillo (50:58):
right, but you know, they didn't follow down
the they didn't follow the lifethat I led. You know, being a
young mother, you know, theythey both had children once they
were married and in, you know,their early, late 20s. So it's
doable. So the mistakes we makeas parents, don't beat yourself
up, don't beat yourself up, justeducate yourself, right? Educate
(51:22):
yourself. And, you know, educateyour children. Be honest, be
loving, be you know, and andguide our children. You know,
some of our parents are justthey're so overwhelmed, you
know, they're so overwhelmedwith work in the just the
economy, you know. So when weunderstand that in our centers,
(51:43):
you know, we really, really havea relationship with our
families, so we are able tosupport them in some of these
difficult times with our withour entire district. You know,
we have a lot of resourceswithin our district that will
support families that arestruggling.
Erin Brinker (52:02):
I imagine that you have, and we have just about, I
think about five minutes left. Iimagine that you have a lot of
students or children whosefamilies come from a country
other than the United States,and so this is their first
connection to the school systemhere in the US. And how, you
know i How does that? How doesthat work for you? How do you
(52:27):
help people become comfortablewith the school system and
understand the school system andwork with parents?
Dr. Latashia Kelly (52:34):
So when we get, you know parents from, say,
Cambodia, because we just had aparent come through. And of
course, they don't know how toenroll. They don't know what's
required. You know, inCalifornia us. So we truly help
them. We help them to adapt.
We're patient with them andwhatever their needs are, we
(52:58):
help them. We try to help themas much as possible. We're not
going to just assume they knowwhat to do. We're going to guide
them. And then when their childcomes into our classrooms, we
are going to try to build arelationship with, you know,
those parents, and, of course,the child and we're going to
(53:20):
maybe learn a few words, youknow, to help them feel
comfortable. Oh, that's crazy,and let them know that, you
know, we embrace their culture.
We embrace them,
Nancy Carrillo (53:34):
right? And in our district, it has so many
they have, like a translator, soif we get a parent that calls us
and sign language, right? Theythey only speak sign language,
we have a translators that comethrough different language.
Cambodian, you know, we havetranslators that we just call
(53:56):
and they sit on the phone withus. So we try to make this
process easy for the parent. Wewill walk them through the whole
process. We will make the phonecalls for them to get them in
touch with how to get that birthcertificate, how to get those
immunizations that we need toenroll them, how to get help in
(54:17):
obtaining their pay stubs ortheir electric bill. We have
laptops and and iPads here thatwe can help them get those
because we get grandparentsright that have taken custody of
their children, and I'm talkinggrandparents in their 60s or 70s
who don't even know how to use acomputer. So wow, right? So
(54:38):
we're able to say, Okay, let'ssit down. Let me show you how to
create this account so we canpull up your Edison bill, for
instance, and we will help themand sit with them during that
process. We just don't say,Well, go figure it out.
Erin Brinker (54:52):
Too bad. So sad,
Nancy Carrillo (54:53):
right? Let us know when you know how to do it,
right? We want to help them getthat so we can get their job.
Child in school. Oh, that'sexcellent. Get them, get them
all thriving, to get even, givethe grandparent a break for a
moment while their child ishere, learning with us, right?
Erin Brinker (55:11):
And that certainly, you know, builds
trust, right? So you took thetime to create an on ramp for
them.
Nancy Carrillo (55:17):
These are the parents that I'm talking about.
You know, we're helpinggrandparents. Gosh, years and
years ago, at at Sierra, infant,toddler, I had a parent who,
unfortunately a grandparent, whogot custody for children.
Unfortunately their their motherhad had passed in a very ugly
way, and the baby's seen it. Oh,that grandparent still is just
(55:42):
like I remember, I remember, andwhen that grandparent had those
difficult days, she would be soupset with me because her
children's clothes were dirtythat that they got mud on it.
But, you know, the next day,she'd be so thankful that I was
there, you know, to take care ofher child when he had a fever,
and I had to watch them untilshe could get there. So, you
(56:04):
know, we understand, weunderstand the struggle that our
grandparents are having, and wedon't want to put a bigger
burden on them. We want to behere to support you, to walk you
through, and, you know, to helpyou help your children.
Erin Brinker (56:20):
So we have about a minute left. How do people learn
more about the Child DevelopmentServices at the San Bernardino
City Unified School District andenroll their children
Dr. Latashia Kelly (56:32):
so they can call us at 90988067061, more
time, 909-880-6706and we will get them started
within our program. Within ourprogram, they
Nancy Carrillo (56:54):
can also go to our website, which is SBC, USD,
dot, child, Dev, C, H, I, L, d,d, e, v.com, and you will find
out about our entire program. Wehave full day program and a half
day program. We have birth tofive. We want your little ones.
(57:15):
They they will be cared for byeducated, certificated
credential teachers,
Dr. Latashia Kelly (57:20):
and we potty train your children who are
not babysitters, right? Well,you too
Erin Brinker (57:29):
are amazing. We're completely out of time. I'm so
grateful that we took this timetogether to tell people about
the wonderful programs and aboutchild development in general.
Latasha Kelly and NancyCarrillo, thank you for all of
the incredible work that you do,and thank you for joining me
today.
Dr. Latashia Kelly (57:46):
Thank you.
Erin Brinker (57:48):
Well, that is all we have time for today. I
realized that I neglected to saywhat I'm grateful for. I started
tradition last week and secondweek, and that tradition went
out the window at the beginning.
So please forgive me. So I'mgoing to say it now. I am
grateful for fall weather, warmsweaters, extra blankets, hot
tea, chicken soup, and you onthis Sunday morning or whenever
(58:10):
you are listening on podcast,please know that you are loved,
you are important, and you areworthy of the good in this
world. And easy life is notpromised, but we aren't in it
alone. Create community. Youfeeling lonely, volunteer
somewhere, volunteer at ananimal shelter, at a food bank,
at a faith community, whetherit's a church or synagogue or
(58:33):
mosque or nonprofit organizationthat is aligned with your values
and meet purpose driven peoplejust like you. No matter your
age or abilities. You can find aplace. You've been listening to
the making hope happen radioshow and podcast. I'm Erin
Brinker. If you have ideas thatyou think would be interesting
for the show, we do a deep diveevery week, please let me know.
(58:56):
You can email me at show atmaking hope.org. That's show at
making hope. Dot O, R, G. Have agreat week. Everyone. You.
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