Latest / Look Who's Talking / Laura Sheffield and Jonas Cooper - Child Wellness

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Laura Sheffield and Jonas Cooper - Child Wellness · Look Who's Talking

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You are listening to Look Who's Talking.
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This show is Head Start focused.
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I am Cameron Minter.
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I am your co-host.
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And I'm beautiful.
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Yes, it is beautiful.
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Jessica Coffey is our host.
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What is going on today, Jessica?
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You know, you told me not to say nothing.
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So everything is going on.
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Everything is going on.
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And it's an amazing day, isn't it?
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It is.
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It is.
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It's an amazing day.
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It's just amazing because we're in it.
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We're in it.
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We got an opportunity to win it.
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We're in it to win it.
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To change some lives, don't we?
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Yep.
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So we're going to do it.
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We're going to do what we do.
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Do what we do.
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Are you a sports fan?
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I like football.
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Okay.
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What was your team?
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I don't have no say.
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Oh, God.
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Lord Jesus.
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I just like seeing the beauty in each other.
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You the auntie that goes to the high school.
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Come on, baby.
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You did that.
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Was that a touchdown?
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Right.
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Yeah, okay.
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Yeah.
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No, I know.
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I mean, I'm good with a touchdown.
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I know what a first down is.
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Okay.
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But I do like football better than basketball.
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Oh, really?
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I do.
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Like, to me, football was like I could sit in a chair and I could do whatever I wanted.
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I mean, I'm good with a touchdown.
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I know what a first down is.
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Okay.
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But I do like football better than basketball.
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To me, football was like I could sit Saturday, Sunday.
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I'm tuning in Monday and Thursday.
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I'm looking at football.
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Yeah, I can't do baseball.
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You know, baseball is hard on TV.
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But when you're in a baseball field, I really like like it's about the environment.
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It's not about the game.
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I guess so.
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I guess so.
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Most people don't even know what's happening during the game.
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Okay.
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You just want to see.
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I believe you're speaking from your own experience.
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Yeah, you want to get a coke.
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You want to get a hot dog and food.
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That's really it.
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Of course.
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You want to see the fly.
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Who catches the fly ball?
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Oh, that's it.
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What else is there to baseball?
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That's what I'm saying.
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But doesn't baseball go like all year round?
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But it's a long time and it's a long time out in the sun.
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And the results of the game can be wrapped up in 30 seconds in the news when you've wasted
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five hours.
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I don't think it's 30 seconds.
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I think it's more like two.
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Exactly.
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Exactly.
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Two seconds.
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Two home runs.
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Here we go.
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That's it.
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I would rather watch golf than baseball.
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Oh, God.
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That's worse.
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That is worse.
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You never just watch golf sometimes?
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No.
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I do.
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It's so calming.
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It's really calming.
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If I want to go to sleep, I might watch golf.
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But listen, so when I look at golf on TV, the man's voice talks like this.
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Exactly.
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It's real too chill for me.
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I'm like, oh, I'm too loud in my house right now.
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Let me turn everything down, including me, so we can talk about golf and oh, there's
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a birdie.
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Right.
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Right.
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Yeah.
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But I heard playing golf is fun.
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But I also heard playing golf with alcohol was fun, and that's not going to be me.
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Well, playing golf at a certain... Have you played golf?
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I've gone to the little... Top golf.
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I can tell you right there.
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There's a little range where you just hit the balls and see how far they can go.
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That's not golf.
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It's not.
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However, I don't recommend golf for anybody who has back problems.
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Oh, speak on him.
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Because I went to Top Golf.
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Yeah.
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I went to the back.
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I played like 10 minutes, and I said, I've had enough.
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Wow.
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It's like you're twisting all your body, and it was just going every which way.
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That wasn't a date, was it?
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Absolutely not.
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Okay, because I was going to say, that's terrible.
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I'm done.
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Thank you.
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No, that wouldn't be a date.
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However, I'm taking applications.
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Uh-oh.
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Time for some motivation.
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Let's move right along.
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Okay, with today's motivation, I want to say never limit yourself.
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They say the sky is the limit, but we say to never set limits.
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Instead set benchmarks.
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Benchmarks are resting points on your way to success.
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So Cam, set benchmarks.
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Don't set limits.
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Don't limit yourself.
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I love it.
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I love it.
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And, you know, we got to call this correctly because the brainstorm behind this segment
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is at the show today.
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This is a coffee break.
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It is.
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Jessica Coffee.
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That was me sipping my coffee.
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I know.
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I know.
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Benchmarks.
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I like that because, yeah, there are too many limits.
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I heard something yesterday about life is short.
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And sometimes we wait until we're old and about to die before we say our priorities
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change.
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You know what?
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We always wait till this or that or this.
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And you know, back in the day, I used to be like, I'm going to wait to travel until I
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get married.
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Right, right, right.
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And I'm like, oh, hold up.
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That didn't come as fast as I wanted it to.
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Matter of fact, I'm still waiting on that.
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So let me go ahead and travel now.
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It's important to, you know, yeah, benchmarks.
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Yeah, I love that.
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And that keeps us.
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And you know what?
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We talk about benchmarks in the classroom because there's always a level of growth.
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So if you set limitations, that means when you reach that point, there's nowhere else
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to go.
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And in this life, there are benchmarks that we need to set.
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We can always improve.
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We're always improving.
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Unless we're dead.
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Right.
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Well, dang.
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Hey, that's the truth.
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You know that.
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That's the truth.
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Wow, Kim.
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Can we say something happy?
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I mean, that is happy.
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You just took us to the grave.
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That's happy.
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Let's live life while we're living because it's not promising.
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And I don't want to go there, but you know, people are dying.
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You know, we're dealing with Maine, the shooter in Maine.
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You know, people woke up this morning with things planned and none of those plans came
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through.
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So it's important to do those things because you never know when your time is.
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Right.
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Right.
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Live life to the fullest, they say.
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Let's do it.
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Do you think you live life to the fullest?
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No, I don't.
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Why not?
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Because, yeah.
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Because you're tired.
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I mean, but you know, you get used to the grind.
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And now that I'm getting older, now I'm trying to think about the end of my grind.
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What am I going to do at the end of my grind?
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But I also think you have to define what is that fullness to you because living life to
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the fullest to you may not be the same of living your life to the fullest to me.
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You know what I'm saying?
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It's true.
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It's true.
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Yeah.
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But regardless, you got to live it because it's going to be gone.
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And you got to make sure that you don't let, well, this is easier said than done.
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I was about to say it and then I just thought, ooh, I need to say my own words.
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But just kind of like letting things stress you out.
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You'll have tough days.
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However, just like going back in your mental saying, hey, today was tough, but it wasn't
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the worst day ever.
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Right.
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I can still have room to move forward and grow and be happy and be joyful.
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You know what I'm saying?
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Yeah, I do.
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In the grand scheme of things, the things we get upset with are very minuscule.
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Right.
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Somebody cutting us off in traffic affected us for 30 seconds.
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And if we let it go away, it will not affect the rest of our day.
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I have a question for you.
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So you know, next week is Halloween, fall festivals, the things that people do.
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Do you dress up?
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Sorry, y'all.
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Cameron had to choke while I asked him.
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Oh, she got me choked up.
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No, but I don't believe in Halloween.
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So I don't celebrate Halloween anymore.
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But I used to have big parties and all that type of stuff.
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I don't do that anymore.
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Gotcha.
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But do you, what about your grandkids?
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Do they dress up?
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Nope.
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Nope.
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That little grandson of yours will be cute in a chicken costume sitting on the couch.
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I mean, you know, he ain't my child, but nope.
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He's not your child.
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However, why does every grandparent treat the grandchildren like, matter of fact, y'all
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treat these grandkids better than you treat your own kids.
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She's been triggered.
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I have.
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Listen.
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It's the same when you're a parent.
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My parents and with my niece and nephews, I'm like, y'all wouldn't let me do that.
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Yeah.
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Like, oh my gosh, that is a trigger.
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We got some parents on the show.
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We'll ask them.
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But I think is if you have multiple children after those, your parenting is easier and
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easier.
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And so when you get to grandparents, what, what, what is that a parent?
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It's just a spoil.
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We'll just do what we want.
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Y'all have to go home and deal with it.
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That's the truth about it.
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That's the truth about it.
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We got some guests on the show today.
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Who do we have in the house?
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Today we have Mr. William Jonas Cooper.
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I didn't know where you were going with that.
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His email name is William Cooper, but we call him Jonas, who is a girl dad.
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He's a father of two girls.
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So we're going to ask you about that.
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And then we have Laura Shetfield, Laura Tintra Shetfield, who is also, oh, I didn't say Jonas
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is an assistant director.
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He provides leadership to our disabilities and mental health or our social emotional
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team.
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And then Laura Shetfield Tintra or Laura Tintra Shetfield.
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It's really just Laura Shetfield.
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I like saying she wasn't Laura Shetfield when I met her.
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So anywho, she is an associate director and she provides leadership towards everything
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really, but health and nutrition.
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Welcome to the show, guys.
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How are you all doing today?
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I feel like my brain is, I don't know if it's stimulated or if it's like the philosophy
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lesson we just.
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Oh yeah.
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I'm telling you, she get deep.
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Listen, so now I want to ask them, because you both are parents of two.
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You have two girls.
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You have a boy and a girl.
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Was your parenting the same with the second child as it was with the first?
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Absolutely not.
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What was the difference?
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Oh, definitely more lax.
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She found out that they were spongy, spongy.
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They didn't need to be the eggshell.
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Yeah.
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But you know what?
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Jonas, Jonas has kids back to back.
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Oh, he came into office.
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So one day with Rose might've been six months old.
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I don't know talking about destiny's having another destiny.
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Now you bro, what happened?
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That is what I sounded like.
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Jonas, how does it feel being a girl dad?
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Like, I mean, what's that like?
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Been a girl.
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Yes, that exactly.
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But you know, I mean the girl, the, I got the two girls and then my wife, the dog's
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a girl.
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I mean like, so I'm the only guy in the house.
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You need to leave.
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You need to get out of the house.
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Jonas is not even two years old yet.
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So I'm still in that baby stage, you know?
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So I got to ask me again in a couple of years.
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And then when they get to be teenagers, don't even ask me because I'm scared.
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Rose at an event chose me over her dad.
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Oh wow.
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She sure did.
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Well, most kids do, don't they?
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Don't say that, Cam.
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They do.
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Y'all know the grandparents is life, right?
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The grandparents.
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The kids will go to the grandparents.
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I'm not the grandparent.
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But you're the aunt.
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Yeah, you're the aunt.
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You're the cool aunt in the family.
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I think it was Laura was like my first staff to like have a baby, like actually I'm pregnant.
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And I used to call Wyatt like my first grandbaby.
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He was my work grandbaby.
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Wow.
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Anyway, on the topic today, Laura Hemmer, we're about to go to a commercial break and
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we still haven't even discussed the topic yet.
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But thank you all for being on the show.
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What we're talking about today is child wellness and how we deal with that in Head Start.
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And we got some experts in the house.
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So we're going to talk about child wellness.
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What is what are some things that we do to kind of try to look out for the child?
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Well, I mean, depending on what area, you know, like Jessica said, I kind of look at
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the mental health and social emotional bit of it and Laura looks at the health and nutrition.
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We have a team that does the education wellness part of it.
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You know, we have this this view of this holistic view of where it just one part of a kid's
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life is not the only thing you need to focus on.
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So when you're talking about kids wellness, Head Start does a fantastic job of making
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sure they encompass that holistic view.
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So I mean, how long we got to talk about how we do wellness in Head Start?
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I know, because from the time for me, they sign up to, you know, when we're sending them
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off to kindergarten, it's all about child wellness, child safety.
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So there's a lot that is done in the classroom.
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For example, when it comes to when the kids come in and parents dropping them off, we
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do what is called a morning health check.
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And that's to identify, you know, if there's any bruises, if there's any scratches so that,
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you know, the parent can be aware of those things.
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Right before it becomes a problem.
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Exactly.
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Exactly.
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Or before, you know, they say, did this happen here?
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Right.
15:00
Exactly.
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Exactly.
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Well, we're going to talk more about this right after this break.
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17:01
You are listening to Look Who's Talking.
17:29
Today we have special guest Jonas and Laura in the building today.
17:35
We went to the break and we were talking about some things that we do here at our Head Start
17:41
Centers to help with child wellness.
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And we mentioned about a morning, what is it?
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Check in?
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Morning health check.
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Morning health check.
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Tell us about that.
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Laura.
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So the morning health check, it's a very important part.
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It's the first step that we do when children arrive into the classroom.
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So when parents come and sign in their children, the teachers then overlook the child, see
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if they have any scrapes, bruises, etc.
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But not only that, to see if they have runny noses, cough, fever, and that's just to ensure
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the safety of them and all the kids in the classroom.
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That's good.
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So, you know, what does that entail?
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Like, if Johnny got a runny nose, then what happens?
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We just note it and then tell the parent, hey.
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I was going to say, I'm going to tell Johnny to go wipe his nose and then wash his hands.
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Of course, of course, of course.
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But yes, things like that are notated on those morning health checks so that if there's something
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persistent that we see or something that grabs our attention, then we will be able to have
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those conversations with the parent.
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So, there's a, we are in a place where our staff have to be comfortable with having conversations.
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That's difficult.
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That is difficult.
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That can be difficult.
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That is sometimes difficult.
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Well, not sometimes.
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That's a lot of the times difficult.
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Not because, I think only because parents are vulnerable, especially when it comes to
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their kids.
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Especially the first one.
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Maybe the first one.
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So you'll go into a facility, say if your child, this is their first time interacting
19:26
with other kids, I promise you within the first week, they're going to have a cold,
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get sick or something.
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That doesn't mean there's something spread and going around the classroom.
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That means, you know, children's bodies are trying to get immune.
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Sometimes with our toddlers, when those teeth come in, Cam, we have biters.
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And that's something that we have to have conversations with our teachers.
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Well, teachers have to have conversations with the parent.
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No, we can't tell you which child it is.
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We have to protect the identity of our children.
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But no, this is what happened in the classroom.
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And then we usually have to have conversations with the biters family.
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Yeah, how does that go?
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And try to mitigate that.
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How does that go?
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Well, I mean, so I feel like I have these conversations a lot.
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You know, me and my team, we deal a lot with getting kids IEPs and IFSPs and you know,
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that revolves around a kid having a disability or a delay.
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I'm not headstrong.
20:34
What you talking about?
20:35
Yeah, thank you, Cam.
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And IEP is an individual education plan, IFSP is individual family service program.
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And so basically what that means is it just helps the kid get the education and the support
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that they need to match up with the peers that are on the same track as they are age
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wise.
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It's just something that helps the kid be successful as everybody else.
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That's what it stands for.
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But you know, it's all in how you approach it because now that I'm a parent too, I totally
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get this.
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You come at me and say, hey, your kid's biting or your kid's not doing this when they should
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be doing this.
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Okay, what are you trying to say?
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You talking about me?
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Yeah, you talking about me?
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You talking about me?
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No.
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And so me and my team and the teachers, what we have to make sure we do and if you're a
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parent listening, I want you to hear me very clearly when I say this is here at Head Start,
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we don't assume you are a bad parent.
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We operate off of that you are a fantastic parent.
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You want what's best for your kid.
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And our role is just here to come alongside you and support you to get you the best help
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and support that you need to get your kids successful.
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We're not saying you're a bad parent.
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We're just saying your kid is terrible.
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No!
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Cam!
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OMG!
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No, I'm just playing.
21:58
We are not thinking that or allowed to say that.
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And I think it's also important to recognize that all behavior is a form of communication.
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So just because a parent like your child is biting or hitting or smacking, it doesn't
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mean your parenting skills are bad.
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It could be your child trying to communicate to you in a different way.
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And while we're talking about communication, here's my favorite story.
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I love to share this story.
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I share this story all the time when it talks about communication, having conversations,
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difficult conversations.
22:29
And it was at a job I was at previously before I was here.
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And what the situation was, was this little girl was coming in with matted hair.
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She had dirty clothes on.
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She smelled bad.
22:40
It looked like she didn't take a bath.
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And so people were jumping straight to the gun, like, oh, these parents are awful parents.
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And they need to get reported.
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And we're going to fix this.
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And so what ended up happening, though, was me and a few other people had a conversation
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with the parents before we did anything.
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Say, hey, what's going on?
22:58
Are you noticing this stuff?
23:00
And so what turned to find out, the mom had to take a second job because dad was on disability
23:06
leave.
23:07
He got hurt.
23:08
And so mom's second job made her not be at the house in the morning when the kids were
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getting ready to come.
23:14
And so dad was now responsible for getting all kids ready in the car, dressed, fed.
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This was the only girl in the household.
23:23
He didn't know how to brush hair.
23:24
He didn't know how to properly give a bath.
23:27
He didn't know all these different things.
23:30
And so it was just a matter of coming alongside, giving him some skills, and say, hey, this
23:34
is how you do this and how you do that.
23:36
But then awake, the girl was perfect.
23:38
I mean, like, coming in, just fine.
23:41
But the way that people were wanting to approach it was accusing the parent that they didn't
23:47
care.
23:48
And parents, if you're listening again, we don't assume that you don't care.
23:54
That's good.
23:55
Yeah.
23:56
And I think that's really you talk you.
24:00
What's the word I'm looking for?
24:02
The communication is so important.
24:09
That's one of the, let's say, top complaints that I get as Head Start director.
24:15
Just communication being off.
24:17
Most of the times where families are upset is because of the communication.
24:24
I don't know if I was talking to you about this, but the communication is hard.
24:32
Sometimes conversations are hard, especially when you're talking about or giving a parent
24:39
some advice about, not necessarily advice, but just information about what's happening
24:44
in the classroom.
24:46
And they take it and be like, you talking about my kid?
24:48
Like, no.
24:50
We want you to be aware of this situation.
24:52
And I know you all spend great time.
24:54
I went to your last, what is it, professional development day, and there was a whole segment
25:02
on having difficult conversations.
25:05
And then so I know it's something that you all are looking at as staff and how to equip
25:11
your staff to have these conversations that are needed, but also keeping in mind the safety
25:17
and health of the child.
25:19
Think about it this way, and this is probably not a great way to think about it, but if
25:24
someone has something hanging out their nose, honestly, would you tell them?
25:31
What?
25:32
Would you?
25:34
Just that conversation or-
25:38
I think you're right.
25:39
I think it's really-
25:40
Most people wouldn't.
25:41
Right.
25:42
They'll be like, mm-hmm.
25:43
It's based on relationship.
25:44
And pretend like there's nothing there.
25:47
But at the same time, when it's an important matter, would you be comfortable enough to
25:55
have that conversation?
25:56
Because you couldn't tell me someone was hanging out my nose.
25:59
Okay.
26:00
But you're right.
26:03
You're right.
26:04
You're right.
26:05
It's a difficult thing, but it's important.
26:07
It's an important thing because the person doesn't know until we have that conversation.
26:12
I hear a lot of times that, well, I just don't want to offend anybody.
26:14
Right.
26:15
That's it.
26:16
Then you have to weigh the, am I offending someone?
26:19
Does that outweigh the benefit of telling them whatever it is?
26:23
Okay.
26:24
So we've talked about the wellness check.
26:26
We've talked about how we have the conversations.
26:34
What happens when we have to make tough choices in a classroom?
26:39
And I'm concerned with that wellness check.
26:41
What do you mean?
26:43
Like abuse or things, the next step, things that we may have to do if we see a pattern
26:51
or something?
26:53
So in Head Start, in our Head Start specifically, we do have a policy that we follow when we
27:00
suspect abuse.
27:02
To preface all of it, all of our teaching staff, all of our staff in general that work
27:08
with kids get extensive training on how to recognize abuse and how to recognize neglect
27:14
and things like that.
27:15
I think y'all probably have done a show on this before, so people can reference that.
27:20
I don't know if you can go back and edit, say, see this note.
27:24
But all of our staff are trained on how to do this.
27:27
And so if we do suspect abuse or neglect, under Kentucky law, we're mandated reporters.
27:34
And what a mandated reporter is is anybody who suspects abuse or neglect of any kind.
27:40
So it's not just teachers, it's doctors, it's pastors, it's neighbors, it's basically anybody
27:46
who provides care for kids.
27:49
And so as mandated reporters, we are required to move that on up.
27:55
Now here's the catch with it, in Head Start is even though we follow under Kentucky law,
28:01
we have a special initiative to where we want to, like I said earlier, come alongside you
28:06
as families and make sure that you have the supports that you need to be successful.
28:13
So just like that story I shared earlier, we also are intentional in having those conversations
28:18
and providing the resources that you need to hopefully avoid getting to that point in
28:22
the first place anyway.
28:23
That's good.
28:24
I think it's important that people know you gotta do what you gotta do.
28:29
And like you preface so many times, Jonas, that it's not personal.
28:34
It's not a reflection necessarily of your parenting style.
28:39
These are things that we're trained to look for and that we have to respond to.
28:45
And oftentimes, a lot of those really difficult situations that lead up to reports could possibly
28:52
be avoided if, you know, we're talking about communication from us to families, if families
28:57
would communicate to us as well.
29:00
You know, if you go, if on the front end you tell us, hey, so and so little Johnny fell
29:04
down the steps because he was chasing the dog and scraped up his knee.
29:09
If you were on the front end telling us that, that just makes things easier for us as when
29:14
we're making our notes and stuff like that, that we can put that in there with it.
29:17
Absolutely.
29:18
That's good.
29:19
So just communicating from the time that the child, because when the child is here, we communicate
29:26
with the parents that, okay, Johnny fell and he's marked his elbow, right?
29:33
That's what we do.
29:34
And I think it's important on the other end so that, you know, because we are monitoring,
29:38
we are trying to keep the best interests of the child.
29:41
Well, and just from a parent perspective, I do have a clumsy child.
29:46
So there's bruises all over her legs, all over our arms all the time.
29:50
And so just knowing like, hey, she fell, she tripped over a toy in the living room, like
29:54
just having that communication with the teachers.
29:56
But then over time, you know, the teachers learn, yeah, she's a little clumsy.
30:01
Yeah.
30:02
Yeah.
30:03
And for those of you listening, I know we don't want to spend a whole lot of time talking
30:06
about the specific signs, but I do want to make a mention about what's called the 10-4
30:11
rule.
30:12
And what the 10-4 rule is, any kid that's under four shouldn't have bruises on their
30:16
torso, ears or neck.
30:19
And if they're a baby and they're not crawling or anything yet, they shouldn't really have
30:22
bruises anywhere.
30:23
And so if a kid's just being a kid and they fall and they bust up their knee or something,
30:28
that's just kind of normal kid stuff.
30:29
But if they're under four and they have the bruises on the torso, ears or neck, that's
30:32
where we start maybe looking a little bit closer.
30:34
Gotcha.
30:35
So if your baby fall off the bed, would that be like, what would that look like to, you
30:45
know, a professional?
30:48
It all depends on like, we've been talking about communication.
30:51
If you're saying, I was so exhausted and I had the baby on the bed feeding her and I
30:55
fell asleep because I was up all night last night because she was crying and she accidentally
30:59
fell off the bed, that's different than I threw her off the bed.
31:04
But to us, the outcome looks the same.
31:05
So we don't know that unless you tell us and work with us on it.
31:09
Absolutely.
31:10
I think we learned from this show, communication is key.
31:12
It is key and it's very important and it helps protect the child, the parent and the family.
31:20
And this, and this our Head Start program, you know?
31:24
So yeah, I learned something today.
31:27
I appreciate you all being on the show.
31:30
Thanks for having me.
31:31
Absolutely.
31:32
Absolutely.
31:33
And you all have been listening to Look Who's Talking.
31:38
Tell a friend, share the show.
31:40
What'd he say?
31:42
He's making the good date.
31:47
Oh, and goodbye.
31:50
And goodbye.
31:51
Goodbye.