Contents - NACoA

Helping Children in Your Care
The Core Competencies in Action
The core competencies give a general direction for our thinking about what skills
are needed for early childhood professionals to be effective with children from
alcoholic homes. In this section and throughout the rest of this booklet, you will learn
practical suggestions that will help you put the core competencies into practice in real
life. We have identified four ways in which a caregiver can help a child whose parent is
an alcoholic:
Be an effective listener and communicator.
It is important to help children express their feelings and thereby deal with their
fears and aspirations. One of the more unfortunate problems experienced by some
children of alcoholics is that they have no one to talk with about their needs, fears, and
hopes.
Within appropriate limits, every caregiver can help children talk about what they
like and dislike about their lives. However, it is important to know when assistance from
other professionals is necessary. In this regard, each caregiver needs to have knowledge
of his or her own competencies and limitations.
Know your limitations
Consider the policies and legal, ethical, and professional obligations established
in your program setting, in addition to your own competencies, in deciding what you
should—and should not—do with children. It is very important that caregivers seek assistance
in areas where they are not authorized to function. Since you are not employed
as a therapist, you should not try to act as one. If there is any doubt about the severity
of a child’s personal or social problems, consult your program supervisor, who might
refer the child to a counselor, your staff psychologist, or a local social
worker who will gladly give their assistance.
When talking with children in your care
A valid concern for caregivers may be how the parents will
react when they learn that their child has confided a family problem
to someone outside the family. Will an irate alcoholic parent
come to the center complaining that you have interfered in
their family’s private business? If you limit your discussions
with a child to their feelings and to an understanding of what
alcoholism is, there probably will be no cause for parental