Directory of members
Parent-Child Mother Goose Program
Parent-Child Mother Goose Program®
Website: https://
“The whole idea of the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program is outrageously simple and astoundingly powerful.” Michele Landsberg, journalist, author, public speaker, social activist
TheParent-Child Mother Goose Program® is a joyful, physically close andinteractive program in which parents and children learn to share the power andpleasure of oral rhymes, songs, and stories. The approach is backed by decadesof research, yet is so simple and natural that parents easily gain skills andconfidence that foster healthy relationships and help them give their childrenexperiences that foster healthy brain development. Children’s brain developmentpeaks by the age of three and is virtually irreversible. All their experiencesmold their brains, and the primary caregiver provides most of thoseexperiences. The caregiver’s choice of words, tone of voice, gestures, facialexpressions, holding, and cuddling lay the neurological foundation for thechild’s lifelong emotional, physical, and cognitive health.
Parent-ChildMother Goose delivers the culturally sensitive and adaptable program at nocharge and although the program benefits ALL families, prioritizes any familiesat risk. Participants may be single teens, isolated newcomers with littleEnglish, or Indigenous families in remote communities. They may suffer fromabuse, addiction, poverty, or post-partum depression, and some may even havelost their children to institutional care.
Parent-ChildMother Goose also manages the training and certification process forParent-Child Mother Goose Program teachers nation-wide and internationally. Byproviding training to full-time staff from other agencies, the organization hasenabled Parent-Child Mother Goose programs for many thousands of parents,babies and toddlers in every province in Canada as well as Australia, China,U.S., Iran, and Ecuador. Program languages include Indigenous languages, English,French, Spanish, Somali, Farsi, Mandarin, and ASL.
The Parent-Child Mother Goose Program partnered with the NeonatalIntensive Care Unit (NICU) at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto tocreate a book of rhymes and stories for NICU families, It Was Midnight on theOcean. The NICU gives the book to babies’ parents to give them an easy way toconnect with their fragile infants, whom they often cannot touch. This has theadded proven benefit of combating the known risk of language delay in preterminfants.
WHAT PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS SAY
· It allows my children to socialize with other children, and learn to sitstill (mostly!) and listen.
· As a single parent I found it very hard raising my son. I used to hit myson, though I didn’t want to. Now when I get angry at him, we do a nurseryrhyme and it makes us both feel better.
· I like the meanings behind the stories. No matter the culture, there arealways similarities.
· This program is great because I feel lonely at home, not having muchfriends to chat with. But when I come to the program I feel belonging to acommunity, I feel loved.
Parent-Child Mother Goose Teacher Training
After a two-day Teacher TrainingWorkshop, teachers may become certified if they co-teach the program for 30weeks with another PCMG-trained teacher. Workshops are taught by accreditedfacilitators who impart the principles and methods of the Parent-Child MotherGoose Program®. Our workshops have been purchased by agencies and organizationsacross Canada and internationally. Advanced workshops are available to deepenteachers' understanding and abilities. Please see teacher training informationand upcoming workshops here.
Parent-Child Mother Goose Programs
PCMG Teacher Training Workshops haveled to hundreds of Parent-Child Mother Goose Programs® being offered incommunities across Canada and in other countries. This network of Programs isgrowing and is strengthened by shared experience. For a list of registeredprograms, please go here.
Program Visits
To arrange a visit to a Parent-ChildMother Goose Program®, please email us at mgoose@web.net. Program visits are anexcellent way to experience the program and see it in action.
Resources
A variety of resources in Englishand French are available for purchase, including rhyme books, storybooks, CDs, andvideos. To view these, please go here.
History
The Parent-Child Mother GooseProgram® started in Toronto, Ontario in 1986 and became a registered charity in1987. A group of parents and their babies and young children gathered in achurch basement in a low-income neighbourhood to meet with two teachers whotaught them rhymes and songs to use with their children, and also told themstories for their own delight. The founders, Celia Lottridge and KatherineGrier, were inspired by a pilot project created by Barry Dickson and JoanBodger. They found that the shared words, actions, images and feelings ofrhymes and stories enhanced the relationship between parents and their childrenand gave them long-lasting resources.