Early Childhood Conference in Fort Simpson

The NWT Literacy Council participated in a conference held in Fort Simpson in March. The conference, called Kids - Gotta Love 'Em, was funded by the Healthy Children's Initiative (HCI), and was organized by the Open Doors Society in Fort Simpson. Participants included people working in pre-natal nutrition programs, daycares, education, and justice. Participants came from Rae-Edzo, Wrigley, Hay River, Yellowknife and Fort Simpson.

The conference covered a range of important topics including: Nutrition and Menu planning, Family Literacy and Bookmaking, Working with Children who Witness Violence, Personality Testing, Proposal Writing, and Working with Children with FASD. Here is a brief look at some of what was presented.

Please Understand Me

Fort Simpson Mental Health and Addictions Counselor, Dean Harvey, opened the conference by giving us a test… a fun test that is! All conference participants were given a personality questionnaire from the book titled, Please Understand Me, by D. Keirsey and M. Bates. Our answers were added together and we were each categorized based upon the results.

Respect differences

What's the point you ask? The point is that we are all different from each other. We are motivated by different things. We have different aims, values and needs. We think differently, and understand things differently from one another. Yet we work, live and spend time together with co-workers, family, and friends everyday.

Situations can arise when we see someone around us, a coworker or a spouse for example, doing something in a way that we might not. We might think that they are doing it 'wrong' or that they are doing it that way to deliberately bother us. This is where the benefits of knowing yourself come in. Working through a personality questionnaire can help.

Know yourself

Knowing yourself, and recognizing and respecting the differences of others is a benefit to everyone. Working in early childhood education puts you in a position where you interact with a whole range of people including co-workers, supervisors, children, parents, social workers, school counselors, teaching assistants, and others. Having insight into how you function helps you to be clear when working and communicating with others. Understanding yourself and others helps create positive, healthy, productive environments, where communication, morale and conflict solving skills are improved. Personal stress is reduced.

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