Adler Child-Guidance Center Launch

Launch of the Adler Child Guidance Center

Join us for the post-colloquium reception and launch of the Adler Chicld-Guidance Center on Friday, October 26 from 5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. at the Adler School. Our featured speaker is Dr. Jane Nelsen, renowned author and founder of “Positive Discipline.”

Meet our esteemed Colloquium panelists, enjoy refreshments and tour the Adler School Chicago campus, and be among an exclusive audience to celebrate the public launch of the Adler Child Guidance Center.

Dr. Paul Rasmussen, Director of the Adler Child Guidance Center, will offer an overview of the Adlerian-Dreikursian principles of parent education and child guidance that serve as the foundation of most contemporary models of parent education, including Positive Discipline, Active Parenting, Systematic Training for Effective Parenting, and others.

About the Adler Child-Guidance Center

The Adler Child-Guidance Center offers many free of charge parent and care-giver education programs to targeted agencies, and offers a variety of workshops for parents, caregivers, teachers, child-care workers and others. Courses and workshops are held at the Adler School campus in downtown Chicago and in a variety of satellite venues throughout Chicagoland.

The Adlerian-Dreikursian Foundations of Child-Guidance

The Adlerian-Dreikursian principles of parent education and child guidance are at the foundation of most contemporary models of parent education, including Positive Discipline, Active Parenting, Systematic Training for Effective Parenting, and others. Most parent-education programs maintain similar themes. What is unique about the Adlerian-Dreikursian model is recognition of core aspects of the human condition, including the desire all humans have for a sense of worth and belonging among others, the power of encouragement, our aversion to harshness and the tendency to learn best when outcomes are logical rather than arbitrary.

The Task and Challenges of Child Guidance

Adlerian-Dreikursian based parent education and child guidance focuses on helping parents and other care- providers to meet the task of child guidance, while contending with the challenges. The task of parenting or child-guidance is to raise children who will be able to function efficiently as adults, which includes being able to live agreeably with others in a civilized society. The challenges are dealing with tantrums, messes, laziness, hyperactivity, and other natural and common childhood behaviors. Well-functioning adulthood requires that one has matured beyond childish tendencies and that one be prepared to accept responsibilities, be able to cooperate with others and that one is respectful of self and others. Instilling these qualities is an important task of child-guidance. Fulfilling the task requires that care-providers are able to meet the recurrent challenges in ways that contribute to the task of preparing the next generation of adults. A child who learns to accept responsibilities is willing to postpone pleasures to meet the needs of a situation. These children develop self-discipline and feeling of worth and ability. The child who learns to get along with others becomes a contributor to the group’s efforts to overcome challenges, finds a place of belonging and is as to celebrate community. A child who learns to respect the self and others becomes an adult who will not allow the self to be exploited and who will not exploit others. When the task is being met and the challenges managed, caregivers are able to enjoy the process and rewards of parenting and child guidance.