Our lives have all changed so much in the last few years due to deployments and these changes are also affecting our children.
There are programs available that can be very helpful for our military children when they are dealing with deployment and also helpful for parents.
The Sesame Street Special "When Parents are Deployed" will be re-broadcast April 9, 2007 on PBS.
The Sesame Street Special "When Parents are Deployed" will be re-broadcast April 9, 2007 on PBS stations across the country. This primetime special, hosted by Cuba Gooding, Jr., reveals candid and intimate moments with the parents, caregivers and children impacted by deployment. For more information check your local television listings or you can download the program at the Sesame Workshop website. DVDs and print packages in English and Spanish are available to military parents at no cost through the Military OneSource website to help military families and children cope with the various phases of deployment.
Parents say Sesame program helps them, too
Researchers have found even more reasons to love Elmo. His positive impact has reached far beyond preschool children in military families with the Talk, Listen, Connect kit launched last summer, according to the results of a survey.
While the kit is aimed at military children of deployed parents, interviews with 367 spouses of active-duty, National Guard and reserve members in all branches of service showed that the stay-behind parents who used the kit also reported that their feelings of hopelessness and depression declined, according to Russell Research, Inc.
The parents also reported fewer negative behaviors in their preschool children, researchers said in a discussion of the findings April 3 in Washington.
These benefits were "far beyond what we expected," said Jeanette Betancourt, vice president of outreach and educational practices for Sesame Workshop.
The results showed that "not only were we reaching the parents and younger children, but the entire family," she said.
