Episode 6: Aware Parenting in Day Care and Supporting Children with Special Needs with Steph Fleeton

In this episode of the podcast, I have the pleasure of interviewing Steph Fleeton. Steph is an Aware Parenting Instructor and mum to 2 boys. She is the founder of Spirited Hearts Natural Learning Haven, a family day care that is built on the foundations of Aware Parenting principles and is a home away from home. It is a safe, nurturing, joyful space where each child is accepted for the beautiful, unique individual that they are. We talk about the challenges of learning to hold space to listen to big feelings and to use Attachment Play in parenting. Steph describes how her day care center uses a holistic approach to support families with Aware Parenting, including loving limits, listening to and releasing feelings and play to support the children in her care. She talks about how she explains this approach to parents, builds trust and normalizes the expression of big feelings. Steph also shares honestly and with great self-compassion how she has coped with her son being diagnosed with ADHD and Generalised Anxiety Disorder. She describes how she has needed to be creative and finely tuned in to her child in order to use the tools of Aware Parenting to meet his unique needs. She talks about how to get support for how hard it is and how isolating it can feel to parent a child with a diagnosis and describes how beautiful, intense, difficult and powerful it is. We talk about how to see each child as a unique individual and to meet them where they are at in each moment. To learn more about Steph, please visit https://spiritedhearts.net/ . Steph is on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/spirited_hearts/ . Her podcast is https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spirited-hearts-the-podcast-with-steph-fleeton/id1629277929?app=podcast. Her download Holding Space for big Feelings in Early Childhood Education is available here https://www.inspiredeclearningcommunity.com/holding%20space%20for%20big%20feelings