About Patience Bleskan, M.A.
"I am fascinated by young children. Their growth, development, and desire to learn are my constant inspiration. My philosophies are based on the ideas of competent children and intuitive parents. Through my classes I hope to provide mothers and fathers with information, tools, and confidence to support them in their personal journeys of Parenthood." — Patience Bleskan
Patience Bleskan has spent the majority of her life trying to better understand the relations of parents and children, and how parenting affects who children become. As a toddler she walked around nursing her baby dolls and in high school her final term paper was on how parents can teach children to make good choices.
As she went out into the world her choice of work was easily made as she became a preschool teacher. Patience continued to work with young children as a teacher while she received her Bachelors Degree in Psychology from the Metropolitan State College of Denver. She wasted no time before continuing her formal education with a Masters degree in Early Childhood Educational Psychology from the University of Colorado.
Patience conducted many qualitative studies of child development and children’s learning covering topics on toddler learning through use of materials, toddler social learning, how young children define family, children’s understanding and creation of road rules, the affect of parent participation in the class room, children’s understanding of negative language, how development affects relationships, and others. Her work was displayed and featured during a 1999 conference for Early Childhood Educator in Boulder, Co.
While Patience learned a great deal about children and the many theories of development during her schooling, her study of the Reggio Philosophy of Early Childhood Education made the biggest impact in her professional and personal life. The schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy have become the benchmark for high quality education for children. Patience has attended numerous conferences on the Reggio Approach and was able to study closely with Carlina Rinaldi from Reggio. It was through this study that Patience came to the realization of how profoundly a parents understanding (or not understanding) of child development affects how they parent.
Though her past and continued work with families including her own, she continues to see the negative results of parents misunderstanding their child’s behavior. In general parents focus on the behaviors they see their children doing, with no attempt to understand why the child is acting a certain why. Patience firmly believes children have a legitimate reason for everything they do. But because they have few skills to express what they are really thinking what they do often leaves us wondering. As a parent it is our job to find out the reasons behind what our children do so we can help them find better ways to be in the world.
If a child is misbehaving, and you only see the bad behavior, all you can do is punish. But if your child is misbehaving and you see the thinking and motivation behind the behavior, you have found an opportunity to teach.
Patience Bleskan founded Parents & Children Empowered in 2004 and created classes for parents on child development designed to help parents find the meaning behind their child’s behaviors. She makes many guest appearances at local hospitals, Babies R Us stores, and the Children’s Museum. Her classes are taught in homes, and mothers groups in Denver and at Becoming Mothers in Boulder. She currently lives in Denver with her Husband Matthew and four children Calvin, Rigel, and Lennon, and Bailey.