Social, Emotional & Cognitive Issues

We have responded to the needs of both children and parents since 1955.  Our approach encourages children to reach their potential while promoting a strong parent-child relationship.

We offer a continuum of therapeutic and preventative services for children and families, along with early childhood mental health consultation and training for professionals.

• Consultation and Training
• Family and Child Counseling
• Groups for Children and Families

Our experts offer a continuum of preventative and therapeutic services for children from birth to six years, plus supportive services and counseling for their parents. All of the programs and services offered at Virginia Frank Child Development Center are based on the fact that children develop best in the context of stable, caring relationships. Virginia Frank Child Development Center offers family counseling and socialization groups.

Family Counseling

When a developmental task is unusually difficult for a child, professional counseling may be needed to promote growth and change. While some situations require a short period of intervention, others may require additional long-term work. Our highly trained staff offers counseling to children and families who may be facing tragic losses, financial difficulties, marital concerns or illness, developmental delays, or other issues affecting child development.

Groups

Through the Get Together group, Virginia Frank Child Development Center offers parents, grandparents, nannies, and children from birth to age 5 with opportunities to meet others who also have young children, in order to share and discuss experiences, ideas and developmental issues and watch them unfold as children play.

We also offer socialization and treatment groups for children aged three to nine years old. For meeting times, locations and dates, please check the calendar.

Consultation and Training for Early Childhood Development Professionals

“Connections: A Relationship-Based Phase Model,” was published as a resource for directors and teachers. The book, written by Virginia Frank Child Development Center staff, outlines the developmental and relationship phases children and their caregivers experience. By integrating knowledge of child development and stages of relational growth, the manual provides a roadmap for early childhood instructors to best support the healthy development of young children.

Our clinicians provide relationship-based early childhood mental health consultation to preschool, Early Head Start and Head Start sites throughout Chicagoland. Educators and program staff learn effective tools for building relationships with parents and how to manage difficult behaviors in the classroom through group and individual observations, and professional and parenting workshops.