Parent Workshop with Lisseth Rojas-Flores
by Anna Ochoa, STARS Program Manager
On March 6th LACF hosted a learning disability workshop for the parents of STARS. Learning disabilities are not well known or understood in urban communities so the STARS staff was excited for this opportunity to build awareness among the parents. I was uneasy at first thinking that I might not get a good turnout just because some parents are not comfortable with this topic, but I was excited to see twenty parents attend! It was great to see these parents come eager to hear about and understand learning disabilities.
We had the honor of having Lisseth Rojas-Flores, Director of Clinical Training in the department of Marriage and Family Therapy and Associate Professor of Psychology at Fuller Seminary, teach the workshop in Spanish. The workshop covered what learning disabilities are, how to identify them, and how to help your child if he/she is diagnosed with one. These things were such great information for the parents. Lisseth was that she was able to get the parents to talk about this issue without shame or uncomfortableness. She was able to get them to understand that diagnosing is actually a good thing because the child can then get the appropriate help that he/she needs in school and at home. They felt very comfortable with her and stayed afterwards for an extended discussion time until 10pm, where Lisseth was able to talk to each individual family about particular questions they had. It was such an inspiring thing to see!
I asked one of our moms, Lily Cardenas, what she thought of the workshop and she said “The workshop was great. It was very informative and Ms. Lisseth was very easy to understand and get along with. Everyone felt very comfortable sharing with her.” We have had many workshops for the parents throughout the years but have not seen such interest in the parents like we saw in this one. It is great to see the parents so involved. Thank you, Lisseth, for a great learning experience! Click here to read more about Lisseth Rojas-Flores.
