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Resource Introduction: The center for child counseling is a counseling center based in Palm Beach Country, that provides therapy and other mental health treatments for children, teenagers, and families, it also has a website filled with resources for counselors, parents, and caregivers on how to improve the mental health of kids and families. This website while for the most part being helpful, it lacks an understanding of multiculturalism, the resources all come from the perspective of a "traditional" white American family and do not take into account other cultures which may differ in family structure and how families interact, painting a blanket picture over all families, when there are major differences not taken into account.
Resources Review
This resource goes over ways to talk to kids about hard issues they may be dealing with in their lives, it goes over subjects like talking about grief, school shootings, or war. These are all very useful resources, however there is a distinct lack of ways to talk to children of minority communities about things like racism or discrimination, and other issues of that nature that they experience. Along with a lack of how to talk to kids that are not of minority communities about these issues. This gives a lack of care for these communities and in a way ignores the issues these communities face as well. The resources present now are helpful, but adding more on those issues is needed.
https://www.centerforchildcounseling.org/resources/waystotalk/
This resource goes into the importance of play for the development of children and different ways to play with your child or the child you are the caregiver for. I think for the most part this is a very good resource as play is a universal thing with children. Some more consciousness on what play means for different cultures is probably important, but overall I believe this is good, as it includes different ways to play, such as art activities, sensory play, or outdoor play. However there is one section that stands out, the section on how to tackle children's feelings through play, but fails to recognize the difference in how emotions are felt and dealt with between different cultures and seems to only look at it through an American lens.
https://www.centerforchildcounseling.org/resources/waystoplay/
This resource is different from the other two sections I reviewed as instead of a resource itself, it is a collection of resources to help parents and caregivers, but this is important because of the resources included. There is a section on discussing traumatic events with children, along with talking with children about violence. Theres a section on talking to kids about natural disasters, grief, divorce, bullying, but the sections that I will focus on are the parts on racism and discrimination. This is the only part of this entire website that directly addresses these things. So clearly this organization, the center for child counseling understands and is aware of these issues, but the issues comes from it being hidden in a very specific part of the website. While these are good resources that are available, like a resource from PBS on how to talk to young children about race and racism, but this is not present in the rest of this organizations website.
https://www.centerforchildcounseling.org/resources/parentresources/
Resources Revisal
The primary way to revise this resource I have, is just putting the resources for teaching children about multiculturalism and racism more front and center in this websites resource section, instead of having them hidden in a specific area. The resources that are present seem for the most part quite good, just not a main part of this resource. Multiculturalism is very important for child counseling, as their are children of all different cultures and backgrounds, that are parts of different social and family dynamics, so it not being a primary feature of this resource is unfortunate. Adding in another page specifically tackling talking to kids about diversity, race, culture, racism, and discrimination would be incredibly helpful, along with a resource on how counselors, parents, and caregivers can understand things like social justice, multiculturalism, and antiracism and use this knowledge in how they interact and help children of all different backgrounds seems necessary in making this a complete resource for the people that help and care for children of multicultural backgrounds. With these additions and slight revisions this could be a really good resource that tackles a range of issues that can be used to help all children, not just the children of a very specific cultural identity .
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