Passionate Parenting

The Hague’s Special Needs Support, the Dutch channels…

Most expats love the life here in The Hague and enjoy the quality of life with their children. But what if your children have challenges and special needs? What if you need an expert to help you understand their behavior and offer you guidance and support?

Carolien Sleijffers (see biography below) is a young qualified psychologist (with a private practice) living in The Hague. She has put together this document for expat parents so you know what existing (Dutch based) services are available to you, on the short term and the long term – in English.

You can get a private consultation with a Dutch psychologist (in English) within a week if you are prepared to pay for it. There are many services and many alternatives, so read on…

Subject: Parental support / Mental Health Care

1. Parental support

For: parents who have questions concerning raising their children. The guidance and interventions are not so much focused on, for example, teething and potty training, but more so on situations in which you are slightly concerned, worried or actually frightened by your child’s behavior. For example, your child refuses to sleep, has extreme nightmares for a longer period of time, or extreme temper tantrums for a longer period of time and you as a parent, though you feel your have tried anything and everything you can, doesn’t know what to do anymore.

- Opvoeden in de Buurt (OidB)
For: parents who have questions concerning subjects mentioned above.  
Opvoeden in de Buurt (‘Educate in the neighborhood’) is a cooperation bond of Jeugdformaat, the organisation for youth & ‘opvoedhulp’, and the Jutters, the centre for jeugd-GGZ (mental health care). Employees of both organizations cooperate in a multidisciplinary team. Opvoeden in de Buurt offers short term ambulatory aid for parents or attendants of children of 0 till 23 years, who have questions concerning raising their children.

Waldeck Pyrmontkade 872 F
2518 JS 'S-GRAVENHAGE
T: (070) 3080420
I: www.cjgdenhaag.nl
E: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

1. - Bureau Jeugdzorg (BJZ)

For: parents who have questions concerning subjects mentioned above, but also in case instant help is needed in the home environment, for example, when your child is threatening to hurt himself or others or you as a parent are at your wits’ end and don’t think you can deal with the situation for another day, BJZ can offer the help. So, like Opvoeden in de Buurt, BJZ also offers help to parents who have questions or face problems raising their children, but has more means to turn to than ‘Opvoeden in de Buurt’.
BJZ rarely provides psychological assessments. They screen, can provide parental guidance but if more help is needed, like psychological assessment of therapy, BJZ refers to mental health care organizations like De Jutters (see below).

I: www.bjzhaaglanden.nl
Go to ‘contact’ and there you will see their different locations in and around The Hague (Zoetermeer, Leidschendam-Voorburg)
With choosing the location you’d like to contact, always choose the location nearest to you childs’ school. It’s a rule BJZ uses. Good to know in advance.

3)  Mental Health Care
- When?
For: Whenever you would like your child to be trained in social skills, assessed psychologically (for example: Intelligence test, ADHD/Autism/Depression assessment) or when your child already has a diagnosis and needs further education/treatment, you can contact a private practice or government funded organization, consisting of multi disciplinary teams (psychologists, psychiatrists, doctors, parent counselors).
You can get a referral via BJZ, or when no parental guidance is needed really, you can get a referral from your family doctor (huisarts).
- Difference Eerstelijns (First line / private practice) en Tweedelijns (Second line / government funded)

The Difference between Private & Government
The basic differences between private practices and government funded organizations is that private practices usually have:

1. no waiting lists,
2. work in small teams and
3. the insurance will cover € 80, - of the € 90,- per session, eight (2011)/five (2012) consultations total yearly, and usually offer to do specific psychological assessments (like an IQ test or a test to check whether your child has ADHD for example).

A government funded organization usually

1. does have waiting lists, but
2. works with bigger teams (more diverse professions) and
3. the insurance will pay for everything. Organizations like these can go from assessing a child specifically (whether it has ADHD) or look at a broad range (cognitive and social emotional problems), to long term treatment, medical guidance (in case of medication, for example, like Ritalin) and has the means if treatment needs to be intensified (for example treatment and school in one place).

- What do you need to get started?
First: you will always need a referral from your family doctor (huisarts) or BJZ, and the BSN of your child (Burger Service Number, by which they can check the insurance policy of your child), whether you go to a Private (eerstelijns) practice or Government (tweedelijns) organization.
If you choose to start the process at Bureau Jeugdzorg, they usually write a report (screening) to a Government tweedelijns organization, which is then used as a referral note at the same time.

Private practice (0-23)
For this, you can contact (author) Carolina Sleijffers first, since there are so many. After hearing what kind of question you have, she can advise you a certain practice / route / plan. She can call them in advance for you and check if they have an English speaking psychologist available short term.

Government funded (tweedelijns)
De Banjaard - Scheveningseweg 90-92 070 338 60 07   (IQ < 85)
Stichting De Jutters – Dr. van Welylaan 2 070 - 8507850 (IQ > 85)
Curium – Endegeesterstraatweg 27 071 – 5159600 (Leiden)

Adults (18 and up)
If your child is about to move out of the house, already lives by his of herself or is around 17 or 18 years of age and most likely will need mental support for a longer period of time, you could decide to contact an organization that specializes in adult mental health care, whether it’s a private practice (eerstelijns) or PsyQ/Parnassia Bavo Groep (tweedelijns).
Or if you’d like counseling for yourself, next to or rather than parental guidance, you can also contact them.
Since also here the rule applies that as of 2012 you will most likely only get five sessions reimbursed when visiting a private practice, most people choose to contact a tweedelijns organization.
PsyQ
www.psyq.nl
You can call them between 9.00 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday – Fridays: 0900-235 77 97. You can tell them what kind of problem you are dealing with (different locations for different areas of mental problems) and ask for the address and phone number of the location nearest to you.

Parnassia Bavo Groep
www.parnassia.nl
Go to ‘contact’, then ‘alle locaties’. Here you can see all the locations and choose the one located nearest to you. If you don’t know which one is closest to you, just pick one, call them and ask which one you should contact. Parnassia doesn’t have a national phone number like PsyQ.

Intro of me
Ever since graduating in ’05, as a Child Psychology at Leiden University I have worked at Stichting De Jutters (child and adolescent psychiatry). Psychological assessments, social skills training, parent counseling and providing treatment for children have been part of my daily activities. Next to that, I have worked as a freelancer for different organizations, focusing more on ‘the classroom’, dealing with everyday problems at school, assisting parents, teachers and the children themselves by either assessments, training and/or counseling.
I provide parental guidance and advice as well as psychological assessment and treatment.

Looking at moving to the United States next year, my aim is to make it a very fruitful last six months in Holland. I am very excited about this next step, and at the same time realize there is a lot you need to find out when entering a new country. That is the main reason this overview was made.
In case you have questions, please contact me either by phone or email.

Kind regards,

Carolina Sleijffers
E: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
M: 06.34.31.67.69

Are your working parents coping with their parenting pressures? Many are raising bilingual children, they are families in global transition and also need to organise a home, a Dutch will & testament....  Living abroad compounds the inherent challenges of parenting.

PP Corporate Services will provide lunch-time semiars at your office, providing experts who will deliver presentations on the essential information and assistance parents need to make informed choices upon arriving and living in the Netherlands. We believe parent education is key to raising children and building strong families and communities.

Few English-speaking expat parents arriving in Holland consider the benefits of bilingualism and encouraging their children to integrate into the Dutch social environment.

Many parents are afraid of the myth that bilingualism may delay speech development in the home language and cause confusion in their children's linguistic progress. Some think that it’s not “worth it” for only 4 years. They therefore opt to put their children in English-language education / playgroups, minimizing the opportunites for their children to learn Dutch.

But experts denounce such fears. They believe there are numerous advantages to raising bilingual children and strongly advocate exposing children to the Dutch or a second language (in otherwise monolingual expat families) as young as possible. Even babies of 4 months have demonstrated the ability distinguish between two languages.

Experts emphasizes that all our babies’ brains are cross-cultural, because of their sensitivity and flexibility to sounds, grammar etc. and can therefore acquire any language to which they are adequately exposed. Experts warn that children need fixed language affinities, and therefore parents must undertake the process with forethought and planning. However, done properly, almost any child can become a successful bilingual or learn even 3 languages. 

Another important consideration is the time frame in which bilingualism develops. “Simultaneous bilingualism”, occurs where two or more languages are acquired, as opposed to learned, generally before the age of five. After this critical early period, languages are more actively learned, in a process called “sequential bilingualism”.It would be great if all our kids could start learning a second language early – it’s so natural!

“Going Dutch” with your kids…

How could parents achieve this? There are numerous options, for example: have a Dutch student come and babysit your young child, speaking and reading in Dutch only. Sending your baby to a Dutch gast-ouder or crèche for a day (or more) a week is a possible way of introducing this second language. For children of 2.5yrs, there are many Dutch peuterspeelzaalen PSZ (toddler play schools) all over The Hague welcoming international children. Best of all, they come at a fraction of a cost compared with the English play schools (€115 per month for 3 x 3 hour sessions per week = €3.20 an hour for the Dutch PSZ). Children acquire (not learn) Dutch so fast when immersed – it’s exciting and fantastic. They learn spontaneously.

The benefits: When parents consider the benefits of raising bilingual children…First, it’s the social reasons. Kids can communicate with each-other at the playground or on the street as they play around or kick a ball… and make more new friends. Your kids won’t be excluded if they also speak and understand (some) Dutch. They can ask for “eenplakjekaas / worst” (a slice of cheese / sausage) at the cheese shop or butcher. Monolingual kids could miss out on these special Dutch cultural treats.

Current research shows that there are definite cognitive, or learning benefits, to bilingualism. Some of the benefits include language accommodation, sematic sensitivity and a better ability for abstract concepts.

A further benefit is that once a child acquires a second language, he / she develops competences that will be beneficial for future language learning. Therefore, bilingual children grow into adults who can more easily learn third and fourth languages.

Passionate Parenting has been offering regular seminars on child bilingualism for over five years. In these seminars, an expert addresses three critical areas: theory of bilingualism, practice of child bilingualism, and common concerns in child bilingualism. The next 2 hour seminar on Raising Bilingual Children is December 7th 2011, cost Eur35 per person or Eur52.50 for couples. Registration essential. For more information, please use our online booking form.

Many parents leave the 2 hour child bilingualism seminar with a new commitment to their children’s bilingual journey, but still have questions about how to best facilitate it. Parents raising children with more than one language have many decisions to make regarding language input, maintenance, and literacy, and need to think out the long-term consequences of the choices available to them.

Passionate Parenting is now offering consultations with an expert in which parents will have the opportunity to establish a workable language plan for their families. They will receive guidance in all the steps of the process.

To register for a discounted 1.5 hour exclusive “Language Planning Consultation”, please click here. The cost is €165 (less €15 for Passionate Parenting customers = €150 per family).

This expert holds a BA in English language education, and an MA in Applied Linguistics.  She is a *ESL/EFL lecturer and consultant and has been a practising teacher and teacher trainer for 17 years, mainly in Canada and in France. She has in-depth training in bilingual education and issues related to child bilingualism, from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Her other work includes research on motivation in language learning, curriculum development and teacher training for bilingual schools.

Also active in several professional organizations, and is a regular speaker at conferences relating to English teaching and learning. Her children are growing up Trilingual. In addition, she gives regular seminars and consultations on child bilingualism forPassionate Parenting: Educationin The Hague and other organizations throughout the Netherlands.

*ESL (English as a Second Language) and EFL (English as a Foreign Language)

You never know when an emergency situation is going to arise, so it's best to be proactive and do the necessary first aid course, tailored to children and babies. Here in The Hague, Soul from Passionate Parenting recommends:

Tina Keogh (Great expectations - Oranje Kruis Certificate)  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Linda Malley (St John's Ambulance Certificate)  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it