Trevor Romain, a noted children's author and advocate, demonstrates the power of using storytelling and visual aids to reach military children during the Defense Department's Joint Family Readiness Conference in Chicago, Sept. 2, 2009. As an example, he held up a toy mouse inside a glass bowl. Just as nothing he sprays on the bowl reaches the mouse, he said, children can “shield” themselves from mean remarks. DoD photo by Elaine Wilson

By Elaine Wilson
Elaine.wilson@dma.mil
Oct. 2, 2009

I got a call from my daughter’s school the other day, the one every parent dreads. My daughter’s teacher was calling me to point out some “behavioral issues” my daughter had been having for several weeks.

I decided to have a one-on-one with my 7-year-old to see what was going on. She’s generally a very happy kid and normally breezes through school without any major problems. Turns out her best friend from last year had been ignoring her at recess and she was devastated. My daughter’s shy and it’s tough for her to make new friends so this was a huge hit to her ego.

I decided to use a visual technique I picked up at DoD’s family readiness conference last month. Trevor Romain, a noted children’s author and advocate, had described several methods he uses to help military children that I thought were pure genius.
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