{"id":57012,"date":"2025-07-22T22:14:36","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T22:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/?post_type=family-stories&p=57012"},"modified":"2025-07-22T22:14:37","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T22:14:37","slug":"mesa-center-helps-gilbert-girl-improve-communication","status":"publish","type":"family-stories","link":"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/es\/region-stories\/mesa-center-helps-gilbert-girl-improve-communication\/","title":{"rendered":"Mesa Quality First center helps Gilbert girl improve communication skills"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kelsey Irelan, new to Arizona, was looking for a job for herself and a child care center for her 1-year-old daughter, Amaya. She found Beautiful Oasis Child Care Center in Mesa, which is enrolled in the Quality First<\/a> program.<\/span><\/p>\n

The First Things First Southeast Maricopa Regional Partnership Council<\/a> funds Quality First, which partners with child care and preschool providers to improve the quality of early learning development across Arizona. The regional council also funds Quality First scholarships for eligible families, which Irelan qualified for.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before moving to Gilbert, Amaya spent her first year of life napping in a car seat while Irelan worked as a contractor for a food delivery service.<\/span><\/p>\n

These days, instead of waiting in her car seat, Amaya spends her days playing with other children and learning through the activities her teachers lead, while her mother provides customer service from the office of a local HVAC business.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since she started at Beautiful Oasis, Irelan has especially seen growth in her daughter\u2019s abilities to express herself and Amaya\u2019s vocabulary skills have blossomed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe talks so much,\u201d Irelan said. She comes home and she knows things I haven\u2019t taught her. I\u2019ve seen her grow tremendously,\u201d Irelan said.\u00a0 \u201cThis year, they made these little art projects with bats on them. I remember her bringing it home and saying, \u2018Mom, look! A bat! A bat!\u2019 Of course, that wasn\u2019t something I was teaching her.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Amaya\u2019s teachers agree.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Helping young children with these types of executive function skills is key for getting a child ready for kindergarten. And being able to communicate effectively goes a long way toward positive socialization.<\/p>\n

Teaching children to use their words to communicate emotions is important, Thames said. When someone takes a toy, for example, they often don\u2019t know how to express their feelings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey might cry or try to take it back. Or, if someone hits them, they might hit back,\u201d she said. \u201cWe walk them through how to identify how they are feeling, how to share that information with others in productive ways. We also teach them how to be mindful of the feelings of others.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Amaya\u2019s case, this translated into learning to be helpful while building a sense of empathy for her peers.<\/p>\n

Irelan can confirm.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe (Amaya) is so involved with helping Miss Susan and the other kids, it\u2019s almost as if she totally forgets her shyness,\u201d the 29-year-old single mother of one said. \u201cThere was one time, specifically, when there was a little boy who was crying and the teacher said, \u2018Amaya, can you please help me with this baby?\u2019 And Amaya just snapped out of it and went into \u2018mommy mode\u2019 to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In addition, Amaya\u2019s mother said her child is learning everything\u2014from social skills such as how to identify and communicate what she\u2019s feeling, to using words to solve problems, to learning about animals and workplace tools Amaya would otherwise not have encountered such as bats and hand-held two-way radios.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne major thing for me was that she wasn\u2019t a good eater,\u201d Irelan said of her daughter when they first enrolled in late 2023. \u201cShe only wanted me to feed her, and I was having a lot of trouble with that when I put her into that school. They did so amazing with getting her just to be on a schedule and be comfortable eating with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thames said Amaya\u2019s experience is an example of the natural progression among children in her centers\u2019 care.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren need structure,\u201d Thames said. \u201cWe give them that at Beautiful Oasis. We have set times for snacks, lunch, naps, playtime and learning time. It\u2019s the daily routine and repetition that teach kids to eat on schedule. They don\u2019t know what time it is by the clock, but they know that you eat before you go to sleep. If you try to tell a 2-year-old to do something out of order, they will push back. They learn the routine quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having Amaya in a classroom with children her age, with activities designed for her stage of development, is reassuring for Irelan. It\u2019s a good mix of playtime\u2014which is important to learning\u2014and guided learning to prepare Amaya for kindergarten, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s really exciting to know that they are doing all those things for her and really helping her along her path,\u201d Ireland said. \u201cI’ve just seen her grow tremendously since she’s been in that school.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because of a Quality First Scholarship, Amaya is learning, while her mother is able to work for a local HVAC business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":57488,"template":"","tags":[93,178,180,291],"class_list":["post-57012","family-stories","type-family-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-quality-first","tag-east-maricopa","tag-southeast-maricopa","tag-quality-first-scholarships","regions-east-maricopa","regions-southeast-maricopa","ftf_program_types-child-care-and-preschool"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMesa Quality First center helps Gilbert girl improve communication skills - First Things First<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Because of a Quality First Scholarship, Amaya is learning, while her mother is able to work for a local HVAC business.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/es\/region-stories\/mesa-center-helps-gilbert-girl-improve-communication\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mesa Quality First center helps Gilbert girl improve communication skills\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Because of a Quality First Scholarship, Amaya is learning, while her mother is able to work for a local HVAC business.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/es\/region-stories\/mesa-center-helps-gilbert-girl-improve-communication\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"First Things First\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AZFirstThingsFirst\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-22T22:14:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/970.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"393\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AZFTF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Tiempo de lectura\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"8 minutos\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/es\/region-stories\/mesa-center-helps-gilbert-girl-improve-communication\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/es\/region-stories\/mesa-center-helps-gilbert-girl-improve-communication\/\",\"name\":\"Mesa Quality First center helps Gilbert girl improve communication skills - 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