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The BabyEQ Company was created by Christine
Zernzach, a Marriage, Family, and Child Therapist in 2001 shortly
after she became a new mother. Through her educational and professional
experience working with troubled children and drug-addicted teenagers,
Christine knew that fostering the development of emotional competency
(or "EQ") was vital…and it needed to start long before
they were court-ordered into counseling to learn more appropriate
ways of dealing with their difficult feelings!! |
| Recognizing the importance of nurturing
emotional growth in the very young, Christine began to search for
simple age-appropriate products that could assist her in teaching
her daughter how to identify and manage her own feelings as well as
appreciating the emotions of others. She soon found there were hundreds
of products and toys available, especially videos, claiming to “improve”
intelligence through listening to classical music, teaching colors,
letters, numbers, shapes, and even poetry. However, there were no
videos or other products aimed at addressing a young child’s
emotional development. |
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Through her clinical experiences, Christine understood
that when parents focused on the emotional lives of their young
children in healthy ways, those children would be more prepared
for the social demands of the classroom and fare better with peers.
They would have fewer “emotional problems,” more
friends, and have a certain “resilience factor”
to emotional stresses. This is the essence of what every parent
hopes for, and this is what Christine wanted for her own child.
It wasn’t long before BabyEQ was conceived and EQ products
developed as the building blocks for social and emotional intelligence. |
| To assist in the “birthing process”
of the company, Christine brought together the talents and interests
of her husband, a pediatrician specializing in behavioral and
developmental disabilities, and a child-therapist friend, Sophie
Dufault, also a mother of a newborn child. |
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| BabyEQ has chosen to focus on the preschool
age group (birth to five years old) for this endeavor. We recognize
this is the time when the greatest impact can be made and positive
influences are the most profound and long lasting. We know if parents
make emotional themes central to their parenting style, many wonderful
things will begin to happen. Nurturing relationships will deepen.
Bonding with parents will strengthen. Children will understand themselves
and others better. And, as older children, they will be less likely
to look elsewhere for approval and acceptance. This encapsulates the
ultimate mission of BabyEQ. |
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