{"id":29677,"date":"2021-08-10T05:30:29","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T10:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=29677"},"modified":"2021-08-09T19:32:49","modified_gmt":"2021-08-10T00:32:49","slug":"austin-peay-state-university-alumnas-books-help-children-understand-difficult-topics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2021\/08\/10\/austin-peay-state-university-alumnas-books-help-children-understand-difficult-topics\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Peay State University alumna\u2019s books help children understand difficult topics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Austin<\/a>Clarksville, TN<\/strong> – Children\u2019s mental health is underserved. That\u2019s part of the reason why Kacy Chambers, an Austin Peay State University (APSU) alumna of Interdisciplinary Studies K-8, wrote two self-help books and two journals during the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"Austin<\/a>

Austin Peay State University alumna Kacy Chambers. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized that a lot of what I went through stems from when I was younger,\u201d Chambers said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have anyone to talk to, I didn\u2019t have a book that talks about things that would have helped me understand everyday life.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Chambers didn\u2019t become an elementary school teacher, she stayed involved in helping children by working as a child care instructor for pre-kindergarteners and volunteered at her church daycare.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still had a soft spot for children although I didn\u2019t start working in the public school system like I thought I would,\u201d Chambers said.<\/p>\n

\u2018A better way\u2019 to reinforce the message<\/h3>\n
\"Austin<\/a>

Austin Peay State University alumna Kacy Chambers’ first book “Do Not Toiuch Me There”. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

Chambers wrote her first book, Do Not Touch Me There,<\/em> in July 2020, to teach children about inappropriate touch. Chambers breaks down the idea that close friends, family, preachers and teachers can assault a child. She stresses in her book that children should tell a trustworthy adult if an adult touches them or asks to be touched inappropriately.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren don\u2019t know what\u2019s right or wrong until we teach them,\u201d Chambers said. \u201cIt dawned on me that there has to be a better way to have that message reinforced. Something children can read about on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[470center]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chambers often talks with her own children about inappropriate touching. She empowers her children to speak up if anything were to happen to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe often teach \u2018stranger danger,\u2019 but we don\u2019t teach children that sometimes the bad guy doesn\u2019t have to be a stranger,\u201d Chambers said.<\/p>\n

Making Alzheimer\u2019s, Dementia easier to understand<\/h3>\n

Chambers\u2019s second book, Sometimes Grandma and Grandpa Forget, <\/em>teaches children about loving their elders who are fighting dementia and Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat book is very close to my heart because my family has tons of people who have had Alzheimer\u2019s or dementia,\u201d she said. \u201cBoth of my maternal grandparents and my dad have dementia.\u201d<\/p>\n

A neurodegenerative disease, dementia and Alzheimer\u2019s disrupt the communication between brain cells. This leads to the slow decay of lobes of the brain. It\u2019s a complicated topic, made digestible for children by Chambers.<\/p>\n

Chambers\u2019 children often questioned why she treated her dad and grandparents like children. Chambers\u2019 mother lives with her maternal grandmother and grandfather and often sits with her grandmother when her grandfather and mother leave the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so confusing to my oldest son,\u201d Chambers said. \u201cHe asked me, \u2018She\u2019s a grown-up, why do we talk to her that way? You explain stuff to her like she\u2019s a child.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A place to get their emotions out\u2019<\/h3>\n

Chambers also published two journals to give children a safe place to write about their emotions.<\/p>\n

The first book starts with a pledge for children to always tell a grown-up if someone touches them inappropriately or asks them to do something inappropriate. It includes a safety plan for children to follow in case something bad happens.<\/p>\n

[320left]\u201cAs a grown-up, we hear all the time that we should journal, and I didn\u2019t want to leave children without a place to get their emotions out,\u201d Chambers said.<\/p>\n

Chambers used her own pictures for her books. She\u2019s debating whether to hire an illustrator for her next two books or use her own pictures again. It gives the books a feeling of authenticity, seeing photographs staged around the community.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the two books attempt to foster a healthy relationship between children and difficult subjects. Chambers believes that these topics are difficult for parents partly because adults are overwhelmed. She believes many parents switch to auto-pilot and that allows serious topics to slip under the radar.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost parents are working outside of the house and they\u2019re doing all the stuff inside the house while still trying to have a little me time, just for their own sanity,\u201d Chambers said. \u201cI think the other part is that we are always trying to figure out the best way to say things at an age-appropriate level for our children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chambers thinks children need a tool to explore real issues. She had to educate herself about Alzheimer\u2019s and dementia, for example, to be a better caregiver for her father and grandparents, so it was important for her to educate children in the same way.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy oldest child has a disability. So I got to see how important mental health is,\u201d she said. \u201cHis journey isn\u2019t anybody else\u2019s journey. It\u2019s different from mine and it\u2019s different from yours.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can learn more about Chambers and her books at www.authorkacychambers.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – Children\u2019s mental health is underserved. That\u2019s part of the reason why Kacy Chambers, an Austin Peay State University (APSU) alumna of Interdisciplinary Studies K-8, wrote two self-help books and two journals during the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[28412,23,13763,262,512,825,34581,34634,15563,34642],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-7IF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29678,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29677\/revisions\/29678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}