… and introducing our Subject Matter Expert on child development and education, Gina Cristiano, M.A.

We know you count on us, not just for your child’s fun and physical development, but for their overall enrichment as well. In order for us to continue to give you what you so crucially need, we are committed to going above and beyond the camp experience of only one season. Our on-site staff of college-educated and masters level teachers, camp counselors and assistants, provide your child with educated leadership that prioritizes growth from a whole-child approach. These professionals enthusiastically strive to help your child reach their developmental goals in the “off” months of summer.

However, it’s not just our on-site staff that has a wealth of expertise to share with SASS families. We also have secret weapons behind the scenes, helping to inform best practices and make SASS better, not just every year, but every day. To keep growing, information has to be shared; whether that’s parent education, psychoeducation, cognitive and academic development, learning emotions, or teachers’ tips for school skills and more, we don’t want to keep this information siloed away to ourselves! From now on, you’ll be getting insight, recommendations, research, and best practices straight from our subject matter expert, Gina Cristiano.

Gina received her master’s degree from the top-ranked University of Texas at Austin in Educational Psychology with a specialization in School Psychology and worked in schools across Texas and Virginia before starting her own psychoeducational intervention business. Prior to her graduate-level training, Gina completed her undergraduate degree at Chapman University in California and graduated with departmental honors in Psychology with an emphasis on Child Development.

According to the National Association of School Psychologists, school psychologists improve academic achievement, promote positive behavior and mental health, support diverse learners, create safe, positive school climates, and strengthen family-school partnerships. Gina’s training included:

• Practices that promote learning
• How to boost children’s resilience and what risk factors exist
• Academic and learning interventions
• Mental health and behavioral interventions and best practices
• Instructional support and the needs of special learners
• Family, school, and community collaboration
• Diversity in development and learning

In addition, Gina has worked with children from diverse backgrounds and those with special needs since middle school. What does her expertise mean for you, parents and readers? Well, Gina is an expert on a multitude of topics, which believe it or not, are not just fancy buzz words from a parenting magazine. Furthermore, her background in education, psychology, and the psychology of learning will help inform our practices going forward.

Going forward, you’ll be reading articles from her sharing expertise on Parent Education, Social Competency, Emotional Skills, and Friendship, and Cognitive Development and Executive Functioning.

These are all vital subject areas that SASS emphasizes throughout our Friends’ journey that are also vital to a child’s healthy development year-round. Our goal is to be a reliable, data-based and current resource to you, parents and readers, while still making things fun to read and easy to absorb. You trust us with your children for two months out of the year, and we thank you. Now you can trust us to have your back for the other ten months (and to help keep you sane on this crazy parenting journey!).

Look for us weekly, and don’t hesitate to contact us if you’d like to see information on a certain topic. In the meantime, look for our themed posts, just as you look forward to our themed weeks every year. Same style, new content. Welcome to the new SASS blog!