Engaging Parents: An Important Role for Early Childhood Practitioners

1. Engaging Parents: An Important Role for Early Childhood Practitioners Carol M. Trivette, Ph.D. Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute Morganton and Asheville, North Carolina, USA www.puckett.org Presentation made at the Opening the Doors to Inclusion: 2013 National Early Childhood Inclusion Institute, May 14, 2013.

2. Focus of this Presentation Talk about your goals when working with parents. Talk about some of the challenges and solutions that you have found in your work with parents. Talk about resources that you have found helpful in your work with parents.

3. Learning More Talk about why you work with parents as part of your job. What are your goals for working with parents? Outcome to share with the group: Identify 5 to 10 different goals that members in your group have when working with parents.

6. IDEA Parent Outcomes Families understand their child’s strengths, abilities, and special needs. Families know their rights and advocate effectively for their child. Families help their child develop and learn. Families have support systems. Families access desired services, programs, and activities in their communities.

7. Parent and Family Outcomes

8. Your Challenges and Solutions What do you find challenging for you when you are working with parents? What are some solutions you have used to resolve your challenges? Outcome to share with group: Identify 3 to 5 of your challenges and your solutions to share.

9. Conceptual Foundations(Capacity-Building Paradigm)

10. Contrasting Approaches to Intervention

11. Family-Centered Practices Family-centered practices are practices that place primary emphasis on creating a relationship with a parent in such a manner that uses and builds on the parent’s capabilities and competencies when supporting his/her child. • Relational Practices • Participatory Practices

12. Relational Practices Relational practices include behaviors typically associated with effective help giving (active listening, compassion, empathy, etc.) and positive staff attributions about program participant capabilities. • These kinds of practices are typically described in terms of behaviors that strengthen program participant and practitioner interpersonal relationships (mutual trust, collaboration, etc.). • Relational practices also include help-giver beliefs about existing family member strengths and their capacity to become more competent as well as practitioner respect for personal and cultural beliefs and values.

13. Family-Centered Practices Scale Relational Indicators Staff really listen to my concerns/requests. Staff see my child/family in a positive, healthy way. Staff understand my child’s/family’s situation. Staff recognize my child’s/family’s strengths. Staff recognize the good things I do as a parent. Staff do what they promise to do. Staff are warm and caring toward me.

14. Participatory Practices Participatory practices include behaviors that involve program participant choice and decision making, and which meaningfully involve participants in actively procuring or obtaining desired resources or supports for achieving desired life goals. • These kinds of practices strengthen existing competencies and provide opportunities for learning new capabilities by engaging family members in informed choices and acting on those choices. • Participatory practices also include help-giver responsiveness to a family’s situation and changing life circumstances, and help-giver flexibility to these situations and circumstances.

15. Family-Centered Practices Scale Participatory Indicators Staff provide me information to make good choices. Staff respond to my requests for advice/assistance. Staff help me be an active part of getting desired resources/supports. Staff are flexible when my family’s situation changes. Staff help me learn about things I’m interested in. Staff support me when I make a decision.

16. Relational Practices Performance and Outcomes Participatory Practices Relationships Among Family-Centered Help Giving Practices, Self-Efficacy Beliefs, and Program Participant Outcomes Self-Efficacy Beliefs Family-Centered Help Giving

17. Division for Early Childhood Recommended Practices http://www.decrecpractices.org

18. Other Ideas Based on the material just presented, what might you do differently to help with your challenges?

19. Resources forParent and Family Engagement& Parent and Family Capacity Building

20. Sharing Resources What resources have you found most helpful to improve your skills in working with parents? What resources have you found most helpful to provide to parents? Outcomes to share with group: Identify 3-5 resources/strategies that you found most helpful to improve your skills. Identify 5-10 resources that you found most helpful for finding ideas/information to provide to parents.

21. Parent Practice Guides from theCenter for Early Literacy Learning (CELL) http://www.earlyliteracylearning.org/parentresource1.php

22. CELLpracticesHandouts http://www.earlyliteracylearning.org/parentpgs.php

23. CELLcasts Audio/Visual Practice Guides Downloadable as Podcasts or audio-only Mp3s http://www.earlyliteracylearning.org/ta_cellcasts1.php

24. CELLpops Interactive and Print Posters http://www.earlyliteracylearning.org/ta_cell_pop1.php

25. CELLvideos http://www.earlyliteracylearning.org/ta_pract_videos1.php

26. Resources for Families from the Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention (TACSEI) http://www.challengingbehavior.org/communities/families.htm

27. TACSEI’s “Backpack Connection Series” Handouts http://www.challengingbehavior.org/communities/families.htm

28. TACSEI’s “Making Life Easier”Handouts and Tipcards http://www.challengingbehavior.org/communities/families.htm

29. Additional Print Resources from TACSEI http://www.challengingbehavior.org/communities/families.htm

30. Web Resources

31. Head Start’s National Center onParent, Family, and Community Engagement http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/tta-system/family

32. Head Start Resources on Working With Families http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/tta-system/teaching/Disabilities/working%20with%20families

33. Head Start Resources on Family Engagement and Relationships http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/tta-system/ehsnrc/Early%20Head%20Start/family-engagement

34. Head Start Parent, Family, and Community Engagement Simulation http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/tta-system/family/center/pfce_simulation

35. Final Conversation After this conversation, what will you do differently tomorrow, next week? What do you still need to know? How will you get the information that you need?