Family Rituals: Implications for Early Intervention

1. Family Rituals: Implications for Early Intervention Lisa A. Shuck and Jayne E. Busy

2. Introduction • Families play a key role in children’s developmental outcomes • Specific intervention plans • Garbarino (1990) used the ecological model to show that all environments have an impact on child development • Family rituals are especially important

3. Understanding Family Rituals • “Family rituals are repetitious, highly valued, symbolic social activities that transmit the family’s enduring values, attitudes, and goals and are essentially ‘the core of the family culture.’” • Three universal types of rituals: • Family celebrations • Family traditions • Daily routines

4. Universal Types of Family Rituals • Family celebrations – highly organized rituals that are standard across families • Religious holidays, secular holidays, and rites of passage • Family traditions - moderately organized, less culture specific, and more idiosyncratic to the family • Vacations, visits from family, family reunions, birthday and anniversary customs, and special parties with ethnic food and music • Daily rituals – the least standardized across families, the most variable over time, and the most enacted • Dinnertime customs, bath-time rituals, bedtime practices, etc... • Distinction between daily rituals and daily routines • Daily rituals have symbolic meaning; daily routines do not have symbolic meaning

5. Table: Comparison of Rituals and Routines

6. Functions of Family Rituals • Rituals are powerful organizers of behavior within the family system that provide the family with a sense of stability, a unique identity, and a means for socializing children within their cultural context • Functions: stability, identity, socialization

7. Functions of Rituals: Stability • Rituals provide stability for families in times of crisis or stress • Hill’s ABCX model (family stress model) • Family rituals represent a crisis-meeting resource • Empirical evidence: alcoholism transfer • Stability for mothers of children with developmental disabilities • Andes survivors’ use of rituals (e.g. rosary) could have contributed to their ability to handle crisis situations (e.g. avalanche)

8. Family Identity • Rituals can provide a family and members of the family with a sense of identity by creating a sense of belonging and solidarity • Through rituals, families are able to passed down family values and beliefs, reinforce the family’s heritage, and recognize change within the family

9. Socialization • Rituals are the occasions that serve to facilitate social interaction among family members • Family rituals are the instances where children learn how to appropriately act in social situations • “please” and “thank you” • Research has shown that families that use less family rituals are more likely to have children with behavior disorders or problem behaviors

10. Assessment of Family Rituals for Early Intervention • Assessment of family rituals is one aspect of a comprehensive assessment of family resources, priorities, and concerns • Interviews are mostly used to get a description of the dimensions of rituals • Four dimensions of rituals • Structure • Meaning • Persistence • adaptability

11. Family Ritual Structure • Structure refers to the core elements of rituals: what, when, where, and who • Families that rarely engage in rituals are more likely to miss out a sense of family identity, stability, and socialization opportunities • Example: Sleeping twin boys

12. Family Ritual Meaning • Symbolic significance of the rituals; affective content or meaning associated with enactment of the rituals • Rituals associated with transitions can often lose meaning for a family with a child that has a developmental disability • Example: Getting a sitter and going out

13. Family Ritual Persistence • Commitment of the family to maintaining the rituals despite obstacles to participation, which is protective feature for the family • Families that have a child with a disability often find that rituals are neglected or abandoned in response to the needs of their child. • Example: evening walks

14. Family Ritual Adaptability • Ability of the family to adapt rituals to meet the needs of the individual or the entire family over time • Rituals should be adaptable in order to maintain their meaning • Three ways to adapt rituals: • Construct a new ritual • Reinstate a lost ritual • Modify a no longer functional ritual to meet the needs of the family

15. Linking Family Rituals with Interventions • Early interventionists should incorporate and work with family rituals when developing interventions for children with development disabilities. • These interventions are more likely to be practiced, and they are less likely to overburden the family. • Example: meal time program • Interventions can include rituals • Example: commencement ceremony