Partnership with Families

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Chapter 9
Partnership with Families

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Historical Perspectives on Family
Involvement
• Role of family in planning, implementing
and evaluating early childhood special
education programs has changed
dramatically.
• Early intervention services have moved
from child-centered to family-centered.
• Legislative support for family support.

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Family Uniqueness
• What is a family?
– The answer is constantly changing.
– Families are individuals who care about one
another and often have a bond.
– It may be a group of individuals related by
blood.
– Units that have made a commitment to share
their lives.

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Family Uniqueness (continued)
– Family is also a cultural group that you are
attached to.
– One must become culturally competent:
• Learn about the families you serve.
• Work with cultural mediators.
• Learn words from their language.
• Take time to work with interpreters.
• Use forms of communication acceptable to the
family.
• Recognize collaboration.

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Family Uniqueness (continued)
• Families of Children With Disabilities
– Research has been done on mothers’
reactions.
– Fathers consider long-term care.
– Attention needs to be paid to grandparents
and siblings as well.

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Family Uniqueness (continued)
• Family adjustment
– Grief is typically the first emotion.
– The family grieves for the loss of the normal,
healthy child they were planning for.
– Decisions need to be made, causing stress.
– Families need to work together for the benefit
of the child and the family stability.

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Family-Centered Practice
• Three key elements
– Emphasis on strengths.
– Promote family choice.
– Develop collaborative relationship.

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Family-Centered Practice (continued)
• Enabling and empowering families
– Enabling is creating opportunities for family
members to become more competent and
self-sustaining with respect to their abilities to
mobilize their social networks to get needs
met and attain goals.

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Family-Centered Practice (continued)
– Empowering is carrying out interventions in a
manner in which family members acquire a
sense of control over their own developmental
course as a result of their own efforts to meet
needs.

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Parent Participation
• Rationale for parent participation
– Parents are the first teacher.
– Skills are learned faster when practice is done
at home.
– Early intervention provides support for
parents.
– Consistency of expectations is maintained.
– Parents know their child best.

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Parent Participation (continued)
• Degree of participation
– Parents cannot always do as much as they
would like or caregivers would like due to:
• Work schedules
• Other children
• Attitude toward child and child’s problems
• Culture
• Parental education and health

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Parent Participation (continued)
• Types of parent participation
– Spend time in classroom
– Complete projects at home
– Take leadership roles
– Parent observations
• Must be welcome at any time.
• Classroom space designated for visitors.

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Parent Participation (continued)
• Establishing trust
– Teachers need to work hard to develop trust
with the parent.
– This can be done by talking to the parent
honestly.
– Share concerns in a caring manner.
– Protect a child’s confidentiality.

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Communicating with Parents
• Informal exchanges
• Telephone calls
• Written notes,
including emails
• Texts
• Photos and Videos
• Class websites and e-
mail updates
• Newsletters
• Parent and teacher
meetings
• Parent support
groups
• Parent feedback
• Home visits