Ideas and Challenges When Working with Families Assignment:
Often, families of children with special needs are concerned about their child, particularly if they are beginning the IFSP or IEP process. Read through two of the three resources that explain how to support and partner with families:
ELL’s in Early Childhood Education: Recruiting Immigrant Families
Involving Immigrant Parents of Students with Disabilities
68 Involvement Ideas That Really Work
These articles are located under the Assignments section for this week.
Choose three ideas or concepts from each of the two resources (six ideas altogether) you feel are most important when partnering with families and you are most eager to try. Then do the following:
State the idea (and cite which article it came from)
Explain why this idea is important to utilize in the classroom.
Give an example of how this could be used in your classroom (do not use the examples mentioned in the articles)
Next, respond to this scenario:
Four-year-old Shaniqua and her family have joined your program this year. She has just been diagnosed with autism and has exhibited sensory processing issues and social issues (she does not verbalize to other children) within the classroom during the month she has been in your room. Each member of her family is at different points in the process of reacting to the diagnosis. Some of them are interested in learning more and some want Shaniqua to be tested further. Others are asking if she will grow out of this when she enters Kindergarten. As the classroom’s head teacher, you want to be as helpful to the family as possible to ensure success during this year in your program.
Using the resources you read and any others you may find online, address each of the family member’s concerns:
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Find a family-friendly resource or website that you can give to the family giving evidence-based information about Shaniqua’s condition. Explain why this resource is helpful and give the website. Cite two things from the resource that you might highlight for the family.
Find a local family support group to recommend to the family and explain why a support group may be helpful. Consider and explain which family member may be interested in a support group and why you think this would be helpful for them.
Find a local resource for the family where they can get more information about autism and explain how you give this to the family and when.
Finally, find two resources explaining evidence-based practices to use in order to help address the social issues and sensory issues within the classroom that you could also give to the family to try implementing at home.
Explain 3 activities you could use both in the classroom and at home. Explain what issues each would address and why these activities are helpful to Shaniqua. Be sure to cite the websites you used to find the evidence-based practice.
Copyright © 1996 The Parent Institute
68 Parent Involvement Ideas That
Really Work
1. Know THE SECRET to getting
parents to attend meetings at
school—make sure they know
they’re genuinely invited.
2. Establish a friendly contact with
parents early in the year, “In Time
of Peace.”
3. Insist that teachers not wait until its
too late to tell parents about
potentially serious problems. Early
contact helps.
4. Ask teachers to make at least two
positive phone calls to parents each
week. Add a phone line or two if
needed. Parent communication is a
cost-effective investment.
5. Remember the 3 “F”s for suc-
cess—Food, Families, Fun.
6. Focus on the strengths of fami-
lies—they know their children better
than anyone else. Find ways to get
that information to teachers, other
school staff.
7. Learn how to deal with angry
parents—separate the parent from
the argument he is making. Use
active listening. Don’t get angry.
Look for areas of agreement, “We
both want your child to do well.”
Find a win-win solution. If you’re
not sure about a parent suggestion
say, “I’ll certainly keep that in
mind.” If necessary, devise a
temporary solution.
8. Provide a brief parent newsletter.
One sheet of paper is best.
9. Remember “30-3-30” in writing
school newsletters. Eighty percent of
people will spend just 30 seconds
reading it. Nineteen percent will
spend three minutes. One percent
will spend 30 minutes (your
mother).
10. Remember the dollar bill rule for
newsletters. A dollar bill placed
anywhere, at any angle, on any page
should touch some element of
graphic interest—headline, box,
screen, bullets _, bold type,
picture—or it’s too dull for most
people to read.
11. Develop written policies encour-
aging parent involvement. If it’s not
in policy, the message is we don’t
care much about it.
12. Write for parents at 4th to 6th grade
level. Use a computer to check the
reading level.
13. Know why parents say they are not
involved: 1) Don’t have time, 2)
Don’t know what to do, 3) Don’t
know it is important, 4) Don’t speak
English.
14. Take heart from the “one-third rule.”
Research says if you can get one-
third of a school’s parents involved,
you can begin to make significant
improvement in student
achievement.
15. Be aware that teachers are more
reluctant to contact parents than vice
versa. Solution: get parents and
teachers together—just as
people—in comfortable social
situations.
16. Stress two-way communication
between schools and parents. “One-
way” isn’t communication.
17. Conduct school surveys to reveal
family attitudes about your school.
18. Use “key communicators” to control
the rumor mill. Keep those to whom
others turn for school information
well informed, especially the three
“B”s—b arbers, bartenders & beauty
shop operators.
19. Use simple evaluation forms to get
parent feedback on every meeting or
event. If we ask, they will tell us
what they want.
20. Try “quick notes” home—notes the
day something happens. A parent
helps the child wi
