"Communication must be HOT. That's Honest, Open, and Two-way."丹奥斯瓦尔德

Know

Close your eyes and picture the qualities you want in your communication with families. What do you notice about the words you use, tone, pace and the feel of your everyday actions and routines? Ask yourself, “What am I doing to honor communication and relationships with families?” Your most important partner in this work is the preschooler’s family. It’s helpful to find a common understanding, rhythm and approach to family communication. The enrollment process, for example, can be considered the beginning of relationships. Future daily interactions are then supported by ongoing communication, systems and policies that invite multiple opportunities for communication and collaboration.

Throughout this lesson, we use the termfamilyto refer to important people in children’s lives. These people can be parents, siblings, guardians, extended family members such as aunts or cousins, and other individuals who are involved in children’s lives.

The information in this lesson was adapted from the Preschool Family Engagement course. Refer to the Families Engagement course for more extensive discussions on various topics related to engaging and working with children’s families in your classroom and program.

Importance of Establishing Relationships and Communication with Families

一些研究表明，教师、儿童和家庭之间的积极关系对学习至关重要（Shonkoff等人，2000年）。通过在问候和道别期间，以及在计划中的家庭会议等更正式的活动中，照顾者和家庭之间的沟通，可以建立和加强关系。狗万app怎么下载

All of these opportunities require you, as a preschool teacher, to be aware of many things, including tone, choice of words, and nonverbal communication such as facial expressions and body language. When you are aware of these characteristics, you can better communicate in ways that are most supportive to and respectful of families while keeping in mind this may be the family’s first experience with the preschool program. Even experienced teachers will not know more about children than their families; this is important to remember when families seem younger or less experienced than you are. Families will be eager to know how their child is doing, and you can support comfortable communication by offering encouraging responses and asking for clarification if something is not understood.

你还可以确保每一刻都能提供敏感的沟通、积极的倾听和建立联系的机会。发展家庭关系和与家庭沟通有助于沟通家庭和幼儿园环境。此外，研究表明：万博体育全站app

• Programs that demonstrate and support partnering with families tend to have families that feel more confident and comfortable in supporting their children’s development (Wilcox & Weber, 2001).
• 当服务纳入促进与家庭伙伴关系的实践时，家庭和儿童的结果会得到改善，包括养育能力和积极的儿童行为和功能（Dempsey&Keen，2008；Dunst，Trivette&Hamby，2008年）。

Establishing communication and meaningful relationships with families is a critical aspect of your work in preschool. When it comes to families of children with special learning needs, who may be simultaneously interacting with several different professionals from varying agencies or disciplines, establishing relationships becomes even more salient. As a preschool teacher, your role in helping families develop goals for their children and coming up with ideas for achieving those goals can have a tremendous impact on these families’ lives. You will work closely with your trainer to meet the needs of young children with disabilities, but it is important for you to know some key terms.

《残疾人教育法》（IDEA）是一部联邦教育法，授权为有资格接受特殊教育或早期干预的儿童制定个性化教育计划（IEP）和个性化家庭服务计划（IFSP）。IEP将由当地学区完成，IFSP将由当地早期干预机构完成。CYP专业人员不完成EAP、IEP或IFSP。但是，您的家庭可能会要求您参加儿童IEP或IFSP的团队。每个IEP或IFSP描述了团队为满足儿童或学生的独特需求而设计的教育计划，并且必须包含州和联邦法律要求的有关儿童或学生的具体信息。

For families new to this process, your role can be very important. Families may view your preschool program as their liaison or advocate to help them understand the system, access meaningful services, and set goals that can make a difference in their child’s life.

与家人保持持续的沟通

分享信息关于儿童方面的意义ful to families is critical to maintaining ongoing communication. Whenever possible, use data (e.g., classroom observations, examples of children’s work, child assessments) to convey information about children with families. Data can help family members understand that the information you are sharing with them is based on instances where you observed and generated information in an organized manner, as opposed to sharing things based on your personal views or opinions. As part of your work in preschool, it is likely that you collect developmental information on children through assessments, and it is critical that families have access to that information. This also enables families to follow their child’s progress over time. Along the same lines, invite families to observe their children in your classroom. Schedule some time after the observation to talk about what family members noticed and address any questions they may have.

Families will also help set the pace for their communication with you. It is important to acknowledge it can take time for families to feel safe, comfortable and friendly. Different forms of communication or ways of communicating can play an important role in easing the process. Using a combination of communication styles, or forms, with families might work best in meeting their needs. It’s also important to keep in mind there are likely to be a variety of factors that create challenges to communicating with families such as conflicting belief systems or overwhelming family problems and crises. Take a moment to think about and list a few of the barriers that you have faced when communicating and building relationships with families.

Family-Teacher Conferences

Family-teacher conferences are a great opportunity to engage in valuable conversations with family members about their children’s development and to address questions they may have. You can make this a meaningful experience for families by asking them to respond to or think about a few questions before coming to the conference. For example, you can ask them to think about their child’s most favorite or least favorite aspects of their preschool experience, or about concerns they may have. These questions can serve as great conversation guides and can facilitate dialogue and the exchange of ideas during the conference. In the Learn section of this lesson, you can see an example of a brief questionnaire you can share with families prior to family-teacher conferences. By giving families some time to reflect on these simple questions before coming to the conference, you are sending them the message that their input matters and that you value their point of view.

Involving Families in Young Children’s Communication and Language Development

Family members are children’s first teachers, and children learn to communicate by imitating parents, family members, and other significant adults in their home and community environments. Early interactions with family members can set the stage for effective communication and language development in young children’s lives. These are reasons why you should involve family members in young children’s communication and language development.

Involving family members in young children’s development can help you understand the diverse communication styles of children and families in your classroom and program. This is critical so that you can plan developmentally appropriate experiences for children and families, taking into consideration family backgrounds, traditions, unique needs, and preferences. At the same time, family involvement can help family members understand what and how their children are learning in the classroom as well as encourage them to support and promote high quality communication attempts in the home environment. Involving family members enables you to provide models or effective ways to promote communication in young children’s lives. For example, you may provide recommendations or insights about effective ways of talking about a child’s play, encouraging children to talk with each other as well as with other individuals, supporting children’s requests for help, reading books with children, or supporting a child’s emergent writing.

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Keeping relationships at the center of all your communication efforts with families can help create and maintain an environment where people are seen, heard, acknowledged and celebrated for their strengths and who they are. How would you describe your approach to first interactions with families? Think about how your efforts immediately welcome families into your preschool classroom. In addition, consider the following:

• 复习将学龄前儿童纳入该计划时使用的文件。与家庭共享哪些其他文档？这些文件如何与家庭共享万博体育全站app？想想这些文件是如何与学龄前儿童和家庭的优势和美好记忆联系在一起的，以及这些文件是如何获取所需信息的。
• Use photos of preschoolers and their families throughout the classroom, as well as to identify special places to keep personal belongings.
• 请现在的家庭帮助欢迎新的家庭。邀请所有家庭与全班同学分享他们的时间和才华。
• Send home weekly notes or classroom newsletters about happenings in your classroom and program. These should be written in the primary language of the children in your care.
• 在家和幼儿园之间建立持续的沟通。通讯期刊是一种很好的方式。这些通常与每个孩子一起送回家，并在第二天万博体育全站app归还。你可以分享值得注意的观察、时刻或事件，家庭成员可以对这些事件作出回应，或者分享他们自己的新闻、笔记或思考。对于有特殊学习需要的儿童，交流期刊可以成为在家庭和幼儿园环境之间建立一致性的一个特别有价值的工具。狗万app怎么下载
• 定期举行家庭教师会议，让家庭成员有机会讨论与孩子有关的目标、成就或问题。在讨论每个孩子的优点和需要时，使用积极的语言。如果你有顾虑，在谈到孩子的优点后，冷静而敏感地提出。
• Invite family members to volunteer in your classroom and program or to share talents, special interests, or expertise.
• Invite families to talk about their children with special learning needs. For example, a family member may come in your classroom and talk about their child’s use of adaptive equipment, such as braces, a wheelchair, or a communication device. The family member may explain the use of equipment, and this could help children and other families understand aspects of the child’s life. This also promotes acceptance of differences.
• During arrival or dismissal times, show enthusiasm and welcome families as they drop off or pick up their children. Use these times as opportunities to communicate with family members and sharebriefcomments about their children’s day at preschool. Remember, it’s best to save longer conversations for meetings when families can focus their attention. Also, be sure to talk to your trainer, coach, or supervisor before sharing information about a child’s challenging behavior. This sets the stage for more positive interactions and encourages family members to maintain communication with you.