Know

思考一段时间在你的生活中当你的家人was facing a challenge. Maybe you or a family member was dealing with health issues, financial issues, loss of employment, relationship difficulties, moving to a new place, or separation from family and friends. How did these challenges affect you and the rest of your family as a unit? How did you cope with these challenges? What were some factors that enabled you to deal with these challenges successfully?

Just as we need to appreciate the many variations among families, we must also acknowledge the various contexts and environments in which families function (Hanson & Lynch, 2004). All families face challenges at some point in their lives. For some, these challenges may pose risks for children as well as other family members. As a preschool teacher, it is important to know that these challenges may also affect families’ willingness to seek help or participate in services, as well as their ability to actively participate in school-related processes.

Challenges that Pose Risks for Children and Families

有许多因素可以影响家庭功能和儿童发展，如贫困，药物滥用，疾病，暴露暴力，失业，婚姻不和谐，与父母的分离，并试图适应新的文化并学习新语言。无论何种情况，当家庭受到挑战时，家庭生活和儿童的行为都受到影响。与家庭是互联的个人复杂系统的想法保持联系，影响家庭中一个人的事件可能会影响所有家庭成员。

Poverty puts children and families at a greater risk for stress, illness, and social isolation. Exposure to violence may have negative effects on children’s school performance, emotional stability, and social competence. Substance abuse may affect family members’ ability to care and provide for children and as a consequence, children may be maltreated and neglected. Separation from family members, particularly parents, causes stress and emotional instability for all family members, especially young children. Marital discord or trying to adapt to a new culture or ways of living may also increase stress for all family members.

这些挑战期间的压力家庭经验可能会影响他们的耐心和能量水平。压力可以削弱家庭的能力感，撼动他们的控制感。有时，这些困难的复杂性可能似乎压倒了家庭和服务提供商，他们自己挑战了提出适当和有意义的资源，建议和解决方案。

加强家庭保护因素框架

The Center for the Study of Social Policy has developed the Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework. Originally designed as a framework to prevent child abuse and neglect, the Protective Factors can be a useful way to approach all of your work with families. It is important to understand this framework because it can help you see that the high-quality, family-centered work that you do every day in your program makes a difference in the lives of children and families. Your job is not only to care for each infant and toddler, but also to provide care and support for the whole family. The Strengthening Families Protective Factors framework gives us tools and ideas to support families.

Promoting Family Resilience

Resilient individuals have elements in their life that help them “bounce back” to overcome challenges and move forward in positive ways. Researchers have identified factors that promote resilience and coping in families who deal with challenges. Some of those factors are:

• Establishing positive early family member-child relationships
• Maintaining family coherence through shared values and beliefs
• Families finding positive meanings in difficult situations
• Teamwork within the family and strengthening the family as a unit
• Family members developing collaborative relationships with professionals
• Family members expressing feelings and communicating effectively with each other
• Maintaining friendships and participating in social activities and networks
• 从扩大家庭成员，教师，朋友，社区领导者或邻居接受支持（所有这些都被称为非正式支持）

Supporting Military Families

Military families face challenges unlike those experienced by others. These challenges may pose unique risks for children and the family as a whole. The nature of a military family member’s work can involve frequent moves or periods of separation from children; this can affect children’s emotional well-being. As a preschool teacher, it is important for you to know how to recognize when children are dealing with emotional stress and how to effectively support children and their families during difficult times in their lives.

Deployment

Deployment has a great effect upon family functioning, particularly relationships between caregivers and children. When children experience long periods of separation from their primary caregiver, their family life, routines, emotional state, and behaviors may be affected. Deployment can add stress and anxiety to families. Preschoolers may experience fear, sadness, confusion, or loss. You can support families during deployment by maintaining ongoing communication. As a preschool teacher, you can work with families to ensure they are well supported during this challenging time. It is important that families and caregivers work together to provide needed resources. It is also essential to acknowledge that as a service provider, you may also feel overwhelmed when trying to support military families. If you need help supporting military families of children in your care, talk with trainer, coach, or supervisor.

Before Deployment

While preparing for deployment, families may experience heightened anxiety and stress. If deployment occurs without warning, there may not be time for preparation. No matter the circumstances, families and children can be vulnerable during this time. As a preschool teacher, remind families to take care of themselves, as this will also help children cope better. Consider the following to support children and familiesbeforedeployment:

• 如果可能，请询问家庭成员分享即将到来的部署时间。与家庭沟通以学习支持它们的方法，并询问他们如何以及何时更愿意交换信息。
• Prepare materials to use with children during deployment. Photograph children with their loved ones. Audio- or video-record the deploying parent reading favorite stories, singing songs, or leaving special messages to their children.
• Plan for special events where family members can come to your classroom and be part of an activity or go on a field trip, giving them an opportunity to spend quality time with their child at school. Take pictures of these activities and display them in your classroom.
• Be sensitive to children’s needs and emotions during this time. Watch for signs of stress (e.g., crying, behavioral problems, irritability, inability to stay on task, mood swings, clinging) and develop a plan of action. Involve the families in suggesting management strategies to establish consistency between home and school environments.
• 帮助家庭确定可以在整个过程中帮助它们的可能性的支持来源（例如，其他家庭成员，邻居或朋友）。

在部署期间

Children and families greatly miss their loved ones during this time. Children may experience sadness, anger, anxiety and restlessness, and preschoolers in particular may become clingy and in need of more reassurance and hugs from you. Acknowledge that what works for one family may not work for another family. Consider the following to support children and familiesduring主动部署：

• Provide stability and minimize changes to routines, especially when it comes to the staff working with children. This also applies to all children and families dealing with transitions and new experiences. When it comes to children from military families it can provide them with a sense of stability and predictability about their lives on a day-to-day basis.
• 用孩子使用很多肯定。万博体育全站app学龄前儿童往往能够口头表达情感。为了回应评论，孩子们讨论了父母或想要与他们的妈妈，爸爸或爱的人一起，说“我能看到你很想念你的爸爸，”或“我知道你希望妈妈今天在这里。“
• If children are having a hard time expressing their emotions, provide the words for them. You can say, for example, “I know that you are feeling upset and that’s OK.”
• Involve the parent who is deployed by sending them photos, newsletters, videos, or special items that their children have produced (e.g., a drawing, a poem, or a few special words).
• Use videos or audio recordings you made before the family member was deployed (of family members sharing special messages, reading stories, singing songs, etc.) to help children cope with difficult situations.
• Offer children opportunities to stay emotionally connected with their loved ones who are deployed by writing letters, making drawings, or recording videos for them.
• 保持与家庭的持续沟通。

When a Family Member Returns

Reunions can be very happy times, but can also be challenging as many strong emotions are involved. Deployment can greatly affect the deployed individual and this, in turn, affects everyone else in the family and family members may need to adjust to new ways of doing things. A family member’s return may cause routines to be reevaluated and modified and family roles and responsibilities reworked. Children and family members may have mixed emotions. Consider the following to support children and families whena family member returns from deployment:

• Help children prepare for their family members’ return by talking about it. Always check in with families to get their suggestions about what may or may not work with their child.
• 组织特殊课堂活动（例如，野外旅行或午餐），并邀请从部署返回的家庭成员参加。
• Watch for signs of stress in children, and work with families to support their children.
• Acknowledge that this may be a difficult time for families and children, and be patient and understanding.

Supporting Military Families: Professional Views

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Promoting Family Resilience

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You can provide resources to families in your classroom through lending libraries, family classes or workshops, inviting classroom or program guest speakers, or sharing referral information about local professionals or agencies. Consider the following ideas when it comes to providing resources to families:

1. Classroom lending library:贷款库可以是您在课堂上为家庭提供资源的伟大起点。图书馆可能包括书籍，玩具，CD和DVD，哪些家庭可以检查并带回家。您的贷款图书馆应包括以家庭友好的，自由语言编写和呈现的材料。它应该涵盖各种主题和兴趣区，包括反映多样性和多元文化主义的材料，并且在可能的情况下包括不同语言的材料，以反映教室中的特定儿童的背景。
2. Family classes and workshops:These can be fun and inviting events that provide information on a variety of topics of interest to families. As you get to know the families of children in your classroom through the year, you may hear similar comments shared by several individuals. Use these common concerns to decide the topic of a family class or workshop. Depending on the topics of interest, you may choose to serve as the class leader for the family classroom or workshop or you may invite other professionals (e.g., pediatricians, local college instructors, program administrators) as guest speakers. Sometimes, even parents or family members of children in your classroom can serve as the guest speakers. These events can cover a variety of topics, such as nutrition, exercise, management of challenging behaviors, transition to kindergarten, school policies, or resources for families of children with special learning needs.
3. Referral information:您计划中的一些家庭将需要与其特定需求相关的更多具体信息。在这种情况下，您可以提供有关专业人员，代理商或其他服务的信息。考虑收集关于不同资源的信息，这些资源可能会在年初有所帮助，以确保您的信息是最新的，最新的。当您更好地了解您的程序中儿童的家庭时，您也可以找到更具体到他们需求的资源。资源主题列表可能包括以下内容：
   • Child care
   • Parenting helpline
   • 当地学区
   • 医疗保健专业人士
   • 地方特殊教育服务
   • Local libraries and community centers
   • Government benefits (e.g., Social Security, health-insurance programs)

As a preschool teacher, in collaboration with your trainer, coach, or supervisor, you must consider the appropriate services or resources for military families and families facing challenges. Always remember that each family’s needs are different from the next, and that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. Consider the following when working with families facing challenges:

• Use a family-centered approach: Each family’s needs are different, and what works well with one family may not work at all with another. Support families by focusing on their particular needs and honor their heritage and culture. Above all, focus on their strengths and build on those.
• 灵活，创意，与每个家庭的方法个性化。例如，如果一个家庭遇到交通问题并且在学校遇到你的困难时期，安排家庭可以安全到达的地方会议。让家人选择他们希望与您在军队和部署期间与您沟通的多少和多久。
• Suggest informal sources of support. Those can include other family members, neighbors, friends, church members, or other individuals the family knows and feels comfortable with.
• Make resources available to families. These may include community organizations, related professionals who can provide assistance, or child-care providers. Don’t assume that families who have experienced deployment several times have the needed resources in place.
• 总的来说，理解和非阶段。面临挑战的家庭有时会掩盖其基本需求，并且可能不会响应您的建议或建议。