Building relationship with parents

in Early Childhood Education

María Tabares and Ewa Hondra
 What is a parent-teacher relationship?

What do partnerships between families and early childhood staff look like?
PARENTS
Relationship PARTNERS
TEACHERS

- The best way to help kids succeed,

- Allies in education settings.

PartnershipS:
Share a common goal,
Share the responsibility for reaching that goal.
Ittakes time and ongoing effort and everyone needs to keep working at it
It is the best tip for school success.

The important role of teacher–family relationships has long been understood and established as a priority by teachers
and researchers in early childhood so building this type of relationship in preschool should be a top priority
 How to build a positive relationship?
Strategies for Relationship Building and Developing Positive Perceptions

▪ The eagernerss to establish good relationship wilth ALL the families in the classroom
▪ Is this contact trust-building?
▪ mutually supportive communication
▪ appreciating small accomplishments that the child makes
▪ teachers need to learn individual parents’needs
▪ Listen to parents concerns and respond to them
▪ teachers should ask for parents’ assistance when they really need it
▪ teacherss should explicitly convey the message that they value parents as their child’s first
teachers.
 What is needed to be effective?
Effective communication strategies involve
• Initiation: Teachers should initiate contact as soon as they know which
students will be in their classroom for the school year. Contact can occur by
means of an introductory phone call or a letter to the home introducing
yourself to the parents and establishing expectations.
• Timeliness: Adults should make contact soon after a problem has been
identified, so a timely solution can be found. Waiting too long can create
new problems, possibly through the frustration of those involved.
• Consistency and frequency: Parents want frequent, ongoing feedback about
how their children are performing with homework.
• Follow-through: Parents and teachers each want to see that the other will
actually do what they say they will do.
• Clarity and usefulness of communication: Parents and teachers should have
the information they need to help students, in a form and language that
makes sense to them.
What influence on the relationship?

▪ each parent brings with him/her diverse views and ideas what is
best for his/her child – ideas concerning appropriate involvement
of the teacher
 How do children benefit from partnerships?

Parental School Involvement and Children’s Academic Achievement

Parent–teacher relationships increased parental involvement significant and lasting impact on

children’s academic achievement

Parents → Vital link between home and school

- influence their children’s attitudes about learning, and support learning at home
- assist their children in their school-related activities
- can exchange information and focus on meeting each child’s needs and supporting their development
- reduce mental health difficulties
- allow children to see important people in their lives working well together with positive communication and
begin to learn it is important to build healthy relationships
- manage different rules and routines in different places
- can feel comfortable at their early childhood service and enjoy positive experiences.
How do families benefit from partnerships?

• Have opportunities for connecting with other families that attend the
service who provide information and insight on school policies and
practices, as well as extracurricular activities.
• Increases parents’ skills and information about the school’s expectations
for behavior and homework and learn how to help with homework and
how to augment children’s learning at home.
• They benefit greatly from having a support network of people they can
share information with and work through challenges together.
• They can feel comfortable leaving their children with people who are
working in their child’s best interests.
• When families feel understood and supported by those around them they
experience better health and wellbeing.
How do early childhood staff benefit from
partnerships?

• The staff feel more connected, valued, rewarded and appreciated

so that they feel confident and satisfied in their role of teacher.
• - Can more easily respond to children’s needs by understanding a
child’s relationship with their parents, carers and siblings.
• - Learn about parents’ expectations for their children and their
children’s teachers.
• - And develop a deeper understanding of how each family would
like their child to be raised.
Parental Expectations in their Relationships with
Early Childhood Professionals

▪ caring teacher
▪ respect
▪ teacher viewed as the one who knowshis/her subject and truly
meets parents’needs
▪ collaboration
▪ close relationship
The building blocks of partnerships

• <<<The Building Blocks of Positive Relationship>>>

▪ Family-centred care: appreciate and value each other’s knowledge and use this in caring of
children, communicate openly, share information and decision making, recognise and respect
diversity, build suport networks when needed.

▪ Communication: to talk about beliefs and values in families, the child’s interests, strengths
and challenging behaviours, family expectations

▪ Empathy: Showing respect towards others

▪ Respect for diversity that is the differences between individuals, in family values, cultural or
community background or people with a disability, differences in family structures,
Relationship between parent and teachers of
children with disabilities

• parents are influened by the attitudes and beliefs about disability

and about families with disability – they may become
hypersensitive to feedback from memebers of other groups

Conclusions: synergy, win-win approach, remebering that the child

benefits more if these relationshps are positive that is when instead
of being an additional stress, these relationships are the source of
suport.