The person I interacted with was
one of the parents and her name is Amy. She has a child with special needs that
was non-verbal until recently, with other developmental delays. The child did
not speak, she just pointed to what she wanted and made sounds, she lack
self-help skills and has low muscle tone which cause her to shake. The child is
now enrolled in Head Start 75% of the school and the other 25% is spent in an
ESE classroom. Before she started Head Start she was full time in the ESE
classroom. The mother said she is extremely happy with the progress that the
child has made since being in the Head Start program. Because not only is she
talking more, she can have a simple conversation with her. She said that her
daughter comes home from school and talks about random things, or things she
thought to be random until she spoke with the teachers and found out that the
child was talking about a story that was read to her that day. She said that
with the teachers from both classrooms working together with the speech
pathologist, her daughter has come a long way since last school year.
I asked her about her thoughts on
advocacy in early literacy, and she informed me that she was not involved in
any advocacy work at this time but she was very interested. She also told me
that she does her part in helping the teachers and other parents by finding
websites with literacy activities and other resources and give the list to the
teachers to distribute to the parents and she donates electronic learning games
and videos to her child’s classrooms. She also said early literacy is not just
about learning to read and write, but it is also about learning to communicate.
She was very happy that her child is communicating with more words instead of
one word utterances.
Insights I have gained from the
conversation I had with this parent is that having open communication with
parents is very important. The parents need to be comfortable enough to open up
to ask for help. I have parents of children in my classroom right now who are
here illegally. They are most worried that we will call the immigration office
on them. So, I feel that when you communicate with the parents and assure them
that you are here to help them to help their children and nothing else, then
that is a starting point for building communication and trust.
So many of our ELL families are very worried about the issue of immigration. Again, we can go on and on about the educational system in the U.S. however there is no where in the world that provides education for ALL even if they are not citizens. Was the child, Amy, identified with special needs?
ReplyDeleteThe child was identified to be Hyper-tonic with low muscle tone. She is ridged and she shakes a lot, she also have developmental delays. The mother said she had difficulties during child birth. The cord was wrapped around the baby's neck and cut off her air supply.
DeleteI really enjoyed your post, and it seems like you had a really good experience with the parent, and she gave you some great information. The trend that I see among many of the post is that parents want to learn, and want to be communicated with about their child. This parent seems like a great resource to the teachers, and it almost seems like she is advocating for Literacy. Do you feel like your conversation with the parent helped you?
ReplyDeleteI agree, they want to learn but they are afraid. I try to point them in the right direction by giving them resources that they need and Amy has been very helpful also.
DeleteHello Rosalie,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading about your interview. Maintaining ongoing communication with families is so critical. As you mentioned families need to feel comfortable enough to ask for help, and they need to know that if they do ask for help, that their issues will be kept confidential. Many times families just need someone they can trust and talk too, until they make a decision on how they are going to deal with things; whatever the situation maybe. I have learned that sometimes families just need to talk and express things, many times they are not looking for answers, feedback or long conversations. They already know the answer, but for whatever reason they have been unable to act. I agree that assuring families that you are there to help is a great starting point for building trusting relationships with families.
A lot of the parents I deal with are embarrassed because they do not read. But I tell them I am not there to judge. There is an Adult Learning Center at the site that I work, with free babysitting. I tell the parents about it and the do want to learn. If they do not drive I ask around for other parents that are interested and they ride together to take the classes.
DeleteIf you see this parent again please tell her, her actions are exactly what an advocate does. She is a advocate for literacy. It is great that heads art is helping her child communicate more. Verbal communication is one of the first steps to literacy development. Children must be able to express their ideas and thoughts and later learn those same ideas and thoughts can be written down to for others to read and understand.
ReplyDeleteShe definitely is an advocate. She is also taking classes to be a primary grade teacher.
DeleteHi Rosalie!
ReplyDeleteI agree that communication is a MUST between teachers and parents. It helps make the parents feel comfortable leaving their child at school if they trust the teacher and have a relationship with them.