Family and CommunityDiana Williams

ECE 497 Child Development Capstone CourseKaren FosterMay 18, 2015

Period of Development

▪ Middle childhood is from the ages of 6 to 11. Children learn about the wider world and master new responsibilities that increasingly resemble those they will perform as adults (Berk, 2013, pg.6). Improved athletic abilities and participation in organized games with rules come into play in this period of development (Berk, 2013, pg.6). During this period of development children master the fundamentals of reading, writing, math and other academic knowledge and skills (Berk, 2013, pg.6). They also have advances in understanding the self, morality, and friendship (Berk, 2013, pg.6).

Child Development Professional

Role with Children

▪ Provide a safe and healthy environment for children

▪ Guide development though various physical, cognitive, language, and social/emotional activities.

▪ Encourage independence in children.

Role with Parents

▪ Provide a space where the parent is comfortable leaving their child

▪ Guide parents in the right direction when it comes to the development of their child

▪ Have information available to parents for services needed

Why We Work Together

▪ Parents and teachers need to make sure they are working together as a team. The children benefit from having a cohesive environment.

▪ Schools, along with families and communities, are important influences that can contribute to the development of healthy and successful young people, even those thought to be at risk (Smith, Boutte, Zigler, & Finn-Stevenson, 2004).

▪ In addition to the family, school is an important setting for developing young people. In the United States, school-age children spend many of their waking hours in school, ranging from 3 to 7 hours daily, 5 days a week, at least 9 months of the year (Smith, Boutte, Zigler, & Finn-Stevenson, 2004).

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System

▪ The Ecological system theory views the child as developing within a complex system of relationships affected by multiple levels of the surrounding environment (Berk, 2013, pg.26).

▪ The second level of this system is the mesosystem. The mesosystem the connection between the child and it’s microsystem (Berk, 2013, pg.27).

▪ When there is a good connection between the child’s home life and school life the development of the child is more likely to be stable.

Mesosystem

Epstein’s 6 Types of Involvement

▪ The six types of involvement help structure and organize activities to gain parents' support and involvement in their children's education. Each type of involvement can consist of a number of different types of initiatives. Therefore, school personnel have to decide which partnership activities will work toward the unique needs of their school (Sheldon & Epstein, 2005). Schools that have integrated the theory of overlapping spheres utilizing the six types of involvement have created better interactions among the home, the school, and the community and have been shown to have healthy partnerships with families and communities (Sanders, 2008).

Parenting

▪ Helping families (e.g., parents and extended family members) to become aware and knowledgeable about child development, and providing resources that enable them to establish home environments that can enhance student learning (Griffin, & Steen, 2010).

▪ Parents are a great resource for teachers. Parents are their child's first teacher. The creation of the parent-teacher organization (PTO) was so that parents could have a role in their child’s education.

Communicating

▪ Effective, appropriate, relevant, two-way contact about school events (e.g., open houses, conferences, testing workshops), student academic or personal development and progress, and/or insight (e.g., success or challenges) within the home environment (Griffin, & Steen, 2010).

▪ Newsletters and daily behavior charts are great ways for teachers and parents to stay connected. With all the technology there is today email and text are other ways to stay connected. When there are reminders to be sent out for my son’s class the teacher sends a text straight to my cell phone. I never miss anything important.

Volunteering

▪ Organizing and participating in activities initiated by school personnel (e.g., parent-teacher association) or generated by community members aimed at supporting students and school programs, such as service-learning projects, Big Brothers Big Sisters programs, or violence-reduction assemblies (Griffin, & Steen, 2010).

▪ When children start the new school year, parents should be made aware of a volunteering schedule. Each parent will be required to volunteer once every 9 weeks of their child’s school year. This way the parents stay connected to the school but are not overwhelmed with volunteering.

Learning at Home

▪ Providing information to parents and families about school procedures (e.g., homework expectations, grading scales) in order to help them augment their children's academic activities (Griffin, & Steen, 2010).

▪ Children will be allowed to take home learning bags once a week. These bags will consists of math, language, or cognitive activities. These bags will have all the supplies needed for the parent and child to complete the activity together. The activity will always follow along with the child’s work in class.

Decision-making

▪ Including parents and family members from all backgrounds as representatives and leaders on school committees (Griffin, & Steen, 2010).

▪ When we include parents and family in decision making the child sees the connection between themselves and their school.

▪ The school will hold elections at the end of the year for the following years school committee board. Over the school year parents have gotten to know each other and can vote on who they would like to represent them and their children in making decisions.

Collaborating with the Community

▪ Identifying and integrating resources, services, and other assets from the community to help meet the needs of school personnel, students, and their families (Griffin, & Steen, 2010).

▪ When we get the community involved with our schools it shows our children that there are others that care about them. It also teaches them that we are all connected.

▪ Schools can reach out to community partners to sponsor events at the school. Community partners can also hold school supply drives and give donated items to local schools.

References

▪ Berk, L. (2013). Child Development (9th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education.

▪ Griffin, D., & Steen, S. (2010). School-Family-Community Partnerships: Applying Epstein's Theory of the Six Types of Involvement to School Counselor Practice. Professional School Counseling, 13(4), 218-226.

▪ Sanders, M. G. (2008). How parent liaisons can help bridge the home-school gap. Journal of Educational Research, 101, 287-297.

▪ Sheldon, S. B., & Epstein, J. L. (2005). Involvement counts: Family and community partnerships and mathematics achievement. Journal of Educational Research, 98, 196-206.

▪ Smith, E. P., Boutte, G. S., Zigler, E., & Finn-Stevenson, M. (2004). Opportunities for schools to promote resilience in children and youth. In K. I. Maton, C. J. Schellenbach, B. J. Leadbeater, A. L. Solarz, K. I. Maton, C. J. Schellenbach, ... A. L. Solarz (Eds.) , Investing in children, youth, families, and communities: Strengths-based research and policy (pp. 213-231). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association. doi:10.1037/10660-012