Phonological Awareness. Numeracy. Social-emotional and behavioral development. These terms are used often in school environments, yet unfamiliar to many families of young children. What do they really mean? Learning to recognize and use the sounds of spoken language and doing the same with numbers, plus learning how to build relationships and navigate the world we live in. These are critical skills for every child to master between preschool and third grade. They provide a foundation for learning throughout a child’s school years and then beyond.
Parents are essential partners in building these skills. Strong family engagement and two-way cooperation between parents and the child care or early education environment make all the difference for young children. By educating themselves about which skills the child care or education program is working on (and how), parents can connect the everyday learning that occurs at home and in community to what’s taking place under the guidance of an early childhood education teacher.
What do we mean by “family engagement”? At home, this means reading together, talking together, playing together, problem-solving together, and creating happy memories together — all things parents naturally do! In the early childcare and education setting or in the K-3 setting, it means understanding what children are learning and why, how that learning will be built upon in the coming school year, communicating openly with teachers about challenges and successes, and getting familiar with Indiana’s academic standards (https://www.in.gov/doe/students/indiana-academic-standards/). It also means looking for early childcare and education programs that are on Paths to QUALITYTM, Indiana’s quality rating system for early childcare and education providers (https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/). A program that is accredited or moving toward accreditation assures that young children are receiving developmentally appropriate lessons.
Learn More About Building Family-School Partnerships
If you work in an educational setting, we encourage you to review Dr. Karen Mapp’s Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships. Dr. Mapp is an expert in family-school partnerships and developed the Framework to outline the systemic supports that must be in place to foster parent engagement. The Framework regards parents as their children’s first and most important teachers and calls for early childcare and education settings and K-12 schools to remove barriers so that families can share their perspectives and talents and learn how to support their children’s development.
To learn more about the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships, check out Dr. Mapp’s presentation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/QpCnXnO-cO8?feature=shared
