Early Childhood Collaborative
Fiorella Bravo-Laguna
Charter Oak State College
SOC 350: Children, School & the Community
Sunday 12, 2017
Collaboration is defined as the action of working together to produce or create something. In the case of an early childhood setting, collaboration is very important for a young child’s success. Collaboration doesn’t just mean working together with the other teachers, it means working together with parents and family, professionals and other sources to help benefit the child’s not only education but overall development. Collaboration is more than just communicating with everyone involved once in a while, everyone working together throughout the whole process should understand the benefit of the collaboration taking place, showing mutual respect, not exactly agreeing with the different points of views but understanding them and also trusting each other because they have common goals to achieve. I will be discussing the Collaborative for Educational Services program (CES) and the services they provide.
Collaborative for Educational Services doesn’t only work with schools, families, children and but also adult learners across Massachusetts. Their goal is to create and improve educational opportunities not only in the classroom but also outside of school. CES believes that obstacles to learning can be overcome and after they are overcome, learning becomes something natural for everyone. They also have training for teachers who are trying to join the field as well as others who are ready to increase their skills and opportunities. They work together to provide every child with the opportunity to achieve their full potential. The partnership of this program includes the parents, students, teachers, specialists and other family members that might be involved in the child’s life.
Some of the partners that CES works with include the Department of Youth Services which helps create access to high-quality educations and employment opportunities for the youth that are in the care or custody of DYS. Also the Special Education in Institutional Settings, which changes the teaching and learning for the students in special education settings. Another partner of CES is the Strategic Planning Initiative for Families and Youth which is a group of community partners working together to improve the outcomes for the youth in the county of Hampshire. This organization promote strong families and create a local culture where youth are supported to make healthy choices.
As in everything else in life, every person involved in the collaboration has a different role and duties, just like in an assembly line, they all work together to achieve a goal. According to the textbook written by Donna Couchenour and Kent Chrisman (2014) “Families, School, and Communities: Together for Young Children”, states that if educators understand and respect the fact that families are the child’s first teachers and main nurturers, they will be prepared for their future careers, in which I agree. It is very important that when being an educator we have an open mind and are interested in helping others by understanding the families first, whether it is their structure or traditions. They are the child’s first teachers and want their child to succeed as well.
Donna Couchenour and Kent Chrisman also mention some principles that are central to family collaborations, these are
Open communication in which everyone in the party feels comfortable to share their opinions and ideas.
Each collaborator recognizes and also respects the knowledge, skills, and experiences that families and professionals including social workers bring to the effort.
Negotiation is very important when collaborating. It shouldn’t just be what one person believes is right and it shouldn’t just be the decision of the parent. Opinions should be shared and there will be likely some type of negotiation going on before the final decision.
Trust is very important. Parents should trust that the professionals are there to help them and help their child as much as they do.
Everyone’s cultural traditions, values, and diversity should be valued and respected.
These principles are very important tools for the partnership of not only parents and an early childhood program but also other professionals involved. Many times other specialists aren’t required as part of the collaboration but in other cases, they are such as a social worker, a health professional, or a special education teacher. When all these people get together, they combine their knowledge and experiences to benefit the child.
Before anyone gets together and collaborates on a plan for a child and their family there is a process. One of the main things that an educator and also a parent does is observe the child and look for signs. Many times teachers pick up on more signs than a parent because they might have seen some of the same characteristics on other children and especially with first-time parents, they might not be sure on developmental stage a child might be at. Once the teacher notices developmental issues, a speech delay or any other problem, they should share it with the child’s family to try some different exercises or techniques that could help the child, it is very important for teachers to communicate any concerns they might have about the child. There has to be a lot of communication between parents and teachers during this time in order to see any changes in the child or if their behavior is changing due to events going on in their family life.
Communication is essential, in order for teachers to know what a parent’s concerns are there has to be communication, this also comes handy when they communicate the improvements they are seeing on their child. It is also important to welcome others into the collaboration, just because the parents and teachers have a good relationship, it doesn’t mean that having a therapist involved things will change or that the therapist is there to be against the family. We should be able to welcome anyone who is trying to help, no matter their beliefs, culture or if they have a different opinion than the others. When working together people notice that sometimes there is more than one way to get the same result, trying the same steps in different orders might also get you the same result, which is how a collaboration also works. Everyone gives their opinion, try it more than one different way and figure out what works better for everyone.
Collaborative for Educational Services provides extra information, support, and other services to parents and the students through different programs by working with the multiple partnerships. They offer support and answers to parents/families and also for early childhood educators who want to have growth opportunities in the field. They work very closely with families, programs, schools and others in the community to nurture and recognize the child’s individual strengths for their first five years. CES offers services that are also offered in other organizations, such as home visits, early literacy programs, social- emotional and mental health and parent education and support. They mention that the first few years of a child’s life is very valuable and beneficial for a healthy brain development which is why “taking care of our children today is the best way to ensure a prosperous future for all of us”.
I believe that by having parent education programs and support program, it makes the families feel like they are being listened, these workshops teach parents about the child’s development and also help with the needs of the family. Donna Couchenour and Kent Chrisman mention that “collaboration is a drastically different way of providing services to families than existing methods and systems.” Some of these workshops might be about general topics, but these programs also offer support for individual situations.
Educators should not be the only ones trying to get parents involved in collaborations, parents can also freely volunteer to do activities in the classroom, make themselves available to the teachers and let them know. Just like the parents shouldn’t judge the professionals, educators should also not judge parents and the way they raise their child. There should be a clear understanding of the need to have parents and educators collaborating with one another for the child’s optimal development.
References
Programs. (n.d.). Retrieved March 3, 2017, from http://www.collaborative.org
Couchenour, D. L., & Chrisman, K. (2014). Families, schools, and communities: together for young children. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.