Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Creating a Parent-Provider Partnership…
Information from Child Care Aware:
Child care is a necessary part of life for many families. Child care not only promotes growth and development in children, but it also helps to strengthen families and communities. Child care providers are an important family resource for support and child development education.
Creating a Positive Relationship
Children benefit most when parents and providers work together to plan and provide care. In a partner-ship, child care providers bring their knowledge of children’s educational and developmental needs and parents bring the knowledge of their children’s strengths, needs, and interests. Together, parents and providers develop goals that are best for each child within the child care setting.
Positive relationships between parents and providers are created by two-way communication, a feeling of trust, sharing of goals and expectations, providing information and resources, and having opportunities to make joint decisions about the care children will receive. A successful partnership between parents and providers will have some of the following qualities:
When the parent-provider relationship is working at its best, there are many opportunities to add to the overall development of children and to provide family-centered services. A successful parent-provider partnership is good for everyone:
Information from Child Care Aware:
Child care is a necessary part of life for many families. Child care not only promotes growth and development in children, but it also helps to strengthen families and communities. Child care providers are an important family resource for support and child development education.
Creating a Positive Relationship
Children benefit most when parents and providers work together to plan and provide care. In a partner-ship, child care providers bring their knowledge of children’s educational and developmental needs and parents bring the knowledge of their children’s strengths, needs, and interests. Together, parents and providers develop goals that are best for each child within the child care setting.
Positive relationships between parents and providers are created by two-way communication, a feeling of trust, sharing of goals and expectations, providing information and resources, and having opportunities to make joint decisions about the care children will receive. A successful partnership between parents and providers will have some of the following qualities:
- Parents and providers communicate on a daily or other regular basis.
- Parents trust and feel at ease with the child care program.
- There are many opportunities for parents to be involved in activities in the child care setting.
- Providers are always asking parents for input and feedback on the program.
- Children are doing well and happy within the childcare setting.
What Communication may look like:
- Regular emails or notes are being sent between parents and providers.
- Parents and providers have regularly scheduled meetings to discuss the child’s progress and development in the program.
- A daily notebook goes back and forth from home to the program—providers and parents write notes to each other about the child or any other issues or concerns.
- Telephone calls are made when concerns arise or when there is an immediate issue that needs addressing.
When the parent-provider relationship is working at its best, there are many opportunities to add to the overall development of children and to provide family-centered services. A successful parent-provider partnership is good for everyone:
- Children have support in their daily activities.
- Parents benefit when providers and staff under-stand and respond to their children’s needs, and provide information and resources that helps them.
- Providers benefit by having the much needed input, support, and participation of parents for their program.
Do you have a good relationship with the parents that have children in your care? It is essential to the children and your business to strive for good parent-provider relationships.
// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 3:52 PM 
