Challenging behaviors can be a major disruptor in a class setting. While there are numerous tactics that educators can employ to manage their classrooms, there is a key element outside the classroom that should not be overlooked: family involvement.
These tips and takeaways, recently shared by researchers at the University of Virginia's Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning in a webinar, cover the importance of building strong family partnerships in managing children’s behavior.
How do you get a family involved, develop a plan and goals, and follow through with that plan? It all starts from a place of connection. While the power of interaction inside the classroom plays an important role in student success, interactions with parents and family members will also help to develop growth.
Approach Behavior from a Collaborative Perspective
Regulation is a learned skill, and a necessary one for children to use in order to succeed. If children cannot manage their own behavior and pay attention in the classroom, then they will not be able to engage in higher-level thinking tasks.
But that doesn’t mean young children can simply be told to sit still and pay attention. They use behavior as a way to communicate their needs before they reach an age when they can have conversations about their feelings. Success starts with adult support.
Adults act as coregulators, helping guide children to positive behaviors. Supporting children to manage their behavior means setting clear expectations, meeting needs, and assuring them that they are valued for who they are. When adults serve this function both at home and school, they help children develop regulation skills that help them achieve in a classroom setting.
Educators can build relationships with children’s families to develop a working partnership. This coregulation team is made up of all adults who care for the children inside and outside the classroom, and this team can work together to address challenging behavior or set positive goals.
How to Create Meaningful Partnerships with Families
If families serve as essential collaborators that support a child’s regulation, then it is important to build a trusting relationship with families from the beginning. By building a positive partnership, educators and families can work together in both good and challenging times. And if children see their parents trusting educators, then they will also turn toward educators as a source of help.
There are several approaches that keep the door open and the communication flowing.
Create a welcome and inclusive environment. Be as genuine and open as possible with families, and make the effort to get to know them. This can be done through organic conversation at the beginning and end of the day or at school events, or by sending out notes or surveys to families to gather more information on culture and preferences. Engage with each family on their own terms and understand that there is no one right way for them to be involved.
Share information and resources. Keep the lines of communication open—don’t wait to talk until challenging issues arise, otherwise families might come to see you only as the bearer of bad news. Share positives from the classroom and send out resources directly applicable to their child, including what you are doing in the classroom and relevant tips or actions they will be able to use at home.
Value and respect family input. Collaboration is a two-way street, and while you have valuable and important information to share with the family, they also have valuable feedback and insights on their child. Make sure to take their concerns and input into account when discussing their child’s behavior and success.
These approaches to developing relationships with families lay the groundwork for trust. When there is a trusting relationship in place, that allows for more effective collaboration to happen when challenging issues arise.
Let’s look at a few actionable takeaways as they apply to each of these approaches.
Tips for fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment
Keep your classroom open for parent participation. Invite them to sign up to read to kids or to attend events or class parties being hosted at the school. Make sure to signal that families are welcome and encouraged to join when they can, but avoid adding pressure to participate. Some parents will not have the flexibility in their schedules, and they should not be made to feel judgement.
When challenging behaviors do arise in the classroom, approach these conversations in a way that works well for parents. Rather than always discussing difficult subjects at the end of the day when parents might be stressed or overwhelmed from work, ask when the best time is for them to talk. In those conversations, keep the environment as non-judgmental and stress free as possible.
Reframe challenging behaviors with families. It’s not that the students were misbehaving all day, but that they had some challenging moments. Everyone knows what it’s like to have a challenging moment! It’s not a comment on the value of their child.
Tips for sharing information and resources
Contact parents with a phone call or through a note to specifically highlight something wonderful about their child. Most parents are familiar with the dread of being contacted by school for emergencies. By reaching out to also focus on positives, you keep parents engaged and more open to conversation.
Provide resources applicable to their children that families can understand and enact at home. The ECE resource hub is an entirely free and publicly available online source developed in partnership between the University of Virginia and the Virginia Department of Education. It contains great resources for educators but also provides take-home strategies that parents can use for key development areas. These bite-sized approaches give valuable information without being overwhelming. You can see and hear more in the full webinar recording.
Tips for valuing and respecting family input
Practice active listening and empathy. While it’s important to give yourself grace as you try to navigate challenges in your classroom, remember to extend that grace to families who are also struggle with challenging behavior. When you discuss behaviors you are seeing in the classroom, take the time to ask questions: what have the parents experienced, what issues do they see, or questions do they have?
Parents have additional insights into their children and can offer suggestions that might work for you. Acknowledge that parents are the experts on their children and if they have tips and tricks that work at home to redirect or improve a child’s behavior, have them share with you to try at school!
Continue to Develop Your Approach to Behavior in the Classroom
There is no one action to take or one resource that provides the answers for all children, but the more new approaches you learn, the more able you are to adapt to the needs of every child in your classroom.
For additional professional development that offers effective, practice-based learning, consider our upcoming webinar on CLASS Connect. This live walkthrough on July 9 will show the resources and support that Teachstone has available for you. No prior CLASS knowledge is required to get access to our library of practical strategies, hands-on practice, and peer-based learning opportunities.
Join us for this free webinar that highlights our ongoing support for educators in early childhood education!