Family Involvement 3 A parents' and/or family members' impact on children's learning and development are lasting and probably carries the most impact. When parents are involved in their child's learning process the child senses the importance of education. Early childhood educators need to reach out to families in order to engage them in their children's education. In order to do this, educators must first understand the challenges modern families face. Family dynamics have had drastic changes over the last several decades. “These changes include: Families are more diverse in structure and style, spend less time together, are poorer, need more schooling than ever in history, are more likely to be single, and have shifted their value base to be more protective of their children (Knopf & Swick 2008 pg 419). Families are also faced with other aspects including multi-generation households, higher economy, greater demands and longer hours at work, technological advances and society's changes. Longer life spans have created the condition of parents caring for their parents and their children, sometimes causing financial and time constraints that didn't exist in society before. The work force is also more demanding of it's workers requiring more education and training than ever before (Knopf & Swick 2008 pg 420 as cited in Coontz 1997). Parents feel a tug between providing for their families in this tough economy by working long demanding hours and spending quality time with their family. This tug is further complicated by the juggling act parent do between multiple children, career, education and home. “Whatever parents do they are likely to have a sense of guilt in what they have neglected to do” (Knopf & Swick 2008 pg 420). Understanding these changes and the challenges that families face will help early childhood professional to establish trust and build relationships with families, leading to Family Involvement 4 greater family involvement. We, as early childhood professionals need to have a family-oriented approach to thinking. As Swick (2004) clearly reports: There are three impacts in changing needs in families: early childhood programs need to offer more parenting education, provide essential supports for families that enable them to be a part of quality involvement efforts, and to seek and create more diverse pathways for family involvement to occur (pg420).
Keeping these things in mind will assist professionals in building family-oriented centers. Knopf & Swick (2008) suggest that when shaping effective family involvement plans, three essential questions need to be considered: (1) Is the pathway accessible to parents; can they participate easily or is the process cumbersome and restrictive? (2) Is there a viable set of supports that help encourage parents to use the different venues for involvement? (3) Are there several ways for families to get involved and use their talents and strengths (pg421).
Before family involvement plans can be created or adjusted, professionals must first become familiar with their families. In order to understand each family’s unique dynamics, struggles, and strengths, demands and needs professionals need to gather information that may assist in understanding how and how much they can be involved. There are several ways for educators to gather this, sometimes sensitive and private information. The methods or tools used in gathering information “are only effective if practitioners know and understand the conditions that are considered in selecting the appropriate tools for the task (Knopf & Swick 2008 pg. 421). Professional should also know what Family Involvement 5 information they are wanting to obtain and what they will use this information for. Following are the tools, their use and which condition to use them in. Home Visits should have medium-low use, no more than 5 times per year and can be used to observe the families and children in their comfort zone and their relationships. “Through a visit the early childhood professional can learn a great deal about the physical and emotional environment that the child is living in, which could provide great insight regarding the individual needs and accommodations that might need to be provided to the child while at school” (Knopf & Swick 2008 pg. 421). Because home visits can sometimes be view as invasive, it is important for the visitor to build a relationship by displaying interest in the family in a way that is nonjudgemental to avoid damaging the very relationship that is trying to be established. Home visits are most effective when wanting to learn about a family in their environment. Surveys and Questionnaires should have a low use, less than 5 times per year. And although less personal can be used to gather some initial and basic information. It should not however, replace actual conversation.
Telephone and email can have medium-high use. These methods are convenient can be used when parents are not physically present for a conversation. However, this methods are less personal and may not be the best way if establishing relationships, but can foster one.
Parent Conferences are a perfect time to touch basis with families on their perspective of their child's development and should have low usage. “During this conference the teacher might elicit parent perceptions of the child's progress in skills identified through parent surveys or interviews” as well as any information that could “impact the child's school functioning Family Involvement 6 or the developmental process” (Knopf & Swick 2008 pg. 424). Family Communication Journal is often used “to increase the flow of information from school to home and vise-versa (Knopf & Swick 2008 pg. 424). Parent should be made clear of the purpose of the journal and its use. The journal can be used to pass information regarding the center overall and information specific to the child and family. The frequency of the journal should be established and maintained accordingly. Confidentiality should also be explained and respected. “Every effort should be made to ensure that the journal entries are in the families' primary language” (Knopf & Swick 2008 pg. 425). This may be a task for the teacher that requires a translator but, the effort will itself build trust. Once we have gained insight into our families we can then strengthen their involvement. Knopf & Swick (2008) outline specific insights for professionals as they encourage family involvement: (1) Be open to learning about the strengths and talents of parents and families. (2) Understand the special situations parents and families are experiencing. (3) Provide families many different pathways to be involved. (4) Use parent and family input in shaping our involvement programs and activities (pg425). Lastly, these methods and plans will only be as effective as the professional implementing them. “A major challenge in integrating family centered approaches to early childhood education is in the thinking and actions of early childhood professional” (Knopf & Swick 2008 pg. 425). As educators it is imperative that we understand the importance of family involvement and understanding of it’s' struggles.

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Evaluation: I have found that family involvement always poses a challenge for me. I find that most parents do want to be involved, but face many obstacles in doing so. Parents are absolutely faced with having to work, sometimes more than one job to support their family financially. The article discussed this and other challenges that I found to be accurate. I found that the methods described in the article were ones that I have and do currently use, although I sometimes forget the purpose and tend to do it because “it's what we do”. The article served more a a reminder to me than actually giving me new information. It reminded me that parents are facing many challenges and may not be able to be as involved as they would like and that perhaps I need to be a little more creative in soliciting involvement and provide out-of-the-box ways for them to be involved.