Promoting Collaboration Between Home and School

By Rose Adams, OTD, OTR/L

WHAT COMES TO MIND WHEN YOU HEAR THE PHRASE “PARENTS AS PARTNERS?” HOLD THAT THOUGHT. I WOULD FIRST LIKE TO START WITH A GRACE NOTE—A NOTE OF THANKS AND A REMINDER TO PARENTS TO GIVE YOURSELVES GRACE FOR THE HARD WORK YOU DO EVERY DAY.

promote and support collaboration (the bridge) between members of the home and school teams. Home teams include parents, caregivers, or other adults responsible for the care of the child. Teachers, school-based professionals such as occupational therapy practitioners, speech and language pathologists, physical therapists, and behavior support professionals are included in the school team. The child is a part of both teams.

What does your partner relationship look like? Do you have one? Let’s start by defining partnerships. A partnership involves the coming together of a group of people, usually for a common goal or shared purpose (Abeykoon, 2021). In business, partners have equal value or ownership in the practice. Partners in healthcare and school-based settings have similar roles. I define “Parents as Partners” as a collaborative relationship between parents and school team members to foster a sense of connection, develop understanding, and encourage shared decision-making, all for the purpose of helping children succeed (Kokorelias et al., 2019; Riley et al., 2017).

Parents as Partners: the concept

In this article, “parents” refers to birth, foster, or adoptive parents and guardians, other caregivers, and other adults responsible for the child’s care. Parents and caregivers will be used interchangeably, and family will be used to describe parent and caregiver groups.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, most children were learning on fully remote platforms. Then they moved into a hybrid model. During this time, our twin boys were entering kindergarten. Their school implemented Parents as Partners, a meet-and-greet session between teachers and caregivers on a virtual platform. Parents learned about the curriculum and expectations for students. Parents as Partners continued up until our boys returned to in-person classes. Like other parents who may have navigated online learning, I appreciated the school’s attempt to improve the bridge between school and home.

Remember the question at the beginning of the article? You can release that thought now. For me, Parents as Partners goes beyond the exchange of information. It’s the engagement that occurs while on the school-to-home bridge and involves the journey beyond.

In this article, “Parents as Partners” will focus on how we can

1. When does connection begin?

It can start at the point of enrollment into an educational program and sometimes before. How does connection begin? It can begin with a virtual meet-and-greet, a note, a phone call, or other ways. Why is this so important? It’s vital to connect because it is the pathway to developing understanding.

My experience

Our twin boys are now seven years old. This school year, my husband and I decided to give them a different experience and try separate classes for the first time (uh-oh…). The boys have shared the same classrooms since they started daycare at about 18 months old. They did not have difficulty separating from one another in these settings. Rather, they would occasionally seek each other out during the day for what I believe to be social-emotional support. To this day, they sometimes do what I call “brother talk.” They whisper “twin things” in each other’s ears at (what appears to be) random times throughout the day. So, as you might imagine, trying this separate class situation for the first time came with its own set of challenges. But, that’s a conversation for another article.

Before making our decision, we discussed it with the boys. We knew connecting with their school team would be integral during their transition. We sent emails at the beginning of the school year, attended Parent Night to understand the year’s expectations and curriculum, and we made a point to stay in touch to see how the boys were adjusting in their classes individually. Though we continue to experience challenges with the transition, we are grateful the school team members were open and willing to connect.

Building connections

As an occupational therapy practitioner, I understand it’s not always easy to form connections on both ends, but I consistently try. My encouragement to parents is to keep trying. Discover the methods of communication your child’s team uses and share your communication preferences (email, communication notebook, phone calls, etc.). If you encounter challenges along the way (e.g., lack of follow-through), keep trying. Your school team needs your support in building a relationship to understand your child’s unique needs and what matters most to you. For school teams, be mindful that some families may not have access to resources or need support with connecting. I encourage you to meet them at their point of need and assist in finding a way to stay connected. How else can we build connections between home and school teams? Let’s dig deeper into a place of understanding.

2. Developing understanding

What is understanding in a Parent as Partner relationship? Understanding involves getting to know the family’s culture, values, and beliefs, as well as the child’s needs and strengths. This enables the team to navigate how to support the child within the learning environment best. For children with disabilities, it’s essential to understand how the disability impacts the child and the family through a collaborative relationship (AOTA, 2020).

Why is understanding important? Understanding is important because it requires being open to learning and discovering. It requires a willingness to try things differently and in ways that best support the child and family. Understanding does not mean we totally get it. It does not mean we seek to know everything there is to know about a child and their family. Rather, it is the foundation by which we position ourselves to knowing, consistently respecting, and valuing the roles each team member brings to the collaborative process.

Recognizing the team

Parent partners might help to inform, educate, and share family values and beliefs that may influence how the school team engages with and supports the child. The school team might seek to create opportunities for developing understanding of the needs of the child and their family. The key to understanding is recognizing there are multiple experts on one team. Each member holds equal weight, measured in the form of values and strengths, which they bring to the relationship when making shared decisions.

3. Shared decision-making

Shared decision-making involves collaboration in decisions, discussions, or goals that support the child. Shared decision-making is a concept best described under family-centered care principles (Kokorelias et al., 2019; Riley et al., 2017). It recognizes the value all partners have (teachers, parents, therapists, the child, and other members) in planning and the decisions that contribute to positive outcomes in a child’s education and development. Can you think of an example of how shared decision-making can be promoted within school-based settings? One example is creating a collaborative goal that addresses the child’s performance during a specific educational activity. This mutually agreed upon goal should also accompany a shared plan to address it.

Encouraging shared decision-making

Parent partners, “Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there!” Remember that you are a valued member of your child’s team. Create opportunities to discuss goals (yours and your child’s), outcomes, and your child’s strengths and needs. Your school team needs your input to implement collaborative decision-making. School-based team members, be open to creating opportunities for parents to share and join you in the decision-making process. Without this unique and necessary sharing of ideas and expertise on both ends, we may miss out on the benefits of such a collaborative relationship.

Key takeaways to promoting collaboration between home and school

Home Team:

• Get to know your School Team

• Identify how to get in touch and share your contact preferences

• Ask questions

• Educate and inform the School Team and other members of the Home Team about your family values, culture, beliefs, strengths, and needs

• Stay connected

• Advocate for your child

• Involve your child in the decision-making and goal-development process

School Team:

• Get to know the Home Team

• Honor contact preferences

• Provide thoughtful, responsive, culturally sensitive answers to questions and work with parents and other Home Team members to discover solutions together

• Understand the parents’ values, culture, and beliefs, as well as the child’s strengths and needs

• Stay connected

• Advocate for the needs of the child and other members of the Home Team

• Involve parents and children in the decision-making and goal-development process

Resources

Culturally Competent Bilingual Therapy & Evaluation Services

Somos Bilingües https://www.somosbilinguesslp.com/

References https://doi.org/10.1177/0972063421995 https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2020.74S2001 http://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4394-5 http://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2017.71S1-po7068

Abeykoon P. (2021). Partnerships in Health Development. Journal of Health Management, 23(1), 143-154.

American Occupational Therapy Association. (2020). Occupational therapy practice framework: Domain and process (4th ed.). American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 74(Suppl. 2), 7412410010.

Kokorelias, K.M., Gignac, M.A.M., Naglie, G., & Cameron, J.I. (2019). Towards a universal model of family centered care: A scoping review. BMC Health Services Research, 19(564), 1-11.

Riley, B., Hardesty, L., Butler, A., Kimmelman, A., Gardner, K., & Miceli, A. (2017). How do pediatric occupational therapists implement family-centered care. [Poster Session]. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 71, 7111505155.

Rose Adams, OTD, OTR/L, is an occupational therapy practitioner with a clinical focus in pediatrics. She works with children and families of children on the autism spectrum and those with other neurodiverse needs. Dr. Adams has worked in schools, private practice settings, and community-based programs. She is the Executive Director at Changing Lives Occupational Therapy, P.C., and currently works at a community-based preschool in New York. Dr. Adams is a graduate of Boston University’s Post Professional Occupational Therapy Doctorate (PP-OTD) program. Her doctoral project focused on using song-based interventions to support young children with autism and related disabilities so they could participate in school-based occupations.

Email: roseadamsot@gmail.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rose-adams-otd-otr-l-5068b316