Supporting Teachers, Strengthening Families
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Resources
Early childhood educators are uniquely positioned to play a key role in strengthening families. Research conducted in 2002 as part of Supporting Teachers, Strengthening Families showed that early childhood educators are willing to take a more active part in strengthening families, but that they need more resources and support in several specific areas to more effectively do so.
The resources listed in this section will help you implement NAEYC’s key family strengthening strategies:
- Provide high quality care and education through developmentally appropriate practices;
- Develop reciprocal relationships with families;
- Recognize signs of abuse, situations that may place children at risk of abuse, and provide families with appropriate support;
- Understand, and help families to understand and handle children’s challenging behaviors;
- Build on child and family strengths; and
- Stay informed about professional responsibilities and take charge of professional development.
These resources include:
- Building Circles, Breaking Cycles brochure in English or Spanish
- Building Circles, Breaking Cycles discussion guide in English or Spanish
- Power Point presentation of Building Circles, Breaking Cycles
- Map of states with Strengthening Families activity
- Power Point presentation about the Supporting Teachers, Strengthening Families initiative
- Resources from the Center for the Study of Social Policy, including Protecting Children by Strengthening Families: A guidebook for early childhood programs—the essential publication from CSSP, this guidebook defines the Strengthening Families approach and provides a self-assessment tool for early childhood programs.
- Promoting Social and Emotional Competence, an out-of-the-box set of training modules, What Works Briefs, and other resources from CSEFEL
- Handouts, research syntheses, and training materials on positive behavior support (PBS) from CEBP
- Many other resources on developmentally appropriate practices, building family relationships, and NAEYC’s Early Childhood Program Standards can be found at NAEYC’s online catalog.
Background and supporting resources to use in your training and advocacy work include:
Additional Resources
NAEYC Books
From Parents to Partners: Building a Family-Centered Early Childhood Program by Janis Keyser, 2006
Parent partnerships are an essential factor in every successful early childhood program, and communication is key to developing them. How can you use familiar elements such as newsletters, bulletin boards, parent conferences, and special events most effectively? The answers may surprise you! This comprehensive guide describes proven communication strategies to encourage the involvement of family members. Interactive, hands-on exercises allow you to adapt the principles and practices presented to your program and are uniquely designed to include the whole family unit—not just the parents—as partners both at home and in your setting. Copublished with Redleaf.
Secure Relationships: Nurturing Infant-Toddler Attachment in Early Care Settings by Alice Honig, 2002
For healthy adjustment in childhood and later in life, infants and toddlers need secure attachments to the adults who care for them. Loving, responsive, and consistent care from primary caregivers is key to young children learning to form relationships. Alice Honig, with her vast experience and deep knowledge of research and theory, distills key points needed in understanding and building attachment. Vital information and sound advice for both caregivers and parents.
Family-Friendly Communication for Early Childhood Programs Ed(s): Deborah Diffily, Kathy Morrison, 1996
This best-selling resource offers 93 brief messages for parents on topics ranging from biting to developing children's literacy--all ready for teachers to tailor to their individual programs' needs or to use as is to strengthen communication between programs and families. Each message can also be adapted for newsletters, family packets, parent-teacher conferences, bulletin boards, or parent handouts. Includes dozens of innovative strategies for bringing parents on board in your program.
Fostering Children's Social Competence: The Teacher's Role by Lilian Katz and Diane McClellan, 1997
On an essential topic, a book that is both authoritative and accessible to early childhood professionals. Drawing from research and expert practice, Katz and McClellan suggest principles and strategies to guide teachers in strengthening children's social skills. They identify well-intentioned practices common in early childhood classrooms that actually undermine children's social competence.
Challenging Behavior in Young Children: Understanding, Preventing, and Responding Effectively , 2d Ed. byBarbara Kaiser and Judy Sklar Rasminsky, 2006
REVISED AND EXPANDED! This invaluable resource for preservice and practicing teachers provides strategies for addressing challenging behaviors and in-depth explanations of the research on which they are based. Vivid classroom examples illuminate evidence-based techniques that work with the most difficult behaviors to benefit every child in the classroom. In this second edition, new chapters are offered on inclusion and relationships, as well as a totally revised chapter on positive behavior support and functional assessment. Also includes chapters on resilience, culture, and working with families, and updated material on the brain and bullying. From Allyn & Bacon.
Meeting the Challenge: Effective Strategies for Challenging Behaviors in Early Childhood Environments by Barbara Kaiser and Judy Rasminsky, 1999
If you feel frustrated and defeated when confronted with a child with very challenging behaviors, here's a lifeline! This reader-friendly book offers easily understandable ideas and strategies proven to work for children with the most challenging behaviors and to benefit every child in the setting. Published by the Canadian Child Care Federation.
NAEYC Videos
Painting a Positive Picture: Proactive Behavior Management by NAEYC, 1994
Shows how adults help children manage their behavior in an encouraging, nurturing, and positive manner while supporting each child's self-esteem. From the Child Care Collection. 28 min.
Make a Difference: Report Child Abuse and Neglect by NAEYC, 1996
The harsh reality of child abuse and neglect is discussed with professionals who share information regarding what to do if abuse is suspected, the indicators of abuse/neglect, and the impact on society. From the Child Care Collection. Also available in Spanish. 28 min.
Ready for Life by KERA, Dallas, TX, 2000
This intimate and evocative documentary follows the lives of six children and their families. It illustrates how children develop the strength and confidence to face life's challenges in emotionally healthy ways. Showing diverse family structures, the video is narrated by Ruby Dee and features the expert advice of Dr. Bruce Perry. 60 min.
Partnerships With Parents by NAEYC, 1989
Dramatizes the importance of the parent-teacher relationship for children. How to establish and maintain positive communication and handle common problems teachers face in working with parents. Produced by South Carolina Educational Television. 28 mins.
NAEYC Brochures
Building Circles, Breaking Cycles--Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect: The Early Childhood Educator's Role by NAEYC, 2003
This brochure helps early childhood educators realize that they have an important role in preventing harm to children and empowers them to use their knowledge and skills to support families. The brochure has a companion Discussion Guide, available for download in both English and Spanish, to help program administrators, higher education faculty, and trainers facilitate discussions with staff and students.
Helping Children Learn Self-Control by NAEYC, 1998
Basic techniques to help children develop self-discipline. This brochure shows parents and teachers why discipline works better than punishment and gives pointers on preventing problems.
Love and Learn: Positive Guidance for Young Children by Alice Honig, 2000
Discipline need not be punitive! Positive approaches that work. Setting reasonable and realistic expectations and respecting children's feelings are the first steps to bringing positive solutions to typical difficulties.
Other Resources
Building Services and Systems to Support the Healthy Emotional Development of Young Children-An Action Guide for Policymakers by Jane Knitzer, 2002
This guide sets forth a framework for community and state action to help families and caregivers address the widespread emotional challenges that young children are facing all across this country. It describes the scope of the problem; highlights emerging strategies, challenges, and opportunities; and provides concrete tips from early leaders for those seeking to move this agenda, as well as more general recommendations.
Improving the Odds for the Healthy Development of Young Children in Foster Care by Sheryl Dicker, Elysa Gordon, and Jane Knitzer, 2002
In Improving the Odds, the authors look at the many challenges young children in foster care face and how to ensure the healthy development children in or at risk of foster care placement. The report reveals what child welfare agencies, courts, and other partners can do to improve the physical, developmental, and emotional health of young children in foster care. It also identifies strategies that service providers, courts, policymakers, and advocates can use to enhance the healthy development of young children in foster care and promote their prospects for permanency, whether that means reunification with their families or adoption.
Ready to Enter: What Research Tells Policymakers About Strategies to Promote Social and Emotional School Readiness Among Three- and Four-Year-Old Children by C. Cybele Raver and Jane Knitzer, 2002
This policy paper focuses on what emerging research tells policymakers about why it is so important to intervene to help young children at risk for poor social, emotional, and behavioral development and what kinds of research-based interventions seem most effective. It addresses the relationship between early academic learning and emotional development; the prevalence of emotional problems in preschool-aged young children and young children who are exposed to multiple family and environmental risk factors; and the emerging but still limited research on the efficacy of preventive and early interventions explicitly targeted to address the social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties of young children, particularly in the context of early care and education settings.
Making Dollars Follow Sense: Financing Early Childhood Mental Health Services to Promote Healthy Social and Emotional Development in Young Children by Kay Johnson, Jane Knitzer, and Roxane Kaufmann, 2002
This policy paper highlights the most innovative approaches states and communities are currently using to finance preventive and early intervention services, as well as more traditional treatment services for young children's mental health. It also explores what else might be done to mix, match, and leverage all available resources for early childhood mental health needs. It includes descriptions of the study sites and major federal funding streams; the role of state and administrative structures to sustain initiatives; and common challenges and possible solutions for developing early childhood mental health services.
Emotions Matter: Making the Case for the Role of Young Children's Emotional Development for Early School Readiness by C. Cybele Raver, 2002, Social Policy Report, Vol. XVI, Num. 3.
What kinds of investments should policy makers be advised to make, at what point in young children's development, and in what settings? This Social Policy Report considers the importance of young children's emotional development for their school readiness, suggesting that social scientists can provide policy makers with concrete ways to conceptualize, measure and target young children's emotional adjustment in early educational and child care settings.
The results of a research review suggest that family, early educational, and clinical interventions offer policy makers a wide array of choices in ways that they can make sound investments in young children's emotional development and school readiness. This research suggests that, while young children's emotional and behavioral problems are costly to their chances of school success, these problems are identifiable early, are amenable to change, and can be reduced over time.
Safe and Sound: An Educational Leader's Guide to Evidence-Based Social and Emotional Learning Programs by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, 2002
Families, schools, and communities want to provide their children with skills and opportunities to help them become self-confident and caring, develop positive relationships, make responsible decisions to enhance their health and avoid risky behaviors, achieve success in school, and contribute to their peer group, family, school, and community. To address these issues, many educators adopt social and emotional learning (SEL) programs that focus on reducing problem behaviors among their students, enhancing their character, promoting their health, or developing their social competence. Hundreds of such programs are available -- this guide identifies critical elements of effective SEL programs, and reviews 81 school-based curricula that promote students' social and emotional development.
Right on Course: How Trauma and Maltreatment Impact Children in the Classroom, and How You Can Help by Civitas Initiative, 2002 available for purchase from Civitas Initiative.
Written for K-6 teachers, Right on Course provides the guidance and teaching tool you need to address the effects of trauma and maltreatment in the classroom. The Handbook section features basic concepts, questions, and answers and case studies of real-life situations faced by teachers and students, while the Tools section provides checklists, teaching strategies and lesson plans. By better understanding your students' needs and experiences, you can make a difference.
Promoting Family-Centered Child Care by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services This report from a 1996 national Leadership Forum on family-centered child care details the characteristics and guiding principles of family-centered child care programs. |
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