Positive relationships between practitioners and parents are essential for young children’s wellbeing, but achieving this can be difficult if there is not enough understanding about how relationships work when one person (the practitioner or teacher) has to play the professional role. Strong communication skills are fundamental to this relationship and to building a sense of community between home and nursery or school.

This new book explores how practitioners can build warm, friendly and caring relationships with parents. It clearly explains the dynamics of a conversation, the theory behind how relationships are formed or destroyed and provides practical strategies to put this knowledge into practice.

Grounded in the theories of attachment, transactional analysis and solution focused therapy this book will help you to:

Increase your level of self awareness

Improve your listening skills

Understand ‘how’ to communicate with different parent ‘types‘

Learn how to conduct an individual parent interview

Develop professional care giving skills

Full of practical examples and strategies, this text will be welcomed by early years practitioners and students who wish to develop the skills and confidence they need to effectively communicate with the parents of the children they care for.

Reviews

I wish that a book like this had been available when I began working with children and their parents. It will be extremely helpful for practitioners just beginning in this area of work. But reading it as an experienced practitioner, I found it reaffirming. It gathered together the key messages that need to be part of a practitioner’s approach. Not many books help both groups of practitioner, but this one does! And it is done in a very reader friendly way.

Tina Bruce

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; INTRODUCTION; PART ONE: Laying the foundations of communication 1. Working in partnership with parents 2. What do wy Communication? 3. Listening – the number one communication skill 4. Developing Personal and Social Competence 5. How to feel OK; PART TWO: Communication skills in context 6. How to give shape and meaning to conversations with parents and carers in Early Years settings7. Delighting in the parents and carers of pre-school children at points of transition 8. Empathy and communication 9. Dealing with difficulty; Concluding thoughts: Parents, Practitioners and Playfulness; APPENDIX; Training workshop exercises; REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

Author Bio

Anita M. Hughes is a Chartered Educational Psychologist, who has worked with families for over thirty years both for social services (in Early Years) and then in education services before becoming an Independent Consultant and Therapist. She is a mother of two grown-up children.

Veronica Read is a Group Analyst and Independent Educational Consultant. She writes and delivers workshops on attachment for Early Years practitioners and wo...