Great Expectations Powerpoint.txt

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Great Expectations: Building 
Better Communication between 
Schools and Families 
Power of Parental Involvement 

.Relationship building 
.Parental Stress 
.Positive child outcomes 
.Systemic Change 
.Individual change 





Positive child outcomes? 

.Parent involvement is a core feature of 
evidence-based approaches to intervention 
for ASD 
.Determination of instructional targets 
.Delivery of instruction 
.Longitudinal programming 




 


Urgency in Autism 

.The complexities of autism make parent 
involvement imperative 
.Problems with generalization 
.Mismatch between school and home outcomes 


.Early intervention 
.Numbers of instructional trials required 





Barriers to Parental Involvement 

.Diversity/Culture 
.Learning History 
.Resources 
.Defining of Roles 
.School system bureaucracy 
.Teacher training 


 



Different Perspectives? 
.Parent�s world 
.Limited resources 
.Competing priorities 
.Negative feedback from schools 
.Negative feedback about schools 
. Systems are complex, and reinforcement is thin 





Different Perspectives? 

.Teacher�s world 
.Limited resources 
.Competing priorities 
.Negative feedback from parents 
.Negative feedback about parents 
.Systems are complex, and reinforcement is thin 




 


 


 Coming together 
.Perspectives can serve as major barriers 
unless there are working channels of 
communication 



Getting the best reception 
.Recognizing that clear communication goes 
both ways 
.That communication has to be beneficial to 
both parties 
.That communication has to be ongoing 



Creating Clear Channels 

.Keep a point of contact to avoid mixed 
messages 



Creating Clear Channels 
.Use language that everyone can 
understand 
.Take it deeper than just �avoiding jargon� 
.Consider underlying theoretical perspectives or 
belief systems 




 

 

 

 


Creating Clear Channels 
.Really listen, avoid just �waiting for your 
turn to speak� 



Creating Clear Channels 
.Reinforce attempts at communication 
.Share positives 
.Express gratitude 
.Share goodies 
.Bake goods 
.Resources 
.Photos/Child Products 







Creating Clear Channels 

.Keep it objective 
.Outline issues 
.Avoid the blame game, it distracts from real 
issues 
.Share data 





Creating Clear Channels 
.Go deep! 
.Consider systemic issues that prevent desired 
outcomes 
.Tackle what is doable now and plan for making 
long term change 





Creating Clear Channels 
.Keep it continuous but relevant 
.Communication in itself is not the goal 
.Communication should provide data that are 
useful for both parties 
.Maintain constant conversation around team 
goals and effectiveness 





Communication Tools 
.Daily Communication notebooks 
.Describe daily activities, performance 
.Medical information 
.Behavioral Supports 




 


Daily Communication notebooks 

.Formats 
.Established school agendas 
.Spiral notebooks 
.Specialized forms 
.Web-based blogs 





Daily Communication notebooks 
.Purposes 
.Tracking 
.Promoting generalization 
.Johnny learned this, can you assess� 


.Instructional content 
.Mary went to the movies over the weekend, she 
saw ��.. 
.John mentioned in class he might like to work in a 
bank, what do you think? 







Considerations 
.Consider the time it takes to complete the 
notebooks 
.Excuse minor trespasses 
.Stay positive and remember inflection 
cannot always be accurately inferred 
.When addressing touchy subjects, get a 
second read 



Email 
.Quick way to share information 
.Same considerations as daily 
communication notebooks 
.Not everyone is comfortable with email 
communication, so it cannot be expected 
.Consider intermittent emails 



Sharing Data 
.Permanent product data 
.Digital media 
.Pictures and video media 
.Personal YouTube/Vimeo pages 
.Ipod sharing 


.Build an electronic portfolio 



Sharing Graphed Data 
.Graphed data provide on of the most 
effective means of evaluating student 
progress 
.Data can be shared 
.via photo copies 
.Scanned copies 
.Or Google docs 




graph.jpg

New Twists on Phone Conferences 

.Using free video conferencing software 
.Skype/Face-time 
.Less travel time for families 
.Flexibility in scheduling 
.Opportunities to show classroom materials 
.Share data files 
.Meet with multiple participants 
.Dual custody/outside agencies 






 



Other Communication Strategies 
.Class newsletters 
.Great way to share 
.Student news, family news, community news 


.Student journals 
.Blogs 
.Classroom listservs 


 


Facilitating Gatherings 
.Quarterly teas, potlucks, breakfasts 
.Family trainings 
.Invited speakers 


 


Avoiding Mucked Meetings 
.Consider how levels of ongoing 
communication can impact episodic, 
meeting-based communication. 
.Unnecessary urgency to �get it all out there� 





Avoid summoning the Hordes 
.Sometimes it is difficult to balance inviting 
the most relevant people and keeping the 
group to a workable size. 
.Consider the purpose of the meeting and 
only the necessary to meet the proposed 
objectives 



Avoid a Fast Food Approach 
.Meetings should not continue past their 
efficacy or restricted by squeezing them 
into 30 minutes intervals. 
.Agendas or IEP�s should not be merely 
delivered, they should be developed within 
the meeting 



 Consider Pre planning 
.Student objectives are not easy to develop. 
It may be beneficial for parents and 
teachers to meet in advance to discuss and 
draft IEP goals and objectives 



Bring Evidence of Humanity 
.Consider starting the meeting by sharing a 
picture, video of the target child. 
.Consider having the child welcome the 
group and share their own vision 
.PowerPoint 
.Video 







Offer your Respect 

.Everyone bring expertise to the room 


 


Stay focused 

.Avoid sidebar conversations 
.Revisit important points and check for 
consensus 
.Document 
.Summarize 



Statements to avoid (Cheatham et al., 2012) 
.To save some time we went ahead and� 
.Because the student has autism, he should be 
served in.. 
.I need to check with �.. before I can commit to �. 
.Nothing works for this child� 
.If only someone did this �then the child would do 
this�.. 
.This program does not serve��. 



Questions 
.Robert.pennington@louisville.edu