Promoting Powerful Parent Partnerships through Concerns, Challenges, and Conflicts.

Gain insight and strategies to build a robust and rewarding relationship with parents, especially those you find difficult to connect with. Explore methods to effectively communicate about concerns and challenging behaviors that will increase parent’s openness to your suggestions and investment in using helpful, productive strategies. Learn collaborative conflict resolution strategies and apply a process to comfortably resolve conflicts that inevitably come up. You will walk away with strategies you can apply today to build a productive and cooperative relationship that will ensure success for you and the families you work with.

III: Relationships with Families

Communicating Concerns and Challenges with Parents of Infants and Toddlers

Gain strategies to effectively and comfortably discuss developmental concerns, challenging behaviors, and safety guidelines with parents of infants and toddlers. Collect methods to set the stage for these conversations before concerns arise. Identify tips and helpful language that will turn these potentially awkward or tense conversations into comfortable and collaborative discussions. Apply the tools learned to a common real-life scenario you experience. You will increase your confidence and ease with having these sensitive conversations and ensure the discussions keep parents open to your insight, increase parent buy-in, and help maintain your important relationship with parents.

III: Relationships with Families

Creating a Cohesive and Collaborative Caregiving Team

Identify tips to increase positive communication and a team approach in your caregiving environment. Gain tools to confidently, calmly, and comfortably have difficult conversations with coworkers about concerns. Learn a process for collaboratively problem-solving challenges together in a way that builds your work relationship and reduces challenging behaviors. List methods to develop an effective teaching team that will lower your stress, increase your success, and enhance your joy, personally and professionally!

VI: Professionalism

Constructive Parent Communication During Daily Interactions and Difficult Conversations

Explore communication tools and conversation starters you can use during day-to-day interactions and parent meetings to set the stage and build a collaborative working relationship. Gain tools to confidently, calmly, and comfortably have difficult conversations with parents about behavioral concerns. Discover methods to diffuse tense situations and productively communicate with stressed, demanding, sensitive, and sometimes explosive parents. Explore specific questions and statements you can use that build a positive connection with parents as you problem-solve challenges together and work toward shared goals and increased consistency between home and your care. Practice and apply the methods learned to real-life scenarios in your work with parents.

III: Relationships with Families