Building Relationships with Parents and Caregivers

1
Building Relationships with Parents and Caregivers

• A Change in Perspective

2
Hot Button Activity-Parents and Caregivers

• Identify a couple of parent/caregiver behaviors
  that push your buttons and write down on your
  handout.
• After identifying several hot buttons, write down
  your feelings when you faced this behaviors.
• Then write down the impact your feelings have had
  on your relationship with the parent who
  exhibited these behaviors.
• Share your examples with the larger group.

3
Hot Button Activity-Teachers and Specialists

• Imagine you are a parent of a child with problem
  behaviors and identify a couple of teacher and/or
  specialist behaviors that push your buttons and
  write down on your handout.
• After identifying several hot buttons, write down
  your feelings when you faced this behaviors from
  the teachers/specialists.
• Then write down the impact your feelings have had
  on your relationship with the teacher/specialist
  who exhibited these behaviors.
• Share your examples with the larger group.

4
How to Talk to Parents/Caregivers about their
Childs Problem Behaviors

• Start with expressing empathy for the
  family/caregiver situation.
• Recognize that parents/caregivers are the experts
  of the child regardless of your views.
• Your role is to educate the parent/caregiver
  about what you are seeing, not to confront them.
• Recognize that a familys life may not be
  conducive to immediately focusing on the childs
  behavior.
• Review handout Talking with Families about
  Problem Behavior.
• Recognize the differences in families cultural
  views of behaviors.

5
Parent Views on Social Emotional Functioning

• A study compared parents' beliefs about daily
  child-rearing practices across three ethnic
  groups.
• Three belief constructs were identified.
• "Conformity" was least valued by European
  Americans.
• "Autonomy" was equally valued by European
  Americans and African Americans, and less by
  Asian Americans.
• There were no group differences in the importance
  of Prosocial.
• Early Child Development and Care, v178 n5
  p467-486 Jul 2008

6
Parental Views of Control

• Parents have a locus of control which ranges from
  external to internal.
• Externals attribute outcomes of events to
  external circumstances
• Internals tend to attribute outcomes of events to
  their own control.
• Research conducted with non-Hispanic Whites
  indicates that parents of preschoolers with
  behavioral problems are more likely to have an
  external locus of control regarding parenting
  than parents whose preschoolers are free of such
  problems.
• Researchers compares parental locus of control
  (PLOC) among parents of clinic-referred Mexican
  American preschoolers to parents of nonreferred
  Mexican American preschoolers.
• Results demonstrate that referred Mexican
  American parents exhibited a more external PLOC
  than nonreferred Mexican American parents across
  a number of domains.
• Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders,
  Vol. 16, No. 2, 118-126 (2008)

7

Parenting Stress, Child Behavior Problems and
Dysphoria in Parents of Children with Autism,
Down Syndrome Behavior Disorders, and Normal
Development

• Results of a study looking at parental issues of
  children with special needs indicated
• Parents of children with autism and behavior
  disorders experienced statistically and
  clinically higher levels of parenting stress than
  parents in the other two groups.
• Parents of children with behavior disorders
  reported that their children presented behavioral
  difficulties that were statistically and
  clinically more intense and numerous than those
  of all other children.
• Mothers of children with autism and behavior
  disorders experienced statistically and
  clinically higher levels of dysphoria than
  mothers in the other two groups which appeared to
  be specifically related to the stresses of
  parenting exceptional children rather than to
  personal dysfunction.
• Journal article by Jean E. Dumas, Lucille C.
  Wolf, Sandra N. Fisman, Annie Culligan
  Exceptionality, Vol. 2, 1991

8
Strategies to Build Relationships with
Parents/Caregivers

• What are some strategies for helping
  parents/caregivers feel more in control of their
  childs behavior.
• Brainstorm ideas about how to build relationships
  with all parents/caregivers
• Refer to handout Welcoming Activities and
  Ideas.
• Brainstorm ideas about how to build relationships
  with parents/caregivers of children with
  behavioral differences.