Parent-Provider Partnership Skill: Communicating Daily Routines and Existing Special Needs

As with all children, quality child care can be good for children with special needs, parents, and providers. Children can benefit from increased social contact and a wider variety of activities than they might experience at home. Parents are able to work and can renew themselves during time away from their child. Providers have an opportunity to learn and practice a specialty skill and to expand their life experience. Once a provider accepts a child with special needs into their care, the following tips for communication can help the partnership grow in trust:

• Remember that parents are the experts when it comes to their child's special needs.
• Talk with the parent about what information they might or might not want to share with other children and parents in the child care setting.
• Children may have many varied conditions that influence daily functioning, so focus on a child's abilities and needs, not "the condition".
• Ask what the best times and ways are for a parent to talk with you.
• Plan time to "touch base" with the parent, if only for a few moments, even when there is nothing special to discuss.
• Jointly develop an action plan, and keep it current, for potentially stressful times such as arrival and departure, and how to comfort the child.
• Adapting an environment or activity may be surprisingly easy. Adaptations can save time and can be fun for providers and other children, too.
• Have special instructions in writing and post them. Posting instructions in a place usable space can help make sure the child's needs are met.
• Some parents may like to have a journal or notebook that goes from home to child care. This serves as a method for asking and answering questions or sharing information about the child on a routine basis.
• Discuss, and write in conjunction with the parent, a plan that addresses any special equipment or procedures for the child in the areas of communication, mobility, sleep, eating, dressing, medication, bowel and bladder and other activities of daily living.
• Ask the parent about the child's needs and also share your knowledge in terms of adapting activities related to gross and fine motor, speech and language, cognition, and social-emotional development.
• Ask parents about books or resources they would like to share with you about their child's condition or characteristics.
• Knowing that all children can grow and develop quickly, build in weekly and monthly times to talk with parents about any changes necessary to keep up with and facilitate the child's continued growth and development.
• When the child transitions out of your program to another setting, ask the parent how you can help in making a smooth transition.

 Some articles and resources you may find useful are:

Caring for Our Children (National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care's Guidelines for Early Care and Education Programs)
Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5 (American Academy of Pediatrics)
Communicating with Culturally Diverse Parents of Exceptional Children (ERIC Clearinghouse on Handicapped and Gifted Children)
Together Children Grow: Quality Child Care for Children with Special Needs (Wisconsin Child Care Information Center)