#042: How to Have Effective Communication With Parents

How are you utilizing effective communication with parents? Parents, how are you effectively communicating with the educators in your child's life? Ria Reive from HiMama is a former early childhood educator. She shares actionable tips to improve communication with parents and teachers. As well as the overall benefit from effective communication in a school setting. You may not see how impactful parent engagement can be in the day-to-day, but down the road, there is going to be an immense benefit when both the parent and the educator have the knowledge on both sides.

What are Ria’s three big strategies for effective parent communication? 

• It all starts with being yourself because you are starting the map of engagement from the get-go.
• Continue to be a source of knowledge for the parent. Be that stepping stone when a parent is ready for help, they may not be accepted right away, but if you continue to be that source, you may be surprised by what they are taking in. 
• Seek professional development on communicating with parents, take the time to invest in yourself, and you will find those interactions and engagement are a lot more successful.

So what kind of daily information are you providing parents on a day-to-day basis? For Ria in the classroom working with younger kids, that's going to be feeding, naps, diaper changes, etc., and then kind of how their day went, did it go amazing, or maybe they had a rough day and some of that daily info can clue in on that. So when she was in the classroom, that was translated via paper. However, we talk a lot about how parents do not need one more piece of paper, and that's where HiMama comes in. HiMama provides a digital piece of communication for efficient, direct, dissemination of information between teachers and parents.

What happens when there may be a problem or disagreement? Ria and I talk about the benefits of creating an action plan. Decide how you’re going to handle problems with parents and remain professional and supportive. Remember, there is a time and place,  during drop-off at the classroom door, probably isn't it.

It takes a team to educate and support students with autism, and all students. Parent engagement and communication from both sides is a skill really integral to the success of the child at hand.

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What's Inside:

• The importance of effective communication with parents and teachers.
• Actionable tips for educators to improve communication.
• What kind of information should be communicated between parents and teachers?
• How to handle tough conversations.
• What is HiMama and how could it help your education communication?

Mentioned In This Episode:
HiMama - The Best Childcare App for Daycare Centers
ABA Speech: Home