HHC0216: Understanding Families

786 Words2 Pages

1. Early childhood educators do not only work with children, they also work with their families directly and indirectly. Knowing what is happening in child’s family help educator understand the needs of children in their care. Children’s family socio-economic background, cultural values and beliefs affect the child’s body and mind and also their health. I remember, when I was living with my in laws, they were used to believe that being social means being nosy. Whenever I tried to communicate with people they react badly with me. Their belief and values (does not matter right or wrong) made a great impact on me and my child’s life. Today I am not very social. I cannot talk with confidence among people and so do my children. The well-being of a child is linked with well-being of families. To nurture the child as a whole, educator has to make sure that the child is achieving all developmental milestones while growing, but we also have to respect the family’s values and tradition. We are all different because of environment and experiences. We are all unique individuals, who grow and develop differently. The family’s income has a great impact on a child’s life. Income makes family and child rich or poor. The income of families separates them in society as rich and poor. Poverty has profound effects on the home environment, family structure, and parenting (Shimoni.R & Baxter.J, pg 158). Children’s experiences in the world make them analytical and cognitively smart. Children’s socio- economic background plays a major role in their development and building their self-esteem. Today in the world, we can see the children of America are way different from the children in Afghanistan because of education, health, nurturing and lack of food (r...

... middle of paper ...

...ion, shared values, coping mechanisms, and a balance of needs. (Shimoni.R & Baxter.J, pg 24)
4. It is important that educators’ dialogue with families to develop an understanding of their values, beliefs and cultural views. The diversity is not the result of differences among people so much as the importance attaches to their perceptions of one another differences (Kilbride.K, p.g7). Educators can maintain positive relationships with families by separating their own perceptions and experiences from the real situations by avoiding stereotypes and by being sensitive to the different cultural norms. Developing rapport with families is the ability to empathize i.e. the ability to imagine what it feels like to be in another person’s situation. Only with the understanding and empathy will early childhood educator be able to support children. (Shimoni.R & Baxter.J, pg 04)

Open Document