FAMILY AND COMMUNITY

INVOLVEMENT AND HOW IT

AFFECTS CHILDREN
Jessica Ohl
ECE 497
Pilar Carroll
September 28, 2014
EARLY CHILDHOOD AND MIDDLE
CHILDHOOD
With different ages, come different developmental standards. Early
childhood children are at the age where they look up to their parents,
grandparents, and other adults in their lives. From Pre-K to 6
th
Grade, children
are beginning to learn many new things that are preparing them for their
adolescent years. During this age there will be many changes occurring in
their lives and in their bodies and as those who they look up to we must be
prepared to help them through it all.
TEACHERS PART IN CHILDRENS
LIVES
As a Child Development professional, it is my job to ensure that each child I
come in to contact with receives the best education and care that they
deserve. If they have problems going on at home then I will make sure that
they know they can talk to me about it and I will do everything in my power
to make sure that they get the help they need.

RATIONALE FOR THE
PRESENTATION
Children are our future and finding the right ways in which to encourage and
support them is something that all parents, teachers, grandparents, and
community leaders should strive for. This presentation will highlight ways in
which to do this.
MESOSYSTEM
Microsystem
Childs self
Mesosystem
Family, School, Peers, and
Neighborhood
Exosystem
A childs interaction with all of
the above can change their
Exosystem.
Macrosystem
Doctors, School Officials,
Health Services, Extended
Family, Media.
Chronosystem
Government, Belief Systems,
and Material Resources.
EPSTEINS TYPES OF INVOLVEMENT
Epstein has Six types of Involvement that he feels should be taken into
consideration. They are:
Parenting
Communicating
Volunteering
Learning at Home
Decision Making
Collaborating with Community
PARENTING

Parenting makes a big impact on how a child behaves and who they
become. If the parent is not around that often the child is not getting all the
necessary involvement that they should be getting. Parenting consist of taking
care of all their childs needs, helping them with school work, making sure they
are fed and clothed, and making sure that they are not harmed in any way.

COMMUNICATION
Communication can mean having a face to face meeting with the teacher
when a problem arises with their child, or the teacher sending a letter home to
keep the parent on track with what their child is learning and how they are
doing in the class.



Ways to get parents and the community involved is to invite them into the
classroom to share what jobs they do, what their culture is about, and/or
taking a field trip with the children to visit places so that they can learn from
them.
VOLUNTEERING
Going out in to the community and volunteering will help children to learn that
by helping others we are making sure that they have all they need even when
they are struggling to get it on their own.


Ways in which to volunteer in the classroom would be to talk to the teacher
and see if there is anything that they need you to help with and also letting
them know when you can work. Coming in to help read to the children, grade
papers, or just being a listening ear when the child may need it.
LEARNING AT HOME

Learning begins at home and at an early age. When teachers send home
work, then it is the responsibility for the parents to make sure that the child
completes it.
Getting the parents and child care providers into helping children learn and
ways in which to do it as a child development professional is send home
projects that can be done as a family and also finding ways in which to get
the parents into the classroom.
DECISION MAKING
Working together; parents, teachers, and child, can make the decision
process much easier on children.

Way in which parents and children can make positive decisions is too:
Talk it over with their spouse and for children talking to their parents
Talk to the teacher and find out what they feel is the right way to help them
Parents should talk to the child and ask them their ides on the problem and then
let them decide. If the decision is going to harm them than the parent must step
in, but allowing them to make their own decision and learn from them will help
them to become stronger.
COLLABORATING WITH THE
COMMUNITY
The community around a child can make a big impact on that child.
Involving the community in school activities and allowing them to teach
what they know to the children can make the children feel that they are
learning more about where they come from.
Setting up a fair and bringing in different businesses to share what they do
and how they help the community can make children want to work at one
of those places when they are older. It takes more than the parents to raise
a child and everyone should remember this.

REFERENCES

Berk, L. E. (2013).Child Development. (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Bradley, R. H. (2010). From home to day care: Chaos in the family/child-care
mesosystem. In G. W. Evans, T. D. Wachs (Eds.) , Chaos and its influence on children's
development: An ecological perspective (pp. 135-153). American Psychological
Association. doi:10.1037/12057-009
Griffin, D., & Steen, S. (2010). School-Family-Community Partnerships: Applying
Epstein's Theory of the Six Types of Involvement to School Counselor Practice.
Professional School Counseling, 13(4), 218-226.
Jang, J., & Kim, Y. (2012). The effects of parentchild communication patterns on
children's interactive communication in online communities: focusing on social self-
efficacy and unwillingness to communicate as mediating factors. Asian Journal Of
Communication, 22(5), 493-505. doi:10.1080/01292986.2012.701314