PARENT PRESENTATION

CHILD DEVELOPMENT ECE 497

INSTRUCTOR JENNIFER ZAUR
AUGUST 31, 2014
BY ATHENA HENDERSON
SCENARIO
Lincoln Elementary School: Lincoln Elementary School is
located in Gilbert, Arizona. Gilbert is a relatively large
city with a strong sense of family and community. The
school has a population of 765 students from PreK to
sixth grade. At Lincoln Elementary School, 94% of the
students are eligible for free and/or reduced lunch, and
58% of the students are second language learners. The
majority of the students at Lincoln Elementary School
are Hispanic (93%). Five percent of the student
population is white, and 2% is American Indian.
PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT
FOCUS
This scenarios periods of development are the Early
Childhood period and Middle Childhood period. Since
the range of ages at this school are from the PreK to 6
th

grade age groups. Also since this school is 58% second
language learners, its focus would also be the language
development of the students.
MY ROLE AS A PROFESSIONAL
My role as a child development professional will be to do
my best to guide children in learning and development in
positive ways. Also to be open to suggestions from
parents, grandparents and other caregivers so that we
can work together for their childs best interest.
PRESENTATION RATIONALE
My beliefs are somewhat based on an African proverb
which says It takes a village to raise a child. This
proverb makes perfect sense because it does take all of
us to ensure that our children are given the best
possible chance at a good education and positive
experiences so they can grow and learn. We as child
professionals and you as parents/caregivers are all a
part of raising a healthy child from proper nutrition to
food for the mind. Both are important to the well-being
of a child.
COMING TOGETHER AS ONE
BRONFENBRENNERS
MESOSYSTEM
Bronfenbrenners Ecological System Theory views the
child as developing within a complex system of
relationships affected by multiple levels of the
surrounding environment(Berk, 2013,p 26). The
Mesosystem is the second level in his theory and show
the connections between family, home, school and
community. All of these areas are apart of a childs
development process because they interact with children
or vice versa.
COMMUNITY, FAMILY
CONNECTIONS

EPSTEINS TYPES OF
INVOLVEMENT
Epstein has six types of involvement which are
parenting, communication, volunteering, learning at
home, decision making and collaborating with
community.
PARENTING
Parenting helps
children from
home and
provides support
from the family.
Parents are our
childrens first
teachers and
have the most
influence.
Schools should
be aware of
family structures
in the
community.
COMMUNICATING
Communicating is working
together between the family and
school staff to monitor the
childrens progress. It influences
a childs learning by keeping
parents aware of the progress
the child is making and
addressing any issues. An idea
could be to send home weekly
newsletters on what is going on
in the classroom.
VOLUNTEERING
Recruiting and organizing
parents to help and
support school projects.
This influences children
by supporting the
community. One idea
could be to sponsor one
activity each month for
community service.
LEARNING AT HOME
This is a way to help
students with homework or
activities as a family. This
influences a child by
including family time. One
idea could be a show and tell
form of explaining
assignments and allowing
parents to engage in a
question and answer session
with them.
DECISIONS
This includes parents in
school decisions. This
influences a childs
learning development by
seeing how involved their
parents are in the school
and in their learning.
One idea could be
creating an outside
parenting club for extra
support in addition to the
PTO organization.

COLLABORATION
Working with the
community is important
because it supports
everyone. This
influences a childs
learning by providing
activities for them to do
outside of school. One
idea could be a carnival
at the local park as a
fundraiser for school
sponsored activities or
supplies or to encourage
the reading program with
rewards.
REFERENCES
BERK, 2013, 9
TH
EDIITON, CHILD DEVELOPMENT,
PEARSON UPPERSADDLE RIVER, NEW JERSEY.
WWW.PSYCHOLOGY.COM