Salvador, an early childhood special educator who works with diverse families, talks about the advantages and importance of involving the family in making decisions (running time: 1 min., 30 sec.).
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Salvador:
It’s important to get the family involved. And so that’s, I think, that’s one of the biggest teaching moments when it comes to this type of situation is understanding that you have the power. If the family doesn’t get involved or doesn’t want to take part in this, and they see you as the expert, you have so much power over what happens and if you don’t get it right, you have to live with it. And so it doesn’t feel good when you make the wrong decisions. Not only that but at that point, you start questioning: “Did I get that wrong? I should have involved the parents. The child is not making great gains in this program I should have put him in the other program.” And so that dilemma starts coming up and you start questioning your decisions, when you should have from the beginning of that year or the two years that you had the child been talking about it with the parent, should have been training the parent so that the team makes a decision, not the one teacher that has him. You can totally avoid that type of situation and be comfortable with the decision that is made with everyone involved, not just one person.