Know

What are Your Views About Family?

What comes to your mind when you hear the word family? Perhaps thoughts of individuals who have affected and shaped your life, or images of people coming together to celebrate holidays and other significant events; maybe smells of home-cooked food, memories of conversations or arguments you had with loved ones, feelings of love, joy, or sadness.

Families are central to individuals’ lives. Particularly when it comes to infants and young children, families assume critical roles that significantly affect children’s well-being and development. As a professional working with infants and toddlers, it is critical for you to appreciate and understand children’s families. This lesson will familiarize you with current perspectives on how families are viewed and how they function. This information will provide helpful context in order to better understand your work and interactions with families.

The Meaning of Family

When you think of the word “family,” what does it mean to you? Who makes up your family? What kinds of things do you do together? What role do you play in your family?

Every family is different and it is important to keep an open mind about what makes up a family. Each person defines family in his or her own way. For some, family may represent those individuals living in the same home (under one roof). For others, family may be the infant or toddler’s parents and all of the important adults who help care for the young child, such as grandparents, aunt, uncle, neighbor, or best friend. Family is consistent in the infant or toddler’s life and it is the most important source of information about the child.

The U.S. Census Bureau defines family as a group of two or more people who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption, and who live together. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (2011, p. 3) suggests that “the term family may include those adults, besides parents, with the responsibility of being involved in educating, nurturing, and advocating for the child.” Researchers studying and working with families define family as “two or more people who regard themselves as a family and who carry out the functions that families typically perform. These people may or may not be related by blood or marriage and may or may not usually live together” (Turnbull, Turnbull, Erwin, & Soodak, 2006, p. 7).

What are some things that stand out to you as you read these definitions? You may notice that the first definition is quite specific in terms of how relationships are described, whereas the other two definitions are broader. As a professional working with young children, it is important to acknowledge that your own experiences influence your views about families and working with families. You will encounter individuals who define family differently than you do and who may share values, customs, or codes of behavior that are different from yours.

Like individuals, families are varied. Family structures have become more diverse through shared custody, same-sex couple families, families where members have different immigration statuses, and when a parent has children with multiple partners. While these circumstances do not always bring challenges, research suggests that children whose family structures are complex may be more likely to experience negative consequences, such as less caregiving from a parent. Today, 40 percent of children are born to unmarried parents. Like the concept of ‘family,’ the concept of family well-being is also challenging to define. You may recognize family well-being when you see it in your program. Or you may recognize when families’ lack some aspect of family well-being. As you think about how best to engage with and support the families in your program, consider your role in strengthening families’ protective factors. The good news is that many of the behaviors that correspond to positive family functioning can be “taught and strengthened with education.” (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2019, p. 42).

How are Families Viewed Today? Introducing Family-Centered Practice

Because families are central to their children’s development, particularly when it comes to the early-childhood years, they are partners, active participants, and decision makers in their children’s education process. As a result, family-centered practice is considered one of the indicators of quality in early childhood education, programs, and services. At the heart of family-centered practice is the belief that families are the most important decision makers in a child’s life (Sandall, Hemmeter, Smith, & McLean, 2005).

Family-centered practice also means that you understand the important effect all family members have on each other and on the infant or toddler. Each family member affects the other and the ways that the family functions. All family members are interconnected. From our family, we learn skills that enable us to engage in school and the workplace.

When considering family-centered practice, you are viewing infants and toddlers as part of a larger system; you are viewing family members as a whole. You become aware of and sensitive to the interactions and relationships taking place within the family, as well as outside interactions and supports that affect them. In an effort to maintain relationships and to work effectively together, you learn, respect and understand characteristics of each family and its support system. You can also consider the characteristics and stressors of families which may affect their involvement. What affects one family member can affect all family members. A family is a system in which no one member can be viewed in isolation.

Family-Centered Practice

Throughout the Virtual Laboratory School, we consider family-centered practice as an umbrella term that encompasses the beliefs and actions of people in your program. Consider this graphic:

Making an effort to understand infants, toddlers, and their families can create opportunities for you to better support the infants and toddlers in your care.

Honoring Diversity in Families

Some very important learning in the first three years of life relates to culture. For example, infants and toddlers learn new words, ways of interacting with others, how to communicate, and how to play — all things influenced by culture. Culture refers to the shared experiences and history of different groups of people. Cultural differences may include differences in views of family and community, expectations of children, roles of parents, and value placed on education.

Culture is a significant factor in the ways families raise their children and how you, as a caregiver, provide care for infants and toddlers. Examine your own cultural experiences and consider how these experiences affect your practice with infants, toddlers and families. Each caregiver brings specific values, beliefs and assumptions about child rearing and development to their work. In almost every type child-care routine you perform, your values about it were shaped by your childhood and training. As you work with infants, toddlers and families, it is important to recognize your values and beliefs and the ways in which they are communicated. For example, a parent might expect a toddler to begin using a spoon and fork around age 3 when you might expect this behavior around 20 months.

Sometimes, you might feel unsure about how to care for an infant or toddler or how to engage families who have very different experiences and cultures, including those who speak an unfamiliar language or who have unfamiliar religious customs. You can acknowledge differences and demonstrate an interest in the family in an effort to build relationships and learn ways to provide support to infants and toddlers in your care. For example, you can learn how and when families feed their infants, which is influenced by culture and affects development. When differences are viewed through the lens of culture, respectful conversations can lead to agreement in how these practices will be supported in a group early care and learning environment.

Early care and learning settings provide an environment in which adults and children can learn about and honor differences in values, beliefs and perceptions. Learning one’s culture occurs primarily within the family, however, in early care and learning environments infants and toddlers also learn about culture and experience relationships that influence their sense of who they are and who they will become.

To help children develop this sense of who they are and who they will become, you must honor and celebrate the diversity of families. Diversity exists on a variety of dimensions:

• Composition (who is a member of the family)
• Race and ethnicity
• Language
• Socioeconomic status
• Sexual orientation
• Ability or disability
• Educational background
• Values and traditions
• Child-rearing practices

Being a responsive caregiver to infants and toddlers means that you demonstrate sensitivity and consideration for the multiple backgrounds, experiences, values, and contexts in which children and families live.

See

Do

There is a lot you can do to show that you value the families of infants and toddlers in your program. Consider the following guidelines that reflect family-centered practice, and then think about how you can use these guidelines in your work with children and families.

• Recognize the family as the constant in the child’s life and that caregivers and service systems may come and go.
• Facilitate collaboration between families and professionals.
• Encourage family-to-family support and networking.
• Honor and respect family diversity in all dimensions (cultural, racial, ethnic, linguistic, spiritual, socio-economic, or in terms of family members’ sexual orientation). You may do this by:
  • Asking families about their home language and to sharing key phrases they use at home.
  • Having family information and children’s books in the languages of each family.
  • Inviting the family to visit the setting and sing songs, tell stories, and show books or pictures that demonstrate their culture, and, for toddlers, introduce culturally specific foods.
  • Observing how a family interacts with their infant or toddler.
  • Asking families to create a family or neighborhood storybook.
  • Meeting regularly with families to learn about their hopes, dreams and goals for their infant or toddler.

Watch this video to learn more about family-centered practice and what it means to value the family as a whole.

Completing in this Course

For more information on what to expect in this course, the Family Engagement Competency Reflection, and a list of the accompanying Learn, Explore and Apply resources and activities offered throughout the lessons, visit the Infant & Toddler Family Engagement Course Guide. 

Please note the References & Resources section at the end of each lesson outlines reference sources and resources to find additional information on the topics covered. As you complete lessons, you are not expected to review all the online references available. However, you are welcome to explore the resources further if you have interest, or at the request of your trainer, coach, or administrator.