Course Competency 1: Analyze family patterns and trends.

• Develop a definition of family that is inclusive and diverse.
• Explore various family structures (e.g., nuclear family, one-parent family, foster family, gender-diverse parents).
• Describe trends affecting families.
• Analyze circumstances in families’ lives that influence child and family members’ actions.
• Explore literature and classroom resources related to diverse family patterns and trends.

Course Competency 2: Integrate strategies that support diversity, equity, and inclusion.

• Describe how a family’s culture influences their values, perceptions, beliefs, celebrations, and parenting practices.
• Analyze the influence of your own experiences on your perceptions and attitudes toward diverse families and on your caregiving practices.
• Explain why educators have a responsibility to understand family life and how it impacts teaching.
• Outline the importance of involving families in the development and implementation of celebrations and activities that respect their traditions and values.

Course Competency: Identify strategies to strengthen and support families.

• Define common stressors families may encounter.
• Analyze factors that protect families against stress (i.e., Strengthening Families Protective Framework).
• Identify strategies to support families in developing protective factors.
• Review program practices in supporting and strengthening protective factors.
• Analyze a strength-based approach to working with families.
• Explain how trauma-informed care supports children and families.

Course Competency 4: Analyze effective communication strategies.

• Utilize effective communication techniques.
• Identify barriers to effective communication.
• Recognize how personal patterns affect communication style.
• Identify strategies for conflict resolution.
• Develop strategies for communicating with families in ways that are culturally sensitive and respect the family’s home language and communication styles.
• Explore the responsible use of technology to communicate with families.

Course Competency 5: Discover strategies for developing respectful and reciprocal relationships with families.

• Identify strategies for initial encounters with children and families.
• Identify techniques for building cooperative partnerships with families.
• Recognize the progression in educator-family relationships.
• Analyze barriers to educator-family relationships.
• Analyze common sources of tension between families and educators.

Course Competency 6: Analyze strategies to promote family engagement in early childhood education programs.

• Identify a range of levels of family engagement.
• Identify strategies that promote and sustain meaningful family engagement.
• Recognize the barriers to effective family engagement.

Course Competency 7: Outline formats for meeting with families in their contexts.

• Identify strategies to conduct successful informal and formal family-educator meetings.
• Recognize the purpose and goals of family-educator conferences.
• Examine how home visits are used in a variety of community agencies.

Couse Competency 8: Advocate for children and families.

• Examine your role as an advocate.
• Explore public policy that affects children and families.
• Identify a range of advocacy strategies.

Course Competency 9: Identify community resources that provide a range of services for children and families.

• Describe the types of services needed by diverse families.
• Analyze a broad range of services provided by local community organizations.
• Develop a collection of resource agencies.
• Describe how to match local services to the needs of a family.