Explore the strengths-based attitudes and relationship-based practices that can help you develop and sustain Positive Goal-Oriented Relationships with families. You can use these strategies to strengthen your partnerships and help build the basis for effective family engagement. Meaningful partnerships and sustained family engagement lead to better outcomes for children and families.
Just as Head Start and Early Head Start staff strive to engage parents and families in healthy, trusting, and respectful relationships, it is important that staff have the same kind of relationships with colleagues and supervisors. Supervision is not only about staff accountability. It also involves the commitment to nurture and guide staff so that they have the tools to engage children and families successfully.
One key to building relationships is taking the time to reflect on our work with families. When we look at what’s working and what’s not, we can make changes that strengthen our relationships with families. Individual and shared reflective practice helps us work more effectively with families and contribute to better outcomes for children and families.
Taking the time to reflect—to stop and think about what has happened, what is happening, and what should happen next—is essential to creating and maintaining Positive Goal-Oriented Relationships. In this section, we will explore reflective practice strategies to support our work to build relationships with families.
Reflection is an important part of our own continuous improvement process to understand why and how we make the choices we do. Taking the time to look at yourself and your work gives you the opportunity to acknowledge strengths and challenges, and to improve your skills.
Explore strategies you can use in individual reflective practice and reflective supervision. Taking the time to reflect—to stop and think about what has happened, what is happening, and what should happen next—is essential to creating and maintaining strong relationships with families and peers. Reflective supervision is an opportunity to provide structured support for staff who want to build skills and enhance their work with families.
Meet Sam and Janine. Both are new to reflective supervision. Sam is a new director and Janine is a new home visitor. Each has questions about how reflective supervision works. The information sheet for supervisors shows Sam thinking about steps she needs to take to become a good supervisor. The information sheet for supervisees shares questions Janine has about reflective supervision.
This report documents the themes that emerged from the focus groups regarding supervision and training of home visitors. The report is presented in two parts; the first part addresses the needs of supervisors and the second addresses the needs of home visitors.
This webcast is designed to help you implement reflective supervision in your Early Head Start, Head Start, or Migrant and Seasonal Head Start program. It features a mini-training with Early Head Start practitioners led by Rebecca Shahmoon-Shanok, LCSW, Ph.D., a leading early childhood expert.
Reflective supervision and reflective parenting practices can be considered as the circle of support or the continuous relationships that allow caring for and supporting infants and toddlers to be the main focus in Early Head Start.