Parent Liaison Research Articles

Perceived Value of the Inclusion of Parent-to-Parent Support in Case Conferences and Care Planning for Children With Special Healthcare Needs.

This chapter qualitatively explored the impact of including parent liaisons (i.e., parents with lived experience caring for a child with complex needs, who support other caregivers in navigating child and family needs) in a case conferencing model for children with complex medical/social needs. Case conferences are used to address fragmented care, shared decision-making, and set patient-centered goals. Seventeen semi-structured interviews were conducted with clinicians and parent liaisons to assess the involvement of parent liaisons in case conferencing. Two main themes included benefits of parent liaison involvement (10 subthemes) and challenges to parent liaison involvement (5 subthemes). Clinicians reported that liaison participation and support of patients reduced stress for clinicians as well as family members. Challenges to liaison involvement included clinical team/parent liaison communication delays, which were further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Parent liaison involvement in case conferences is perceived to be beneficial to children with complex needs, their families, and the clinical team. Integration of liaisons ensures the familial perspective is included in clinical goal setting.

Professional Preparation, Growth, and Recognition in the Service Coordination Workforce

A survey was distributed to Part C early intervention (EI) service coordination (SC) stakeholders in one state in order to gain a deeper understanding of service coordinator knowledge, skills, and motivators for professional growth and recognition. Survey participants (N = 107), including dedicated service coordinators, program managers, social emotional consultants, parent liaisons, local interagency council coordinators, and developmental pediatric consultants, identified knowledge and skills required for the role of service coordinators. Key motivators for professional growth within the SC role were also identified, including monetary, award/acknowledgment, and varied levels of responsibility. Data collected were analyzed, reviewed with Part C administrators, system point of entry leadership, and shared with EI stakeholders. Findings are being used to guide systems planning and decision-making to ensure service coordinators have opportunities for professional growth and are well prepared with the knowledge, skills, and supports necessary to partner with families and other professionals in EI. Information gained may also inform other state Part C programs and professional development entities as they (1) create and assess systems to support SC personnel; (2) build service coordinators' capacity to implement evidence-informed practices; (3) recognize service coordinators' critical role and expertise; and (4) foster the retention of well-trained, well-supported service coordinators.

Developing Family-School Partnerships in the Midst of Demographic Change: An Examination of Educators’ Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs and the Discourses They Shape

ABSTRACT This study examined educators’ attitudes, values, and beliefs about families and the development of family-school partnerships in demographically changing school and community contexts. Survey data were collected from 188 educators in nine school districts. In-depth interviews were conducted with four teachers, four leaders, and one parent liaison. Analysis revealed five themes: value of families; parent involvement and value of education; challenges families experience; onus for change; and, equity and power. Themes were pervasive across the data; however, how educators discussed the themes crafted two markedly different discourses (i.e., deficit and culturally responsive) about families. Leadership implications are discussed.

2014 Code of Practice: how research evidence on the role and impact of teaching assistants can inform professional practice

In this article, the author reflects on findings from research on the role and impact of teaching assistants and experience of working as a special educational needs (SEN) officer. Research evidence suggests the reliance on teaching assistants to include pupils with Statements of SEN in mainstream settings masks a collective, though unintentional, failure of educationalists to articulate and provide schools and families of children with SEN with appropriate and pedagogically sound models of inclusive provision. In light of the forthcoming reforms to the SEN system in England, key implications for educational psychologists (EPs) are drawn out, with particular reference to their role in parent liaison during the statutory assessment process.

Building Home–School Relationships to Enhance Reading Achievement for Students From Families With Limited Financial Resources

In Phase I, expectations for parental involvement were evaluated in a Title I school with a history of low reading achievement. Interviews were conducted with the principal, parent liaison, two first-grade teachers, and four families with limited financial resources whose children struggled in reading. Administrators and teachers believed parents’ lack of involvement at school events conveyed the wrong values to their children and served as a primary reason for continued poor academic performances. In Phase II, parents and teachers partnered to tutor students. For those families who participated in tutoring, their children’s reading progress after 2 months of tutoring matched or exceeded their growth during the previous 7 months of receiving only classroom instruction. Teachers’ initial skepticism regarding parents’ ability to tutor was replaced by a new appreciation for their efforts. Discussion focuses on both the quantity and the quality of parental involvement using a framework by Pomerantz and Moorman.

The Impact of a Parent Liaison at a Major Craniofacial Center

The psychosocial impact of craniofacial disfigurement affects both the developing child and his/her family. The Facial Reconstruction Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has employed a Parent Liaison (PL) to provide psychosocial support to families and has been an invaluable resource in this regard. We hypothesize that a PL impacts the overall outcome of the surgery by building trust between the parents and medical institution, and increasing satisfaction. An anonymous satisfaction survey was sent to families of craniofacial patients treated between January 1976 and June 2012. All patients who had undergone at least 1 craniofacial procedure had addresses on file and were included in this study. Statistical analyses were performed using the Mann-Whitney U test.During the study, 441 surveys were mailed to families meeting the inclusion criteria. A total of 151 families returned completed surveys (34.2%), and 121 surveys were included for analysis (27.4%). In rating overall satisfaction, families who met with the PL had statistically higher scores than those who had not (P = 0.0011). Parents who met with the PL preoperatively reported greater satisfaction in time spent answering questions (P = 0.0029) and the perception that questions were adequately answered (P = 0.0039). No statistical difference was observed in postoperative preparedness between families that did and did not meet the PL. The results demonstrate that the PL is beneficial in the education, experience, and satisfaction of families treated at a large Craniofacial Center. The PL complements the surgeon's treatment of the physical by adding psychosocial support.

Building bridges between refugee parents and schools

This interview study examines the way practitioners in Wisconsin public schools created conditions to facilitate refugee parent involvement. Practitioners’ perceptions of barriers to refugee parents’ school involvement are explored as well as the strategies used to promote meaningful parent involvement. Interviewees included nine school practitioners who worked closely with recently arrived Hmong students. The findings of the study suggest school practitioners considered the following barriers to refugee parent involvement: (1) language proficiency; (2) time constraints due to family socio‐economic status and traditional family structures; (3) deferential attitudes towards school authority. Strategies viewed as useful to the interviewees included: (1) creating a parent liaison position; (2) tapping into existing community service organisations; (3) providing parent education programmes. While the findings illuminate ways school practitioners and policy‐makers may better facilitate transitions of recently resettled refugee students into host communities, our discussion challenges school practitioners and policy‐makers to question an absence of community control in traditional conceptions and enactments of parental involvement. Further, we raise concerns over technical rational approaches to social integration of refugee families and critique a colonial discourse of ‘helping’ these vulnerable communities.

It's Elementary: Science Buddies Bring Biology to Life

As a developmental biologist with a passion for teaching, I enjoy explaining my work on cell rearrangements in the yolk sacs of killifish embryos to audiences ranging from first-year undergraduates to professional colleagues. Becoming a parent offered new opportunities. When my daughter entered our local elementary school, I wanted to find a way to share my professional life with her teachers. My modest desire to lend a helping hand evolved into a ‘‘Science Buddies’’ program, where undergraduate science majors are matched with elementary classrooms. Conceived as a way to help enrich the local science curriculum, the program has served as a training ground for young science educators, opening the eyes of college students to the joys and challenges of primary school teaching. Volunteering in the school started with an offer to bring in animals from my marine aquaria. I packed up a ‘‘Tupperware tidepool,’’ spread newspaper on the second-grade classroom floor, and passed around sea urchins and horseshoe crabs. The kids were most interested in the basics—Are they poisonous? Where did I get them? Do horseshoe crabs taste good? My visits soon expanded beyond my daughter’s class, as other teachers stopped me in the halls or sent e-mails, asking if I could bring something to their classrooms, too. One hardy sea cucumber entertained dozens of seven-year-olds and forged a link that brought my expertise to new audiences. Once I had established myself as a local scientist who loved being in the school, I was asked to be the parent liaison for a program that supplies elementary classrooms with chilled aquaria and salmon embryos for the students to hatch and rear. After four months of stewardship, the larvae are released in watershed habitats as part of an attempt to reestablish local populations. I showed time-lapse video sequences of early fish development to the fourth-grade classes, explained how a spherical egg is transformed into a small fish-on-a-ball-of-yolk, and led discussions about the salmon life cycle. When the elementary school purchased a dissecting microscope, video camera, and monitor, the microscopy cart mostly sat in the supply closet gathering dust— not because the teachers lacked the interest in the new equipment, but because they lacked the time. During a sabbatical, I made myself available to the teachers as a microscopy tech, bringing the setup into classrooms to look at whatever the class was studying—caterpillars, rocks, flower parts, etc. This was an excellent way to meet other teachers and be introduced to the science curriculum in the different grades. We expanded the salmon project by looking at the larvae under the microscope, and I brought in zebrafish embryos so the students could see much earlier stages of fish development. The first time the students saw a beating heart and blood flowing through the yolk sac of the transparent zebrafish embryos they were awestruck. They looked at the veins on the inner side of their wrists, felt their own heartbeat, and made connections between what they saw under the microscope to their own circulatory system. To ensure that these hands-on lessons would continue after my sabbatical ended, I started Science Buddies in 2005. I asked for volunteers among my undergraduate students and had them fill out a written application, looking for talented students who also had experience working with

Magnetic resonance imaging and the neonate.

Over the past decade, advances in neuroimaging have given birth to a new field of diagnostic pediatric neurologic assessment that includes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This invaluable tool helps medical professionals to resolve many clinical and research questions related to neonatal neurodevelopment that other imaging technology cannot explain. Nurses and others who accompany infants to MRI would benefit from a better understanding of early neurodevelopment and of the neuroimaging procedure. Knowing the advantages and disadvantages of MRI techniques can help nurses be better patient advocates, parent liaisons, and caregivers to infants having MRI scans.

Parental Involvement in Education: Attitudes and Activities of Spanish-Speakers as Affected by Training

This study compared school-related attitudes and activities of Spanish-speaking parents who participated in the Parent Resource Person Group (experimental group N = 47) with those who did not (control group N = 84). Low response by culturally and linguistically diverse parents to surveys is often misinterpreted as a lack of interest in their children's education. The author maintains that parents' lack familiarity with schools and resources and schools' lack culturally appropriate research methodology and cross-cultural sensitivity. Study subjects received surveys, calls, and postcards in Spanish. A small sample (N = 8) participated in telephone interviews. Findings revealed that the group receiving parent liaison training participated in a wider variety of school-related activities more frequently. Language and cultural issues impact the type and frequency of parental involvement. Non response does not equate with not caring.

Strides Toward Excellence: The Harford Heights Model

Harford Heights Elementary, a modified open space school, opened in 1975 with a student population of approximately 2,100. In its more than a decade of existence, Harford Heights has established and maintained high standards which have ensured continuous student growth. Outstanding features of our school include the following: pre-kindergarten program; kindergarten through grade five program; vocal music, art, instrumental music, physical education, library, and foreign language; computer-assisted instruction; specific learning disabilities classes; language learning disabled classes; Citywide Gifted and Talented Program (GATE); after-school recreational and tutorial classes; speech classes; and Chapter 1 services (parent liaison, Hi-I Labs, reading and mathematics classes). The staff believes that all children can learn, and that education is a process characterized by a flexible environment where options and alternatives guide children toward relevant learning experiences planned and implemented cooperatively by students, parents, and educators. This process promotes decision making, problem solving, positive attitudes and self images, community involvement, responsibility, mutual respect, accountability, individualization, independence, social growth, a desire to learn, and maximum utilization of resources. The current student population of Harford Heights is 1,785; 94 percent of this population is black. Many of our students reside in low-income housing, participate in the free lunch program, and are the products of single-parent homes. Harford Heights enjoys an average student attendance of 95 percent and a staff attendance rate of 96 percent. The disciplinary removal/suspension rate is extremely low. We benefit from Chapter 1 services which include supplementary reading and mathematics teachers; High Intensity Lab reading