School has started and it has only taken a few weeks for the cracks to begin to show in some cases. Some parents have discovered to their dismay that information they expected a new teacher to read hasn't been, others have discovered that promised provisions are taking a while to be put in place. Other families are noticing the relaxed and happy child of the school holidays is already a distant memory, replaced by the tense and fragile child of school term.
While many parents compiled a document for teachers based on the information in the Welcome to the Wonderful and Challenging World of my Child post I wrote recently and spoke to teachers before school started, others wrote it up and held on to it with a 'wait and see' attitude. As few hoped it wouldn't be necessary but soon discovered it might help, or gained confidence from the positive comments of others who tried it.
Believing in yourself and
your ability to be an effective advocate for your child is critical to your
success. Now there is an easy way to do it.
In my experience, when parents are faced with
the need to seek change for their children in order for them to thrive, they
seem to fall into one of three broad categories.
1.
Those who get the information they
need, treat the situation as a ‘problem’ to be solved and take action. They ask
‘What do I need to do?’ and ‘How do I do it?’
2.
Those who want to take action but
hesitate. With a confidence boost and some direction these parents can become
great advocates for their child. As they grow they also empower others.
3.
Those who can see the need but
hope it will all go away. Even when there are day to day challenges coping with
their child, they worry about making waves, and hope others will take
responsibility. These parents often return wanting more help before long
because action is required to change the situation.
When you read those
descriptions, do you get a sense of the different mindset or feeling that each
brings to the situation?
In order – Positive, Hesitant,
Reluctant.Can you imagine how that affects their outcomes?
Our belief about our
ability to succeed at a task has a big impact on how much effort we will put
in, how persistent we are and ultimately how successful we will be. I also
believe it influences the language we use, our tone of voice and body language.
I won’t ask you which
group you think you might fall into, but if you are hesitating or reluctant to
advocate for your child take heart! You can build your skills and confidence as
an advocate and it isn't too difficult to do.
I have just recently released
a new self-paced course for parents that will take you step by step through the
process of gathering information, planning, preparing, building positive
relationships and confidently presenting your case to your child’s school or
teachers. Once you sign up the course materials will arrive in your In Box every
second day for two weeks and it should take you in an hour or less most days to
complete the reading and tasks. By the end of the course you will have set up a
file for your child, collected a range of information about them, set long and
short term goals, developed a plan and have a check list for managing meetings
and building positive relationships with teachers and the school.
If in the past just reading
about what you should do hasn’t delivered the confidence you hoped for, this course
could be what you need to turn information into transformation.
All the best on your journey!
No comments:
Post a Comment