Family, Child and Community

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Child, Family, and Community: Family Centered Theresa R. Moore ECE 313- Final Paper February 19, 2012 Dr. Alicia Holland-Johnson The Child in Context of Family and Community “Each child must be viewed in the context of his or her family, and each family must be viewed in the context of the community to which it belongs” (Menza-Gonzalez, 2009). Educators who have a deep-rooted respect for their students and families will use decision making skills to enhance the general relationship, communication, and services provided to connect and help to develop a child into a society of life long learners and citizens. “A family- centered approach takes the individual child and the group of children out of the spotlight and instead focuses on the children within their families. That means that parent involvement isn’t something the teacher does in addition to the program for children, but that the program includes the family as an integral, inseparable, part of the child’s education and socialization. Families, along with their children, are the program” (Menza-Gonzalez, 2009). Educators who understand child development in perspective to family and community rely on competency to organize an early childhood program which incorporates effective developmentally approved practices which incorporate family and community into the “whole child” approach. “School readiness is, of course, a concern for everybody, but professionals with a child development back-ground often come at it from a different angle than some other professionals and families by recognizing that social-emotional development is vitally tied to cognitive development” (Menza-Gonzalez, 2009). Socially, a child learns to relate to family, peers, teachers and other members of the community through a range of human emotions, interactions, and transitions over the years of development. Emotionally, children
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