 Teachers and parents talking collaboratively about the child's day at school and about the learning goals and strategies needed to accomplish goals builds their working relationship while supporting the child's diverse needs. We played the didgeridoo and everything else. Oh, really? Caleb was really right into it. Was he? Okay, because I was thinking that maybe I noticed that the book is available at Greenwoods and maybe we go pick it up. Focusing on strengths and achievement with a curriculum as a base makes clear the next steps for learning. We enjoyed the Harry Potter when you read it to him, the first one, and he talked about it for days. So I'm sure that if you read this one with him, then we could do some talking at school as well. Oh, that would be wonderful. Yeah. And he'd be talking with the kids at school because the kids are all waiting at the house. That would be a great idea. I believe the strength-based approach is important because you're identifying and focusing in on the students' gifts, abilities, and needs. You can work with the parents to observe what their child can do, set goals, and then celebrate the progress. Part of our collaboration is really about being able to share in Caleb's learning and his growing and all of the successes he has had, but really there are successes as a team. Good afternoon, Mr. Herms. How are you? Good. How are you, Mrs. Dragan? Really well. Thank you. Excellent. Hi, Joolen. Hi, Dad. How's it going? Yes. Did you have a good day today? Yes. Awesome. We'd love to show you something if you have a few extra minutes. Sure. And how about the butterflies? Not all the way. That's yours. That's right. Is this yours? Yes. Research has shown that the quality of contact with parents may be even more important than the quantity. I think it's really important that parents are kept informed of their children's progress, and it's also really important to find ways to involve parents in the learning that their children are doing. My role with Joolen is even though he knows it, don't assume he knows it the next day because if the situation or the environment's changed, he might not remember that rule or what. Communication with individual parents is best face-to-face to ensure that nonverbal cues are attended to. We know that 80% of communication is nonverbal, and only 20% is based on the words that are spoken. Schools can also communicate with groups of parents through websites, class emails, or using district software. Hello. Hi. Colleen, how are you? I'm good, thanks. Just checking to see if you had a chance to get the CD for our book that we're starting on Friday. Yeah, actually, I was able to get it last night. Awesome. So I'm looking forward to getting that going for him. One other thing. Remind me what that is again. Telephone conversations, daily communication, books or planners sent back and forth with the students or individual emails are also useful tools. Oh, that sounds great. Jill said he was quite successful with it once we got it going. So I'd like to maybe get that set up again this year. When it comes to my child, I feel like I'm the expert, and in a sense I'm almost educating the teachers about the challenging and wonderful aspects about him, and I've really appreciated their willingness to work together to help make school a positive experience for him. For all children, including children with disabilities, parents are an invaluable resource to teachers, providing them with information and insight about the child and what works best for that child in terms of learning and positive behavior support. Also, testing is a very big challenge area for Scott, and sometimes I recognize that you have to give tests, but even hearing the word test makes Scott anxious, and sometimes having a brief word with him before you hand it out or as soon as it's handed out just to talk to him and make sure he understands what the expectations are might help him feel a little bit better about the entire situation. What I love being in the class is that it allows me to get new ideas. I'm always picking up new ones from his teachers by watching him and them interact, and also I'm right there to be able to ask them questions about and get any new information, and of course I get to meet all his friends at school. I learned a new cool game from the speech language pathologist last week, so Stain on Topic, can I show you it? Parents want to help their child learn and develop, but they may be uncertain about which learning goals are most important or which strategies to use. And for him to stay on Topic, he has to focus on one subject, so his favorite one we all know is VeggieTales. So he needs to try to use the sentence, and as he says the sentence, and it's about VeggieTales, he can move forward on the road. Fast. You had a crown. I wore a crown. Use your fingers. I had a crown and a twist. Parents want their own work with their child to be meaningful and worthwhile. We are just loving this Topic track. Teachers can identify the next steps in learning and share with parents information about the teaching and learning strategies that are successful with their child in a school setting. Well, we've definitely noticed an improvement in his speech and sentence structure within the classroom. Oh, great. Awesome.