Webinar: Conscious Communication with Families

For educators and administrators, communicating with families about challenging behaviors is often a tricky task. Ineffective communication breaks trust and creates conflict. Conscious communication, on the other hand, builds trust and unites school and home in a common goal: helping the child learn a missing skill.

It all starts with understanding that challenging behavior represents a skill deficit. What skill is the child missing? How can you help the child learn that skill? And how can you communicate this information to parents and support them in helping the child at home too? Communicating with a parent that their child is “bad” feels like an attack. Communicating that their child is a precious and valued member of the School Family who needs to learn a skill builds positive relationships that lead to positive outcomes.

It all starts with understanding that challenging behavior represents a skill deficit.

In this webinar, Certified Instructor and educator Kim Jackson outlines three key steps to conscious communication with families. You’ll learn about accessing your own calm so you can see behavior differently, reflecting on your intention, and offering empathy to families. By presenting information in a healthy way with the intention of being helpful, you’ll have far better relationships with both children and families and far better classroom behavior as a result.

Webinar Outline

00:25 Introduction-How can we effectively communicate with families about children with challenges at school?
01:14 Examples of ineffective communication
03:40 Step One: Accessing your own calm
05:44 Kim’s story of how she manages one of her triggers
07:42 Example of how to discuss a challenging behavior with parents
09:45 Step Two: Reflect on your intention- Is your intention to be helpful or hurtful?
13:17 Communicating with parents when you have a child with extreme behavior
17:02 Attributing positive intent to both the child and the parents
18:44 Step Three: Be willing to offer empathy by listening
21:13 Summary- Steps for conscious communication with parents
22:15 Giving yourself permission to “Oops”
22:52 Video- Kim Jackson on the power of noticing vs. judging

Conscious Communication with Families