How to Talk to Teachers About Your Child’s Need

https://youtu.be/cSH3C4oodx8

As parents, you know your children best. You know their strengths and challenges. Your children confide in you when they get home.

Your child spends hours a day in school. Whether your child has learning differences or is struggling socially, it’s essential to have open and respectful communication with your child’s teacher. If you walk in emotionally charged, you may risk creating a hostile environment, which may cause the teacher to shut down.

Therefore, in this post, we’ll talk about how to ease the stress of talking to your child’s teacher while feeling confident. We’ll look at how to prepare for this conversation before, during and after the meeting so that you can create a supportive environment for your child at school and at home.

Use the following as a checklist to help you prepare to meet your child’s teacher.

Actionable Steps:

#1. Before the Meeting

It’s important to prepare before a meeting with the teacher so that you don’t feel flustered.

1. Write down your child’s interests and strengths as it’s good to start the meeting on a positive tone.
2. List specific challenges and be specific. Instead of saying, “my child is struggling with math,” say “my child doesn’t understand long division when there’s three or four digits involved.”
3. Show examples of what your child needs support with.

#2. During the Meeting

It’s easy to get emotional when talking about your beloved child. Remember to take a few deep breaths, stay calm and on topic. When you talk to the teacher:

1. Use clear and respectful language so that the teacher doesn’t feel like you’re attacking them and will be more receptive to talking to you.
2. Ask open-ended questions about specific topics instead of questions where the teacher can only provide you yes or no answers.
3. Be open to collaborating on finding solutions instead of giving the teacher of list of demands. Remember that the teacher has more than just your child in their class.

#3. After the Meeting

Debrief when you go home and see if another meeting is warranted or if ongoing communication by email or phone will suffice.

1. If a strategy is working, email the teacher and let them so that everyone involved can celebrate together.
2. If a strategy isn’t working, don’t give up. Instead, discuss adjustments that can be made.

Recap:

Let’s recap really quickly. Today, we looked at the following:

1. The reason why it’s important to prepare before meeting your child’s teacher.
2. Three ways to prepare talking to teachers about your child’s need: before the meeting, during the meeting and after the meeting.

Free Resources:

For a taste of the resources that were mentioned in step two, check out the following resource in my FREE Education Resource Library.

Teach your little ones how to make good choices with the following FREE Resource:

Next Steps:

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I’ll see you next Friday at 5:30pm PST.

Until I see you next time, remember to create, experience & teach from the heart.

Take care,

Charlotte

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Disclaimer: I’m a teacher and a parent. I’m not a medical professional, so please don’t take this as medical advice. The advice that I provide in my videos and online are strategies that I have used in my own class or at home that have worked beautifully.