Family Supports
Parents and families are the best and most valuable sources of information about their children’s development and their experiences outside of the learning environment. Dual and multilingual families bring cultural and linguistic richness to our learning settings and partner with us to support their children’s language growth and development.
Family engagement starts with personal face-to-face conversations with families early on. These first interactions are critically important to both learning about the child’s early language learning environment and establishing a bond with families based on mutual trust and respect.
The Family Supports Strategy creates a foundation of knowledge, partnership, and trust between families and providers so together, they enrich language learning experiences for young multilingual learners.
Family Supports for Center-Based Child Care
Family Supports for Family Child Care (FCC)
Family Supports for Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) Child Care
Family Supports promote...
- Parent, family, and provider conversations and knowledge sharing
- Opportunities to value and learn about home languages and cultures
- Regular and ongoing communication and partnership
Considerations as you design Family Supports for your multilingual learners:
- Welcome families in their home language, schedule time to talk about their child, and begin to establish communication preferences and ongoing partnership. Â
- Share the importance of bilingualism with families in ongoing conversations allowing families to address their concerns or questions on how to support their children.
- Communicate interest in family’s lived experiences to demonstrate respect for their language and culture. This will set the stage for future ongoing partnership and collaboration.
- Use the Family Languages and Interests Interview form to guide family interactions and learn about the child’s language, interests, and preferences.
- Plan language learning experiences that will draw on the family’s special talents and interests learned from your conversations and interview.
- Discuss opportunities to volunteer and/or participate.Â
- Keep families engaged. Share observations of their child’s strengths, experiences, and interests and discuss ways to promote and extend children’s learning at home and in your setting.Â
- Invite families to special events such as holiday celebrations, performances, community field trips, and parent workshops.
Family Languages and Interests Interview
The Family Languages and Interests Interview is a tool to help providers identify Dual Language Learners (DLLs) and concisely collect relevant information about a child’s early language learning, better understanding the child’s development from the families’ perspective. The tool can be used to begin the discussion with families and form partnerships centered on common goals for their children.
Based on California legislation passed in 2021 and 2022, this tool is now required for all California State Preschool Program (CSPP) contractors to use in both identification and support of DLLs. Recently implemented legislation also requires this in General Child Care and Development (CCTR) and Migrant Child Care (CMIG) programs.
The following section provides a copy of the tool and information about its features and use.
Demo (English)
Demo (Spanish)
A key component of developmentally appropriate practice is family and community engagement. Developmentally appropriate decision-making requires that providers know children and their families well. They need to know about the social and cultural contexts in which children live. They need to know children as individuals — their strengths, experiences, interests, and abilities. Families are the best and most accurate sources of information about their children’s development and their experiences at home. Providers must know individual children to adapt strategies and the environment for individual and cultural variation.
Providers and parents share information about ways to promote and extend children’s learning in the home and community. Providers learn about families’ cultural values and child rearing practices. They focus on family assets and draw on them to enhance learning.