ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some of the ideas how to work with parents draw on the experience of Keena Cummins and Hulme. Working with parents is informative, challenging and even more fundamental. When managing children's development it is necessary for parents and practitioners to be: congruent, consistent, predictable and reliable. The objectives of practitioners such as early years workers, speech and language therapists and psychologists is to 'help children have the best possible start in life'. In order to become truly 'reflective practitioners', as early years workers people need to ask ourselves several key questions about beliefs, role, language and non-verbal signals. The parents of children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) may frequently leave the early years setting having received reports of concerns, negative observations, which inadvertently highlights the vulnerabilities of the child rather than focussing on the child's emerging strengths. Whereas, children often have to compete for adult attention.
