ABSTRACT
This chapter considers both face-to-face and other opportunities to connect with parents. It looks at the purposes of staying in touch and considers the setting-specific opportunities and challenges to develop in practice. The chapter aims to encourage settings to explore how they can reach all parents and carers so that the importance of the home learning environment and the benefits of parental engagement can be celebrated. It also considers the ways that those parents who do not engage in regular communication can feel part of the process of helping their child to learn and play. Although it is often said that the power balance tends to be in favour of the practitioner, some, more inexperienced practitioners find working with parents quite challenging, especially when their assessments of a child’s development is questioned. When working with parents, our discussions might be different to those that we have with people in different relationships.
