Early childhood development and educational approaches

Early Childhood

The educational setting I have selected in my community to deconstruct within this document is called Thriving Minds (formerly Muskal Assessment and Learning Clinic). I was able to contact two long-term staff members of this organizations for a fairly candid interview revolving around their educational philosophy as specifically applied to parental involvement. Since this particular learning clinic exists outside of the formal constructs of any public or private school educational system, parental involvement is integral to the relationship fostered between clinicians, parents and students since it is usually the parents who decided to enroll their children. As such, the degree of parental involvement actuated at Thriving Minds is perhaps considerably more than that at traditional educational institutions such as schools or learning academies.

Parental involvement is defined at Thriving Minds in a variety of ways, all of which relate to the basic concept of keeping parents informed about their students' progress in many different fields including academics, social development and cognitive development. At the bare minimum, parents are kept abreast of student progress through informal chat sessions with clinicians between student visits. Thriving Minds is a highly specified learning clinic in which practitioners are encouraged to tailor their sessions with students based on the individual needs and assessments of those children. As such, the initial level of parental involvement requires parents coming in and speaking with the proprietor about the particular needs of their children to succeed in one of the three aforementioned areas. Once students are enrolled in the program, staff are required to write once-a-month letters to parents to update them on what subjects were covered and the level of student progress in that time. Parents are also encouraged to arrange sessions with staff members (sometimes on the phone or via email) to discuss the clinic's impact on their children.

Thriving Minds certainly has a mission statement, one which clarifies the position of the organization towards education and alludes to the sort of relationship it attempts to foster with parents. It is as follows: "Thriving-Minds, provides our students with the academic, social, and emotional foundation necessary to reach their true potential and become successful and happy lifelong learners." The choice of parent involvement activities facilitated by this organization reveals a substantial amount about its philosophy towards parental involvement. Thriving Minds realizes that there should ideally be a synthesis of sources assisting students to fulfill their goals of becoming productive members of society. This synthesis includes schools and teachers, Thriving Minds and its clinicians, and, perhaps most importantly, families and parents. The degree of flexibility which Thriving Minds has, as largely denoted by the tailored, individualistic approach to dealing with the cognitive, social and academic issues students face, is reflected in its activities of parental interaction. Such activities include both formal assessment and meetings as well as informal ones at the clinic in which parents are allowed to observe sessions, or merely speak with clinicians about particular concerns.

Specific strategies and activities used to involve parents outside of accessible and expedient consultation on an as needed basis include soliciting parental feedback during consultation sessions. The aforementioned monthly letter provides a means by which parents can ot only become cognizance other student's progress, but also implement any changes to the specific program for their students. Other parental involvement activities include students showing parents specific scores on papers and exams that clinicians helped them with.

Staff members of Thriving Minds support efforts to involve parents by keeping them informed about the particular work their children are doing. The staff is responsible for communicating to parents areas in which the students can work with the parents, and providing specific exercises and activities for them to do) while they are at home. Also, staff is responsible for making themselves available for parent consultations, and must write monthly letters to parents about the current progress of their children. Lastly, the proprietor of Thriving Minds mentioned that staff members must be able to discern the development of students in whatever specific area they require assistance.