Know

Think about a time in your life when your family was facing a challenge. Maybe you or a family member was dealing with health issues, financial issues, loss of employment, relationship difficulties, moving to a new place, or separation from family and friends. How did these challenges affect you and the rest of your family as a unit? How did you cope with these challenges? What were some factors that enabled you to successfully deal with these challenges?

Just as we need to appreciate the many variations among families, we must also acknowledge the various contexts and environments in which families function (Hanson & Lynch, 2004). All families face challenges at some point throughout their life. For some, these challenges may pose risks for children as well as other family members. As a preschool teacher, it is important to know that these challenges may also affect families’ willingness to seek help or participate in services, as well as their ability to actively participate in school-related processes and events.

Challenges that Pose Risks for Children and Families

There are many factors that can affect family functioning and child development, such as poverty, substance abuse, illness, exposure to violence, unemployment, marital discord, separation from parents, and trying to adapt to a new culture and learn a new language. Regardless of the situation, family life and children’s behaviors are affected when families are challenged. Families are complex systems of individuals that are interconnected, so when an event affects one individual in the family, it may affect all family members.

Poverty puts children and families at a greater risk for stress, illness, and social isolation. Exposure to violence may have negative effects on children’s school performance, emotional stability, and social competence. Substance abuse may affect family members’ ability to care and provide for children and as a result, children may be maltreated and neglected. Separation from family members, particularly parents, causes stress and emotional instability for all family members, especially young children. Marital discord or trying to adapt to a new culture or ways of living may also increase stress for all family members.

The stress families experience during these challenges may affect their patience and energy levels. Stress can weaken families’ sense of competence and erode their sense of control. At times, the complexity of these difficulties may seem overwhelming to families and service providers. Although challenging, it is important to try to come up with appropriate and meaningful resources, suggestions, and solutions.

Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework

The Center for the Study of Social Policy has developed the Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework. Originally designed as a framework to prevent child abuse and neglect, the Protective Factors can be a useful way to approach your work with families. It is important to understand this framework because it can help you see that the high-quality, family-centered work that you do every day in your program makes a difference in the lives of children and families. Your job is not only to care for each infant and toddler, but also to provide care and support for the whole family. The Strengthening Families Protective Factors framework gives us tools and ideas to support families.

Promoting Family Resilience

Resilient individuals have elements in their life that help them overcome challenges and move forward in positive ways. Researchers have identified factors that promote resilience and coping in families who deal with challenges. Some of those factors include:

• Establishing positive early family member-child relationships
• Maintaining family coherence through shared values and beliefs
• Finding positive meanings in difficult situations
• Building a sense of teamwork within the family and strengthening the family as a unit
• Developing collaborative relationships with professionals
• Expressing feelings and communicating effectively with each other
• Maintaining friendships and active participation in social activities and networks
• Receiving supports from extended family members, teachers, friends, community leaders, or neighbors (informal supports)

Supporting Military Families

Military families face challenges unlike those experienced by many others. These challenges may pose unique risks for children and the family as a whole. The nature of a military family member’s work can involve frequent moves or periods of separation from their family members; this can affect a child’s emotional well-being. As a preschool teacher, it is important for you to recognize when children are dealing with emotional stress and how to effectively support children and their families during this difficult time in their life.

Deployment

Deployment has a large effect on family functioning, particularly the relationships between caregivers and children. When children experience long periods of separation from their primary caregiver, their family life, routines, emotional state, and behaviors may all be affected. Deployment can add a great deal of stress and anxiety to families. Preschoolers may experience fear, sadness, confusion, or loss. You can support families during deployment by maintaining and encouraging ongoing communication. As a preschool teacher, you can work with families to ensure they feel well supported during this challenging time. It is important that families and caregivers work together to access needed resources. It is also essential to acknowledge that as a service provider, you may also feel overwhelmed when trying to support military families. If you need help supporting military families of children in your care, talk with trainer, coach, or administrator.

Deployment Preparation

While preparing for deployment, many families experience heightened anxiety and stress. If deployment occurs without warning, there may not be time for preparation. No matter the circumstances, families and children can be vulnerable during this time. As a preschool teacher, remind families to take care of themselves, as this will also help children cope better. Consider the following to support children and families before deployment:

• If possible, ask family members to share the time of upcoming deployment. Communicate with families to learn ways to support them, and ask how and when they prefer to exchange information.
• Prepare materials to use with children during deployment. Photograph children with their loved ones. Audio- or video-record the deploying caregiver reading favorite stories, singing songs, or leaving special messages to their children.
• Plan for special events where family members can come to your classroom and be part of an activity or go on a field trip, giving them an opportunity to spend quality time with their child at school. Take pictures of these activities and display them in your classroom.
• Be sensitive to children’s needs and emotions during this time. Watch for signs of stress (e.g., crying, behavioral problems, irritability, inability to stay on task, mood swings, clinging) and develop a plan of action. Involve the families in suggesting management strategies to establish consistency between home and school environments.
• Help families identify possible sources of support (e.g., other family members, neighbors, friends, or counselors) who can help them throughout this process.

During Deployment

Children and families greatly miss their loved ones during this time. Children may experience sadness, anger, anxiety and restlessness, and preschoolers, in particular, may become clingy and in need of more reassurance and hugs from you. Acknowledge that what works for one family may not work for another family. Consider the following to support children and families during active deployment:

• Provide stability and minimize changes to routines, especially when it comes to the staff working with children. This also applies to all children and families dealing with transitions and new experiences. When it comes to children from military families it can provide them with a sense of stability and predictability about their lives on a day-to-day basis.
• Use lots of affirmations with children. Preschoolers are often very capable of verbally expressing emotions. In response to comments children make about missing a parent or wanting to be with their mom, dad, or loved one, say things like “I can see that you miss your dad a lot,” or “I know you wish Mommy was here today.”
• If a child is having a hard time expressing their emotions, provide the words for them. You can say, for example, “I know that you are feeling upset and that’s OK.”
• Involve the parent who is deployed by sending them photos, newsletters, videos, or special items that their children have produced (e.g., a drawing, a poem, or a few special words).
• Use videos or audio recordings you made before the family member was deployed (of family members sharing special messages, reading stories, singing songs, etc.) to help children cope with difficult situations.
• Offer children opportunities to stay emotionally connected with their loved ones who are deployed by writing letters, making drawings, or recording videos for them.
• Maintain and encourage ongoing communication with the family.

Returning Home

Families anxiously await the return of loved ones from deployment. While viewed as a long-awaited, happy reunion, returning home can also bring about anxious feelings and difficulties for families. Families and caregivers together established and maintained daily routines that not everyone was able to be a part of. The parent or caregiver returning home likely had experiences that may have changed her or him in some ways. Helping families prepare for and maintain connections after the return home is just as important as it was in planning for departure. Consider the following to support children and families when a family member returns from deployment:

• Help children prepare for their family members’ return by talking about it. Always check in with families to get their suggestions about what may or may not work with their child.
• Organize special classroom events (e.g., a field trip or lunch) and invite family members who are back from deployment to participate.
• Watch for signs of stress in children, and work with families to support their children.
• Acknowledge that this may be a difficult time for families and children, and be patient and understanding.

See

Do

You can provide resources to families in your classroom through lending libraries, family classes or workshops, organizing classroom or program guest speakers, or sharing referral information about local professionals or agencies. Consider the following ideas when it comes to providing resources to families:

1. Classroom lending library: A lending library can be a great starting point in your efforts to make resources available for families in your classroom. The library may include books, toys, CDs and DVDs, which families may check out and take home. Your lending library should include materials that are written and presented in a family-friendly, jargon-free language. It should cover a variety of topics and interest areas, include materials that reflect consideration of diversity and multiculturalism, and, when possible, include materials in different languages to reflect the backgrounds of all children in your classroom.
2. Family classes and workshops: These can be fun and inviting events that provide information on a variety of topics of interest to families. As you get to know the families of children in your classroom throughout the year, you may hear similar comments shared by several individuals. Use these common concerns to decide the topic of a family class or workshop. Depending on the topics of interest, you may choose to serve as the class leader for the family classroom or workshop or you may invite other professionals (e.g., pediatricians, local college instructors, program administrators) as guest speakers. Sometimes, even parents or family members of children in your classroom can serve as the guest speakers. These events can cover a variety of topics, such as nutrition, exercise, management of challenging behaviors, transition to kindergarten, school policies, or resources for families of children with special learning needs.
3. Referral information: Some families in your program will require more specific information related to their particular needs. In this case, you may be able to provide information about professionals, agencies, or other services. Consider gathering information about different resources that may be helpful to families at the beginning of the year to make sure your information is current and up to date. As you get to know the families of children in your program better, you may also be able to find resources that are more specific to their needs. Your list of resource topics may include the following:
   • Child care
   • Parenting helpline
   • Local school districts
   • Health-care professionals
   • Local special education services
   • Local libraries and community centers
   • Government benefits (e.g., Social Security, health-insurance programs)

As a preschool teacher, in collaboration with your trainer, coach, or administrator, you must consider the appropriate services or resources for military families and families facing challenges. Always remember that each family’s needs are different from the next, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Consider the following when working with families facing challenges:

• Use a family-centered approach: Each family’s needs are different, and what works well with one family may not work at all with another. Support families by focusing on their particular needs and honor their heritage and culture. Above all, focus on their strengths and build on those.
• Be flexible and creative and individualize your approach with each family. For instance, if a family is having problems with transportation and has a difficult time meeting you at school, arrange for a meeting at a place the family can safely get to. Let families choose how much and how often they wish to communicate with you about their lives in the military and during deployment.
• Suggest informal sources of support. Those can include other family members, neighbors, friends, church members, or other individuals the family knows and feels comfortable with.
• Make resources available to families. These may include community organizations, related professionals who can provide assistance, or child-care providers. Don’t assume that families who have experienced deployment several times have the needed resources in place.
• Overall, be understanding and nonjudgmental. Families facing challenges are sometimes overwhelmed meeting their basic needs and might not always respond to your suggestions or recommendations.

Review the resources listed in Useful Resources for Military Families to learn more about supporting military families and children from military families in your care.