What is a Homeschool Communication Book?

Homeschool communication plays an important role in any child's academic success, but for the special needs child this is even more true. Many special needs students are unable to accurately recall the events of the day. Others may not have sufficient verbal skills to be able to tell Mom and Dad what happened at school. The parent-teacher communication book provides a valuable tool for exchange of information, and is also an informal way to build a stronger relationship between the special needs family and the staff who see the child at school.

What is a homeschool communication book?

A communication book is any tool that allows for informal, regular exchange of information between school and home, and back again. Some people prefer to use a few lines in the student's school agenda, some create folders or binders that use a customized form to be filled in at school and home. Still others, like our family, prefer a blank composition book or diary with no predetermined format. Although it is often designated a parent-teacher communication book, it can be read or written in by other adults too. This includes professionals and paraprofessionals at school, or other caregivers and educators who see the child outside of school hours.

The form the parent-teacher communication book takes will depend on personal preferences and the types of information that must be exchanged regularly. It will also be affected by how much time the adults who use it can devote to reading and writing in it each day. It is best if all parties can agree on the kind of communication book they will use, before or at the beginning of the school year.

The communication book as a memory aid

Many special needs students perform at a high level academically but have impaired executive functions, communication and memory - the skills that allow them to organize their time and belongings in order to get schoolwork done. For such students, just getting to the right classroom on time and having the necessary textbooks and supplies to participate in a lesson, can be almost overwhelming.

The resource department should be able to help the student with adaptations and with tools such as visual schedules or activity flow charts. When it comes to things that may require parental assistance or supervision - homework, special events and holidays, completing permission slips or remembering to send in donations for the class bake sale - a home-school communication book can be crucial. It reassures both parents and teachers that all important information is reaching them, and it offers a place to keep loose sheets of paper such as memos, newsletters or forms that must be returned to school. A school agenda, folder, or binder with pocket storage is recommended to be sure nothing goes missing!

The communication book as a team building tool

Discussing communication books, Amanda Gray quotes from Roffey's School Behaviour and Families: "Parents want to know what is going on for their child in school. They prefer informal contact that is positive, regular, private, planned, non-intrusive, two-way and early enough to make a difference."

Any communication book provides a private and informal channel for exchanging information between home and school. Used consistently the communication book is a tool for planned communication, and it will encourage both the special needs family and school staff to deal with issues in a timely fashion.

Parents may resent being given a communication book that is either too one-sided, or that emphasizes the negatives without highlighting the positives of their child's school day. On occasion, they may also feel the information they are asked to supply, or suggestions for interacting with the special needs child at home, are intrusive.

It is important for equal space to be given to both the school and the family in a parent-teacher communication book. Many prepared forms place an undue emphasis on what has happened at school, but leave little room for parents to share the events of the evening or weekend. When designing a form, it is best to divide it in half or to use a set of two forms - one for school-to-home communications and the other for home-to-school communications. In terms of using the communication book, both parents and staff will find it helpful to think of all suggestions or requests as preliminary. That is, the party writing them is introducing a subject for exploration and looking for input from other team members. It should be exceedingly rare for either family or school to treat suggestions as demands that are written in stone.

When we spend long hours with a child who needs constant attention, or who presents challenging behaviour, it is very easy to focus on the things that we find difficult. We may only note the battles of the day, or we may take up room in an unstructured communication book with complaints about classroom incidents or school policies.

When using a prefabricated form, it helps to build in a field that asks for the best moments of the day. When writing a journal-style entry, both staff and parents can endeavour to take a positive approach that shows respect and appreciation for all parties - including the special needs child himself.

For more information on home-school communication books please see the samples provided here (see page 5, and following) and here.

Source:

Amanda Gray, "Home-school communication that works." Blogging About Behaviour