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Family-Centred Practice for Inclusive Early Years Education

9

Loraine Fordham and Christine Johnston

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

The focus of this chapter is describing family-centred practice and explaining how it can be successfully integrated into the work of early years professionals in all inclusive early years settings.

Learning goals for this chapter include:

› Defining family-centred practice;

› Understanding the fundamental components of family- centred practice;

› Examining the effect of family-centred practice on families;

› Determining the place of family-centred practice in the Early Years Learning Framework;

› Considering what it means to be family-centred early years professionals.

KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

effective help-giving

family-centred practice

family–professional partnership

individualised practice

social support

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Cologon, K. (2014). Inclusive education in early years : right from the start. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com Created from csuau on 2018-05-07 18:49:03.

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1 7 2 S E C T I O N 3 : W O R K I N G T O G E T H E R F O R I N C L U S I O N

Introduction Since the publication of the seminal work Enabling and Empowering Families

(Dunst, Trivette & Deal, 1988) family-centred practice has been considered ‘best

practice’ in the fi eld of early childhood intervention for young children with

disabilities and their families. In this chapter we will make clear how family-

centred practice can be an integral part of inclusive early years settings for all

children and their families. In order to do this we will fi rst describe what is

meant by family-centred practice, outlining its fundamental components and

practices; in doing so we will refer to key international and Australian research

with children and families.

In the second section we will focus on how we do family-centred practice,

by outlining what inclusive family-centred early years education means

for families, by explaining how being family-centred relates to the national

curriculum, The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) (Department of

Education, Employment & Workplace Relations [DEEWR], 2009a), and, fi nally,

by describing what it is to be a family-centred early years professional. We

will use examples of children and families in inclusive early years settings to

illuminate our key points.

Family-centred practice The term family-centred practice arose in the 1980s from early intervention

programs in the United States and gradually spread to Australia. It refers to both

the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of service delivery and specifi cally it encompasses a

‘particular set of beliefs, principles, values and practices for supporting and

strengthening family capacity to enhance and promote child development and

learning’ (Dunst, 2002, p.139).

Family-centred practice is the hallmark of family support programs as it

implies that families have the ultimate control over decisions about their children

(Allen & Petr, 1996; King, King, Rosenbaum, & Goffi n, 1999). It recognises the

family as constant in the child’s life, expert on their child’s abilities and needs,

and as a unique and capable unit (Dunst et al., 1988: Rosenbaum, et al., 1998).

In his review of the conceptual and empirical foundations of family-centred

practice, Carl Dunst (1997) identifi ed ten ‘core practices most often described

as key features of a family-centred approach to practice’ (p.78). Intrinsic to

these practices is the notion that services are provided to families in ways that

are individualised, fl exible, supportive, sensitive and respectful (Palisano et

al., 2012). In sum, they specify the ‘what’ of family-centred practice. These

practices are summarised in Table 9.1 .

family-centred practice: A set of values, attitudes and approaches to providing services for children with disabilities and their families.

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Cologon, K. (2014). Inclusive education in early years : right from the start. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com Created from csuau on 2018-05-07 18:49:03.

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1 7 3C H A P T E R 9 : F A M I L Y - C E N T R E D P R A C T I C E F O R I N C L U S I V E E A R L Y Y E A R S E D U C A T I O N

Loraine Fordham and Christine Johnston

Fundamental components of family-centred practice Family-centred practice comprises a number of fundamental and unique

components. The four described in detail below are those we believe to be most

relevant for inclusive early years education. They are the family–professional

partnership ; the nature of help-giving ; individualised practice ; and mobilising

community supports and resources.

The family–professional partnership

At the heart of family-centred practice is the partnership between the family

and the professional. The collaborative nature of this partnership refl ects the

mutual, respectful and goal-driven cooperation between all people undertaking

the specifi c task.