With new technologies, ways to communicate or share information have become instant, workloads have increased while deadlines have shrunk, and expectations for students continue to rise. Teachers and parents have expanded their ways of communication by sharing information at any time of the day across various platforms and devices.
But what information is useful?
When is it too much information?
Do parents and teachers have the same expectations about how best to communicate?
Are they reaching out to communicate at the wrong times?
For children with autism, it is crucial for both the parents and teacher to communicate frequently and effectively as a united front to work towards the child’s success. However, even with the best of intentions, parents, and teachers can run into miscommunication conflicts that cause confusion and frustration not only for the adults but for the child as well. These communication missteps can lead to a damaged working relationship, new challenging behaviors, or struggles for the student, and can cause an added workload both at home and at school.
Below are 5 ways parents and teachers can build their communication skills to support students with autism.
1. Establish Communication Preferences
Communication is the key to a successful parent/teacher relationship. Working together to communicate effectively is the springboard for the student’s success. Without open communication and an understanding of what to communicate, parents and teachers cannot efficiently work together to support the student.
Communication is a two-way street meaning the communication should be flowing from both sides. The teacher should inform the parent of successes, struggles, behaviors, or upcoming important information; while the parent should communicate changes in home routines and schedules, struggles with homework, and upcoming appointments.
To be sure the communication is flowing smoothly along the two-way street, it is crucial to voice communication preferences and requirements right away. Together the parents and teachers should discuss their communication preferences (phone or email) as well as what type of communication is necessary. If the student with autism also has a behavior plan, it is likely challenging behaviors will occur at school. Together the parent and teacher should determine the best way to communicate these behaviors including what happened before and after the behavior occurred.
Here is a free download of our ARIS Curriculum Student Behavior Report Home Communication Sheet.
It is also important to remember the private providers that may be supporting the child outside of the school day. These specialists often know the child well and can help answer questions, provide suggestions or tools, and a history of the student’s progress. If the parents and teachers feel it is necessary to communicate with the outside providers, it is important to have a release of information document on file to allow for the conversations to take place.
The last communication preference is boundaries. I know this may sound silly and you are wondering what parent would call a teacher outside of the school day? Unfortunately, it does happen and has started to happen more often with the various forms of communication that we now have available at our fingertips. Teachers and parents should both set boundaries for communication that include the best times to communicate, how often to communicate, and what needs to be communicated.
Take it from me, there is nothing worse than accidentally checking your work email on your phone in the middle of the night only to find that a parent sent you a lengthy email at 2 a.m., or getting a notification that a parent has reached out to you via social media because they don’t have your personal contact information and want to know what the day's homework assignment is. Likewise, parents don’t want to receive late-night emails or evening phone calls that may disrupt them from making dinner and spending time with family.
2. Create Agreed Upon Expectations
Part of effectively communicating is through setting student expectations. When thinking about a student with autism, it is likely the individual already has an active IEP or is in the process of receiving one. Within the IEP will be goals and benchmarks for achieving the goals. The goals and benchmarks set an expectation as far as what skill the student will master and when. However, there are other small expectations that teachers and parents may have for a student that are not always mentioned within the IEP.
For example, students with autism often have difficulties in social situations. This can create challenges during partner and group work, lunch, organized sports, and recess among others. Creating a measurable IEP goal for these types of challenges can be difficult. However, knowing that an expectation or wish of the parent is for the student to have a peer the student works well with or plays with at recess can be supported by the classroom teacher, resource teacher, and social worker. Actively communicating between home and school regarding students in the class the individual enjoys being around, games the student likes to play, and special interests can lead to additional opportunities for the student to engage socially that are created and monitored by an adult. The parent and school staff can also brainstorm some structured recess activities or indoor games that would help to establish this skill.
Another example of an expectation that requires further communication is specific modifications to individual assignments. Although something similar may already be included in the IEP, the exact details on how to incorporate these modifications on a homework assignment are not always clear to the parent. As a special education teacher working within a full-inclusion classroom, I would often modify the homework for some of my students. This may look like a reduced amount of math problems on a page or the use of a specific strategy that isn’t listed within the directions. On a reading assignment, the modifications could be assigned a lower-level book to build reading stamina or typing comprehension responses instead of writing them out. Any time a homework assignment is modified, it is important to communicate the expectations to reduce conflicts and confusion at home.
3. Use IEP Drafts to Better Communicate
The IEP paperwork remains in draft form until it is finalized at the end of the meeting. It is best practice to provide some of the documents in draft form to the parents three to five days before the meeting. These draft documents should include the present-level write-up, updates on current goals, and draft goals for the new IEP. With many IEP meetings containing a large amount of information and school jargon, parents often don’t get a chance to ask questions or feel uncomfortable asking questions and voicing concerns to the whole team. Allowing the parents time to review these documents before the meeting provides them a chance to prepare questions and concerns that they may not have otherwise shared.
Additionally, it is important to follow up with a parent after an IEP meeting. An IEP meeting can contain some heavy information for a student with autism. Parents will need time to digest the various parts of the IEP. In my experience, parents rarely reach out on their own to ask questions regarding a current IEP. Sometimes they feel they missed the opportunity to ask a question. Other times, they may feel a little embarrassed to admit they do not fully understand their child’s IEP. Both of these scenarios are false because a parent can and should ask questions at any time. Parents did not go to college to receive a special education degree. Therefore, they are not expected to understand state laws, curriculum, and behavior modification practices.
Taking the time to review and discuss the paperwork before and after the IEP will allow the communication between home and school to continue openly and honestly.
4. Show Instead of Tell
At times, a tool more powerful than talking is showing. When a parent is concerned about how well their child with autism is transitioning to a full-inclusion classroom, what the school day is like, and if the student is enjoying the classroom, it can be difficult to explain in words. Simply telling a worried parent that everything is fine, the student is happy, and the assignments are being completed is not always enough.
In these moments, showing the parent how things are going can answer all of the questions and concerns. Showing a parent can come in a few different forms. One option is to allow the parent to volunteer in the classroom. However, simply inviting a parent to do an observation can often create more questions. During an observation, a parent is often sitting alone in the back of a classroom where it is difficult to hear the teacher and this does not provide the opportunity to interact with students. Depending on the school district’s policy on parent volunteers, I would highly recommend inviting the parents to assist during math or literacy stations, volunteer as a lunch or recess supervisor, take part as a room parent that helps to organize class parties, join the class for field trips or other school-based events such as assemblies, author visits, or field days. Allowing a parent to take part in these types of activities provides the opportunity to seek out the answers to their questions in real time.
For parents who are unable to assist during the day, another way to provide a snapshot of the school day is by providing the parent with a daily schedule. The individual daily schedule should include the daily class schedule as well as the related service schedule for their child. Providing this schedule helps parents understand when their child is being supported in the classroom or pulled for individual-related service skills.
In my experience, it is also a good idea to add in what specials occur on each day of the week and when scheduled breaks may take place. If parents cannot see it for themselves, they can at least look at the clock and know where their child is during the school day.
5. Share Home and School Strategies
When a student has autism, they often have a list of accommodations and tools that will help with having success in school. Unfortunately, many times teachers and the special education team keep these useful tools to themselves. This is not done purposefully but often is the case. Students with autism may have specific social stories that they read each day to help with routines and behaviors. They may also have various visual supports, behavior charts, and task-completion tools that help them in the classroom.
It is very important to communicate and share these materials with parents so that they can be aware of them and attempt to use them in the home. Often behaviors or academic challenges that are seen at school occur at home as well. If a tool is successful at school, it can also be successful at home. Likewise, parents should communicate and share strategies and tools that are used in the home so that the school can attempt to incorporate them during the school day.
At times, some of the tools or strategies may need some explanation. Parents and teachers can work together and teach one another through a brief in-person meeting, phone call, virtual meeting, or even a tutorial video. Keeping the home-to-school communication open and flowing helps the child understand expectations and routines and promotes independence.
An example of this includes a social story that I made for a student who struggled with the unpredictable change from outdoor recess to indoor recess due to inclement weather. This change was often challenging to forecast as rain or snowstorms can form suddenly. In working with the parent, we created a social narrative about what to do when this situation occurs and took a team approach to support the child. The parent read the story each day before school and the school team read it again before the start of recess.
I would also recommend doing this if a student with autism is new to the school or entering a new classroom. Sharing pictures of the new school, teacher, classroom and common areas within a social narrative can help reduce anxiety and create a smoother transition. Sharing this with parents and having them read it over the summer months or before the start at a new school has proven to be very helpful.
These kinds of home and school collaborations work well with executive functioning tools for task completion as well. Students can work towards gaining independence by gathering materials, following steps, and completing an academic task at school and while doing chores at home by using the same tool.
There are many other reasons and ways for parents and teachers to communicate in support of students with autism. However, no matter the reason or strategy, the most important thing is that you continue to communicate on behalf of the child. Not all communication will be positive. Some difficult conversations will take place. However, with strong communication and a successful parent-teacher working relationship, any challenge can be tackled and solved.
What are some strategies you have used to improve teacher-parent communication? Please share in our comments section below. We would love to hear from you!
