Connecting With Families

On this page we suggest various topics for conferences with educators. We hope these will be helpful to you as you discuss your child's progress and home activities with teachers.

Can your child identify letters and their sounds? How many? These are good questions to ask your child's teacher. Want to help at home? Here's a suggestion from Dr. Kathy:

Your child’s teacher may be working on phonemic awareness. What is this?  It means that children can hear the different sounds in a word. They can also rhyme. It has nothing to do with looking at letters. It ONLY involves hearing and saying sounds in a word. Educators know this is important before reading is taught.

You can ask your child’s teacher:

• ·      How is my child doing with phonemic awareness?
• ·      Can my child rhyme?
• ·      Can my child hear the different sounds in words?
• ·      Can my child put these sounds together to say words?
• ·      Can my child tell you what the first sound in a word is?
• ·      Can my child tell you what the last sound in a word is?

 Here is a sampling of questions to ask:

Good Questions for Families to Ask:

Can you tell me how my child gets along with other children? Does my child play with other children or next to other children?

What is my child’s favorite activity?

What does my child like to do when you play outdoors?

How does my child respond when you give directions? (In other words, can my child follow 2 or 3 step directions?)

Does my child look at books?

Does my child know how to hold a book properly?

Does my child listen to a story when you read aloud?

Families Helping at Home:

Can you tell me 2 things I can do at home to help my child listen to directions better?

I know that reading to my child at home is important. Can you suggest good books for me to read?

Your child's teacher may use "educator" vocabulary. Confused by terms like alphabetic principle? Visit the Glossary to understand!