Facilitating Parent-Child Interaction in Home-Based Programs

Facilitating Parent-Child Interaction in Home-Based Programs

Randi Hopper: Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's home visiting series webinar, Facilitating Parent-Child Interactions in Home-Based Programs. My name is Randi Hopper. I'm a senior T/TA specialist here at the National Center for Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning, and today I'm presenting with a good friend of mine, Donna Ruhland, who is a senior subject matter expert, also with our National Center DTL. And today, we're really excited to be able to bring this subject matter to you, and we're seeing a lot of different roles and a lot of different people adding all their information across our group chat and our Q&A box.

We were just commenting on the range of experience and the different roles that we're seeing, and we were seeing the most as a home visitor for 36 years, and the least, I think, experience is coming in at four months, so, I'm hoping that this information and content with really be accessible to everybody, and that we can really share some good information that kind of goes with everybody. We're going to start off by going over some information regarding our webinar and our system. So, we will be using some of these features on the webinar platform to help us kind of interact through the process, so at the bottom on your screen, you'll notice that there are several widgets. If you have any questions during the webcast, you can submit them through the Q&A box, which is purple. We'll try to answer these throughout the session, but please know that we do capture these.

Any tech questions, we'll kind of answer as we go through, because we definitely want you to be able to experience this the best that you can. A copy of today's slide deck and additional resources are also available in the resource list, which is a green widget. We encourage you to download any resources or links that you may find to be helpful, and throughout the session, you'll also see... Use the blue group chat widget to engage with each other. You can find additional answers to some common technical issues located in the yellow help widget at the bottom of your screen, and some of you have been in past webinars.

We also are really excited to feature a closed caption widget in both English and Spanish, so that's something new. And each of these widgets are resizable, movable, for a customized experience. So, you simply click on the widget and move it by dragging it and dropping it, resizing it, using the arrows at the top corners. And finally, if you have any trouble refreshing your browser, press F5. Be sure to log off of any VPN you might be on and exit out of any other browsers, so that really helps your viewing experience. So, as we go forward, we're going to review our objectives for today. So, we're really hoping by the end of this webinar that you should be able to really understand the importance of secure parent-child relationships and how this really helps with interactions for a healthy child development.

We're going to be exploring how home visitors can provide us support and strategies toward promoting parent-child relationship, as well as reviewing some resources, including video to support effective home visiting practices. So, before we get started, we're really going to start off by entering some information into the chat box. So, really, we want to ask you what comes to mind when you think why parent-child relationships matter. So, I'm going to put that question into the chat box, and then while people are starting to think about that and put in their answers, what really comes to mind for me is that a parent-child relationship helps to shape how a child connects and interacts with different environments that they find themselves in. So, that relationship that they have with their parents or caregiver really helps to help them know how they should respond to things. And so, I'm seeing some of the answers come in. 

The attachment, foundation, nurturing, and that they're their child's first teacher, healthy, emotional bond, social-emotional development. There's lots and lots of answers that are really going toward building that foundation for children's learning. So, let's push this forward as far as why relationships matter, and relationships matter exactly for all these reasons that I see people popping up. Parents are their child's first teacher, and as a home visitor, we're really there to support that relationship and how it shapes and boosts brain development. So, we also take a look at young children's experience is built around the environment relationships, which means they really take it into the context of the world around them. They learn about life through relationships. So, what becomes essential?

So, nurturing and stable relationships with caring adults through attachment build a love of learning. A comfortable sense of one's self, positive social skills, multiple successful relationships at later ages and sophisticated understanding of emotions. So, we know that  children are learning at an unbelievable pace. in the first few years of their life, and every moment of every day, there is something new to take in, to explore, to learn, and so it makes sense that in this period when children are learning so much so quickly, that their brains are also growing at an incredible rate. And so what might be surprising is just exactly how quickly a child's brain grows, so this slide is remarkable in being able to give visual and put things into perspective. So, at birth, a baby's brain is already about one-quarter of the volume of an adult brain. The rest of the newborn's tiny body is not even close to one-quarter of their adult size. 

If that were the case, the average newborn in North America would weigh about 40 pounds. So, children's brains continue to grow, and by the end of their first year, a child's brain is already 75 percent of an adult size. So, to put that into perspective, if a child was already 75 percent of their adult height at one year, they would be 4 feet tall. So, you can just imagine walking into a room full of 4-foot-tall one-year-olds. And so, by 5 years old, our brain has grown to about 90 percent of the adult size. But it's really important to know that while a 5-year-old's brain may be at 90 percent of the size of an adult's brain, that by no means means that a child's brain is 90 percent finished developing by age 5. A 5-year-old has much, much more to learn, and it really takes the support of those responsive care givers and the support of parents to really make that happen as we move forward. So, when children are born, they already have the majority of their neurons, or their brain cells, that they're ever going to have, and that's a lot. So, an adult brain has about 86 billion brain cells, and so that's an adult. 

So, infants are born with even more than that so that they can help to make those connections and do that printing process as they're going through. So, our experiences help to determine which connections form between the neurons and how strong those connections really are. So, when we learn something new, we are shaping how the neurons in our brains connect and how they communicate. So, the more often we have a particular experience or a set of experiences, the stronger those connections really become between the neurons, and this is true of both positive and negative experiences within our lives. So, children's brains are particularly sensitive  to experiences, in part because the first few years of their life, connections between those neurons are forming so, so rapidly. But those connections are also dependent on the experiences we have, so newborns don't yet have those experiences in place. So, this makes it so that when we are brand new and we are coming in and having these experiences, we make connections very, very quickly, and then as we repeat those experiences, we build into even stronger connections. So, this makes, really, the whole experience on brain development is just a construction project as we go through life, and so our biology provides those neurons and the mechanisms to connect them and the defines of the structure. 

So, at the naked eye, just the general level, brains look very, very similar, but when you get to the microscopic level, our experiences really influence how our brains are wired. Our experience guides those connections and how they form and how they become more and more efficient, and which ones need to be removed. So, children are excited about learning from their experiences and they love to share. And for example, the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework really indicates that preschoolers are eager to learn about the world around them and discuss their experiences. And so through the... If you look at innovative and curiosity, our initiative and curiosity sub-domain under approaches to learning, you'll see that that is a clear developmental progress that we really see. 

So, we're going to sit here and we're going to take a poll. So, what do you think is the most important component to positive relationships and learning in the home? So, go ahead and select what you think your answer is, and we're going to give you just a minute or two to really select your answer, see which one you think is the most important component to positive relationships and learning. See here. So, I'm seeing kind of a couple different answers, a lot in responsive adults. Some in safe and welcoming atmosphere, and supporting autonomy and engaging. Let's see here. All right. So, I see about half of us have responded, so, I'm going to give you a couple more seconds, see which one that you think it is. All right. 

So, I'm going to push it forward to see what our responses are. So, our response... So, the group, 66 percent is thinking responsive adults; 24 thinks it's safe and welcoming atmospheres. So, let's see what the experts say. Ah, and most of us were right. We're looking at the responsive adults, so adults really can include parents, grandparents, other important adults in the child's life, and these adults create the welcoming and engaging environment that allow children to feel safe, explore their autonomy within their home, and this exploration and ongoing learning is brought forth through positive and responsive interactions. 

So, this back-and-forth responsive interactions boost learning, supports brain development and builds relationships, so this is the foundation for responsive caregiving. And so, responsive caregiving as a parenting or teaching practice builds that strong relationship between the adult and child and is an essential support for social and emotional development. So, this social and emotional development obviously is very important for a child's self-regulation, academic success and healthy cognitive development. So, brain development during the first few years, we already said is very strong. It's happening very, very fast, and so we also know that a strong social relationship with a primary caregiver really yields positive outcomes into adulthood. So, this relationship that they have with at least one responsive, consistent adult caregiver in their life builds successful emotional and social skills. It also helps with cognition, problem-solving,  resilience and learning throughout their life. And so, this relationship also supports building resilience to stress. So, simply having access to a responsive adult can enhance a child's resilience to stress, and that consistent comfort from a caregiver decreases a child's anxiety, and with this stress being alleviated, this allows the child to focus on the exploration and really focus on the play part of it. So, we're going to push forward, and we're going to take a look at the fact that researchers have really found that newborns are especially attracted to human faces.

They're even attracted to things that only vaguely resemble human faces. So, what we're going to find, and we're going to take a look, and I want you to take a look really quickly, and in the chat box, put down your quick answer of which one looks more like a face to you, A or B. All right. I'm seeing a lot and lot of Bs here. So, most people say B because the three squares are arranged more like a face. The two squares on top resemble eyes. The square on the bottom resembles a mouth. But in A, that  configuration is flipped. If you show babies these two images, they spend more time looking at B, and so they may not understand what they're looking at, but they prefer to look at something that has features that are very similar to a human face. So, this is yet another early indication that babies are very social creatures. 

So, babies learn... They're very social creatures. They learn within the confines of social interaction with adults, even strangers. And so, young children learn even more from familiar adults they're very comfortable with. So, research shows that babies prefer specific, individual people that they have a lot of experience with. I really like this answer. I looked up and it says, "A, if we are talking about pirates with two teeth." I really like that. I think A needs an eye patch, and I think that that... Thank you, Emily. That was... I really liked that. That just brightened my day right there. Sorry. Distracted and all. So, as we look at the nurturing relationship, so for instance babies really have a strong preference for their mother's features. 

Okay, so one study found that newborns prefer looking at their mother's faces. Another found that they prefer to listen to their mother's voice over a stranger's, and when babies listen to their mother, areas of their brain related to language are actually activated, but this does not occur when they're listening to a stranger. So, familiarity with the adult really affects the social relationship with that adult, and therefore really impacts that child's learning from that adult. And since babies prefer to look and listen to familiar adults, that familiarity, me being able to talk really helps, increases the number of interactions and opportunities for learning. So, what does this mean for home visitors, teachers, education staff, caregivers? It really means that the continuity of care really does matter because that establishment of strong social bonds between an adult and child really enhances and supports the learning. So, home visitors, when you're there, really help to be there.

You know, that consistent support really allows children to really open up in the presence of that stranger because you'll notice that children really can shut down at times and become very attached to their parent, and so the more and more that you come into the home, the more open they are to exploration and learning, and that really is supported by that parent-child relationship. So, we're going to push forward onto Donna, and she's going to share with us some really effective strategies to promote these essential and important parent-child relationships. 

Donna Ruhland: Thank you so much, Randi, and thank you for setting the stage on thinking about why this is so important from brain development, infants, to how attracted they are to the human face, to those features, and then the importance of relationships and meaningful relationships with familiar people. It's just so critical to the work of the home visitor. I know that I'm preaching to the choir, but you know, in home visiting the goal is to provide home visits and group socializations that promote secure parent-child relationships, and help parents provide those high-quality early learning experiences that are so critical. I mean, thinking about the brain growth and those critical pieces that Randi shared, this goal is reached through the use of effective home visiting strategies that promote those positive interactions with parents and their children, child. So, when we look at this kind of formula on the slide, we know that home visits plus socializations are the first of many strategies that support parentchild relationships and interactions, but change, that takes time, and any of you having changed habits know that's how long it takes us to change and to adapt new ways. So, home visitors are in unique positions with families, seeing the families every week, often for several years. Also, that close and warm home visitor-parent relationships are just critical for facilitating that change.

And then socializations also provide rich opportunities for home visitors to talk to families about positive parent-child relationships, also providing that venue for child-child relationships, and then encouraging participation through the socialization itself. I'm going to ask you in the chat box to list some effective home visiting practices that you currently use with parents, or that you see staff using with parents. So, again, some effective home visiting practices. Thank you, Randi. You'll see the question in the chat. Some effective home visiting practices, so they're coming in. Sitting on the floor with the child and the parents. That's great. Coaching, reflective listening, using materials in the home, home language, bringing food and such, modeling. These really go fast. Thank you so much for getting such great information. Facilitating, modeling again. We have quite a few active listening. Icebreakers. These are all great strategies, and we will have those then recorded. We're going to move forward. We keep those coming in. Really appreciate it. And you're going to see some of the practices that you put into the chat.

We'll see that on the next couple of slides. So, when thinking about effective home visiting practices, first establishing a positive relationship with the parent, the child, other participating family members. Having, again, that warm, close relationship is so important, and using many of the strategies that you put into the chat box, like the icebreakers and coming together and modeling. Those kinds of things help to form that relationship. And then responding to each family's unique strengths and cultures. All families have strengths. Identifying those, thinking about what can be used to help encourage areas that need strengthening, and then thinking about what culture, how that plays in as well, and respecting the culture and learning from the families, and not just ethnicity and culture. Each family has an own culture as well, so being kind of open to the way that they do things helps home visitors make those connections and relationships. 

And then facilitating supportive interactions, those things that help support development, you know, for those emerging milestones that we see with child, and establishing a collaborative  partnership. With a partnership, we're doing these things together, and we're working together. We're doing joint planning. And that's to help support that ongoing development of the child. So, in thinking about establishing those positive relationships, think about how you come in or how your home visitors come in and show warmth and acceptance. You know, from the home visitor's own aspect, the way that you present yourself, how open you seem. Maybe it's body language, it's using the active listening, reflective listening that had been put into the chats. All of those things help with that warmth and acceptance. Showing respect and courtesy. When I enter someone's home, I always kind of stop and make sure, you know, do I take off my shoes?

Do I leave them on? You know, it's just simple things like that. I was taught growing up that you ask if you can sit down. So, it's really being open to how families do things in different ways and having that respect and courtesy is really important. Being flexible and open to other ways of... other points of view, other ways of being. And then showing that support by meeting families where they are, and I think if we come to families with cultural humility, you also have to kind of be aware of your own culture and your own kind of biases or perceptions of things so that you understand the differences, many of those are cultural, not so much the right or wrong way of doing things. It's just a different way of doing things. And of course, as mentioned before, using active listening skills. A big part of communication is listening, being open to listening, watching aspects or what the other person is saying to us, not just with words but with gestures, and facial gestures, and features, and then being able to go beyond just the spoken word to reflect back what they're saying, and what you're understanding to make sure that you're on the same page.

And then, we can help further support parent-child interaction through providing material to parents for them to play with their child. You know, not us coming in with the magic bag and we have the material, and this sometimes is hard, especially if you come from a teaching background, you know, to be able to hand it over to the parent and say, "Okay, this is how you do this." And then the parent is the one who plays with the child with that material. Ask the parents about what they've observed, what they've seen happening, what they're seeing their child do during the activity. You may be able to just give a couple of prompts so that the parent is the one responding to the child. It's really about them, not about us. And then commenting, giving those positive comments on what the parent is doing during the activity. Kind of cheerleading for them so that they feel reassured. It's always hard to have someone watch you do something, so with parents asking us to come in and work with them is a real gift, and letting them know, just, these things are going really well, is really important. Asking about the child's development. Again, from the parent's point of view, what have they observed? What are they seeing? And then planning together with those observations, doing joint visit planning. 

So, it's, again, that teamwork, that collaboration, that's so important. And then using videotape of parent-child interactions, and have parents see and observe and comment on what they see. And videotaping to me is one of the strongest ways to really encourage strengthening of skills and such. I know many of you probably had that happen during practicum experiences and such, and it can be a little unnerving at first, but it truly is a huge strengthening strategy. So, what I'd like to do at this point is in the chat box, identify what are some other ways that home visitors that you, or home visitors that you support, can support the facilitation of parent-child interaction. So, we talked about handing material to the parents, or asking parents what they observe, or watching videotapes. What other kinds of strategies do you have? Gloria says, "It's
always good to..." Go back and grab that. "It's always good to let them know they are doing well." That's great, Gloria. Praise parents for their strengths, perfect. Pointing out their strengths. This is great. Speak for the child. That's a great infant mental health technique so parents really understand and start to think in their minds about what children are feeling at the moment. Allowing them to pick the activity, perfect. Encouragement, yes. 

One comment was, "I like to praise the parents." Great. Affirmation is great. Staying curious. Asking a lot of questions. I think as we come to the table with that spirit of inquiry, just as we want to see in children, it is such an important strategy that we have as home visitors or those who support home visitors. Positioning yourself. Bragging on the parent, I love that. 

Accentuating the positive. Affirmation. Reflection, and especially going through those at the end. Asking open-ended questions. Active listening again. Asking those open-ended questions, those are great, great responses. Thank you. We'll continue to capture those. So, again, as we  think about the growing brain and then what little ones are attracted to and then the formation of relationships with familiar adults, let's think about children, how they learn over time. They're doing that in the context of their own homes, and you know, that's probably learned language as very young children, that's how everything really starts that foundation. 

So, if materials are only available from what we bring in, kind of the, you know, home visitor bag, then we're really not getting the optimal amount of time, then if we would use materials that are within the home because those materials that are brought in tend to go away, if not at the end of that visit, then, you know, at some point, maybe a week or whatever it might be, where if we're using materials that the family has and has available to the children, then they're able to get that dosage, and it maximizes their learning. And then parents are encouraged to be more creative to see the learning opportunities throughout the home and learning them doesn't have to stop. And that joint planning process that you use with parents is really critical here, so they may not see that the laundry basket clothes, socks that need to be matched for learning opportunities, and that's where you come in to really assist with that. And of course, resources that parents might have access to like libraries and things like that are within that context, as well. 

So, again, to recap: supporting parents in using those everyday materials, but also want to mention here supporting them in using daily routines and chores as they get older and chores that the parent has as learning opportunities with little ones, so, like, the laundry and matching those, matching those socks, or helping to make meals and looking at all of the things that have to be done routine-wise; diapering, all the language that happens with that; washing hands. So, there are so many learning opportunities that happen throughout the day, not just with materials but with routines, that that home is a wonderful learning environment, and the child is within that context all day, every day, all week. So, we're going to see an example of a home visitor who optimizes what's in the home, and I want you to watch this and look for how the home visitor really integrates the use of common material and into the learning experience. I'm going to go ahead and start the video. 

[Video clip begins] 

Woman No. 1: I put everything in my box. Yeah, what do you think? Should I put those in there, too? It's almost as tall as you. No, now he's got to figure out how to get it out. Let's see. Let's see him problem solve since that's what we're talking about today. Good job. There you go. Wait, wait. Let's see him maneuver it now. Woo! Yeah.

Man No. 1: Good job. Has he climbed in any boxes lately?

Woman No. 2: Mmm.

Woman No. 1: Under anything lately?

Woman No. 2: He'll climb on the chair.

Woman No 1: Okay, good. When climbs in the chair, what does he want? Does he usually trying to get something?

Woman No. 2: He is trying to sit in it. Oh, okay. Just love circles. Circle.

Boy No 1.: Circle. Yeah, circle. You picked up a red circle. I like how you picked up the red circle. You taking it to its home? Ooh. You're twisting and turning the circle See, that's giving him more language, and that's encouraging effort. Encouraging him all the more. Wonderful. Wonderful. Red square. Hm. He's looking, like, "I did it." Good job. You did do it, baby. You worked it. You're working those. So, Daddy, show him sequence and matching everything up together, and then see what he does with that. What? You're not normally this shy. You're pretending? You're pretending. Peek-a-boo. Pretending. I see you. I see you. What's Daddy doing? Look at Daddy. Daddy is... What is Daddy doing? Look at Daddy.

Boy No. 1: Daddy! Daddy! What is Daddy doing?

Man No. 1: What am I doing, huh? What is Daddy doing? Circle. Ooh. I was going to say, "Dad, did you forget?" You got that one. There you go.

[Video ends]

Donna: Okay, so now that you've seen the video, in the chat box, if you would go ahead and type in what effective practices did you observe the home visitor doing. So, what are the effective practices that you observed the home visitor doing? Praising the child. There's a lending library that a program has that parents can check things out. That's awesome. She got the parents involved, yeah. Sitting at the family level. Asking questions. Handing materials to the parents. Sitting together, I like the shouting on that. Modeling. Narrating what was happening using positive language. Coaching the parents. Guiding.

She had, if you heard, explained using terms, but explained those terms as they were watching. Observe and comment, yes. And she sat on the floor, so she wasn't hovering. She sat in a supportive way. Supporting child mastery. I like the, "You did it." He waited to make sure that everybody saw he did it. Using a box, perfect. And then she used a lot of language, expanded language, so lots of really good opportunities for learning on, really, both parents and children.

So, in establishing that collaborative partnership with the parents and working together, and we saw, I think, the video clip was really good in showing how the parents were really used to working with the home visitor and how they comfortable they all were in that whole process, but that collaboration can be supported through joint planning, reflecting on how well the activity went, so you know, what did you think? What else could we have done? What can you do with this after I'm gone? Asking parents what they observe, and what they think will happen next. What do you think he'll do next with the box or with the puzzle?

And then, listening to parents before sharing your own approach, so let them answer first, which is really important. So, home visitors can provide that emotional... to support the parents and the concrete with ideas, with knowledge, but also with support of what they're doing, and then helping parents connect with other parents, community members, resources, so doing that through information that's provided through different socialization opportunities, and then always, it comes back to the importance of the parents and the father's role in that as well, and whoever else is co-parenting. And I think we saw that even kind of piece in that video, and then modeling those warm responsive relationships by engaging in them with parents and, you know, it's kind of that parallel process piece that infant mental health folks talked to us about quite often. And with that, I'm going to turn the PowerPoint back to Randi.

Randi?

Randi: Hi. Thank you, Donna. Those are excellent strategies, and there was so much talk about the importance of interaction, and so really, in order to support us as home visitors and people going into the home, really supporting that parent-child relationship, we look to coaching. We look to those professional development opportunities, and so really, the purpose of effective practices is really just to support positive child outcomes. And so the purpose of coaching is to support the implementation of those practices and thus support positive child outcomes. So, when we're thinking of home visitors, and those effective practices would be the specific statements of action, those behaviors home visitors use to support parents during home visits and socializations.

And so, programs use various sources to determine the effective home visiting practices to focus on, and so sometimes this is the Early Learning Outcomes Framework, their curriculum, the home visiting skill profile, the relationship-based competency. And so one area that we look at is practice-based coaching, and so practice-based coaching really focuses on taking those effective practices that occur, and really using them to know the practices and really support using these practices to then boost, you know, positive child outcomes. And so, one example of an effective home visiting practice is to follow the parent's lead and allow them to perform an activity with their child during the visit.

This sounds easy, but this can be difficult not to just jump in, right, and really allow parents to be comfortable in the silence, be comfortable in the dance back and forth between the parent and the child, really, right? So, PBC can provide the home visitor with specific support related to following the parent and child's lead by observing how often you're able to implement that practice. So, a key component in this is the use of videotaping, right? It's the focused observation. So, whether you're using expert, peer or self-coaching, the focused observation is essential to capture the effective practice in action and serves the guide for reflection. So, this focused observation, it can involve live observation, but videotaping is a key component that can be used as well. And so... And sometimes within a home visit environment, this can be less intrusive for a family, and so the videotaping really provides a good alternative, especially if  you're coaching virtually or you're engaging in peer or self-coaching, using a TLC format, or just a family that you're visiting with would like to limit the number of people coming in at one time. 

So, the video can be taken by the home visitor, sent to a coach, so this has a positive advantage to allowing the coach to support the home visitor from a distance as well as allowing parents to see the video ahead of time and kind of reflect on what is being seen from a different perspective. But we need to really remember before we videotape that we are making sure that we have permission from the family, that we're transparent about the purpose of the use of the video recording and that you can offer, you know, to just frame it so that you're only seeing the home visitor and their reaction or their use of language, rather than the family, so really making it all about the individualization of your interaction with a family.

So, what we're going to do is we're going to set up, because we're getting close to the end of our time and we really have some exciting resources to share, but this video is a really good way to frame our reflective lens. And so we're going to practice viewing a video to be reflective and identifying kind of successes and areas of adjustment, so we're going to imagine that the home visitor who's going to appear at the left side of the screen is you, and that you have chosen to work on how you encourage parents to follow their children's lead and interest. So, we're going to watch the video, and then we're going to discuss what we observe.

[Video begins]

Woman No. 1: Well, this week, we had talked about focusing on how do you know when she likes something?

Woman No. 2: Mm-hmm.

Woman No. 1: So, we gathered a few things from your living room...

Woman No. 2: Okay.

Woman No. 1: ...to check them out, and so can you tell me about these items?

Woman No. 2: Sure.

Woman No. 1: This one in particular.

Woman No. 2: Sure. She likes this. This is pretty fun, so she'll probably [Indistinct]

Woman No. 1: [Indistinct]

Woman No. 2: So, I'm just going to bring it closer. What's this? What's this? What's this one?

Woman No. 1: Can you see her face? She's just lighting up. She likes that. Woman No. 2: Mmhmm.

Woman No. 1: She says, "Mom knows."

Woman No. 2: Are you smiling? [Indistinct]

Woman No. 1: So, we got these. These.

Woman No. 2: Mm-hmm.

Woman No. 1: What's your prediction on these? 

Woman No. 2: I don't think she's going to like those very much.

Woman No. 1: Oh, Emma, we're going to trade it out. We're going to trade this toy out, little one.

Woman No. 2: What's in there? What's in there? [Indistinct].

Woman No. 1: [Indistinct]. Come on, what do you think?

Woman No. 2: So, I feel like she shows more interest than she usually does, but she's not, like, smiling, really, like she did at that toy.

Woman No. 2: Okay, so you liked this better than I thought you would. You liked it better than I thought you would.

Woman No. 1: How about this one? What do you think about this?

Woman No. 2: That—That one she might throw. What do you think?

[Video ends]

Randi: All right. So, I'm going to put this question in the chat box, and really, putting in that frame of mind like we said, that you are that home visitor and then we're focusing on parentchild being able to follow that child's interest. What successes did you observe, and what adjustments might you make as that home visitor if that was your section of videotaping for your either peer or self-coaching session? What do you think that you would have found successful, and what adjustments might you make based on that video? So, she personally wasn't... Okay, she wasn't following her lead, right? Repetition. Giving the child longer to play with the materials. Transition was really quick. Not giving that warning. Allowing to work with different accounts a bit longer. Ask mom what she thought. Have mom give the materials to the baby, that's a good one, right? Making sure that we're allowing that parent to be the teacher, right? Plan with that parent ahead of time. Yes, more time. And so that's... we definitely... letting them choose a toy. So, we're having a lot of examples, and so this is exactly an example of how you take a snippet of the video, a snippet of your time, work on a specific practice, and you make adjustments based on what you see, your interactions with each family. And working on one skill may not be across your whole case load. You may work on it with just one or two or three families that you need to work on that specific skill for that particular family, but you have some wonderful ideas, and we're going to push forward just to be able to get us through because we've got, woo, seven more minutes.

One key resource is the RBCs, the relationship-based competencies, and some of you may have caught some other webinars where we've discussed these. This specific relationship-based competency number four really plays into what we're discussing today. These are built very much on building those relationships with families, and what are those practices and skills and knowledge that home visitors and others need to engage with to build those relationships? And so, more information can be found on ECLKC about this, and I highly encourage you to dive in to this, watch some webinars and find out more information on ECLKC. Other ones can be derived from the effective practice guides. This, you find the link, is on the slide right here.

These are really put into a format of the know, see. do, review. They have key videos that are in it, along with descriptions of each of those kind of practices that you can really, really use. And  so, this is a key resource that you can use when you're deciding on effective practices, or just building those relationships with families. OpenDoors is another key resource. We see this very, very often, and we're working on updating these as we speak, so these are key resources that we will make sure are up-to-date as we push forward, as well as the Institute for the Advancement of Family Support Professionals. These have a multitude of information, key modules that you can use, pathways that you can explore to really go into some home visiting competencies, as well as Career Compass, which is on there, which allows you to have a personalized learning map, which is really exciting to be able to play with. 

Also, we highly encourage you to join MyPeers if you're not a member already, but definitely to engage and have conversations. The link at the bottom is for you to be able to sign up if you're not there already, and if you're already a member but not a part of our community, we are 800 strong, about 800 strong, but we are definitely going through. Also, we have some brand, brand new things to announce. Our interactive Curriculum Consumer Report, which includes our home-based curriculum, is now available on ECLKC. Definitely good to check that out, and we are so excited to announce that we have a home visitor e-Institute that's coming up the end of May. All of you... There's many of you who were saying about bagless home visits. This initial one is "Leave the Bag Challenge," and so we are focused on using everyday materials and routines in the home, supporting parents through home visits, so use the link to register and we will see all of you there. Really, really highlighting this information, but we want to push you forward to give you enough time. We have links within the next two additional resource slides. 

Also, to really give you time to do your evaluation, right now you've got a couple of minutes, so I'll keep kind of talking as you do this evaluation, but thank you so much for joining. Make sure to check out the resource list to download the slides, and join MyPeers if you haven't done it already, and our IPZ, Individualized Professional Development, Portfolio is now open and available, and that's where our e-Institute is going to be, and we look really, really forward to being able to be there. Let me see. Someone asked for the link in the chat, and let me pull that up and be able to put it there for you as well, if I can pull it off that slide. I'm really hoping that I can. If not, I can  type it in — in the 30 seconds I have before this ends. All right. So, here's a link for the... Oh, I did see a question about the handbooks for OpenDoors will be complete. I'm not quite sure at the moment, but we are definitely getting that done as fast as we can. Fingers crossed, I'm hoping end of May, June, but we'll definitely...

The home visitor one is getting wrapped up, and so we're hoping that that gets out there. People are asking for our evaluation link that we're not able to get that, so let's put that there.

Ooh, good. Erica was able to put that up for us.

So, if you're not seeing the evaluation link that's on the screen for some reason, it's now been put into the group chat, and so... But I'm hearing lots of things that said that it was really beneficial and the resources were very helpful, so we're very excited to hear that. And so, thank you so much for joining, and we really look forward to seeing you in June when our next home visiting webinar series comes back and with the focus on reflective practice.