5 Things Parents Need to Discuss With a Child’s Teacher
Parents who want their children to have a successful academic year would be wise not to withhold any pressing information about them to their teachers.
Your child’s teacher may be an expert in a number of academic fields, but there’s one subject in which you are the expert: your child.
The key to your child’s success in school is for you and the teacher to have open communication. Deciding which information to share with your child’s teacher can be a little tricky. Here are five pieces of information you should definitely disclose.
1. A Child's Health Concerns
Your child’s teacher needs to know about health issues that can manifest during school and impact his school day. If your child has food allergies, asthma or a chronic condition like diabetes or a seizure disorder, that should be on the top of your list to discuss, particularly if it means the teacher or school will need to make accommodations for an allergen-free zone, have an inhaler on standby or know the signs of an impending crisis.
It’s also important to inform your child’s teacher if he has any developmental delays or has been diagnosed with a condition or takes medication that may affect his concentration or behavior.
If at any time during the year, your child is on a short course of medication that has side effects (like sleepiness or stomach upset), it’s worth giving the teacher a head’s up.
2. Family Issues
Talking about family issues is one of the less comfortable things to tell your child’s teacher about, for both you and the teacher. A recent or impending divorce should probably be disclosed (the fact of it, not the details) because it can have an effect on your child’s mood and behavior. Remarriage, the birth of a new sibling or a death in the family should be mentioned too, along with any accompanying changes in your child’s behavior you may have noticed at home.
Custody issues, while tricky to talk about, also need to be mentioned to your child’s teacher. Sometimes it’s as simple as telling the school that you and your ex have shared custody and either of you can pick him up. Complicated child custody arrangements need to be discussed in-depth. If there’s a no-contact order or you have sole custody, you’ll also need to provide the school with a copy of the legal paperwork.
3. Learning Style
You may think that because you don’t have a degree in education, you don’t know anything about your child’s learning style, but you’ve certainly seen it in action.
Does your child seem to figure things out better when there are pictures or writing involved? Does he need you to show him how to do something before he gets it? Does he do better when he hears the directions? The answers to these questions can provide the teacher with good information about which techniques would be helpful while teaching your child.
4. Temperament
Many people confuse temperament with personality, but the two differ. Your child’s temperament is the innate traits or characteristics that he has shown from very early on in his life and has stayed pretty much the same in all situations. Temperament includes things like how active your child is, how easily he adapts to new situations, how much sensory input he can take and his typical mood.
Many children are what’s known as “slow-to-warm,” meaning it takes them some time to get comfortable with new situations and people and change may be upsetting to them. A slow-to-warm child needs to be approached differently in the classroom than an “easy” child, who is typically more adaptable, positive and eager to try out new things.
5. Personality
Your child’s personality is affected by his temperament, but, for the teacher’s purposes, it's more about how those temperamental traits affect his behaviors and responses to situations.
For example, your child may have a “difficult” temperament but also be very extroverted. So, despite his tendencies toward negativity and inflexibility, in the right situation, your child may be very social and talkative.
It’s important to talk to your child’s teacher, not only about the positive pieces of his personality but the more troublesome ones, too. If your child has an explosive response to being disciplined or certain topics make him very anxious, the teacher needs to know in order to have the tools in place to help your child.
