If you haven’t formed a relationship with your patient’s daycare teachers, I challenge you to do just that. At one time, half of my caseload was in a daycare or preschool. I would check in with the parents about progress and strategies they could do at home, but I also realized that a few check-ins weren’t enough. A valuable person in this child’s life spent the entire day with them (and their classmates)—their daycare teachers.
Befriending a patient’s daycare teacher should be among the top priorities. Is it something that happens overnight? Probably not. Like public school educators, daycare teachers are often overworked and overwhelmed. It can be hard to build those relationships- but if you can do it, it’s 100% worth it.
In this podcast episode, we chat about ways to R.E.A.C.H. teachers and 4 tips for starting a conversation to build working relationships.
The best way to start building relationships with teachers is by REACH-ing them. Respect them, Encourage them, ask Questions, be Considerate, and be Honest. fSlowly build trust in the relationship, offer up simple strategies that you see working with the child, and show the teachers how to incorporate those strategies into their classroom activities. Encourage the daycare teachers to become part of team speech therapy for toddlers.
