Engage with families to support children’s learning and development
Overview
Family engagement is important throughout early childhood education and care. There is a great deal of evidence that families play a critical role in their child’s learning and development.
Early Years Learning Framework Principle 2
Working in partnership with families, educators use the Learning Outcomes of the Early Years Learning Framework to guide their planning for children’s learning.
National Quality Standard Area 6
Quality Area 6 recognises (among other things) that collaborative relationships with families are fundamental to achieving quality outcomes for children.
Research
AERO has produced practice guides on this topic, tailored to different contexts.
Early childhood education and care practice guide
This guide makes recommendations based on the best available research evidence about how early childhood services with 3-5 year-olds can engage with families to enhance children’s early learning and development.
Annotated reference list
An overview of the research evidence cited throughout our family engagement practice resources.
Brief methodology
This explainer describes the process we followed to synthesise the available research evidence on family engagement to create the family engagement practice guides.
Detailed methodology
This detailed methodology describes the processes we followed to synthesise the available research evidence on family engagement for learning.
Using the practice
To be effective, family engagement practice need to be implemented well. See below some 'things to know' when using these practices.
Engaging with families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
This resource details strategies for engaging families from culturally diverse backgrounds, families with English as an additional language, and families from refugee backgrounds, elaborating on the ‘promising approaches’ outlined in AERO’s family engagement for learning practice guides.
Engaging with families of children who are in out-of-home care
This resource details strategies for engaging with families of children in out-of-home care (OOHC) to support children’s learning outcomes. These strategies elaborate on the ‘promising approaches’ outlined in AERO’s family engagement for learning practice guides.
Snapshots of practice
Family engagement practices may look different in different contexts. See below examples of family engagement in early childhood education and care settings.
Engaging with families at Wynnum Family Day Care
This case study has been with Wynnum Family Day Care & Education Service, as an example of how to support family engagement practices in an early childhood education and care setting.
Engaging with families at Goodstart Early Learning Tuggerah
This case study has been with Goodstart Early Learning Tuggerah, as an example of how to support family engagement practices in an early childhood education and care setting.
Engaging with families at Canning Vale Prekindy
This case study has been with Canning Vale Prekindy, as an example of how to support family engagement practices in an early childhood education and care setting.