Building Blocks for Reflective Communication: A Guide for Early Care and Education Professionals

(Paperback)

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Description

More than 11 million children in the US spend part of each day in professional care; this book provides an understanding of how stress in these environments impacts the adults who care for them.

With more than 64 percent of all new mothers heading back to work only a few months after giving birth, 1 in 4 children will be cared for by others at some point in their early life.

There are more than 21,000,000 teachers in the US, many of whom are seeking professional development; this book is the training tool they need.

Reviews

Grace Orensteins book points to the power of interaction between childcare staff members to enhance or destroy the emotional climate of a child care center. The childcare community will value this important resource which gives directors and caregivers a blueprint for improving adult dynamics within their centers, supporting retention and continuity, and building stable, nurturing environments for both children and adults.
Leslie Koplow, author of Unsmiling Faces: How Preschools Can Heal and director of Emotionally Responsive Practice at Bank Street

Dr. Orenstein makes an important contribution to early childhood teachers by sharing practical, meaningful strategies for building constructive staff relationships in the uniquely emotion-laden world of early care and education. Dr. Orenstein's years in early childhood classrooms taught her about the pressures and misunderstandings that challenge teachers working relationships, and her subsequent work in clinical psychology taught her how to recognize and understand those feelings. Increased self- awareness builds empathy, ultimately improving the experience of every person in the center; teachers will discover that using these reflective tools and communication skills will expand and improve their interactions with children and parents as well.
Claire Bainer and Liisa Hale, co-directors of Blue Skies for Children in Oakland, CA, authors of Second Home: A Day in the Life of a Model Early Childhood Program

Este libro ayuda a contribuir al lector a travs de las experiencias de vida y mtodos que se pueden utilizar para mejorar el comportamiento de las personas y su calidad de vida. Estos procesos son fciles de aplicar a situaciones que confrontamos da a da y nos ayuda a tomar decisiones correctas para mejorar nuestro comportamiento y controlar nuestras emociones se puede aplicar en cualquier nivel de trabajo y en el hogar. Es un libro sencillo para entender, claro y preciso en su mensaje y lenguaje.
Minerva Perez, project director of Centro VIDA-BAHIA in Fremont, CA, education specialist at CAPE Head Start in Livermore, CA

Grace Orenstein offers her wisdom, gleaned from a life devoted to teaching about, consulting on, and caring for young children, about the ways that adults can communicate with one another that best benefits the children in their charge. Steeped in, and exquisitely sensitive to, the stressors and struggles that arise daily in the lives of those caring for young children, Orenstein eloquently translates her experience into practical training tips. Recognizing that adult relationships in early care settings are integral to how children are treated, Building Blocks for Reflective Communication reminds us to reflect on our contribution to those interactions and the tone we set for the children in our lives.
Kadijah Johnston, Director of the Infant-Parent Program at the University California, San Francisco, CA

Building Blocks for Reflective Communication is a book about sorting the personal from the professional in the childcare workplace. The unique format and content of this book makes it an ideal tool for promoting self-reflection for individuals seeking professional development, and for improving workplace interactions. Dr. Orenstein has produced an excellent resource that childcare professionals will find relevant, useful, affirmative, acknowledging, insightful, and comprehensive.
Katrina Ross, Director of Rising Star Montessori in Alameda, CA

This book is a great gift to our community of teachers. I truly believe that teachers need at least one year of coursework in communication. We just get snippets of it until a book like Building Blocks for Reflective Communication puts it all together with these pearls of wisdom.
Beatriz Leyva-Cutler, executive director of Bahia Inc.

Author Bio

Grace Manning-Orenstein, has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and a Masters in Developmental Psychology. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (MFC22593) and a certified Montessori teacher. For 37 years until she recently retired she worked extensively with families and children, both as a teacher and as an early intervention mental health specialist. Her interest for the past ten years has been The Link to Children (TLC), the organization she founded to provide on-site culturally competent counseling services to young children and their families, and consultation to their teachers at subsidized child development centers in Alameda County.