TEDX1884X - Early Childhood: Family-Centered Services

Course Description

Family-Centered Services is a continuum of services that employ the family-centered practice approach to promote the primary goals of child welfare: safety, permanency, and well-being. A family-centered practice approach is a way of organizing and delivering assistance and support to families based on interconnected beliefs and attitudes that shape the program philosophy and behavior of personnel as they organize and deliver services to children and families.

Family-centered service is an approach to service delivery that grew out of family preservation attempts in the mid-seventies to prevent out-of-home placements of minors. Since then, family-centered services has expanded from a particular type of service to an overall philosophy for the delivery of services to families. FCS currently includes a wide range of programs from family support prevention services to family preservation, for families who are dealing with extremely difficult situations. Family support is largely a preventative service that focuses on promoting healthy family relationships and child development. A family support model may include programs such as peer support groups, Head Start, parent training, and home visitation. Family preservation, on the other hand, is more concerned with preventing family breakdown when serious problems arise by providing more intensive services that help families resolve specific issues.

While there are several similar, yet differing, definitions of family-centered services that exist in fields such as social services, child welfare, mental health, and early childhood special education, there is consensus on the principles and values that characterize family-centered services. Descriptors such as “strengths-based, consumer driven, family systems, partnerships, empowerment, enhancement, interdependence, proactive, and collaborative relationships” are all found in many of these definitions (Pletcher & McBride, 2003).

For the purpose of this class, we will use the terms Family-Centered Services and Family-Centered Practice interchangeably, to refer to a way of working with families across service systems to enhance their capacity to care for and protect their children, and strengthen their ability to manage their own lives. Family-centered services focus on the needs and welfare of children within the context of their families and communities. These services are accessible and individualized, and are available to families that may not initially seek services.

Family-centered service providers reach out to families, conveying the message that all families can benefit from support, and that families can learn from one another.

Family-centered practice recognizes the strengths of family relationships and builds on these strengths to achieve optimal outcomes. Family is defined broadly to include birth, blended, kinship, and foster and adoptive families. Family-centered practice includes a range of strategies, including advocating for improved conditions for families, supporting them, stabilizing those in crisis, reunifying those who are separated, building new families, and connecting families to the resources that will sustain them in the future.

View Early Childhood: Family-Centered Services syllabus for additional information.

Key Benefits

• 100% online self-paced course.
• No prior experience required.
• No textbooks and other materials required for purchase.

Learning Modules Include

• Chapter 1: Introduction to Family-Centered Services
  • Chapter One defines what is meant by Family-Centered Services (FCS) and examines the important role it plays in Early Childhood Education (ECE). We consider the philosophy, core values, and essential elements of best practice in FCS. In addition, we identify several key principles that guide the delivery of Family-Centered Services and provide practical examples of how to implement each principle for those providing services to families.
• Chapter 2: Understanding Families
  • Chapter Two takes a more in-depth look at how we can work together to connect the ECE profession’s standards of quality to the urgent needs of families. This chapter discusses the complexity of family dynamics by examining several factors that contribute to family diversity, such as ethnicity, race, culture, economic differences, gender role identity, religiosity, and geographic region. We discuss the practical implications of such factors and look at family strengths, functions, and structures.
• Chapter 3: Working Together: A Shared Responsibility
  • Chapter Three takes a closer look at several stress factors, such as family violence, substance abuse, homelessness, disability, serious illness, and immigration, that many families in crisis may face. We discuss the impact of such stressors on both family and child, and identify various ways in which early childhood educators can support and encourage them in their time of need.
• Chapter 4: Building Communities of Care
  • Chapter Four focuses on the need for Early Childhood Educators and care providers to provide parents with child-rearing information and support. In order to do this, we examine the critical processes for child development, discuss how to develop and implement needs assessments for families with young children, and describe the dimensions of high-quality parent education programs. This chapter also identifies critical components of parenting and discusses methods of parent education.

Course Learning Outcomes

• Have a working knowledge of the major frameworks for understanding family systems, transitions, and diversity.
• Be competent in communicating about the role of families in promoting optimal growth, development, and learning from pre-birth to age five.
• Have the ability to seek out appropriate local, regional and national resources when working with families facing special challenges.
• Demonstrate understanding of appropriate professional practices related to enhancing and assessing positive staff-parent communication and involvement.

Requirements to Enroll

No application is needed to enroll. All learners are eligible to enroll in the course. There are no admission requirements. It is recommended that learners have a high school diploma or GED, and have basic computer and internet knowledge.

Semester Open-Enrollment Schedule:

• Spring = January - April
• Summer = May - August
• Fall = September - December

*Please note that students are only allowed to register max 5 TEDX courses per semester period*

Estimated Time to Completion

This course can be completed in approximately 30 hours of asynchronous work.

Access Time

Learners will have access to their course learning modules for up to 365 days from the date of enrollment.

CEUs and PDUs

• CEUs 3.0 National University Continuing Education Units

Certificate of Completion

Learners will be awarded a National University Workforce and Community Education, Professional and Continuing Education Certificate of Completion after satisfying the course requirements below:

1. Complete all four information sections showing a competent understanding of the material presented in each section.
2. Complete all four section examinations, showing a competent understanding of the material presented.  You must obtain an overall score of 70% or higher, with no individual exam score below 50%, to pass this course.  *Please note: Minimum exam score requirements may vary by college or university; therefore, you should refer to your course addendum to determine what your minimum exam score requirements are.
3. Complete a review of any section on which your examination score was below 50%.
4. Retake any examination, after completing an information review, to increase that examination score to a minimum of 50%, making sure to also be achieving an overall exam score of a minimum 70% (maximum of three attempts). *Please note: Minimum exam score requirements may vary by college or university; therefore, you should refer to your course addendum to determine what your minimum exam score requirements are.
5. Complete a course evaluation form at the end of the course.

Refund Policy

We at National University want all of our students to have a positive and rewarding learning experience. In the event that a student is not completely satisfied with a course, we offer a refund policy to ensure satisfaction.

To be eligible for a refund, the student must submit a written request, including a valid reason, within 9 calendar days of registering for the course. Additionally, the student must not have attempted more than 25% of the course.

To request a refund, email PACE@nu.edu and include your full name, student ID, and course name. Your reason for requesting a refund will be carefully reviewed, and we reserve the right to refuse a refund if we determine the request to be invalid.

If you meet the eligibility criteria and are approved for a refund, we will issue a refund to your original method of payment within 60 days of the refund approval.