Socializations provide a beneficial counterpart to home visits. While home visits provide intimate, highly individualized relationships and learning opportunities, socializations bring parents in similar circ*mstances together to share their experiences, watch their own and others' children at play, and have the chance to make new friends themselves. Parents have many roles in the socializations. They contribute to the planning, care for and interact with their own child, observe other adults care for and interact with their own children, and watch their child interact with peers. Parents may make new friendships that live only within the socialization time or that extend into their daily lives. They get to share ideas with and questions of each other, and sometimes with guests from the community.
Social networks may be defined as the connections among people who make a difference in people's lives. Members of a parent's network can include friends, relatives, coworkers, neighbors, or professionals. Their interactions with each other may involve emotional exchanges (e.g., reassurance or encouragement), material goods (e.g., sharing clothing, toys, etc.), services (e.g., running an errand or babysitting), or information (Cochran & Niego, 2002). Parents who have positive connections to friends and families and their local community are more able to meet their basic needs, achieve their goals, and successfully raise their children. They are better able to overcome obstacles such as unsafe neighborhoods, family violence, and homelessness in order to reach these goals.
Positive social networks directly affect children's development by giving them opportunities to interact with a larger set of safe and caring adults. When children have connections with other adults, they are able to experience a greater range of activities and may develop new interests, different from those at home. Children's close relationships with a variety of safe, caring people provide more opportunities to develop flexible thinking and understanding different points of view. The number of reliable adult friends in the social network of a family is positively associated with a child's happiness, more friendships with other children, and greater involvement in community organizations (Cochran & Niego, 2002). When families are connected to their communities, children are more likely to enter school ready to succeed (Halgunseth, Peterson, Stark, & Moodie, 2009, pp. 2–3).
How To
Socializations are most meaningful when:
- A small group of families consistently attend together
- You identify similar interests or concerns shared by your families and incorporate them into the socialization
- You prepare parents to anticipate the socialization experience
- You take opportunities to connect the children's experiences to their development and learning
- You promote conversations among the parents
- You introduce community resources, such as "Lap Time" at the public library
- You provide a meaningful activity
- One program took photographs and printed them out at each socialization. In the last 15 minutes or so, parents would paste the picture into an ongoing personal memory book and add written comments about the experience in the photograph. Families brought them home on Mother's Day or Father's Day and in the holiday season.
- This activity could be expanded during home visits into a family portfolio. The home visitor and the family maintain a portfolio in the child's home that may include photographs, artwork, ongoing assessments, notes from the pediatrician, and important phone numbers.
- One program took photographs and printed them out at each socialization. In the last 15 minutes or so, parents would paste the picture into an ongoing personal memory book and add written comments about the experience in the photograph. Families brought them home on Mother's Day or Father's Day and in the holiday season.
Attendance at socializations can be challenging. Programs sometimes:
- Arrange transportation
- Provide a meal
- Connect with families to ensure that the dates and times of socializations work within their schedules
- Identify a few families and ask if they would mind arriving a bit early to help with arranging the room, distributing handouts, or assisting with preparations for the experiences or meal
- Presenting these kinds of ideas to different families each time can help them feel more engaged in the overall process and help them offer a certain level of contribution to the whole group
- Award points that can be used for items such as diapers, books, or toys
Experience It
Listen as a program director talks about the teamwork required to plan and implement biweekly group socializations, including some of the challenges and rewards. While the focus is on the responsibilities of the staff, she also addresses the various elements of group socializations. Discover the benefits to the families of attending group socializations, including access to community information and resources, as well as the relief from social isolation for many of them. She also describes the bicultural experiences that recent immigrants gain from one another and from the home visiting staff.
Elements of a Socialization
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Open Doors
Chapter 7: Elements of a Socialization Experience It
L. Coombs: I wanted to say more about the teamwork, because each month, the home visitors put on two socializations a month where all the families come together or have the opportunity to cometogether, and we have very large meetings, lots of attendance. A meal is served and activities provided,so, it's like a family outing, and they'll bring their extended family, neighbors. They bring additionalpeople because it's fun.
And it's a lot of work and so the home visitors have to support each other with providing that and eachtaking some aspect of the work and getting it completed and they have to really trust each other, thatthey'll get it done and that person will follow through with whatever their task is for that particularmeeting. And, even though it's difficult to pull off; it's like a party, you know, every other week.
There's lots to do, and cooking and those kinds of things, because they do the whole meeting. They seethe benefit. It's a struggle, to fit it all in with all the other tasks, but they see the benefit, becausefamilies really enjoy it and you can tell that they do, by who comes and they're bringing additional
people.
And one of the special things about that is we have the Spanish-speaking families integrated with theEnglish speakers, and you know, we have the luxury of a large room with round tables; so it's a prettysocial environment and they're not segregating themselves, so, there's some really nice things goingwith that. And if we have a speaker, then we have our bilingual home visitor does the interpreting andso you've got that; they get that sort of rhythm going of the speaker will say something and then she'lltranslate.
So, we've had a lot of success and, you know, they feel successful. You can tell that, but they truly arerelying on each other.
Close
In this video, Omar and his mother are at a group socialization stacking blocks that fit into each other and on a post. Omar's mother is very involved in his stacking, while the home visitor sits nearby offering encouragement.
Integration of Socializations
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Open Doors
Chapter 7a: Roles for Parents Experience It
Home Visitor: Omar.
Mom: Good morning. Good morning.
Home Visitor: Oh, yay! How are you? Hi, guys. How are you?! Hey, Earl. How are you? He's trying to figure it out.
Mom: Yeah, that's it. He's doing all right, yeah?
Home Visitor: He's trying to figure it out. Put those together.
[Chuckle]
Home Visitor: That's good. He's like a scientist: He's exploring.
Mom: And then, you need --
Home Visitor: Yeah. He's trying to figure it out.
Mom: Oh, look. Other way. I'll help you, okay? Omar, one second. I'm helping. Omar, you see? Omar.
Omar. Omar, you see? This one. No, this one. Second one.
Home Visitor: Oh, look, he's figured it out, how it goes together. Look! Oh, he's figured it out.
Mom: Omar, you see? Omar. Omar! You see? [Chuckle] Put here. No, this way. Yes, you see? Omar, yousee? Come, doing this one here. Omar. Eh. Omar, huh, here. Doing this one.
This one. This one, first. Here. You see? This way, uh-huh. There. You see? Ooh! Look. You see? Uh-huh.Omar, you see? Uh-huh. Unh-hnh!
Home Visitor: He wants to be independent, right?
Mom: That's it. Wow!
Home Visitor: He's figured it out, how it works. Does it go together, Omar? Look, they go together. Theyfit together.
Mom: Yes, and put here. This one. Yes, uh-huh. Omar, you see here? Fix it. This one. No, another way.
his way. You see? Huh, huh? This way. This way. Here. Here. Here. Omar, here. You see? Here. Here.
his one. Like this. You see? You see? Don't put it like that. Yes. Omar, put this here. This one. Put. Yes, uh-huh. Fix it! Ah!
Home Visitor: Oh, you got it! You put it all together! Hard work. You worked hard, Omar!
Mom: Fix it, huh. Uh-oh. [laughter] Fix it. Yes, Omar. [clapping] Good boy.
Close
Reflections
What do you observe during the stacking activity?
Answers may include:
- The mother sits next to Omar and the home visitor sits across from him as he manipulates the blocks.
- The mother is turning the blocks so they fit on the post in order.
- She hands the blocks to her son so they are placed correctly on the post.
- The home visitor is making comments on what she sees happening, "Look, he's figured it out, how it goes together," and compliments the mother on how well he is doing with the stacking.
- Omar is picking up stacking blocks, moving them in different ways, sometimes fitting them together, and placing them on the post.
What does the home visitor do to support the continuation of the activity? What does she do to enhance the parent-child relationship?
Answers may include:
- She uses a positive tone.
- She describes and comments on what the child does specifically rather than just saying, "Good job."
- She talks to the mother and credits her for the accomplishments of her son.
- She sits nearby but lets the mother guide Omar's activity.
What is Omar learning from this experience?
Answers may include:
- Perceptual, Motor, and Physical Development
- Eye-hand coordination
- Fine motor skills
- Gross motor skills (e.g., stooping, standing, leaning over)
- Social and Emotional Development
- Self-esteem from his successes and acknowledgement from others
- Pleasure with his activity and shared with both his mother and the home visitor
- Approaches to Learning
- Self-regulation and persistence by continuing to try when unsuccessful
- Problem-solving
- Figuring out how the pieces fit together and on the post
- Receptive Language
- The home visitor talks with him about fitting it together
- Cognition
- Learning how objects fit together
- Matching same-sized objects or colors
- Noting the gradient of size from large to small as they fit on the post
What could the home visitor do to further enhance the parent-child relationship from this experience?
Answers may include:
- Reposition herself so she is in the background and the mother and child are in each other's field of vision.
- Pose questions to the mother, such as:
- Who taught him to build so well?
- I wonder what would happen if you let him do it by himself?
- What has he done like this before?
- Comment on what the child is doing:
- He is very persistent and focused.
- The two of you look like you have a plan for stacking those blocks.
- He is really experimenting with how they go together.
- Comment on what the mother is doing:
- You're really encouraging him to stay with that activity. That will be very important for school later on.
- You look really proud of his accomplishment.
- Say to the child, "Show Mommy what you did."
What cultural considerations might there be in this interaction between mother and child?
Answers may include:
- Eye contact
- Role of the parent
- Role of the "teacher"
Read more:
Home Visiting,Socialization
Resource Type:Article
National Centers:Early Childhood Development, Teaching and Learning
Last Updated: May 13, 2022
