Leading Focused Conversations with Families to Inform the DRDP Ratings

Visit DRAccess.org/leadingconversations to access worksheets for organizing and leading focused conversations with families.

Leading focused conversations with families to help complete the DRDP has been an important part of the special education DRDP guidance for many years. Some assessors may have fewer opportunities to directly observe children on all the measures and increasingly rely on information provided by families.

The ongoing conversations with family members during our typical interactions are rich opportunities for learning about their child. You can capture notes of what the family shares during these conversations as documentation in the child's portfolio, along with home visiting notes, or other system of organizing information about the child. These kinds of general conversations should occur whenever we have contact with the family. Additionally, it may be useful to lead these conversations in a focused manner during the two times a year when the DRDP is completed. When combined with what we know about a child, observations from family members help us gain a more complete picture of a child's skills. Research findings suggest that parents' observations are reliable and valid sources of information and should be considered an essential component of a comprehensive assessment process.

A focused conversation with a family member may be a primary way to gather information about a child's skills to inform ratings on measures that we might not have as many opportunities to observe directly. During these conversations, focusing on routines and activities provides a useful context for asking a family about their child's everyday learning opportunities and skills. For example, if you have not had the opportunity to directly observe the child interacting with peers (SED 4: Relationships and Social Interactions with Peers), the family can share observations of their child spending time with other children of about the same age (e.g., siblings, cousins).

Be sure that the families are familiar with the DRDP right from the start. Here are some points you might share with them early in the service delivery relationship:

• The DRDP is based on ongoing observations of a child's skills in everyday routines and activities with familiar people.
• The DRDP is completed twice a year, and after each time it is completed, an easy-to-understand report (the Child Report) is available.
• The DRDP provides many benefits. Service providers have up-to-date information that helps them plan and carry out learning activities. For families, the information helps them know more about their child's development and ways they can support their child's learning.
• When family members share observations and information about their child, it helps assessors confidently complete the DRDP.

Four Steps to Leading Focused Conversations

The four steps below will guide you in planning and leading focused conversations with families to help complete the DRDP for Special Education.

Step 1: Take an initial pass at completing the DRDP measures

• Gather together the materials that you will need:
  • The appropriate (preschool or infant-toddler) DRDP manual;
  • The "Worksheet for Leading Focused Conversations with Families"; and
  • Your documentation, which might include observation notes, home visiting notes, portfolios, information gathered from conversations with family members and other providers, observations that informed other authentic assessment tools, etc.
  • The DRDP for Rating Record (Preschool or Infant-Toddler).
• Using these materials, take an initial pass at completing the DRDP.
  • For measures you are confident you can rate, assign a rating. You might note this on the "Worksheet for Leading Focused Conversations" or on the DRDP Rating Record.
  • For measures that you need additional information/documentation to confidently rate: Identify those for which you want to make additional observations or have further conversations with the family (or others) to gather more information.

Step 2: Identify classroom or family routines and activities for observation

In the previous step, you identified measures for which you need more information. Following are some strategies for making additional observations.

• If you are seeing the child in-person in a classroom:
  Plan times to observe the child participating in typical classroom or home routines and activities in which you might observe the child demonstrating skills in those measures.
• If you are providing home visits:
  Use your knowledge of the child and family and discussions with the parents to identify everyday family routines or activities that might be opportunities for observing skills related to those measures. For example, if you need information about measures related to the Social and Emotional Development domain, you might focus on what happens when the child plays with his siblings, cousins, or other children with whom the child typically interacts.
• Other strategies:
  • In accordance with your program's policies, you might also ask the family to text or email you videos or photos of the child participating in selected routines and activities.
  • You should ask other teachers, related service staff, or child care providers to share their observations.

Once you have used all your opportunities to make additional observations move to the next step.

Step 3: Lead a focused conversation

• Using the everyday routines and activities that you identified in Step 2, plan a focused conversation with the family. Jot down general questions you will ask about those routines or activities. For example, if Max has a sibling around his age, you might ask, "Please tell me what happens when Max and his brother play together." If the child does not have siblings you might ask, "Does Max ever interact with children around his same age? If so, what happens?" Jot down these questions in the appropriate column on the "Worksheet for Leading Focused Conversations."
• At the beginning of the conversation, remind the family about the things you've previously shared about the DRDP. Describe, in family-friendly language, the general domains or measures you want to focus on (avoid reading the exact wording of the measures). For example, if you want to focus on measures within the Social and Emotional Development domain, you might say, "Let's talk about how Max interacts with familiar people."
• Ask the family to describe what their child does when involved in everyday routines or activities. For example, related to the feeding measure you might ask "Please tell me what Max does during mealtime." As the family describes what Max does, ask follow-up questions as needed to get more specific information.

If these kinds of general follow-up questions above don't get the information you need, try the additional strategies below.

Repeat these kinds of conversations with other routines or activities you have identified until you have enough information to confidently rate the measures in question.

Step 4: Take another pass at completing the DRDP

• Take another pass at completing the instrument, using the additional observations that you made and information that you gathered from conversations with the family.
• As you complete the measures in question, double-check the measures for which you assigned earlier ratings. Talking about routines and activities with families often leads them to share information about not only skills that appear in one measure but skills that might appear in other measures. For example, by asking what Max does during mealtime, the family might describe what Max does related to self-feeding and also how he interacts with others during mealtime.

If there are still measures that you still cannot confidently rate, repeat the steps above. If after repeating the steps, you still cannot confidently rate a given measure, mark the level where you are most confident.