Creating Family & Parent Engagement Activities for Special Needs

​As a teacher, I loved creating opportunities for parents to join the students in the school setting. I learned how most special needs parents feel like they will never experience things such as shows, awards ceremonies, or any other in school related activities with their children. I wanted to change that perspective and create opportunities for parent involvement. I am going to tell you about some of my experiences and how I handled them.

Growing up I always loved music, and I always found ways to incorporate music for my students. Which led me to making small music shows or performances. I looked into opportunities such as holidays (winter, Mother’s Day, end of year, etc.) If you choose to do holidays around December, keep in mind to ask families which holidays they celebrate to establish an inclusive show and to make sure families feel comfortable with their child participating. Although any type of family engagement activity may feel overwhelming, I promise it can be done and the reward is amazing. Plus, parents will love the opportunity to experience these moments and share these memories.

I will start by sharing, it takes a lot of prepping, practice, and modeling. But the end result will have everyone tearing up and a piece of your heart melting. Every year, I created a Winter Show and Mother’s Day/Parent’s Day. My students would sing and dance for their families, followed by a breakfast. Some schools will have grade level shows, and depending on my group, we would participate. However, I have found that sometimes my students struggles with big audiences or got lost in the rest of the performances. So… I pushed for private activities just for my class. It doesn’t mean I didn’t include my class in school events, but I took it case by case and found ways to modify or accommodate them, if they participated.  I always choose to do these activities in school, early in the morning. In order for parents to attend, you must send the invite at least a month in advance. Then you will also send emails, text, and many flyer reminders. Depending of my activity, I would use an empty classroom, restructure my class, or use the cafeteria for the stage.

​Here are the steps I took to create these events:

1. Speak to administration to get approval. Every district has varying rules. Identify the location of your event, the length of your event, and who will be participating.
2. List out the process, what will you need, what will it take, how much time do you need to get ready? Once you have a plan, begin the process.
3. Create an invitation or a Save the date memo!
4. If you are doing a music show, pick a song that will allow ALL the students in your class to participate. There are many ways to make every student part of the show. In past performance, some of my students used communication devices to welcome everyone and thank everyone. Some students who would not sing would use instruments, while others would be the lead dancers, and some would be lead singers. Find the strengths of your students and make them shine!
5. If you are creating dance moves, make simple dances… only arms, only feet work. You can have students standing or sitting. Accommodate as needed. Maybe some sit and others stands. There is no right or wrong way.
6. You have your music, and your dance/set up…. Now practice every single day and multiple times a day. The more you practice the more likely the student’s will remember.
7. As you get closer to the date, here are the last-minute details. What outfits will the students wear, I loved making uniforms colors or similar props.
8. Make sure to practice multiple times like if it was show time!
9. If you have food involved, who will be bring which item? Will you need to decorate the setting or tables? Make sure you have time to set up and gather all the needed items. If you need coffee machines or ice, speak to your cafeteria friends.
10. Invite you administration and support staff, show off your hard work and your amazing students!

​Additional Tips and Notes for success:

• Add visuals to cue your students
• Stand or sit in front of them to model through the music
• Use your assistance to guide students who need additional support but if possible have them step away
• Prepare materials needed by the student
• Use visual cues on the floor with take or pictures to guide boundaries, or mark spots
• Wherever you will conduct the event, make sure to have the students practice there, so they are not thrown off by the setting.
• Lastly… nothing will ever be perfect… enjoy every imperfection. Remember, this is huge for our students social skills and it is precious to the parents and families.

 
One of my most memorable and tear jerkers was when I choose to do Because You Loved Me by Celine Dion with an older group of students. I made each student sing a line, and the whole class the chorus. As a gift, I created a CD with the song recorded by my students. I became a producer that year. It was just my students singing the song, no dancing and just sitting down. It does not have to be complicated. The lyrics of that song had the entire staff crying and families too. I choose to make this a private event because I wanted no distractions for my families. I wanted them to take in every single word and lyric my students sang for them. It was not perfect, no matter how many times we practiced in the class and cafeteria.  We had to do the song 2 times!! But my families loved it and it was amazing nonetheless.

If you don’t feel comfortable doing a music show… pick something else! There are so many things you can do such as breakfast, decorate cookies, arts and crafts, read aloud, acting show. The possibilities are endless. I hope today was useful and it motivated and inspired you!