FamilyConnect

Listen to Cay Holbrook’s thoughts on the benefits of parent/professional collaboration on literacy skills.

Transcript

My name is Cay Holbrook, and I’m an Associate Professor of Special Education at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, in Canada.

What do you believe are the benefits of parent-professional collaboration related to the expanded core curriculum?

I believe that the most effective way to provide a high-quality educational experience that maintains high standards and supports the individual needs of children with visual impairments is a collaboration between parents and professionals.

I believe that in this circumstance, one plus one equals a hundred. It’s not just what parents can bring to the table and what professionals can bring to the table, it is that collaboration, and that opportunity for brainstorming, and that commitment to the individual needs of a specific child that can make the educational experience the best that it can be so that it reflects the needs and the abilities and the strengths of a specific child.

I think that there is a continuum of instruction and real-life experiences and by having people on a child’s educational team that come from different perspectives allows us to look holistically at a child and to make sure that the child receives the benefit of the best that we can do.