I think one of the key things to keep in mind is that there might be different cultural expectations or understandings around disability, you know, particularly for certain Aboriginal and Indigenous communities. And so having that culturally responsive and appropriate approach, making sure that you're explaining things and not assuming knowledge. And also, I guess, just keeping that kind of positive outlook that, you know, this is actually about identifying need and putting in supports and things in place to support the child to achieve their best. It's not a, you know, it's not a deficit, it's strength based and about finding strengths and supports that work.

I find that teachers generally start with describing what they've observed. So that might be, "Gee, I've noticed Johnny jumps up and down when he is excited and flaps," and parents will say, "Oh yes, I've noticed that too. Well, Johnny really loves dinosaurs and we find it really difficult to redirect him." And so if you start with what you've observed, parents will generally agree with you and then start that conversation around what's happening. Sometimes they'll talk about things that are happening at home. So when you start to talk to them, they'll say, "Yes, well actually, they've been sleeping on the floor in my bedroom and I need to hold their hand," or I've had a situation where a parent said, "Yes, he washes his hands so frequently that he's actually developed a real skin problem." So it's not talking at all about a disability or a category of disability. It's actually talking about what you've observed and what you're planning to do to support that child within the context of the classroom.

We often say that parents are the first educators of their child and the parents know their children the best. So I think, you know, coming to those, you know, collaborative planning processes and meetings and just really listening to families, finding out information and really asking some of those open ended type questions, you know. Just tell me about your child. They're often the beginning of those respectful, collaborative relationships with families. And they often have a lot of information to bring rather than us as educators often telling families what we see and telling them about their child to really take a step back and listen to families and listen to what they have to tell us about their child. And we often learn a lot from each other in that collaborative listening approach.