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Communication

4. Understanding the ‚other side’ – be it professionals, ‚mainstream’ parents and other minorities

4.2. Identifying my/our family diversity profile

 

ACTIVITY 30 minutes

Should I do the activity alone?

If possible do this activity together with your child and your partner, if you are in a two-parent family.

 

After completing the activity…

I/we should be able to:

  • Identify our own family diversity profile according to different criteria.
  • Be aware of our family strengths and possible limitations according to our diversity profile and accept them.

Before I start, what will I need to do this activity?      

Sheets of paper, pencils and, if possible, family pictures.


What do I have to do?

  • Together with your child and your partner if you are in a two-parent family, try to identify the characteristics in your family that matches the following family diversity criteria better (you may like to collect some family pictures):
  1. Demographic: Ethnicity, level of parents’ education, socioeconomic status (high, average, low), living environment (rural/urban families), working circumstances of the parents (working/not working mother and/or father), size, number of children in the family, etc. 
  2. Age and educational level of each child in the family
  3. Family members with special needs: No / Yes (if yes, who)
  4. Risks factors for family functioning: No / Yes.  Which risks factors are affecting the family? (For example: drug consumption, children’s systematic school absenteeism and failure, delinquency, poverty, adolescent pregnancy, children living abandoned in extended or in other families, others….)
  • Identify your family strengths and possible limitations for raising and educating your children according to your diversity profile. 
  • Write down one or two cases when you faced some issues associated with your family diversity profile (for example, facing how to look after your small children while you are at work; the same regarding  involvement in your children’s school and education, any difficulty regarding your ethnicity  or your financial circumstances, etc.)
  • Add some tips for families regarding diversity issues.
  •  

In the link you will find an example of a writing template to fill in your information.

What to do next?

We will help each other if we share some key ideas to the forum.

  • Any insight you learned from? Was it helpful?
  • Are you feeling especially happy or worried about something related?
  • Will you apply it in your daily routine?
  • …?