Indirect Influences

Although interactions between contexts occur in all aspects of each child’s transition ecology, three of these interactions were extensively discussed in parents’ narratives: parent-teacher, early intervention-teacher, and parent-online community interactions.

Parents attempted to build trusting relationships with teachers. Each narrative clearly communicated the desire for parents to connect with teachers and get involved in their children’s transitions. Linda’s case illustrated the influence of a strong, mutually respectful relationship with the teacher on successful transitions. Collaborative interactions that occur within team approaches indirectly affect children by allowing teams to generate agreed upon goals that offer consistency between home and school settings. Furthermore, when problems arise, parents can offer suggestions to teachers to help children’s adjustment to the classroom. Jen’s narrative indicated that a collaborative relationship was not formed with the teacher, and Nathan’s adjustment to the classroom was negatively impacted because the school appeared to be unsure how to help him. Even day-to-day expectations of children can be influenced by parent- teacher interactions. Michelle explained how she worked with Linda to scaffold Michael’s learning. At the beginning of the Kindergarten year, Michael was unable to independently present for show-and-tell. Michelle discussed the expectations with

Linda, who then created a flip book with pictures for Michael to use during his show-and- tell presentation. This visual support acted as a prompt for Michael to know what to discuss with his peers, allowing him to independently meet the classroom expectation.

Rimm-Kaufman and Pianta’s (2000) Ecological and Dynamic Model of Transition discusses the child’s movement from preschool to Kindergarten; however, for parents in this study the movement from early intervention services to Kindergarten was more relevant. As presented in chapter three, parents had developed a great amount of trust in their early intervention teams and their associated teaching approaches. I believe these relationships with service providers added complexity to the transition experience because most families will continue to work with these service providers throughout the elementary school years. However, children will now receive most of their education at school. For children solely transitioning from preschool to Kindergarten, there is a clear handing over of educational services, a distinct ending, and new beginning of educational services. Because both the school and community-based service providers are working with their children, parents indicated that it was important that collaborative relationships were formed between teachers and early intervention teams. I discussed these relationships in chapter three as acting like bridges or linkages between systems. Children were not simply moving from one system to the next; rather, they were moving back and forth between the two systems on a regular basis. Parents wanted consistency between children’s learning environments to ensure their success in both environments. Susan and Linda’s narratives provided examples of how these linkages can help encourage consistency between home and school programs, thus creating smoother transitions for children.

One of the findings that was unique to this study was the influence of online support groups on the participants’ storied transition experiences. These online communities were discussed as sources of support for two of the participants, yet were also responsible for triggering fear and wariness in trusting school staff. The discourses that parents engaged with in these online communities cultivated a divide between families and schools. The discourses of parent support groups have not been discussed previously in the Kindergarten transition literature. Online communities offered opportunities for parents to connect with other parents who have children with ASD and

overcome the isolation they were experiencing; however, it was also clear that these groups made the Kindergarten transition especially stressful for parents. As Claire mentioned, she was concerned that Evan would see her worrying and begin feeling anxious about school, which illustrates the indirect influences these negative group discourses can have on the child. Furthermore, when parents were exposed to beliefs that indicated that schools were not trustworthy, they spoke about interactions that occurred with teaching staff in a similarly confrontational manner. For instance, I noticed Susan’s use of aggressive language, using words such as “fight” and “battle” when discussing the need to advocate for her children at school. Parents in this study feared that the goals of the school did not align with the goals they had for their children, which was a belief that was reinforced in online communities. As Michelle and Linda pointed out, actual or perceived misaligned goals are not conducive to building collaborative teams. Without these collaborative teams, children become affected due to decreased support and consistency across systems. In addition, it is possible that adversarial relationships between parents and teachers could impact a teacher’s relationship with the child. Linda was aware of this connection when she stated that she worked on maintaining pleasant relationships with teachers so that they would be well-disposed toward Michael. Similarly, Susan understood that the quality of her relationships with teaching staff could impact her sons’ education. For her, finding a balance between advocating for her children’s needs and building harmonious relationships with teaching staff was difficult.