1 Working with parents
Throughout the course, the importance of working with parents has been discussed. Before continuing with this session, take a few minutes to reflect on the reasons why you think it is important to work with parents to promote children’s health.
Activity 1 Working with parents
Watch the following video, which is an interview with Karen. In the video she explains some of the reasons why working with parents is so important. She talks about how building relationships and gaining the trust of parents helps them to work with the staff to identify realistic interventions aimed at improving children’s health.

Transcript: Video 1 Promoting health and working with parents and staff – interview with Karen Neal
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Discussion
In the video, Karen talks about how some parents need support in learning about how to promote good health habits in their children. She goes on to say that building relationships with parents right from the start will help parents to feel relaxed, and this will help to build trust. Karen talks about the need to find out more about what happens at home.
You may have identified other reasons why working with parents is so important.
The next section will look at how Karen worked with parents to find out more about health habits within families. Later sections will explore some of the tactics that Karen used to educate parents about health, especially in relation to healthy eating.