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The start of a new life sends a message of hope to everyone. In a community that has the
resources to offer critically important services, families know where to go for support.
They can feel secure and confident on the path they take to provide for their
children’s health, nutrition, care, and education. Each step along their path is a
nurturing one that supports development.
Yet not every family with a young child has a nurturing path available to them. Some
families may find themselves on a path that has many bumps and detours. There may be no
signs that clearly guide their way. Each place they stop is different from the last place.
Every time they seek help, they have to cope with new rules and expectations. Often, they
have to start all over again. Their struggle to survive takes away valuable time they
could spend with their young child. Instead of experiencing the joy of having good choices
for their child and themselves, families may feel they have no choice but poor-quality
health care, nutrition, and education. There may be few or no meaningful connections
between the families and the community’s service providers. Isolated families may
feel lost. And, not knowing where to go next, they may lose hope.
With support from their community, families can find a nurturing path. A community that
creates such a path for families with young children has two main ingredients. One,
everyone in the community—including families, schools, health and social service
providers, and religious, business, and other leaders—works together to create the
path. And two, the community has the necessary resources. Resources are scarce, and many
communities do not have the resources they need to adequately support families. In many
communities, families are in crisis and need a lot of support. Yet, no matter what the
crisis or level of need, every family can benefit from support that focuses on its
strengths. Members of a community have the opportunity to commit themselves to working
together for the good of families. They can work to make the most of the resources that
are available.
This document focuses on what a community can do to support families with young children.
The extent to which ideas in the document can be tried will depend on the resources
available to a community. A framework is presented that identifies what a home, school,
and community partnership can do to help families thrive as they experience change and
their young children grow. It explains how connections among the home, school, and
community enable families to move from setting to setting with ease and build on their
previous experiences. It defines the goal of continuity: for families to be able to shape
and choose appropriate services for themselves and for their young children every step
along their path. Families will then be able to move forward with confidence and hope.
Continuity in Early Childhood
In Continuity in Early Childhood: A Framework for Home, School, and Community
Linkages, Kagan (1992) has described two types of continuity: horizontal
continuity and vertical continuity.
- Horizontal continuity refers to the various settings in which a young
child receives care and education at any point in time. For example, the child lives at home,
plays in the neighborhood, may attend a local preschool, may receive health care at a nearby
clinic, and may require special transportation services. Each day, a child routinely moves or
makes a transition from one setting or service to another. Changes from setting to setting may
be disjointed or connected. In other words, horizontal continuity may be weak or strong.
- Vertical continuity refers to connections among care and education, health, and social
services across time. For example, during infancy, a child may be immunized by a county health
agency and receive care in an infant care center. Later on, the child may attend a nearby
preschool and receive medical care at a local health clinic. In elementary school, the same
child may attend the neighborhood school at which a nurse coordinates health services. While
growing older, the child must make transitions from various service settings to other service
settings. Likewise, families must learn to relate to different services as their children
grow. Service providers for different age levels may have little or nothing to do with each
other, or they may link their activities. Strong vertical continuity means that services
provided at a later point in development build on services provided at an earlier time. Rather
than repeatedly having to adapt to new systems, families gain needed time to nurture and
strengthen family members, both adults and children.
The concepts of horizontal and vertical continuity relate to stability and change
during development. Major theories suggest that development is best supported when
children are firmly grounded in their present stage of development and are appropriately
challenged to move to the next stage. In contrast, too much change, inappropriate
expectations, or abrupt change may interfere with development. Thus, the task facing home,
school, and community partnerships is twofold.
- To offer a stable base to children by connecting the home with service settings
- To connect service settings to smooth transitions or changes (Creating continuity means
building bridges for the transitions young children and their families must naturally make.)
Both horizontal and vertical continuity should receive attention in the design of early
childhood services. From the point of view of horizontal continuity, ongoing connections
between families and service providers is centrally important. Each service should be
linked with every other service. The rules and expectations should be the same from
setting to setting. Cultural links between the home and service settings and communication
in the family’s home language prevent children from experiencing the potentially
harmful effects of too much discontinuity. Links to the culture and home language of the
families will allow them to join in a partnership with their community’s service
providers.
From the perspective of vertical continuity, early childhood services should be available
during pregnancy and at birth and extend through eight years of age (and beyond, for that
matter). Services over time mean that no one period of development receives attention to
the exclusion of others. At all times, special needs should be part of a service plan. Of
course, services for families with infants are critical. Early experience establishes the
foundation for later functioning, especially social-emotional development. But services
should remain strong after infancy. They should build on the early care children receive.
Services should also provide links for the various transitions that occur during early
development.
Providing children and their families with continuity smooths numerous transitions for
them. Changes they must naturally make during early childhood are appropriately
challenging and less abrupt when strong links between service settings exist. To achieve
early childhood continuity, the home, school, and community should be connected in a
partnership whose focus spans from pregnancy through age eight.
The Transition to School
One of the most important steps for families with young children is entry into school.
This transition has been looked upon from two perspectives. One perspective reflects the
first National Education Goal: “All children in America will start school ready to
learn.” Goal One emphasizes the role of the family and the community in preparing
young children for school. Helping young children become ready for school should smooth
their transition to school. It should also establish a foundation for future academic
success.
The other perspective on readiness and transition places responsibility on the school
program. Many experts argue that schools should be ready for children. To accomplish that
end, schools should build on children’s early childhood experiences. The school
curriculum should be based on the same principles as the early childhood curriculum and
meet special needs. Family services and family participation in the educational program
should resemble the way they were prior to school entry.
Thus, much of the discussion about school readiness has boiled down to whether children
and families should be ready for school or schools for children and families. Yet each of
these positions oversimplifies the issue. Every aspect of the lives of young children and
their families deserves attention. Children and the families that nurture them do not
develop apart from the world around them. In fact, the home, the school, and the community
all contribute to the long-range success of children. Seen in this light, the question of
readiness becomes less a matter of who’s ready for whom. Instead, it is a matter of
everyone working together to support children and their families as they become ready for
the next type of service or stage of development. The idea of different service providers
working together keeps the entire life circumstances of the child and family in focus.
Service provided during early childhood becomes the common goal of families and providers
of care and education, health, and and social services.
Elements of Continuity
The framework for early childhood continuity presented in this document keeps the whole
child in focus, genuinely involves the family, and emphasizes both the horizontal and
vertical aspects of continuity. Eight Elements make up the Framework.
Specifically, continuity for children from birth through age eight is strengthened when
- Families are an integral part of the home, school, and community partnership and the
primary decision makers concerning their child's care and education.
- Home, school, and community partners share leadership and guide decision making.
- Care and education, health, and social services focus on the full range of needs and
circumstances of individual children and their families.
- Services are consistent with the home culture of the families, and communication is
provided in the home language.
- Home, school, and community partners maintain open communication and respect
confidentiality.
- Home, school, and community partners work together to build their knowledge and skills and
the capacity for community services.
- Care and education services are developmentally and culturally apropriate.
- Home, school, and community partners document their efforts and use evaluation information
to improve policies, programs, and practices.
The Framework is designed to encourage a comprehensive understanding of
continuity and transition. Although the Elements may partially overlap one another, each
one defines a distinct aspect of continuity.
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