Activity 1-4:
Giving Attention

Purpose: This activity will help participants think about the kinds of communications that they themselves find appealing and interesting, in order to discover ideas for making their communications more appealing and interesting to parents.

Materials
Handout 2

Process
Provide participants with a copy of Handout 2, What Attracts Your Attention? Tell them that this exercise will ask for their opinions. They will not have to share their answers with anyone, but they do have to be honest in order to get the most from this exercise. Arrange a time to meet (as soon after they have completed the exercise as possible) to discuss it.

Debriefing
Begin by stating that this exercise asked for participants' opinions. Everyone will have different preferences in terms of what they most prefer to focus on during their Head Start workday.

Ask participants:

• What patterns did you discover as you completed the exercise?
• Did you see any connections between your interest in an activity and your willingness to focus on it?
• Did you see any connections between the perceived level of difficulty or discomfort with an activity and your willingness to focus on it?
• What does this imply for communication efforts that you initiate? What characteristics of these communications will be important?

Conclude by emphasizing that, in most instances, people are more attentive - and are more willing to be attentive - in situations where their needs are met, where they are comfortable, where they feel involved, and where they feel they can contribute.

Finally, ask participants to consider the implications for their own work with parents. What improvements would they like to make in the way they communicate to increase the likelihood that parents will want and try hard to pay attention?

Module 1 | Index | Activity 1-3

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