Building Blocks for Reflective Communication: A Guide for Early Care and Education Professionals

by Grace Manning-Orenstein

Overview

In the United States today, more than 11 million children five years of age and under spend part of each day in the professional care of 21 million early childhood caregivers. Anyone connected to this field, whether they be administrators, teachers, parents, mental health consultants, early childhood mental health agencies, or universities, will want to learn about the unique stressors of this emotionally charged environment and its impact on the individuals who work there. Intended to provide communication skills that deal positively with the powerful emotions triggered by stress, Tame Your Powerful Emotions will help people express themselves honestly and authentically while at the same time showing respect for their colleagues. Empowering, straightforward, and accessible, this book is a source of calm for those tense moments when teacher relationships hang in the balance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631529337
Publisher:	She Writes Press
Publication date:	07/30/2025
Sold by:	OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED - EBKS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Grace Manning-Orenstein, has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and a Masters in Developmental Psychology. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (MFC22593) and a certified Montessori teacher. For 37 years until she recently retired she worked extensively with families and children, both as a teacher and as an early intervention mental health specialist. Her interest for the past ten years has been The Link to Children (TLC), the organization she founded to provide on-site culturally competent counseling services to young children and their families, and consultation to their teachers at subsidized child development centers in Alameda County.

Editorial Reviews

Grace Orenstein’s book points to the power of interaction between childcare staff members to enhance or destroy the emotional climate of a child care center. The childcare community will value this important resource which gives directors and caregivers a blueprint for improving adult dynamics within their centers, supporting retention and continuity, and building stable, nurturing environments for both children and adults.”


—Leslie Koplow, author of Unsmiling Faces: How Preschools Can Heal and director of Emotionally Responsive Practice at Bank Street



“Dr. Orenstein makes an important contribution to early childhood teachers by sharing practical, meaningful strategies for building constructive staff relationships in the uniquely emotion-laden world of early care and education. Dr. Orenstein's years in early childhood classrooms taught her about the pressures and misunderstandings that challenge teachers’ working relationships, and her subsequent work in clinical psychology taught her how to recognize and understand those feelings. Increased self- awareness builds empathy, ultimately improving the experience of every person in the center; teachers will discover that using these reflective tools and communication skills will expand and improve their interactions with children and parents as well.”


—Claire Bainer and Liisa Hale, co-directors of Blue Skies for Children in Oakland, CA, authors of Second Home: A Day in the Life of a Model Early Childhood Program



“Este libro ayuda a contribuir al lector a través de las experiencias de vida y métodos que se pueden utilizar para mejorar el comportamiento de las personas y su calidad de vida. Estos procesos son fáciles de aplicar a situaciones que confrontamos día a día y nos ayuda a tomar decisiones correctas para mejorar nuestro comportamiento y controlar nuestras emociones se puede aplicar en cualquier nivel de trabajo y en el hogar. Es un libro sencillo para entender, claro y preciso en su mensaje y lenguaje.”


—Minerva Perez, project director of Centro VIDA-BAHIA in Fremont, CA, education specialist at CAPE Head Start in Livermore, CA



“Grace Orenstein offers her wisdom, gleaned from a life devoted to teaching about, consulting on, and caring for young children, about the ways that adults can communicate with one another that best benefits the children in their charge. Steeped in, and exquisitely sensitive to, the stressors and struggles that arise daily in the lives of those caring for young children, Orenstein eloquently translates her experience into practical training tips. Recognizing that adult relationships in early care settings are integral to how children are treated, Building Blocks for Reflective Communication reminds us to reflect on our contribution to those interactions and the tone we set for the children in our lives.”


—Kadijah Johnston, Director of the Infant-Parent Program at the University California, San Francisco, CA



“Building Blocks for Reflective Communication is a book about sorting the personal from the professional in the childcare workplace. The unique format and content of this book makes it an ideal tool for promoting self-reflection for individuals seeking professional development, and for improving workplace interactions. Dr. Orenstein has produced an excellent resource that childcare professionals will find relevant, useful, affirmative, acknowledging, insightful, and comprehensive.”


—Katrina Ross, Director of Rising Star Montessori in Alameda, CA



“This book is a great gift to our community of teachers. I truly believe that teachers need at least one year of coursework in communication. We just get snippets of it until a book like Building Blocks for Reflective Communication puts it all together with these pearls of wisdom.”


—Beatriz Leyva-Cutler, executive director of Bahia Inc.

From the Publisher