Growing in the Good Life: Lessons from Immigrant and Refugee Caregivers on Child Development
Date, time, and room location:
Session overview
Session Description
Immigrant and refugee families bring unique perspectives on child development, resilience, and help-seeking, yet they often face systemic barriers in accessing early childhood services. This session will present findings from a community-engaged qualitative evaluation conducted with 84 immigrant and refugee caregivers across Nebraska.
This session will explore how families view and experience their children’s development, and how their perspectives can inform and strengthen professional practice. Participants will consider the ways in which families support their children while navigating challenges and accessing resources. The discussion will highlight the value of culturally responsive approaches, meaningful partnerships, and supports that help families engage with complex systems.
Designed for intermediate to advanced practitioners, the session will provide opportunities to reflect on strategies for integrating family perspectives into early childhood, healthcare, and family support settings, with a focus on advancing equity and responsiveness across systems.
Learning objectives
- Describe how caregivers understand and support children’s developmental milestones across physical, social-emotional, cognitive, and language domains.
- Identify common barriers families face (e.g., language access, transportation, insurance) and facilitators (e.g., trusted providers, schools, community liaisons) that shape child and family outcomes.
- Reflect on culturally responsive practices and strategies to strengthen partnerships with families and support their navigation of complex service systems.
- Consider ways to integrate caregiver perspectives into early childhood, healthcare, and family support services to promote more equitable systems of care.