Clinical Skills Confidence: Tips for Parent Phone Calls

Raise your hand if you get nervous when you have to make parent phone calls? My hand is raised over here. I don’t know what it is about the phone, but it makes me nervous. Face to face meetings are easier for me, for whatever reason.

Here are my tips for making phone calls as painless as possible:

-Plan an outline of what you want to say.

-Have paper and a pen handy. You can have your planned notes written out and can jot down anything the parent says.

-Find a quiet, private space. I will usually seek out the conference room or a teacher friend’s empty room (if they’re at recess or something) to make phone calls. For me, there’s nothing worse than other people listening to me talk!

-Provide your email address. At meetings, I do tell parents that making phone calls during the workday is often difficult, but that I’m constantly checking my email so it’s my preferred method of contact.

-Listen! We talk all day long, but sometimes it’s helpful just to listen. Particularly if you have a parent who is upset. I start out by having them explain their side first so that I can be sure what we are addressing.

-It’s ok to say “I don’t know.” If you have to check on something, let the parent know that. You can always get back to them.

Hope these tips make phone calls a little easier for you!