In this article, the authors present parent-educator conversations, which were selected to illustrate common communication patterns and provide links to some of the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children's recommended practices for communicating and collaborating with parents. Using conversation analysis, researchers have identified many details of talk in conversations between teachers and parents. Positive communication plays a significant role in the initiation and development of parent-professional partnerships as do other help-giving practices. When early childhood educators listen for details in their talk with families, they can make purposeful improvements in parent-professional communication, collaboration, and relationships. This article presents transcript excerpts that were taken from several parent-teacher conferences from early childhood special education and Head Start programs. These conferences appear representative of parent-professional talk in other programs and in other venues. The conference communication characteristics are presented in the following sections: wait time, overlapping talk, topic changes, and technical terms. These four communication techniques were chosen to highlight early childhood educators' and service providers' ability to facilitate interactions with families. (Contains 2 tables.)