CONTACTS
Sheri Parcell
Virginia Parents as Teachers Director
SParcell@familiesforwardva.org
(540) 239.0889
Christine Camper
PAT Training & Technical Assistance Specialist/National PAT Trainer
(540) 562.2574
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Angie Nichols
CHIP/PAT Technical Assistance/
Quality Assurance Specialist
ANichols@familiesforwardva.org
(540) 250.5090
Parents as Teachers engages parents and caregivers in promoting the optimal early development, learning, and health of young children, emphasizing:
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Parent-Child Interaction: Positive parenting behaviors to support and enhance the parent-child relationship
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Development-Centered Parenting: Respect for parents’ perspectives as they make important decisions at different stages of their child’s and family’s development
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Family Well-Being: Partnering, facilitating and reflecting with parents to build upon family strengths
The cornerstones of the
Parents as Teachers model are:
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Personal visits
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Building connections
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Resource network
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Conducting child developmental, health, hearing and
vision screenings
Parents as Teachers can be delivered in two ways. Affiliates consistently replicate the evidence-based model, either as a stand-alone Parents as Teachers program or within another program.
Curriculum Subscribers incorporate the Parents as Teachers’ parent education curriculum into another service delivery model. This flexibility helps communities fill service gaps and increase capacity to engage diverse families, cultures, and special populations.
In Virginia, many CHIP and Healthy Families programs incorporate the Parents as Teachers model or curriculum and there are also independent Parents as Teachers programs. Affiliates and Curriculum Subscribers receive the same foundation training; Affiliates receive additional training on model implementation. The Parents as Teachers online curricula contain materials to support families from the prenatal period through the kindergarten year. Individual programs set their own service length parameters.
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Parents as Teachers is a good fit for parents who are expecting or who have a child under age five at enrollment. Families who are on waiting lists or don’t meet the eligibility requirements for other programs can often qualify for Parents as Teachers services. There are no income restrictions, but most Parents as Teachers programs prioritize lower-income families with other risk factors.
Parents as Teachers Works. Here's How:
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Improved parenting knowledge and skills
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Prevention of child abuse and neglect
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Increased school readiness
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Early detection of developmental delays
and health issues
Parents as Teachers Home Visiting Model
Significantly Reduces Child Abuse and Neglect
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New research published in the April 2018 issue of Child Abuse & Neglect,
The International Journal found that the Parents as Teachers® evidence-based
home visiting model demonstrates a significant decrease in cases of child maltreatment when home visiting services are delivered through a scaled-up, statewide home visiting program.
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Click here to read the Parents as Teachers Press Release >>
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A Parents as Teachers Success Story
Thank you to Family Lifeline and Lucas Templeton Productions for this video success story. Click here to view.
We Support Communities in a Variety of Ways
Parents as Teachers services are provided by Affiliates whose parent educators attend Foundational and Model Implementation training and are certified to use the Parents as Teachers Foundational curriculum with families in their communities.
Parents as Teachers Subscribers utilize the PAT curriculum and modules in their programs.
The Parents as Teachers relationship-based and parenting-focused approach to home visiting helps achieve Head Start outcomes and prepares staff to promote school readiness and parent engagement, hallmarks of Head Start and Early Head Start.
Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV) is a Federal Home Visiting Program designed to strengthen programs for families in at-risk communities. Parents as Teachers evidence based home visiting model meets the evidence based criteria of the Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness, which assess the quality of the research evidence of models.
The Parents as Teachers Approach
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Our vision is that all children will develop, learn, and grow to realize their full potential, but we're not here to talk about the "right" and "wrong" ways to parent. We're here to provide information that supports parents' roles as their child's first and most important teachers and advocates.
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Parents as Teachers Approach is the partner, facilitate and reflect. These are parallel processes that occur at every level of our organization from a Parent Educator visiting a family in their home all the way to the work of the National Center.
It's important to us that parents' strengths are recognized and that they feel empowered by their relationships to choose what to do with the information they receive. Their choices at any point in time will be informed by many things, including their goals, their perspectives, and their ways of being as a family.
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Source: Parents as Teachers National
https://parentsasteachers.org/
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