Program aids parents in becoming their children’s first teachers

The Family Place is affiliated with the Parents as Teachers organization which provides parents with resources and skills to support children in their early childhood growth and development.

Parents as Teachers aims to prevent child abuse and neglect, increase parent knowledge of early-childhood development, improve parental practices to prepare students for success in school, detect development delays, and help implement home visiting programs.

The Parents as Teachers organization reaches these goals through a proven home visiting model and training courses for Parent Educators. The home visiting model has four components: personal visits, group connections, resource networks, and child screenings. Through these methods, Parents as Teachers aids parents in monitoring the growth and development of their children from conception up to age five.

The Parents as Teachers program began in Missouri in 1981 as an effort to educate new parents about their critical role as their child’s first teacher. Today, Parents as Teachers is a renown international, nonprofit organization.

According to the Parents as Teachers website, “Parents as Teachers develops curricula that support a parent’s role in promoting school readiness and healthy development of children,” with an approach that is based on building relationships and lessons based on the needs of the family and the individual student.

Learn more about Parents as Teachers at https://parentsasteachers.org.

COVID and Parents as Teachers

By Lyndi Robins

Parents as Teachers develops resources during COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused people to spend more time at home. As such, it has become essential for parents to monitor the education and development of their young children at home. Parents as Teachers recognizes the unique demands that come with this and has developed resources to help.

Parents as Teachers is an international, nonprofit organization which aims to prevent child abuse and neglect, increase parent knowledge of early-childhood development, improve parental practices to prepare students for success in school, detect developmental delays, and help implement home visiting programs.

The Parents as Teachers organization has published an online informational guide with topics ranging from how to talk with your children about COVID-19 to why masks have been mandated.

There are also resources to teach parents how to help their child’s emotional and social development from home. These resources give guidance on issues such as helping children cope with crisis and disappointment, teaching children to make transitions, and managing children’s screen time while staying indoors.

The guide also includes an extensive list of constructive, indoor activities to do with young children and a list of programs that aid individuals in providing their families with basic needs such as food, electricity, mortgage payments and jobs.

These free COVID-19 resources can be accessed online at https://parentsasteachers.org/parent-resources. The page is periodically updated with the latest information about COVID-19 and new early-childhood education techniques.