About Parents as Teachers (PAT)
Parents as Teachers (PAT) programs provide parents with child development information, support, and encouragement. They help parents build the knowledge and skills necessary to help their children learn, grow, and develop during the crucial early years of life (birth to age 5).
PAT programs operate on the belief that parents are their children’s first and most influential teachers. Their program goals are to:
- Increase parent knowledge of early childhood development
- Improve parenting practices and parent-child relationships
- Increase children’s school readiness
- Improve children’s chances for success in school and in life
PAT services are delivered through trained parent educators to parents and family members. The PAT Born to Learn Model consists of four pieces:
1. Personal visits - During (monthly, bi-weekly or weekly) personal visits, parent educators share child development information with family members, help parents learn to observe their child’s development, address parenting concerns, and engage the family in activities that provide meaningful parent/child interaction and support the child’s development.
2. Group meetings - Parent group meetings provide opportunities to discuss information about parenting issues and child development. Parents learn from and support each other, observe their children with other children, and practice parenting skills.
3. Resource network - Parent educators help families identify and connect with needed resources and overcome barriers to accessing services. Programs take an active role in establishing ongoing relationships with community agencies that offer additional family services.
4. Screening - A regular review of each child’s developmental progress identifies strengths as well as areas of concern. Parent educators or other trained personnel or agency(ies) may conduct an annual developmental, health, vision and hearing screening for early identification of a child’s developmental stage and/or answer questions about the child’s health, vision and hearing.
All trained parent educators have attended a Born to Learn Institute—a comprehensive five-day training that covers all four pieces of the model, along with
- brain research on early development and learning
- sequences of early childhood development
- areas of development, hearing, vision and health
- facilitation of parent-child interaction
- service to diverse families
The Born to Learn model is often included in an existing organization or program such as Title I, school districts, Even Start, Head Start or Early Head Start, Healthy Families America, Family Resource Centers, and other state and nonprofit agencies.
For more information about the Parents as Teachers program, visit the website for Parents As Teachers National Center.