Parents As Teachers (PAT) is a home-school-community based partnership that provides parents information on child development from birth to age five. PAT suggests appropriate learning opportunities and activities that encourage language and intellectual growth as well as motor and social-emotional skills. The program uses a strong research-based curriculum to provide age-appropriate information to the parents. Parent educators are trained and certified using both the Foundational and Model Implementation and 3-Kindergarten Entry curricula. Parent educators receive professional development trainings throughout the year to maintain certification from Parents As Teachers National Center.
PAT is a voluntary family education and support program that offers: *Personalized home visits by certified parent educators who help parents to understand what is expected at each stage of their child's development. Practical tips on ways to encourage learning, managing challenging behaviors, and promoting strong parent-child relationships are offered. *Group connection meetings allow parents to gain new insights and share their experience, common concerns and successes. Group connection meetings provide the families with opportunities to participate in parent-child activities which reinforces the importance of family interaction. *Developmental screenings help parents to understand their child's specific strengths and identifies possible delays in any areas of development such as hearing, vision, motor, language and intellectual. Screenings are utilized as a teaching tool to inform parents what their child should be doing at each stage of development. Questionable results are monitored and referrals are made to appropriate agencies as needed. *Resource/referral network helps connect families to other agencies within the community that provides services that are beyond the scope of PAT. These resources may include speech or hearing clinics and educational services for the child or parent.