• Program Overview 

    We work with parents during the critical early years of their children's lives, from prenatal to kindergarten—and the results are powerful!

    By understanding what to expect during each stage of a child’s development, parents can easily capture the teachable moment’s in everyday life to enhance their child’s language, intellectual growth, social development and motor skills.

    All families can benefit from this kind of support. Parents as Teachers families come from all configurations and all socio-economic levels.

    Parents as Teachers is a strong evidence-based home visiting model providing a broad context of parenting education and family support, and building protective factors, especially for those families in vulnerable situations. At its core, Parents as Teachers is relationship-based and parenting-focused. Our approach and curriculum focus on parent-child interaction, development-centered parenting, and family well-being; on strengths, capabilities and skills; and on building protective factors within the family. Parents as Teachers serves a range of families with high needs—not just first time parents, pregnant parents or teen parents—and offers services throughout the continuum from prenatal to kindergarten entry. 

     

    Research Findings

    The National PAT office has done research and has found:

    PAT children outscored their peers on measures of school readiness and later school achievement

    PAT children were more advanced than other 3 year-olds in language and social development, problem-solving, and other intellectual skills

    PAT children performed better than non-PAT children in elementary school

    PAT parents took a more active role in their children’s schooling than did non-PAT parents

    PAT was found to reduce placement in special education; and lowered the incidences of abuse and neglect

     

    Quality Standards

    In September 2014, the Wichita Falls Parents as Teachers program began to serve Wichita County community. Our goal is to increase the quality of the PAT program from every aspect. The Wichita Falls ISD realized the needs of early childhood. By implementing the PAT program, they are focused on ensuring the success of all students by starting at early childhood.

    The evaluations have been completed, and now we are ready to go forward in implementing the changes that have been recommended. It has been an exciting process, and we look forward to improving our services for parents and children.