“The success of the Program is best documented in Pittsfield, MA, where they've had it for 28 years, and a 1998 study demonstrated that 84% of the Parent-Child Home Program children, all of them at-risk children, graduated high school.” DR. JOHN SILBER, PRESIDENT EMERITAS BOSTON UNIVERSITY AND FORMER CHAIR MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF EDUCATION

Who We Are

The Parent-Child Home Program is a research-based and research-validated early childhood literacy and school readiness program. The Program successfully strengthens families and prepares children for academic success through intensive home visiting. Since 1965, this innovative program has emphasized the importance of quality parent-child verbal interaction to promote the cognitive and social-emotional development that children need in order to enter school with the tools they need to become successful students.

Today, in over 150 community-based replication sites throughout the world, The Parent-Child Home Program is helping families who have not had access to educational opportunities to create language-rich home environments and to prepare their children to enter school ready to learn and ready to succeed.

THE PROGRAM MODEL:QUALITY ASSURANCE

Every Parent-Child Home Program site adheres to a carefully developed and well-tested model to ensure high quality services and consistent results. Each site is run by a Site Coordinator hired by the local sponsoring agency and trained by The Parent-Child Home Program's National Center. These Site Coordinators then recruit and train Home Visitors. Typically, families participate in the two-year program when their child is 2 and 3-years-old. A child can, however, enter the Program as young as 16 months and some sites serve families with children up to 4-years-old. A Home Visitor is assigned to the participating family and visits them for half-an-hour, twice-a-week on a schedule that is convenient for the parents. On the first visit of each week, the Home Visitor brings a carefully-selected book or educational toy as a gift to the family. In the twice-weekly home sessions with the parent (or other primary caregiver) and the child, the Home Visitor models verbal interaction and reading and play activities, demonstrating how to use the books and toys to cultivate language and emergent literacy skills and promote school readiness. Over the course of the two years in the Program, families acquire a library of children's books and a large collection of educational and stimulating toys. A Program Year consists of a minimum of 23 weeks of home visits (or 46 home visits).

Training in multicultural awareness and the ethics of home visiting are important components of the Parent-Child Home Program training curriculum for Site Coordinators and Home Visitors. Respect and understanding are critical for successful home visiting relationships.

The Parent-Child Home Program model allows for some modifications, approved in advance by the National Center, in order to appropriately serve families in diverse communities and a wide range of circumstances.

“Twenty years ago I looked at my daughters and said, ‘How am I going to get them through?’ Then these women brought books and toys to my house and showed me the way.” MOTHER OF PROGRAM GRADUATE WHO IS NOW ATTENDING MEDICAL SCHOOL

THE IMPORTANCE OF PARENT-CHILD INTERACTION

All children's first years should be filled with verbal stimulation to build language and literacy skills. Each day should be full of discovery and offer opportunities to gain new skills and learn new concepts.

Fostering verbal interaction between parents and their young children is a critical component of healthy and successful development (Bruner, 1964 and 1966; Vygotsky 1962). The importance of this interaction has been further validated by recent brain and language development research (Hart & Risley). Formative research on The Parent-Child Home Program's 1965 pilot project (titled the Mother-Child Home Program) affirmed that this critical parent-child interaction could be strengthened by modeling reading, play and conversation for parents and children in their own homes (Levenstein and Sunley 1968). Please see Research and Publications for more information.

SCHOOL READINESS: BRIDGING THE PREPARATION GAP

Across the country, millions of children begin kindergarten unprepared. They are "left behind" as early as the first day of school. These children have not adequately experienced books and quality verbal interaction. They do not have the language skills they need to successfully interact with their teachers and their classmates. They may not be able to control their behaviors or emotions as well as other students. Without the skills they need to successfully adjust to the classroom, they begin their academic careers a critical step behind their peers. Many of these children will never catch up.

The Parent-Child Home Program bridges this "preparation gap" by helping families challenged by poverty, limited education, language and literacy barriers, and other obstacles to school success prepare their children to enter school ready to learn.

THE APPROACH: MODELING VS. TEACHING

The Parent-Child Home Program utilizes a non-directive approach by modeling behaviors for parents that enhance children's development rather than teaching behaviors. Home Visitors help parents realize their role as their children's first and most important teacher, generating enthusiasm for learning and verbal interaction through the use of engaging books and stimulating toys. Parents are never given homework or assignments to complete but are encouraged to continue quality play and reading between visits with the books and toys they receive each week. The "light touch" employed by Parent-Child Home Program Home Visitors is non-intimidating and empowers parents, allowing them to become their child's first and most important teachers and take pride in their commitment to, and impact on, their child's education.

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