Parents as Teachers

Melissa Jonson-Reid, Director at the Center for Innovation in Child Maltreatment Policy, Research and Training at Washington University, joins us to share how home visitors can embrace their role in supporting families, building on strengths, and fostering safe, nurturing environments that promote child and family well-being—both during Child Abuse Prevention Month and throughout the year.

We feel good taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of nature, and research shows that exposure to nature can lower stress, boost attention, and improve engagement - especially in children.  Jennifer Smith-Simms, Public Programs Manager at the Missouri Botanical Garden, joins us to talk about how any interaction with nature – big or small – can be therapeutic no matter how old we are, and she shares easy ways home visitors can incorporate nature into our work and everyday lives.

Parents as Teachers exists to support parents as they raise children who are healthy, safe, and learning. So, what does that look like when families are involved in the Child Welfare System?  Sondra Horowitz, Senior Director of Quality Improvement at Parents as Teachers National Center, joins us to talk about how parent educators should think of their roles in Child Welfare situations, how they can cultivate collaboration with others in the child welfare ecosystem, how to support families as they work toward reunification, and how they can practice self-care throughout the partnership.

Working as a home visitor with families in the Child Welfare System can be uniquely challenging and rewarding.  Mia Dadiz-Gaspar, a Lead Parent Educator at Maui Family Support Services, joins us to share her personal experience in Wailuku, Hawaii.

Everyone at Parents as Teachers has a story, so how can we tell it so people will listen? At the National Center, we're often fielding requests from the media, brainstorming how to share stories effectively, and strategizing about the best channels for amplifying the partnerships between families and parent educators.  Jen Peters, a communications strategist with over a decade of experience supporting initiatives across education, technology, and public health, and Kerry Caverly, Senior Vice President and Chief Program Officer for the Parents as Teachers National Center, join us to talk about the different ways that parent educators and Parents as Teachers affiliates can share stories about the work they do, and why storytelling matters.

Season 2 is here!  Fresh stories, compelling conversations, and expert interviews with guests that can help us build strong communities, thriving families, and children who are healthy, safe, and learning.  

By bringing together a unique and comprehensive portfolio of evidence-based programs (including Parents as Teachers), Imprints Cares in Winston-Salem, NC addresses the developing social, behavioral, and academic needs of children while also studying the impact of these efforts on families. Dr. Anna Miller-Fitzwater and Maria Stockton join us to talk about Imprints Cares, its affiliation with Parents as Teachers, and the research behind what makes this carefully integrated program work so well.

Curious about what integrated support at Imprints Cares looks like on a personal level?  Amber Shields, an Imprints Cares family educator, shares her story of working with families through every stage of the Imprints Cares program and why it matters.

Parent educators work with families through many life cycle events, including grief and loss.  Dr. Kirk Coverstone, a consulting psychologist, and Roschel Servantes, Director of Learning and Development at Parents as Teachers National Center, join us to talk about what home visitors might expect in the immediate aftermath of a death experienced by a family they work with and specific ways to provide grieving families with practical and emotional support.  This episode addresses loss and grief in detail and may be difficult to hear.  Listener discretion advised.     For more information, please visit: Bereaved Parents in the USA: https://bereavedparentsusa.org/ The Compassionate Friends: https://www.compassionatefriends.org/ Dougy Center: https://www.dougy.org/ National Sudden and Unexpected Infant Child Loss: https://www.sidscenter.org/ Share: https://nationalshare.org/

In addition to a variety of workshops and breakout sessions, this year's annual conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico brought together researchers and practitioners from around the world to explore how Parents as Teachers is implemented in diverse cultural contexts.  In this episode, recorded at the conference, Parents as Teachers Board Director Pete Weldy moderates a panel of experts from Nigeria, the US, and Switzerland on the successes, challenges, and lessons learned in integrating research into practice to support families and young children worldwide.

We've heard from a doula, now let's hear from a mom.  Kima K., mother of three, shares her experience working with a doula and why she recommends a doula to every mom she meets.

How can we improve health outcomes for parents and children?  By starting early.  Parents as Teachers has been working with affiliates to bring certified doulas alongside our evidence-based model to improve outcomes for newborns and their families.  Guest host Rachel Giannini speaks to doulas and parent educators Robin Lloyd and Erica Baltrusaitis about their work and how they help families with the youngest of children.

Parents as Teachers is rich with a multitude of backgrounds and languages, and we intentionally aim to engage families in responsive and relevant ways - at home and abroad - to optimize positive child and family outcomes.  Guest hosts Dr. Dipesh Navsaria and Rachel Giannini speak to leading specialists Jovanna Archuleta, Michael Huesca, Heidi Kranz, Bec Slater, and Chisom Adirika about their work on how perspective-aware enhancements designed to further support families result in new parenting skills, more confidence in parenting, and stronger relationships with children.

Parents as Teachers is built upon a strong foundation of research and evidence-based programming. But what constitutes 'research', and what does "evidence-based" really mean?  Scientifically, how do we know the model works?  And how can we quantifiably measure impact? Guest host Dr. Dipesh Navsaria speaks to Allison Kemner, Chief Research Officer of Parents as Teachers, about the research behind home visiting and how the science behind the program translates into positive, everyday results for families.  Nathan Jorgensen and Danielle J. Allen, both of the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at UNC Chapel Hill, discuss how this research can be used to speak directly to addressing issues such as racial inequality in childhood.  And Emma Posner and Jess Goldberg, both of Tufts Interdisciplinary Evaluation Research at Tufts University, explain how the research into home visiting can shape child abuse prevention and protection.

Traditionally designed to engage mothers, home visiting models have recently been expanded to include tools and techniques geared towards fathers.  Parents as Teachers has partnered with Show Me Strong Families to explore how to involve fathers in home visits, increase outreach, and establish parent educators as a trusted resource where fathers can turn for support.  Parent Educator Randall Hinton joins us to talk about the importance of cultivating and sustaining relationships with both mothers and fathers to promote healthy development for children and to update us on the work Parents as Teachers is doing to engage dads in home visits.

"Healthy, safe, and learning" applies to all of us, not just families! By staying on top of ongoing research and innovations in the field of home visiting, Family Support Professionals can benefit from learning and growth themselves. Janet Horras of the Institute for Advancement for Family Support Professionals, and Lakeeshia Sandlin, Program Director of TCR Parents as Teachers Home Visiting Program in Alabama, join us to talk about two key opportunities for professional growth and development (and a lot of fun along the way).  

Having a winning idea and implementing a winning idea are very different undertakings.  Today we're speaking with two 2024 Challenge Grantees, Cori Silvey of Changing Tides, Helping Hands in Washington, and Julie Rains of Valley Center Schools in Kansas, about what they've learned after a year of working on their winning proposals for themselves and their community, and what future applicants can learn as they submit their own proposals. Kerry Caverly, Chief Program Officer at Parents as Teachers National Center, is our special guest host.

Caregivers know that raising a child isn't a one-size-fits-all endeavor.  But families of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder may need specific family support in order to help their children realize their full potential and aid in the family's functioning.  Christy Roberts, a long-time parent educator and her son Will, an artist, gamer, athlete, speaker, and aspiring voice actor who is autistic, join us to talk about how to support families when a diagnosis of autism is made.

(En Español) Mayelin Escobar, a family educator with Show Me Strong Families in St. Louis, MO, shares her story of how a chance meeting with a friend turned into a successful and rewarding career working with families, and all of the joys and challenges she's met along the way. (Translation in English below. --- Erinn Miller: [00:00:01] Parent educators are the beating heart of our organization. And as people who work with families and children as closely as we do, we know that sharing stories and experiences offers some of the strongest ways to connect, reflect, and enrich our growing community. Today, our guest is Mayelin Escobar. She's a parent educator at Show Me Strong Families here in St Louis. She's going to tell us, in her own words, in Spanish, her experience as a parent educator. For those of you who may not speak Spanish. The transcript in English will be in the description. Mayelin Escobar: [00:00:35] My name is Mayelin Escobar. I am a family educator for Show Me Strong Families at Parents as Teachers in St. Louis. I have worked at this program for four years. I am very happy to work at Parents as Teachers. I started working at Parents as Teachers by destiny. I went out with a friend and she asked me why I wasn't looking for a job. I didn't want to keep working where I was working, I was working at Early Head Start for eleven years. I wanted to go to the next step in my life and wanted there to be a change to my life and I decided to start looking for something else. So, I was with a friend, an old friend, she told me "Why don't you apply at Parents as Teachers?" and I told her they never really have positions available. She told me to go get my computer, you will see something. So, I searched for my computer and open my computer on the Parents as Teachers website and by chance there was a position of home visitor in St Louis and immediately put in my application and my resume and well, here I am today. I was always, when I worked at Early Head Start, working on my certificates to take to Parents as Teachers because we had the Parents as Teachers curriculum. One day I was at the Parents as Teachers office and I thought the people here are so professional, I would love to work here. And well, here I am, the dream came true! One of the advantages when I started working as a Parent Educator at Show Me Strong [Families] was that I could bring the families I knew from Early Head Start because I when applied for it, Early Head Start was zero to three, and with Parents as Teachers it's from zero to five. Mayelin Escobar: [00:03:19] So they, the families, were also very happy when I proposed it, "Look, I'm no longer working for Early Head Start, I am now working at Parents as Teachers", they were very happy. I came with all of my families so I did not go out and recruit. When I started, I started with my complete caseload and it was a great advantage to both me and the families. I love working with children because it has a significant impact on the lives of not only the family, but on the children as well. To support the parents as the first teachers of their children is very, very important. It's incredible and rewarding, the example that you give to them. I enjoy guiding the families in early development by providing the tools and resources that they need to form growth and learning and the strong relationships they have. For me, to see the children achieve those successes, goals, and all that is very rewarding to me. I can share about a family that deeply impacted me was a young mother that I worked with. She had many difficulties acknowledging her abilities as a mother. It was her first child and had very little help at first and often doubted if she was raising her baby the right way. Mayelin Escobar: [00:05:06] So, over time during our visits through the activities and orientations I offered she was becoming more confident, more capable and she began to get more involved with her son and ask questions to apply the strategies that we had discussed. One of the most memorable moments was when one day she was really excited and she told me, "My baby is already talking! He is already saying words!". I felt very proud to know I had been a fundamental part of that achievement. This experience reaffirmed a lot for me. How you can help parents recognize their own strength and support them in building positive relationships with their children for me is also very important. I have some challenges that I have faced. For example, the differences in culture and parenting practices. For example, we speak the same Spanish language but we have differences in the family and their methods of raising children. So I implement the methods that we use, the [family's] perspective and promote an evidence-based approach to suggest positive discipline strategies without imposing my point of view on their methods, I did the work without giving my own [side]. Another challenge is supporting children with developmental delays and special needs when the parents don't want to admit that their children have these problems. And they don't want to get diagnosed, they don't want to go to the doctor, they don't want to recognize it. So, I propose the information about infant development specifically in the area of development (…) Mayelin Escobar: [00:07:36] that the child was having difficulty with and support with specific activities to guide them to available resources for a more in-depth evaluation. There are also changes in the role, this has happened to me a lot when I come to the houses, and the mothers leave me with the child or the baby and starts talking on the phone and I tell them "I didn't come to play with the child, to work with the child, the child is not the one who has to do the work." I explained to the mother many times, "Apart from what I already explained to you at the beginning when you enrolled in the program, look, I come to observe, to observe the activity, see how they interact with Mom and Dad, and I evaluate the child in its development. But I am not the teacher like how it is in school." So, those are other challenges that I face with different families. I have a family that I have known and worked with for eleven years. When I met them, their second daughter was two and a half years old. The little girl had a small delay in language, which I started to work with her, and they were very worried because she wasn't speaking the same as the other children at that age. The first thing I did was I said "Don't worry!" Mayelin Escobar: [00:09:20] All children develop differently. She can't compare her child to the other children. The level of growth of each child is different. So, we worked hard with her and the child started talking and everything was fine. But I continued working with this mom because every time we finished with one baby, she had another baby. I am working with her last baby, I think it's the last baby, that is now 27 months old. I was lucky enough to be her doula. I got my doula certificate to work with her as her doula as well. I have worked with her over the years not only as an educator, but also as her counselor, and I have encouraged her and taught her to take care of herself and take time for her[self], I taught her how to create a routine with the children. She said the same thing one day, "You were right, all the children have different levels of growth because they are all the same, they are from the same father, and look: they are all speaking differently, they all left diapers at a different time, they are all different, some are more independent than others. It's true, I recognize that they all have different levels of growth." There was another Mom that I visited, and she had wrapped her baby in a blanket and put it in a car seat. Mayelin Escobar: [00:11:31] I told her when I got there, I said "Look, the baby needs to leave the car seat, the wrap is only used for the first few weeks", and to let it be, put the baby on the floor on a hard surface to see her move and let the baby start to move. Then she told me, she answered that she put her [the baby] there to be able to do things around the house. I told her: but it's better that you put her in a place where the baby is free, where it has freedom [to move] her arms, her little legs, she can play. So, it happened that the baby had its two-month consultation, its first consultation. I realized when they took the baby out of the wrap (blanket) and we put her on the floor because I wanted to see the baby's movements, when they took the baby out, I noticed the hands were trembling and I told them, "Look, she has a tremble in her hands that is a product of you having the baby wrapped like that." This was reflected in the hands and the reflexes. Then, they told me…then they went to her consult and the doctor and the pediatrician noticed the shaking in the hands and they wanted to have more results to have more peace [of mind]. So, they did a head scan, (…) Mayelin Escobar: [00:13:11] and the results showed that there was an effect that changed the cognitive part of the brain. The baby started doing physical therapy for cognitive development and reflexes. In our next visit after, she told me "You were right, teacher, I didn't listen to you and now my baby has problems and I am very stressed and worried." This time I told her "Look, don't worry about this, this is not such a serious problem. This was detected in time, there is time for a solution. The baby will have physical therapy and now we will work together, the three of us, and we will help the baby." And that is what happened. We started doing the activities that affected it and that solved the problem. We are going to now talk about the Hispanic community and how the Hispanic community accepts the home visiting program. I believe that offering home visiting programs is a really great benefit to them. They feel really supported, not only in the education and growth of their children. If they don't feel very supported, they should have someone who is guiding them in all of the areas, someone to ask any questions they have, someone to talk to when they are distressed. As bilingual educators, we help them with translating documents, making medical appointments when they can't, we do lot of things. We are multifaceted and help them through the same problems [I had] with the language barrier (…) Mayelin Escobar: [00:15:20] if they can't do it. Sometimes I push them to study English because starting English classes motivates them to do things younger, the young mothers. But in my experience as an educator, I have learned it can make them more patient and tolerant even though we share different languages. This is also a part of being an educator - all families are different. Sometimes you find some mothers are a bit more withdrawn, they don't like… they are more reserved. But by the end they become more open, they start to become more communicative. I am faced with idioms that they say, they have more words, they have their idioms and phrases that don't match with [mine], and sometimes I say things that aren't correct, so I feel bad to say a phrase or idiom. We teach the importance of taking time for self-care to the mothers. It's also something that is really invaluable. Throughout my career, I have learned that empathy and adaptability are fundamental to meet the needs of the family. To recognize and respect the personal cultural differences has allowed me to make deeper and more effective connections. Additionally, encouraging open communication and offering constant support has been key to empowering parents in their role and strengthens the development and well-being of their children. I think they are happy with the home visiting program. I would say to become a parent educator, if someone were to apply for the position… it's a job that is very enriching. Mayelin Escobar: [00:17:52] There are challenges, it has difficulties. It is fundamental to recognize each family is unique. Everyone is different with different with their own dynamics and parenting methods even when they share the same language, they are all different. It is important to have empathy for them and can address issues with them and show up for them in a respectful way. Sometimes it feels self-conscious, but by the end, they adapt to you and they believe in what you are giving them and they begin to feel more comfortable. It is important to highlight that at the beginning they have more reservation but by the end they are always happy with you for everything that you provide. Finally, maintaining an attitude of continuously learning is important for a Parent Educator to adapt to the changing needs of the families and maintaining the most professional practices. Embracing the principles of preparation builds success and satisfaction as a Parent Educator. I would say to a family that wanted Parent Educator services that this program no only offers guidance in education and child development, but also provides a variety of additional resources to strengthen family well-being. With a Parent Educator, it guarantees that there is always a professional trained to support the growth and development of their children by performing periodic evaluations they can tell their child needs what we work a little more in this area or the other area. Mayelin Escobar: [00:20:09] That's invaluable to have someone helping. This program not only offers guidance in the area of education and child development, but also provides a variety of additional resources to strengthen the well-being of the family. Like I said before, translating documents, making medical appointments and we help with many things. With a parent educator, they feel like they have a guarantee that there is always a professional by their side that has the ability to support the growth and development of their children. By performing regular evaluations, they are saying to them "Look, your child is doing good. You are doing a good job." They feel secure that they are doing a good job as a parent. We always say "Parents don't have a manual." Because I had a Parent Educator I felt like I was protected and I felt like I was doing a good job. I didn't have a manual that could guide me and tell me how to raise my son. Nobody taught me. However, having a Parent Educator, a family educator, guides you and tells you what you have to do. This program Parents as Teachers offers that to parents… it provides opportunity. The program is invaluable.    

Home visitors have a unique skill set that blends child development, social work, and early childhood education, with compassion, warmth, and a keen ability to truly connect with families.  Jane Lee, Alison Gee, and Allison Kemner join us to talk about who is doing this work on a daily basis, and what, as an organization with 40 years experience in the field, Parents as Teachers has learned about caring for families and where we can go from here.

Parent Educators are the beating heart of our organization, and as people who work with families and children as closely as we do, we know that sharing stories and experiences offer some of the strongest ways to connect, reflect, and enrich our growing community.   In each of these special bonus episodes, we'll turn our spotlight onto the personal stories of the people who make the Parents as Teachers program happen and hear from home visitors, parent educators, trainers, doulas, and so many more. In our first bonus episode, 40-year Parents as Teacher veteran Freda Markley shares her story.

In our series premiere episode, Constance Gully, President and CEO of Parents as Teachers, breaks down what home visiting is (and what it isn't), how home visiting fits into the ecosystem of families, and why it's so important to the health and well-being of both parents and their children."  

Serving parents and children strikes at the heart of what makes us human, and as people who work with families as closely as we do we know that sharing stories and experiences offer some of the strongest ways to connect, reflect, and enrich our growing community. This podcast will highlight stories of home visitors, parent educators, trainers, doulas, and researchers – and take listeners behind the scenes of our evidence-based model, and the people who bring it to life.  Series launches January 28, 2025.