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Home Visitors: The Real Reason We’re Making Progress In Early Learning
United Way of King County Blog, 9/26/18
United Way believes that when parents become their children’s first and best teachers, kids start school on a path to success.
BUT WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
It means more than providing a safe place to live, sleep and play. It means more than providing food. It means looking at parenting differently.
Nancy Scheimann, the Parent-Child Home Program Coordinator at Southwest Youth and Family Services suggests, “Label everything you see with your child. Talk constantly. Explain things for children with words: Be it what you’re thinking, seeing or doing. It makes a huge difference.”
BY LOOKING AT PARENTING DIFFERENTLY, THERE ARE ENDLESS OPPORTUNITIES TO TEACH NEW THINGS TO CHILDREN, EVERY SINGLE DAY.
It’s easy to not expect a small child to understand much, but evidence shows that’s a misconception. Kids are learning and absorbing far earlier than many parents realize. That’s why the Parent-Child Home Program begins so early, working with 2- and 3-year-olds and their parents.
Home visitors go into families’ houses twice a week for two years. Imagine being on either side of that: Having a stranger enter your home, or being a stranger and entering a home for the first time to talk about how parents can model activities for their kids. That sounds hard, right?
“When we recruit home visitors, we look for people who can relate to the families so they are more comfortable and approachable. We also look for people with an early learning background and who understand the program. Sometimes we’re able to recruit graduates of the program, which is great! Having someone from the community, representative of the people they are serving and who can speak to going through the program themselves is awesome.” Scheimann said about how she recruits her team of home visitors who serve more than 100 families.
Please click here to read the full article on United Way King County’s Blog.
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