Parents as Teachers Program Empowers the Whole Family to Care for Baby

June 17, 2019

PAT Parent Educator Maribel Zendejas works with Isabel, Mauricio and daughter Audrey Lemus at a home visit.

With high infant mortality rates in East Texas, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler employs multiple programs that aim to educate families and provide resources to ensure a healthy baby, ultimately designed to address the aforementioned health concern. However, one program doesn’t start and end with just the mother; rather, it implements strategies for the whole family to get involved.

Parents as Teachers (PAT) is an international program that pairs parents and caregivers with a parent educator from pregnancy through the child entering kindergarten. For Smith County, PAT is operated through The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler. The PAT model focuses on four key components: personal visits, group connections, children screenings and resource network. During visits, parent educators assess family needs and help the parents to set family goals.

“It’s not mothers as teachers, it’s called Parents as Teachers because we try really hard to involve dad,” said Shawn Longoria, PAT program coordinator for Smith, Gregg and Harrison counties. “A lot of times dad can’t be there because he’s at work, but we have a lending library and we leave activity pages for dads, caregivers, grandparents or whomever the family wants to be involved.” Parent educators provide information and resources so that parents can be confident in the emotional, behavioral and physical development of their children. The home visits focus on parent-child interaction, development-centered parenting and family well-being.

Maribel Zendejas is a PAT parent educator for the area. Zendejas works with her clients to create a plan for areas that mom and dad want to target. She brings books for the family to read together and she teaches the parents how to make toys out of everyday objects at the home such as rattles and measuring cups. Zendejas noted, “I try to make sure that the family is okay. I address that first — how’s dad, how are the kids, concerns over insurance, doctor’s appointments, so we can bring them information and resources. At the home visits, we do an activity together. At the next visit I want mom to tell me how the activity went with the kids and dad.”

PAT children performed better on English standardized tests scores, phonics and reading comprehension tests, and reading and writing assessments, and had larger gains in math standardized test scores, according to Children and Youth Services Review, a monthly journal that covers the study of social service programs pertaining to children and youth. The children also had lower school absence rates for four school years and fewer suspension days for one school year.

Parents as Teachers says that through the program, parent educators have identified potential delays and health concerns in children. These potential delays and concerns identified by the program included:

10,377 developmental.
2,881 social-emotional.
4,897 hearing.
2,228 vision.
2,575 physical health.

The 2017-2018 Parents as Teachers Affiliate Performance Report showed that 987 affiliates implemented the evidence-based model in the U.S. representing 8,221 zip codes where families and children received Parents as Teachers model services. Of the families served, 80 percent had one or more of the following high-needs characteristics: low income, caregiver with low educational attainment, child with disabilities or a chronic health condition, a parent with a mental illness, a teen parent.

A study from the Journal of Child Abuse and Neglect states that there is a 22 percent decreased likelihood of substantiated cases of child maltreatment for Parents as Teachers children.

The Parents as Teachers program is available in Gregg County, Harrison County and Smith County with funding through a Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting grant. Families are enrolled based on availability and priority is given to families in higher-risk situations.

“We know parenting is hard, so if there’s something out there that can support us as parents and make our children more well-rounded and ready to go for school, that helps that happen,” Longoria said. “That betters our community because our future is our children. We’re going to benefit our community as a whole.”

Original article and photography by Sarah Miller, chief photographer at the Tyler Morning Telegraph.

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