Parents as Teachers Foundational 2 Curriculum: Three Years Through Kindergarten has been revised several times since Parents as Teachers began in 1984. This review presents evidence from two studies on the effectiveness of the current version, which was introduced in 2010. The first study is a recent evaluation of the Parents as Teachers home-visiting intervention, including Parents as Teachers Foundational Curriculum 1 and 2 (Lahti, Evans, Goodman, Schmidt, & LeCroy, 2019). The second study uses a descriptive design to investigate the Parents as Teachers Foundational 2 Curriculum as part of the Parents Possible home visiting program (Lopez & Bernstein, 2016). More rigorous research investigating Parents as Teachers Foundational 2 Curriculum is needed in order to establish evidence for positive effects of this curriculum on child school readiness outcomes.

Studies of prior versions of the curriculum (e.g., Born to Learn) and the version used with younger children (e.g., Parents as Teachers Foundational Curriculum) also show evidence for positive child outcomes (e.g., Schaub, Ramseier, Neuhauser, Burkhardt, & Lanfranchi, 2019; Zigler, Pfannenstiel, & Seitz, 2008). They are not included here because this review includes only studies of the current version of Parents as Teachers Foundational 2 Curriculum: 3 Years Through Kindergarten.

While this report focuses on evidence for child outcomes in the school readiness domains, Parents as Teachers has also been associated with positive parenting outcomes. For more information, please see the Parenting Curricula for Home-Based Delivery Database. 

In addition, the Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness (HomVEE) review presents information on associations between Parents as Teachers and outcomes in maternal and child health and other domains.

Rigorous Research Design: The evaluation of the Parents as Teachers home visiting intervention used a quasi-experimental design. The Parents Possible study used a pre- and post-descriptive design without comparison groups.

Sample and Generalizability: The evaluation of the Parents as Teachers home visiting intervention included children who were enrolled in the Puma County, AZ public schools. The children were predominantly Hispanic, and most qualified for free and reduced lunch in the public schools. The Parents Possible program is located in Colorado. The sample included predominantly White parents, mostly low-income, with many reporting Hispanic ethnicity. The children were 3 to 6 years old.

Fidelity of Implementation: The studies did not report information about training or fidelity of implementation. 

Parenting Outcomes: The evaluation of the Parents as Teachers home visiting intervention analyzed parenting outcomes using a pre- and post-test design without a comparison group. It found positive parenting outcomes for caregiver interactions during play, as well as for a variety of protective factors (e.g., family functioning, social support, and concrete support). While scores on nurturing and attachment were slightly higher at post-test, the difference was not significant. The Parents Possible evaluation did not investigate effects on parenting outcomes.

Child Outcomes: The evaluation of the Parents as Teachers home-visiting intervention assessed children's elementary math achievement, elementary reading achievement (on two measures), and English language learner achievement (i.e., English reading and writing achievement for English language learners). It found a small-to-medium positive effect on children's elementary math achievement and a small positive effect on English language learner achievement. While there were also small positive effects on children's elementary reading achievement, the effect only reached significance for one of the measures. The Parents Possible evaluation used a school readiness assessment measure to investigate the program's effects on preschool children, including children's understanding of colors, letters, numbers/counting, sizes/comparison, and shapes. Children had a higher percentile rank in all domains after participating in the program than they did at program entry.

References: 

Lahti, M., Evans, C. B., Goodman, G., Schmidt, M. C., & LeCroy, C. W. (2019). Parents as Teachers (PAT) home-visiting intervention: A path to improved academic outcomes, school behavior, and parenting skills. Children and Youth Services Review, 99, 451–460.

Lopez, A., & Bernstein, J. Parent Possible: 2016 Parents as Teachers (PAT) Evaluation. (2016). OMNI Institute. http://media.wix.com/ugd/9c9066_b2b844df114646ee8d1b9404148fc5cb.pdf

Schaub, S., Ramseier, E., Neuhauser, A., Burkhardt, S. C. A., & Lanfranchi, A. (2019). Effects of home-based early Intervention on child outcomes: A randomized controlled trial of parents as teachers in Switzerland. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 48, 173–185.

Zigler, E., Pfannenstiel, J. C., & Seitz, V. (2008). The Parents as Teachers program and school success: A replication and extension. Journal of Primary Prevention, 29(2), 103–120. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10935-008-0132-1

Home Visiting Practices and Interactions: Parents as Teachers Foundational 2 Curriculum consistently promotes home visiting practices and interactions that research has shown to be effective in engaging families. Throughout its resources, the curriculum provides support for home visitors to build trusting and positive relationships with families while affirming parental competence through a strengths-based approach. For example, the "Parenting Behaviors: Growing and Changing" resource provides information on the role of the parent educator in home visits as they build relationships with families (e.g., "Begin visits with the parents in mind, following their lead while facilitating their behaviors to follow their child's lead"). It encourages parent educators to "Note, acknowledge, and share with parents their strong positive parenting behaviors." The curriculum also offers strategies for effective communication with families. For example, the "Step-Up Plans" offer open-ended questions and prompts for home visitors to connect and collaborate with families at the beginning and throughout visits. The curriculum provides specific guidance for how to follow the family's lead in jointly planning home visits. 

Parenting Practices: The curriculum consistently promotes parenting practices that research has shown to be effective in supporting children's development and learning. Resources such as "Parent-Child Interaction: Ages 3 Through 6" describe how responsive parent-child interactions provide the key foundations of children's development. Various resources (e.g., "Attachment," "Communicating") highlight strategies to nurture children and build secure attachment relationships between parents and children. Parents as Teachers Foundational 2 Curriculum also provides resources to support children's exploration and play throughout the day (e.g., playing games to learn about shapes and space) and how to use routines as opportunities for learning. For example, "Experiences That Enhance School Readiness" provides guidance for using routines as opportunities to foster learning in different domains (e.g., a trip to the grocery store can facilitate learning in literacy, math, motor skills, and other developmental areas). The curriculum offers guidance for parents on how to model and support the development of children's social skills, emotional regulation, problem-solving, mathematical thinking, and physical development. In addition, Parents as Teachers Foundational 2 Curriculum supports families to promote a language- and literacy-rich environment in the child's home language and English (e.g., through shared read-alouds and strategies to support different aspects of language development).

Scope: Parents as Teachers Foundational 2 Curriculum clearly identifies five developmental domains: Language, Cognitive, Motor, Social and Emotional, and Approaches to Learning. The curriculum materials support these areas of child development through the "Parent Educator Resources," "Parent Handouts," and "Activity Pages." Each "Activity Page" includes specific skills, behaviors, and concepts from the domains that children might be working on as they engage in the activity. The "Milestones" and "Child Development Charts" include these domains as the overarching areas of child development. In addition, Parents as Teachers Foundational 2 Curriculum includes comprehensive sections with information on how parents can support children's development in each of the domains (e.g., "Language Development," "Cognitive Development"). 

Sequence: The curriculum provides a sequence of learning experiences that supports children as they build knowledge and skills in each of the ELOF domains. In a series of handouts ("Your Child's Social-Emotional Development," "Your Child's Cognitive Development," "Your Child's Gross Motor Development," "Your Child's Fine Motor Development," and "Your Child's Language Development"), the curriculum provides specific strategies to support children's learning and development at different age levels (3–4 years old, 4–5 years old, and 5–6 years old). In addition, the "Activity Pages" provide activities at varying levels of development, with multiple related opportunities for children to build knowledge and skills in each developmental domain. The "Step-Up Plans" clearly indicate the "Activity Pages" should be selected based on the child's and family's interests and the child's developmental level.

Alignment with the ELOF: A thorough review of all the curriculum materials indicates Parents as Teachers Foundational 2 Curriculum is fully aligned with the ELOF domains and sub-domains. The curriculum materials, including the "Activity Pages," learning goals, "Parent Educator Resources," "Parent Handouts," and other resources, support children's learning across the ELOF sub-domains.

Learning Goals: Parents as Teachers specifies measurable, developmentally appropriate goals for children's learning and development that are consistently supported by the learning experiences. "Child Development Charts" identify goals and milestones in four domains—Language, Cognitive, Motor, and Social and Emotional—for children 3–4 years old, 4–5 years old, and 5–6 years old. The milestones are phrased from the child's perspective (e.g., "I use four to six words in a sentence") and referenced in various places throughout the curriculum. For instance, "3 to 4 Years: What's Special About This Age?" provides more information on each goal and how parents can support their children in that area. In addition, the "Goal Setting" resource provides specific guidance on how to engage families in identifying individual goals for their children's learning and development.

Ongoing Observation: The curriculum provides specific guidance embedded throughout the materials for home visitors and families to observe and discuss children's development and use this information for home visit planning. The "What's in It for Us?" section of each "Activity Page" includes developmental information listed by domain that parents and parent educators might observe. In addition, the "Activity Pages" provide space for parents to write down observations of their child during each activity. As part of home visit planning, the "Step-Up Plans" offer prompts and open-ended questions for parent educators to support families' observations of children (e.g., "Let's see what she does with this …" and "What have you noticed about the way your child learns new things?"). The "What's Special About This Age?" series of resources for each year of development provides prompts for each of the milestones to guide observation (e.g., "Look for your child to ...").

Standardized and Structured Assessment Instruments: Parents as Teachers Foundational 2 Curriculum provides a structured "Milestones by School Readiness Domain" checklist tool for ongoing observation of children's development over time. It can be used for documenting whether a skill is "emerging" or "achieved." The tool, as confirmed by the publisher, has not been tested for validity or reliability. "Guidance for Ongoing Surveillance Using the Milestones by School Readiness Domain" describes the importance of parents and home visitors regularly observing children and using the data they collect to inform home visit planning. The curriculum does not provide further guidance for how home visitors and families can select and use standardized and structured child assessment instruments. 

Relationships with Parents and Families: The curriculum provides specific guidance with a variety of strategies for home visitors to build positive relationships with families. For example, in each of the "Step-Up Plans," the home visitor is offered "prompts or questions to understand the family's perspective and practice of the topic." These include open-ended prompts and questions for home visitors to get to know families and build relationships with them (e.g., "Explore the parents' own approaches to learning. Consider goal-setting in this area"). Many resources also support parent educators in building trusting relationships with families. For example, in the "Toolkit," various reminders and prompts are offered to parent educators as they get to know families and begin to explore setting goals (e.g., "Partner with parents to discover their interests, concerns, and issues").

Responsive Interactions with Parents and Families: The curriculum uses a strengths-based, responsive approach for parent educators to engage with diverse families. The approach is embedded throughout the curriculum materials. "Your Role as a Parent Educator," a section in all "Parent Educator Resources," includes suggestions for supporting families where they are, encouraging and empowering families, and pointing out positive features of their parenting. For example, "Parenting Behaviors: Growing and Changing" states, "Parents come to parenting with many strengths, experiences, and feelings… Support parents by noticing (and encourage parents to verbalize their own) parenting strengths, values, and resources." In addition, each home visit begins with "Connect, Reflect, and Agree." It provides time for home visitors and families to get to know one another, reflect on what has been happening with the child, and agree on what will happen during the visit. In each of the "Step-Up Plans," there are open-ended questions and other prompts to understand the family's perspective and current practices on individual topics. 

Peer Support: The curriculum provides general guidance on bringing families together to facilitate peer support. Some resources describe the importance of peer support (e.g., "Families and Communities"). The curriculum also includes a few specific scenarios when a home visitor might bring families together (e.g., kindergarten transition). However, while Parents as Teachers Foundational Curriculum provides a series of resources called "Group Connections" on facilitating peer support, these are not included in the preschool curriculum and there is no description of a specific process to support family socializations.

Professional Development: Parents as Teachers Foundational 2 Curriculum offers comprehensive standardized initial and ongoing training. Required trainings include a three-day in-person "Foundational Training" for the infant/toddler curriculum and a two-day "Foundational 2 Training – 3 Years Through Kindergarten" to purchase and use this curriculum. A variety of follow-up trainings (e.g., "Autism Within Families," "Facilitating Groups") are offered at an additional cost, both online through the Knowledge Studio or the O.L.I.V.E.R. learning management system and in person. The curriculum developers also offer customized trainings to address individual program needs.

Curriculum Materials to Support Implementation: The curriculum provides guidance to support specific aspects of implementation. For example, the section in each "Parent Educator Resource" called, "Your Role as a Parent Educator," provides guidance for home visitors to support families and facilitate interactions. The three "Step-Up Plans" provide home visitors a guide for the first few home visits. In addition, the sections on "Parenting Behaviors" and "Development-Centered Parenting" offer resources and activities for home visitors and parents on different parenting topics. The "Parent-Child Interactions" section includes activities for parents and children to do together, and the "Family Well-Being" section provides resources for home visitors and parents on supporting family development. Each resource in the curriculum is labeled with the intended audience (e.g., parent educator, parent) and includes specific instructions for use. However, the introductory resources for how to get started with the curriculum are not comprehensive or systematic. While the Parents as Teachers Foundational Curriculum provides an in-depth introductory section on its theoretical foundation, along with tools for the home visitor to get started with the curriculum, the Parents as Teachers Foundational 2 Curriculum does not provide comprehensive introductory resources. 

• Fidelity Tool: Parents as Teachers Foundational 2 Curriculum does not offer a fidelity tool to monitor curriculum implementation.

Family-Child Relationship: Parents as Teachers Foundational 2 Curriculum provides specific guidance throughout the materials for how home visitors facilitate nurturing relationships between children and families. Various "Parent Educator Resources," such as "Parenting Behaviors: Growing and Changing," "Nurturing," and "Supporting Learning," describe and support parent-child relationships as the foundation for learning in all domains. In addition, the "Parent-Child Interaction: Ages 3 Through 6" resource describes the importance of parent-child interaction and specifies the parent educator role during home visits: "Just as parents are scaffolding learning for their child, you can scaffold learning for the parents during the parent-child activity … You model support, facilitation, and guidance with the parents, and in turn, the parents model for their child."

Active Exploration and Play: The curriculum includes specific guidance embedded throughout its materials on how parents support active exploration and play. A variety of resources provides strategies and information on supporting unstructured play, creative exploration, problem-solving, and investigation (e.g., "Learning Through Play," "Play and Your Child," "Floortime Is Fun"). In addition, many "Activity Pages" provide opportunities for parents and children to engage in unstructured play, outdoor play, movement, and open-ended materials (e.g., "Movin' and Groovin': Dancing and Exploring Movement," "Exploration Hike: Observing Nature and Pretending").

Interactions That Extend Children's Learning: Parents as Teachers Foundational 2 Curriculum provides specific guidance embedded throughout its materials for how parents and families can extend children's exploration, thinking, and communication. The "Continued Learning" call-out boxes in the "Activity Pages" offer specific suggestions for parents to extend children's learning from the activities, such as asking open-ended questions, providing supportive language, and ideas for bringing the activity into daily routines. Numerous resources, including "Communicating with Your Child" and "Sharing Books Through Conversations," provide strategies to extend children's learning by asking open-ended questions and engaging children in conversations (e.g., "Why do you think that happened?"). 

Individualization: The curriculum offers specific guidance embedded throughout the materials on how to collaborate with families to develop caregiving routines and learning experiences that are responsive to children and families. For example, various resources, such as "Bilingual Language Development," "Being Intentional About Values," and "Print in Two Languages," provide strategies for home visitors to encourage caregiving routines and activities that are responsive to a family's culture and language background. In addition, several resources (e.g., "Developmental Delays and Disabilities," "Understanding How the Young Child Learns," "Learning Disabilities") offer guidance for collaborating with families with children with special needs to create routines and learning experiences that are responsive to children's needs.

Environment: Various resources in the curriculum offer specific guidance for parents on how to intentionally set up a home environment that encourages children's exploration and development. For example, the "Designing and Guiding" resource includes a section called, "Create a safe and enriching space for explorations." It discusses how the physical home environment and materials can support parent-child interactions to foster exploration. Other resources, such as "Book Nook" and "Play and Your Child," guide parents to create a reading nook in the home and to arrange their space to support children's development. The curriculum also offers some general guidance on how to make the home environment accessible for a child with a disability, suspected delay, or other special need.

Learning Materials: The curriculum includes specific guidance across various resources on using learning materials from the home that are developmentally appropriate and foster open-ended exploration and inquiry. For example, "Experimenting with Everyday Objects" describes how a variety of objects found in the home can support investigation and inquiry. The parent-child activities in the "Activity Pages" also include supplies found in the home (e.g., milk jugs, paper towel tubes, paper bags). The curriculum provides some guidance on how to incorporate learning materials that are accessible to children with disabilities, suspected delays, or other special needs.

Routines: The curriculum provides specific guidance on creating routines that are responsive to children's development and learning. Guidance on routines is embedded throughout resources and activities (e.g., "Making Mealtimes Work for Everyone," "What Are We Doing Today?"). The "Designing and Guiding" resource discusses the importance of routines for supporting child development (e.g., helping children know what to expect, understand their role within a family routine, and feel a sense of security and stability). It also addresses why parents should try to maintain routines during potentially disruptive periods.

Interactions: The curriculum provides specific guidance for home visitors to engage and interact with culturally diverse families. For example, "Family Culture" describes how parent educators can learn more about a family's culture and become more aware of their own biases. It includes strategies to communicate with diverse families. It also offers a specific process for home visitors to learn and understand more about a family's culture: "There are four parts in the process to understand another culture: ask, listen, observe, and research." Other curriculum resources describe how families from different backgrounds may approach parenting topics such as attachment and discipline, prompting the home visitor to broach topics sensitively.

Learning Experiences: The curriculum provides specific guidance in various resources for how to collaborate with families to adapt learning experiences based on their traditions, cultures, values, and beliefs. Resources for parents such as "Helping Your Child Build a Sense of Self" and "Being Intentional About Values" provide strategies for supporting children's development within the family's cultural context. In addition, various materials in the curriculum offer prompts for home visitors to ensure families' beliefs, traditions, and cultures are incorporated into learning experiences. For example, "Activity Pages" such as "Egg Carton Mancala: Counting and Problem Solving" and "This Is Me! Talking About Family and Tracing Hand People" encourage families to use their family traditions and cultures as a basis for discussion during activities.

Linguistic Responsiveness: A variety of resources in the curriculum provide specific guidance encouraging dual language development. For example, the "Bilingual Language Development" resource describes the benefits of growing up as a DLL. It also provides prompts for parents as they consider goals for their child's language development. Many resources provide strategies for parents to support their child's home language development and other languages they are learning (e.g., "Learning More Than One Language," "Print in Two Languages," "Sharing Books through Conversation").

Resources and Referrals: The curriculum includes specific guidance on referring families who may have a child with a disability, suspected delay, or other special need to resources in the community. Various resources, such as "Communication Between Parents and Professionals" and "Developmental Delays and Disabilities," describe the process families will encounter when a child is referred for evaluation (either to a school district or healthcare provider). In addition, each resource in the series on different disabilities and disorders (e.g., language, speech, hearing, physical, cognitive, learning, and vision) describes the different referral/evaluation process for children who are referred for that specific developmental area. For example, for a language referral, a home visitor would reference the curriculum's milestones first, discuss them with parents, and then describe how a speech and language pathologist would complete a language and hearing evaluation.

Learning Environment: The curriculum includes limited guidance on ensuring the home environment and learning materials are accessible to children with disabilities, suspected delays, or other special needs. The series of resources on different disabilities and disorders (e.g., language, speech, hearing, physical, cognitive, learning, and vision) discusses the importance of an accessible environment and offers a few tips (e.g., "Work with the family on ways they can modify and make adaptations to the environment to benefit their child. This may be as simple as rearranging furniture so a child can navigate the room more easily"). In addition, a few resources offer general suggestions on modifications to learning materials for children with disabilities, suspected delays, and other special needs (e.g., "Specialized aids and equipment, programs like Special Olympics, and playgrounds designed to be accessible to those with special needs can make a world of difference"). However, the guidance provided is minimal and only in a few places in the curriculum. The publisher offers a separate curriculum, Interactions Across Abilities: Supporting Families of Children with Special Needs, with more guidance on individualization for children with disabilities, suspected delays, or other special needs.

Parenting Practices and Interventions: The curriculum includes specific guidance on adapting activities and routines for children with disabilities. Each resource in the series on different disabilities and disorders (e.g., language, speech, hearing, physical, cognitive, learning, and vision) provides tips and suggestions for parents to support children and modify routines. For example, "Language Disorders" provides a list of strategies for parents to support their child's language development and potential language delay (e.g., "Label! Provide words for all objects when children are around").

Individualization Based on Interests: The curriculum provides specific guidance throughout various resources on how to tailor home visits to build on the interests of individual children. For example, in "Understanding How the Young Child Learns," children's interests are emphasized as key motivators for their learning. The "The Child's Interests Drive Learning" section encourages parents to learn about their child's interests and follow their lead to support their ongoing learning and development. The "Activity Pages" remind parents to follow the child's lead and continue if the child is interested but stop the activity if the child is not.

Individualization Based on Strengths and Needs: The curriculum provides specific guidance embedded in its resources on how to tailor home visits to be responsive to individual children's strengths and needs. For example, "Supporting Learning" describes how parents can scaffold children's learning based on where the child is developmentally: "By scaffolding learning, parents support their child according to her level of skill development, gradually helping her less and less as she gains greater understanding and mastery." In addition, many of the "Activity Pages," such as "I Spy: Describing Objects and Practicing Conversation" and "The Echo Game: Listening, Remembering, and Repeating," provide prompts and suggestions for individualizing the parent-child activity, depending on the child's developmental level.

Family Goals: Parents as Teachers Foundational 2 Curriculum describes a comprehensive process for setting family-level goals. The "Goal Setting" resource provides strategies on setting specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely (SMART) goals. It includes a section on evaluating progress ("Evaluating Progress: The Change Process") and reflective questions to consider throughout the process. It also provides various strategies for parent educators to collaboratively brainstorm and work with families (e.g., parent educators can support families to re-frame concerns as goals).

Ongoing Assessment of Progress Toward Family Goals: The curriculum describes a specific process for ongoing assessment of progress towards family goals. The "Evaluating Progress: The Change Process" section of the "Goal Setting" resource describes how parent educators can support families to check in on their goals. For example, it suggests "checking in on the progress of action steps based on the timeline established and offering support lets parents know that the process is valued and that they are not alone. When parents are supported with patience and a non-judgmental attitude and encouragement, they are more likely to follow through." In addition, various tools (e.g., "Goal Setting: Begin with the End in Mind") provide specific prompts for families to reflect on goals, a proposed timeline, action steps needed to achieve goals, information about resources that may be required to achieve the goals, and space to update progress.

Resources and Referrals: The curriculum offers specific guidance for referring families to resources in the community. Various materials provide information on referring families to community agencies, libraries, food assistance programs, and other resources and services. The "Circles of Support" resource also encourages home visitors to discuss the relationships and resources families have already and who they can turn to for support.