Review

Home Visiting Practices and Interactions: Partners for a Healthy Baby promotes a few home visiting practices and interactions that research has shown to be effective in engaging parents. For example, the curriculum includes specific information on how a home visitor can facilitate parent-child interactions and address child development. Additionally, the "Detailed Information Pages" provide guidance to parents on how to communicate with families about a pre-chosen topic, with specific open-ended questions to start the conversation. However, while the "User's Guide" calls out the importance of key research-based home visiting practices and interactions (e.g., "build a trusting relationship," "empower the family," "address the family's concerns first," "be observant"), it lacks specific guidance for home visitors on how to engage in these practices. In addition, the curriculum provides minimal guidance on how to address a family's needs and follow their lead to jointly plan home visits that build on the family's strengths and needs. The topics for the "Purposes" are predetermined, and the home visit planning process that is outlined in the "User's Guide" includes very little family input. 

Parenting Practices: The curriculum promotes research-based parenting practices to support children's development and learning. For example, many of the handouts throughout the curriculum encourage parents to engage in sensitive, responsive interactions with children (e.g., contingently responding to a child's cues). The curriculum also provides guidance for parents on how to model and support the development of children's social skills, emotional regulation, and cognitive skills. It supports families to promote a language and literacy-rich environment (e.g., "Talking with your baby;" "Making more time for books"), but less consistent guidance is offered on use of the home language throughout the curriculum. Many of the parent handouts and "Detailed Information Pages" for home visitors focus on using routines such as mealtime and naptime as opportunities for learning. Additionally, the curriculum mentions the importance of following a child's lead and provides guidance on how to support children's active exploration and play (e.g., the "Watch My Skills Grow" series). It emphasizes the importance of setting up the home to create a safe play environment and provides suggestions for how to use materials in the home to support children's active play and exploration.

Home Visiting Practices and Interactions: Baby TALK promotes home visiting practices and interactions that research has shown to be effective in engaging parents. The curriculum is grounded in critical concepts, such as "building relationships," "going where families are," and "coming alongside" through partnerships with families rather than through giving advice. Baby TALK provides guidance on effective communication with families using the mnemonic OPERA: open-ended questions, pause, make eye contact, repeat, avoid judgment, ask opinion, advise last. The Encounter Protocols provide conversation prompts for the home visitor to engage the parents in discussing their child's interests and behaviors and to reflect on the quality of connection with the family. Examples of prompts include "What new behaviors have you observed your baby doing?" and "How did I connect with the family?" Additionally, the curriculum utilizes an approach and strategies that reflect the perspective of parents as adult learners. For example, the Baby TALK White Paper describes the importance of facilitating effective parenting rather than simply prescribing an approach for parents to follow. The curriculum materials promote the use of active listening, reflection, and affirmation of parental competence.

Parenting Practices: Baby TALK promotes teaching practices, learning experiences, and developmentally appropriate content that are effective in supporting positive child outcomes. The curriculum encourages parents to engage in sensitive, responsive interactions to build secure attachment relationships with children. For example, the monthly resources provide reflective prompts for the parent to think about their interactions with their child (e.g., "What changes have you noticed in his reaction to your voice? How do you think talking with him affects his mood or state?"). A variety of resources provide guidance on how to support social skills and emotional regulation (e.g., Let's Talk Kids articles). The curriculum consistently promotes the use of routines as learning opportunities and guides parents to support play and exploration throughout the day (e.g., Dressing, Diapering, Feeding, and Bath Time Fun). The curriculum offers guidance to promote language-rich interactions and strategies for engaging children in shared read-alouds, but provides limited guidance on how to effectively support the use of a home language and children who are DLLs.

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).

Home Visiting Practices and Interactions: Parents as Teachers consistently promotes home visiting practices and interactions that research has shown to be effective in engaging parents and families. The curriculum provides comprehensive resources to support home visitors in building trusting and positive relationships with families, particularly through the introductory materials. For example, "The Parent Educator's Role in the Personal Visit" includes specific strategies for how home visitors can create equal partnerships with families. The curriculum also suggests many strategies for effective communication with families (e.g., active listening, open-ended questions). Various materials, including "The Strengthening Families Approach," encourage home visitors to adopt a strength-based perspective and point out what families are doing well in relation to the identified "protective factors." Parents as Teachers also offers specific guidance for how to follow the family's lead to jointly plan home visits (e.g., the "Foundational Personal Visit Plans" offer prompts for home visitors to collaborate with the family).

Parenting Practices: The curriculum consistently promotes parenting practices that research has shown to be effective in supporting children's development and learning. It emphasizes the importance of sensitive, responsive interactions to build secure attachment relationships with children. Various resources (e.g., "Ways to Build Attachment with Your Baby," "Attachment Is Good for Your Baby's Brain," "Attachment and Brain Development") highlight strategies to nurture children through responsive interactions with parents. Parents as Teachers also provides various resources for parents on how to use routines as opportunities to foster learning (e.g., "Recognizing, Creating, and Adapting Routines"). It supports parents in building children's social and emotional development, problem-solving skills, emerging mathematical thinking, and physical development. In addition, it supports families to promote a language and literacy-rich environment (e.g., through shared read-alouds, strategies to support different aspects of language development).

Home Visiting Practices and Interactions: The curriculum consistently promotes home visiting practices and interactions that research has shown to be effective in engaging families. The curriculum supports home visitors to build trusting and positive relationships with families, particularly through the proposed structure of home visits. For example, each home visit starts with "Making Connections," a time for home visitors and families to check in on how families are doing. The curriculum also encourages home visitors to use a strengths-based approach with families to build relationships and affirm parental competence (e.g., materials emphasize "accentuating the positives" while working with families). However, Growing Great Kids™ for Preschoolers lacks adequate guidance for home visitors on how to follow the family's lead and jointly plan home visits.

Parenting Practices: The curriculum consistently promotes parenting practices that research has shown to be effective in supporting children's development and learning. Guidance to promote responsive and sensitive parent-child interactions is embedded throughout the materials. For example, each home visit includes "Getting in Sync with My Child," which provides reflective prompts for parents to think about ways they can tune in to their child as they learn to respond contingently. The curriculum also provides guidance for parents on how to model and support the development of children's social skills (e.g., suggestions for building empathy during interactions), emotional regulation, problem-solving, and physical skills. The curriculum offers guidance on how to use routines to support children's learning and development. However, many of the materials in the activities are not typically found in the home environment, and there is a lack of guidance for parents on how to support children's exploration and play throughout the day. Finally, while the curriculum supports families to promote a language and literacy-rich environment, minimal guidance is offered on supporting the child's home language.

Home Visiting Practices and Interactions: The curriculum consistently promotes home visiting practices and interactions that research has shown to be effective in engaging families. The curriculum supports home visitors to build trusting and positive relationships with families, particularly through the proposed structure of home visits.  For example, each home visit starts with "Making Connections," a time for home visitors and families to check in on how families are doing). The curriculum also encourages home visitors to use a strengths-based approach with families to build relationships and affirm parental competence (e.g., materials emphasize "accentuating the positives" while working with families). The curriculum also supports many adult learning strategies that allow for family engagement (e.g., meaningful activities build on families' existing skills, joint reflection). While the curriculum provides information on supporting a family's strengths, minimal guidance is offered for home visitors on how to follow the family's lead to jointly plan home visits.

Parenting Practices: Growing Great Kids™ consistently promotes parenting practices that research has shown to be effective in supporting children's development and learning. Guidance to promote responsive and sensitive parent-child interactions is embedded throughout the materials. For example, each home visit includes "Getting in Sync with My Baby," which provides reflective prompts for parents to think about ways they can tune in to their child as they learn to respond contingently. The curriculum also guides parents to support play and exploration throughout the day by using routines, space, and materials in the home environment as learning opportunities. For example, the module "Basic Care" discusses the use of daily routines to promote learning and provides activities for making toys at home using everyday materials. The curriculum also offers guidance for parents on how to model and support the development of children's social skills (e.g., suggestions for building empathy during interactions), emotional regulation, problem-solving, and physical skills. However, while the curriculum supports families to promote a language and literacy-rich environment, less consistent guidance is offered on the use of the child's home language throughout the curriculum.