First 5 Home Visiting Program is a universal home visit program available to all Mono County Residents free of charge. The program is made up of home visiting nurses and educators available at your child's different developmental stages.

As this program can begin as early as the third trimester of pregnancy and continue until your child is entering Kindergarten, various tools are incorporated to assist parents in helping their child along in their development. The program consists of parent educations and support in:

• Prenatal Care
• Postpartum Support
• Breast Feeding
• Child Development Curriculum
• Child Proofing Your Home
• Kindergarten Readiness
• Assistance in Connecting to Community Resources

Parents are a child's first and most influential teacher. First 5 Home Visiting is a program designed to assist parents in all areas of parenting and child development.

Philosophical Foundation for parents as Teachers Program

Vision: All Parents will be their child's best first teachers.

Parents as Teachers Program Goals

The following goals are based on the Parents as Teachers vision:

• Give the child a solid foundation for school success.
• Increase parents' competence and confidence in giving the child the best possible start in life.
• Increase parents' knowledge of child development and appropriate ways to stimulate learning.
• Promote a strong parent-child relationship.
• Develop true partnership between parents and schools.
• Provide a means for early detection of potential learning problems.
• Prevent and reduce child abuse and neglect.

Basic Concepts in Working with Parents

• Children are born learners.
• Children learn the most from the people they love: their parents.
• Parents are the experts on their own children.
• All parents deserve support in their parenting role.
• Diversity and cultural differences are valued.
• All families have strengths, and all parents want to be good parents.
• A support program should increase a family's ability to cope, rather than provide a system upon which the family becomes dependant.

Components of parents as Teachers Programs

Parents as Teachers Program goals are met through the delivery of the following essential components:

Personal visits. Personalized home visits by certified parent educators, trained in child development, help parents understand what to expect in each stage of their child's development. They offer practical tips on ways to encourage learning, manage challenging behavior, and promote strong parent-child relationships.

Group meetings. Parents get together to gain new insights and to share their experiences, common concerns, and successes. Group meetings also provide families opportunities to participate in parent-child activities.

Screening. Parents as Teachers offers periodic screening of overall development, language, hearing, and vision. The goal is to provide early detection of potential problems to prevent difficulties later in school.

Resource Network. Families can access other services integrated with Parents as Teachers programs in a broader early childhood program or can be helped in finding community services.

For more information on this program, please contact us at the First 5 Home Visiting Program at (760) 924-4631.

For More Information Please Link to the Following Site (Note: This will open a new window to another web site)

March of Dimes: Prematurity

DMV Kid's Plates