While her daughter naps, Bridget Collins spends an hour in the living room of her San Antonio, Texas, home reviewing and role-playing activities with home visitor Amanda Pedler.
They begin the week by discussing 3-year-old Brooke’s budding curiosity. Pedler notes that it’s normal at this developmental stage for Brooke to frequently ask “why?”, try new things and explore her environment. She then gives Collins some advice for stimulating her daughter’s curiosity.
Together, they are working through activity packets covering topics like language and motor skills, and Collins plans to introduce similar activities to Brooke in the coming days.
As Pedler and Collins role-play a “tasting session” in a tea-party setting surrounded by stuffed animals and dolls, trying to distinguish sweet from crunchy, Collins assumes her daughter’s personality, mimicking a 3-year-old’s tendencies to get distracted, be playful and rebelliously say, “No!”
This allows Pedlar to model a wide range of reactions.
“It’s really helpful to see my daughter respond the way I say it,” says Collins, noting that while she used to tell her kids “no,” she now knows different ways to respond, including redirecting them.
The weekly activities help parents and children bond, and Collins says they’ve also boosted her confidence.
From the moment they are born, children learn from their parents or caregivers. But what they learn and how they learn it varies greatly from child to child. Home visiting programs connect families with trained educators to help parents learn high-quality, developmentally appropriate activities to engage with their children and provide opportunities to ask questions about their child’s needs and progress.
This year, EdSurge has been reporting on voluntary, evidence-based home visiting services and how they are making a difference for America’s children and families.
One article examined how a home visiting program, Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool-Aged Children (HIPPY), supports immigrant families and builds connections to the community, and another looked at how two long-standing home visiting programs adapted their models to serve home-based child care providers.
Over the past five months, we have observed home visits in two states, participated in home visitor trainings, and spoken to more than 30 people to understand the state of home visiting in the country and see how these services support children’s development, improve school readiness, empower families, and foster safe and healthy home learning environments.
Here are five key takeaways from our report:
1. Home visiting doesn’t just empower parents to be their child’s first and best teachers;
Home visits provide parents and carers with valuable lessons and insights into their children’s learning and development, helping them to become more confident teachers and more active advocates for their children. But the home visitor’s role doesn’t stop there.
“This is very much about helping families find the right resources to improve their lives and improve the mental health of the mother,” notes Pedler, the San Antonio home visitor. “Even something as simple as helping families find food resources and ease that burden can really help.”
Home visitors provide supplies like diapers and wipes, they can also connect families to resources like food pantries, domestic violence prevention and early childhood intervention, and they often let parents know about family-friendly events in the area, like free zoo days.
Many visiting home programs also hold regular group meetings to bring participating families together. For families new to the country, these meetings provide a valuable opportunity to meet others from the same country and who speak your native language.
“At the end of the day, when you really analyze home visiting, it’s a relationship issue,” said Mimi Aledo Sandoval, senior policy director at the Alliance for Early Success, a nonprofit that works with early childhood advocates in all 50 states.
2. Home visiting programs are beneficial for all families, but currently their scope is limited.
Nationwide, more than 17 million families and 23 million children are affected. stand to benefit According to the National Home Visiting Resource Center, there is a lot to be gained from voluntary, evidence-based home visiting services, meaning that pregnant women and families with children under age 6 could all benefit from regular in-home services.
“Becoming a parent is hard. Becoming a new parent is hard. I think that’s true regardless of socioeconomic class or where you live. It’s a life-changing event,” said Dr. Michael Warren, deputy administrator for the Maternal and Child Health Bureau at the Health Resources and Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). “So it’s helpful to have resources and support available when you need it. Home visiting helps fill that gap.”
Although home visiting has been proven to produce positive outcomes for children and families, a lack of funding means that only some people have access to these programs: in 2022, only about 270,000 households (about 1.6% of eligible population) received home visiting services.
With limited resources, many communities have developed home visiting programs that target specific populations, such as low-income families, single-parent families, recently immigrated or refugee families, homeless families, or families with a history of substance abuse.
3. The U.S. government is investing in home visiting programs, and funding is set to expand.
Many home visiting programs have been around for decades. Historically, they have received funding from state and local governments as well as private foundations, says Sarah Crown, a senior research scientist at Child Trends, a nonprofit research center that focuses on children and families.
Then, in 2010, the federal government established the Home Visiting Program (Miehyou“This was a watershed moment for the state,” Crown said.
To access federal funds, states must One of 24 home visiting programs Meets HHS standards for evidence of effectiveness.
“It’s a very rigorous process,” Crown adds. “Not just any program can get this funding.”
in front Congress reauthorized the MIECHV in 2022.In 2010, the program was funded at $400 million per year. Now, under a new funding formula, that allocation will double to $800 million per year by 2027. this yearThe federal government will match $3 for every dollar of non-federal funds spent on home visiting programs, up to certain amounts.
“It really opens up a lot of doors. [states]”This will allow us to expand our outreach to communities that we know have a need but haven’t been able to serve before,” said Warren, whose department oversees MIECHV.
“It’s really exciting,” he added. “We haven’t had the opportunity recently to expand our home visiting services in this way.”
4. Home visits are not a substitute for early childhood education, but they can help build a strong foundation.
In a world where every family has access to quality early childhood education for their children, home visiting would be a complementary support.
“That’s what happens in some countries,” says Miriam Westheimer, chief program officer at HIPPY International. “In this country, we have very limited resources, and it’s rare.” In the U.S., she says, it’s often either children attend early childhood programs or families receive home visits. “It shouldn’t be one or the other,” Westheimer adds. “Often it is.”
While no one would argue that home visits should be preschool children’s only outdoor learning experience, early care and education Inaccessible and I can’t afford it For many families, it may be their only option.
In such cases, the study Have display We believe that home visits provide a strong foundation for children to build on when they start school. Home visits help children develop social-emotional skills, early literacy skills, and fine motor skills such as how to hold a pencil and use scissors.
5. The provision of in-home childcare services is expanding the impact of home visiting.
Home visiting has traditionally been focused on parents or primary caregivers, but in recent years, many home visiting programs, such as HIPPY, ParentChild+, and Parents as Teachers, have seen an opportunity to expand their reach by offering services to home-based child care providers.
This model has proven successful, and many programs are seeking to increase their presence among child care providers, including unlicensed “family, friend, neighbor” (FFN) providers who are typically excluded from training and education programs.
Numerous County and State We are exploring ways to leverage public funding to implement this model.
Because many home-based child care providers serve multiple children and have strong relationships with the families they serve, many policymakers believe they are well positioned to translate the expertise they gain from home visits into positive outcomes for children.
