I. This act recognizes the importance of the early childhood years upon children’s brain development. Given appropriate stimulation, babies develop critical cognitive and social skills from birth to age 3. These early years provide a window of opportunity to enrich a child’s cognitive and social development. The least intrusive and most successful way to impact early childhood experiences is to educate parents as to how they can best teach their children. Studies have shown that parents who are trained as to how to interact with their children can help their children enter school ready to learn and are more likely to stay involved with their child’s educational process throughout the school years.
II. The Parents as Teachers Program was established in 1981 and has a presence in 49 states, including New Hampshire. The New Hampshire program is operated at 8 sites in New Hampshire by the Parent Information Center with funds from Goals 2000. The Parents as Teachers Program creates a partnership between parents and early childhood development professionals. Early childhood development professionals conduct monthly home visits and group meetings to help parents understand what to expect from their children in each stage of development and to teach parents how to encourage learning, manage challenging behavior and strengthen parent-child relationships.
III. The purpose of this subdivision is to expand the Parents as Teachers Program in New Hampshire by developing 2 school district based programs, one of which shall be in a rural community and one in an urban community.