Being a parent is one of the hardest, but most rewarding jobs you will ever encounter. You are responsible for the growth and development emotionally, physically and socially of your children. As a parent, you are your child's first and most important teacher. Your home is your child's first schoolhouse. Your child will learn more during the early years than any other time in life. How your child grows and learns during these years - beginning at birth - will affect his/her development and success in school.

• Parents as Teachers Registration Requests

In 1985, Missouri's Parents as Teachers program, funded by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, started in every school district in the state. This is a no cost parenting program for all families who are pregnant or have children who are not yet enrolled in kindergarten. The purpose of the program is to help parents become better observers of their children and to feel confident that they are doing the very best for their children's development and future school and life successes.

Experience has shown that Parents as Teachers can produce confident, competent parents and happy, well-rounded, academically able children. Independent evaluations showed that participating children:

• Were significantly more advanced in language development than other 3-year-olds
• Had made greater strides in problem-solving and other intellectual skills
• Were further along in social development than their peers
• Were still ahead in third grade

Parents enrolled in the program are visited by certified Parent Educators, who provide age-appropriate, research-based developmental information and activities to parents to help their children develop at an age-appropriate rate. If for some reason there is a concern about a child's development, Parents as Teachers has access to a referral network that helps families link with special services that are beyond the scope of the program.

Parents as Teachers - for families with children prenatal to age three.

• Personal visits
• Parent-child activities
• Parent Lecture Series

Parents as Teachers - for families with children age three to kindergarten entry.

• Developmental Screening
• Parent-child activities
• Parent Lecture Series

Developmental Screening

• Children 6 months to kindergarten entry
• How your child is developing in the areas of concepts, motor skills, language/speech, social/emotional
• Health, hearing and vision screening

For more information about the program, please contact Beth Crancer at 314-729-2400, ext. 8328 or bcrancer@lindberghschools.ws.