Pride in Parenting : Training Curriculum for Lay Home Visitors
Linda T. Diamond, Marian H. Jarrett, Roberta Bell, Doris McNeely-Johnson, Kathy Katz, Susan Schneider, Phyllis Sharps, Davene White
This curriculum is designed to train home visitors in community-based outreach programs, especially those programs focused on high-risk mothers and their babies. The training model and curriculum create a comprehensive instruction program to prepare lay home visitors for facilitating healthy changes in behaviors of high-risk mothers. The curriculum teaches Pride in Parenting Parenting Support Specialists to achieve competence in the following areas: (a) interpersonal communication skills including active listening and non-judgmental communication style; (b) teaching strategies for effective delivery of health and parenting information; (c) health care needs and health services utilization for mothers and infants; (d) stressors impacting low-income, minority families; (e) problem-solving strategies that respond to common family situations; (f) infant care and development in the first year; (g) developmental programming for infants; (h) community resources for mothers, infants, and families; and (i) program documentation and evaluation. The curriculum is designed to be used in a 45-day intensive training program over a 9-week period and is divided into 25 units, each focusing on a different subject. A list of learning objectives is provided and an outline with approximate times of teaching each unit is included.
Linda T. Diamond, Marian H. Jarrett, Roberta Bell, Doris McNeely-Johnson, Kathy Katz, Susan Schneider, Phyllis Sharps, Davene White. Pride in Parenting : Training Curriculum for Lay Home Visitors (1998). NIH-DC Initiative to Reduce Infant Mortality in Minority: Washington, DC.
(600 pages).
Sponsoring Agency: NIH Office of Research on Minority Health and the
Language: English
Reading Level: Easy
Formats Available: Printed Material
(Not yet published, contact NIH - DC Initiative to Reduce Infant Mortality in Minority at address provided)
NIH-DC Initiative to Reduce Infant Mortality in Minority
George Washington University
2300 Eye Street, NW
Ross Hall, Room 222
Washington, DC
20037
Phone: (202) 994-0665
Languages Available: English
Intended User Audience:
The intended users are lay community members from across all cultures who work with groups who are not part of mainstream culture.
Product Development:
Material was developed by European American and African American members, representing the following professions: EI/ECSE, Pediatricians, Psychologists, Nurses, and Health Education Specialists. All spoke English as their first language.
Product Evaluation:
The material was field tested with a group of Lay Home Visitors who were all African American, English speakers.
Product Dissemination:
The material has not yet been disseminated.
Review #1
About the reviewer:
The reviewer is a bilingual National Head Start Fellow and has been
working for twelve years with the Latino community via Head Start
services in urban and rural settings. Her work for the last year and
a half has involved technical and training assistance to American
Indian Head Start and Latino Head Start programs throughout the U.S.
She also has been working with National Child Care Information Center
as technical assistant specialist for child care programs in Puerto
Rico. She has been a member of several regional Head Start Federal
Monitoring teams. Her expertise in the areas of early childhood
development; in health, nutrition and disabilities services; in family and
community partnership; in program design and management; in eligibility, recruitment,
selection; and in enrollment and attendance has moved her into being a
"generalist" for Head Start Monitoring and Evaluation. She also is
a recorder, writer, facilitator during program reviews. She has been
presenting workshops in Spanish and English about brain research
findings and the relationship of early child development practices.
She is presently working with National Council de la Raza and with
National Information Center as a technical assistant/consultant.
The reviewer is in the process of becoming a certified trainer of the
National Institute for Child Care Health Consultants from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Audience:
This material is aimed to train home visitors to work with mothers and their infants. The twenty-five different units can be utilized independently or in clusters to fit the needs of the trainees. This material can be utilized to train home visitors, other staff and parents in child development programs in many communities that are starting infant and toddler programs. The units cover subjects such as "Communication and Relationship-Building Skills," "Maintaining Personal Safety," etc.
Strengths of the Material:
This material promotes awareness of cultural diversity and stresses that not every family in a culturally and linguistically diverse group is alike. It makes the trainees reflect on their own attitude toward cultural differences and how to start the process of becoming culturally competent. The material promotes awareness about the differences in families that are dealing with low literacy, slang usage ("street word"), age issues, and translation of medical terminology.
All the units in this material are not written with specific cultural or linguistic groups in mind, but focus on strong awareness of diversity in each culture and in each family. The material includes a section that specifically talks about African-American families, but the rest of the material is fairly generic and can be easily adapted to different cultural backgrounds.
Limitations of the Material:
The material does not address how trainers/trainees can work more efficiently with families that are taking care of children with disabilities.
Adaptations:
The key to the successful use of the material by trainers and trainees would be that trainers/trainees have strong familiarity with culturally and linguistically appropriate practice, and that they be able to modify, adapt, and enhance the information regarding diversity in the communities they serve. (More and more, every community in the U.S. deals not with one particular cultural and linguistic group, but with families from many different backgrounds.)
Generalizability:
The use of strategies to celebrate cultural differences with a group of trainees representing diverse backgrounds will enable the trainer to bank on life experiences that can not be put together alone.
Recommendations:
I strongly recommend this material to be utilized for the audience described. The substance and the format of each unit, with "hands-on" involvement of the trainees, incorporate strategies recommended for teaching adults. The many single units in this material address topics that will prepare or extend home visitors' knowledge to work comprehensively to help young parents and their infants. The home visitors can carry on these strategies in their clients' homes to elicit family-paraprofessional co-instruction.
Producer's Response:
The reviewers' comments are helpful in identifying aspects of the
training materials which they consider to be strengths and which we
sought to incorporate in order to make the training useful to a variety of users. This includes such things as appropriateness for training multiple disciplines, awareness of diversity throughout the curriculum as well as in specific training units, and practical information and activities for skill attainment for home visitors. The reviewers point out that trainers need to be knowledgeable about culturally and linguistically appropriate practice. This knowledge, plus an understanding of their own program population, enables trainers to adapt the curriculum to their own needs.
Certain limitations are also noted by the reviewers. The training was
designed for persons working with African American families, and additional material has to be added by trainers working with other populations. The inclusion of negative stereotypes of male figures, in an effort to represent mothers' reports that home visitors might encounter,could be balanced by more positive characterizations. The issue of acceptable childrearing practices within the context of a family's culture requires sensitive discussion about why certain recommendations might be made by the home visitor.
Review #2
About the reviewer:
The reviewer is originally from the People's Republic of China. She
holds a master's degree in early childhood special education from
Eastern Illinois University and is now pursuing her Ph.D. in early
childhood special education at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. During her studies, she has had varied practical
experiences working with children with moderate to severe
disabilities. She is very interested in family-professional
collaboration, particularly between families from diverse backgrounds
and their service providers in the early intervention service
delivery process.
Audience:
This material was developed for trainers of lay community members from across all cultures who work with groups who are not part of the mainstream culture. The developer's form does not have information about the geographic location of the users; however, the project "Pride in Parenting" was funded to reduce infant mortality in Washington DC. The possible users of the material can be trainers in the fields of early intervention, early childhood special education, early childhood education, health care, psychology, and related areas who train home visitors working with parents of infants and toddlers.
Strengths of the Material:
The material has a unit that addresses the issues of cultural diversity. The tone seems to be neutral. For example, the authors write, "Do not make assumptions about all members of the cultural group based on what you learn from the personal experiences of a few members." They emphasize earning the trust of the families by being sensitive to their needs, concerns, and beliefs and by using warm, empathetic listening and verbalizations.
Some of the strategies they recommend home visitors use when they interact with families are also consistent with the recommended practices, such as, "gather as much information about the culture as possible; identify lay people who can serve as cultural guides or mentors; find ways to build trust with the members of the families; and try in a personal way to experience the culture."
Many handouts included in this training manual provide practical information for home visitors to understand and gain skills from. Handouts such as, "Identifying family needs," "Accessing community resources," "Telephone tips for low-income families," and "Managing home visits," were helpful and practical. Another strength of the material is that many scenarios are used for role playing so that the trainees (e.g., lay home visitors) can experience different situations when they are exposed to other cultures and problem solve those conflicts with the rest of the team. In general, the tone of the material is positive and encouraging. Very little jargon is used, and a lot of practical information is presented for home visitors working with low-income families of infants and toddlers.
Limitations of the Material:
Although the material was intended for users from diverse cultures, it appeared that only certain diversities were represented. Examples of negative stereotypes of male figures were apparent. For example, males were depicted as "hang[ing] around without taking care of the baby, and…come[ing] in and out anytime he wants to just to get food". This may not be true in many families and cultures.
Language diversity was missing in the material, probably because the material was not developed for users who speak another language. The material did not provide information regarding the strategies that home visitors could use when families could not speak English.
The presentation of developmental milestones of children (birth to 24 months) might be problematic because families might have different criteria for measuring the child's growth and development. Some child- rearing practices (e.g., using a pacifier to quiet the child) may not be acceptable in some families. Ignoring a child's cry may be an acceptable practice in some families. Examples such as these seem to suggest that the professionals are forcing their standards on families without listening to families' voices and interpretations.
Adaptations:
This training manual can be broken into separate units for training if training is periodic or short term. For example, child development can be a specific section; working with families can be another section, and working with community agencies can be another. An alternative can be asking speakers who are familiar with certain cultures to collaborate to present some information related to some culturally specific situations when service providers working with a specific population (e.g., Vietnamese families in Los Angeles) are trained.
A list of local resources can be attached with this training manual so that home visitors can be better informed about accessing local resources with families. If resources are available, some booklets about different topics (e.g., identifying family's needs and resources) can be developed for home visitors so that they can have some guidelines handy. Whenever home visitors need the information, they can consult it if the booklets are easy to carry. Furthermore, a big folder takes much space and is hard to distribute in large numbers.
Generalizability:
This material can be used to train a broad array of professionals (e.g., social workers, early interventionists, health care educators) who provide home visits for families of infants and toddlers. It is particularly useful for professionals working with inner city families with multiple risks (e.g., substance abuse, violence) across the United States. If some adaptations are made when using this material, it can provide much practical information for practitioners who work with families with multiple risks.
Recommendations:
I recommend this material with adaptations. Because of its volume and size, its usability is limited. Also some of the information presented seems to target a group of families (e.g., inner city single mothers with African American backgrounds). The information can benefit a larger number of families if adaptations like the above are made.
Producer's Response:
The reviewers' comments are helpful in identifying aspects of the training materials which they considered to be strengths and which we sought to incorporate in order to make the training useful to a variety of users. This included such things as appropriateness for training multiple disciplines, awareness of diversity throughout the curriculum as well as in specific training units, and practical information and activities for skill attainment for home visitors. The reviewers pointed out that trainers need to be knowledgeable about culturally and linguistically appropriate practice. This knowledge, plus an understanding of their own program population, would enable trainers to adapt the curriculum to their own needs.
Certain limitations were also noted by the reviewers. The training was designed for persons working with African American families, and additional material would have to be added by trainers working with other populations. The inclusion of negative stereotypes of male figures, in an effort to represent mothers' reports that home visitors might encounter,could be balanced by more positive characterizations. The issue of acceptable childrearing practices within the context of a family's culture requires sensitive discussion about why certain recommendations might be made by the home visitor.
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