Skip To Main Content

district-nav

right-container

right-top-container

mobile-main-nav

header-portals-nav

header-container

logo-container

logo-image

logo-image-district

logo-title

right-container

right-top-container

search-container

header-portals-nav

district-nav

fs-weglot-container-desktop

horizontal-nav

Breadcrumb

Program Overview

 

Parents As Teachers (PAT) is here to help you!

Parents as Teachers helps families within the Wichita Public Schools boundaries enhance child development through parent participation and education. A staff of certified Parent Educators take scientific information about early brain development, and breaks it down to provide social/emotional and academic supports. Then parents, by understanding what to expect during each stage of a child’s development, can easily capture the teachable moments in everyday life to enhance their child’s language, intellectual growth, social development and motor skills.

PAT maximizes a child’s overall development during the first five years of life, thus laying the foundation for school success and minimizes developmental problems that might interfere with learning. Recognizing that all families can benefit from this kind of support, Parents As Teachers families come in all configurations, and from all socio-economic levels. 

PAT Services

  • Personalized Visits- Usually conducted in your home, a Parent Educator will share age-appropriate child and academic development and parenting information.

  • Group Connections – An informal hour with a Parent Educator in a safe and educational environment to encourage children to develop a wide range of age-appropriate skills. 

  • Group Meetings– Enhance parents’ knowledge of child development and promotes improved parenting practices relating to special topics.

  • Screenings – Assess your child’s overall development, including health, hearing and vision, conducted by a PAT Parent Educator.

  • Resource Network– Our staff will help connect families to community services.

The PAT Parent Educators

Wichita is very fortunate to have a highly qualified staff of Parent Educators to serve the families in the USD 259 Wichita Public School District. Parent Educators help parents understand the critical importance of children’s early years and suggest ways in which parents can be their child’s first and most influential teacher.

Literacy Focus

Parents As Teachers recognizes early literacy as an important foundation for school readiness. Personal visits, group meetings and screenings all draw on the various aspects of nurturing the ability to read. Parent Educators work with parents and children on: symbolic development, listening, spoken language, written language, knowledge of print and books, and language sounds. Each personal home visit includes reading or sharing a book with the family being served. Playgroup activities end with a literacy focus of either reading books or singing rhyming songs.