Task 8

Initial Submission 

Findings

Jasmine Capers

Old Dominion University

Findings

Results

During the interviews with the parent educators I was able to ask them about the Parent as Teachers program provided by their agency for low income families. During the interview the parent educator shared information about how a family was inducting into the program, how the needs of the family are assessed and how they track the treatment of the family. Families are inducted into the program by meeting a qualification checklist. The needs of the family are brought up by the family and observation is done by the parent educator. Goals are made for the child and the parent as needed. 

The interview with the family resulted in information shared about what the expectancies are from the program, how concerns are addressed, and how effective the program is to the family after meetings. The family I interviewed started with expectancies of wanting their little one to “stop acting like a baby”. Having a 4-year-old that would soon be eligible to enter a school-based atmosphere worried them because of her behavior of “whining, sucking her fingers, and not holding her own cup”. They expected Parent as Teachers to teach them how to help her act like a “big girl”. After being taken into the program, health and behavior assessments were filled out and reviewed. The family shared “they were pretty similar to the ones the doctor’s office ask during shots”. The parent educator then was able to have an observation meeting where they were able to observe the behavior in question. After that the parent educators were able to put in a referral for the little one to see a hand specialist. “She seemed to be in discomfort when asked to hold her cup and regressed to sucking her fingers and whining” said the parent educator. This observation resulted in her being seen for her hand and ultimately having surgery on her thumb.  It helped with a smooth transition into the plan of helping the little one transition into a school-based environment. 

One observation was held, during this observation a health assessment was handed out for the family.  It asked about last doctor visits for the child and parent. The parent educator asked where the parent about the progress of her personal goals and if anything needed to be adjusted. Then the attention was changed to the child.  The child was introduced to several test in the form of games. During each game the parent educator related the game to something that related to a skill needed for school and showed the parent how to continue this practice until their next meeting.

A survey was given to both participants and the result shared that the parent educator desiring a new way to log patient information and travel information. Currently the process requires multiple systems instead of one system that communicates simultaneously. The families results extended concern in how they can be more inclusive with the program when it comes to programs offered for them by the program. For example, a flyer was passed around for a meet and greet lunch for families, parent educators are allowed to pick up and take their clients to and from events only providing that the travel is safe, meaning that each person has to have a car seat or seat belt.  The parent shared that she did not have her seat but expected the parent educator to have a loaner seat, but she did not.  Her disappointment stuck with her because this particular memory was from May. When asked if she felt she could voice her concerns she stated “ I am not sure if this is something they care about”.

The record keeping search was promising. Since the information was not all in one place the information was a bit difficult to match up. It took more than the allotted two hours to make sense of the information that went along with the study I was conducting.

Identified Conclusion

The conclusions from the surveys, record, and interviews resulted in finding areas for changes and improvement. When the question asked in the program is affective with the service provided the answer is promising. Although, the program delivers with making sure the child and family is prepared for the child to be school based and helping the parents become the first educator that the child is introduced to, the program will benefit from making small changes for the betterment of all the stakeholders.

Implications of Findings

The program can be impacted by the above findings in a neutral manner.  The findings I have presented would not make or break the program.  They will benefit by implementing these changes and addressing the concerns of clients and parent educators. I think that ultimately if the needs of the client are not met with them feeling confident in coming to the parent educator with needs of being included that it could result in a drop from the clients.  I don’t believe that this will mean that all clients will not want to be seen, since I was only able to interview and survey one client. 

Recommendations

I would recommend that this program implement a way to anonymously submit concerns and complaints.  Since the clients seem very comfortable with their parent educators, the balance of not wanting to be a disturbance may have sunken in.  The client may fear that if they bring up something that their relationship with the parent educator or the services rendered will change.  I recommend that the program director search for and enforce a new filing system for the parent educators to file paperwork that allows the parent educators to seamlessly input information about their clients, eliminating the confusion on how to sync information or where to find it.

Goals and Objectives

Three listed objectives for this course are: Learn to recognize stakeholders, utilize stakeholders in the evaluation process, and understand the role of evaluation in the field of Human Services. 

The three objectives helped with the submission of the recommended goals and objectives for this program.

• The program will implement a way for clients to comfortably address concerns without repercussions.
  • An anonymous program will be set up online that takes concerns, comments, and suggestions.
• A program will make client input uniform.
  • The director will be responsible for implementing the program for seamless input for client information that will be used throughout the office.

Related Research

The research that was conducted at the beginning of this course was useful for the chosen organization because it gave a starting point for information to look for within the program.  The research provides results and ideas of what was gain from their specific choice of study.  For example, Manz uses a bilingual study within his study.  He shares that he uses a Spanish and English version for different clients and provides information on how the two homes differ in the provided study area. It adds in factors of how homes with a certain income and parent medical history knowledge differ in each aspect to how the child does when entered into a school-based atmosphere.  Parents that have the medical history knowledge and have a higher income benefit from giving their child a better start in a school-based atmosphere.

Parents as Teachers offer the parents the chance to get the medical help and attention needed for their child and family.  They offer resources specifically for the family in questions need. For example, the family I was able to observe shared that the issues that their little one faced would not have be addressed if a parent educator had not assessed and referred them to a specialist. This resulted in the family receiving the medical care for their little one, learning about their family genetics, and being able to properly help and prepare their little one for school-based learning. 

Reference:

James, R. K., & Gilliland, B. E. (2018). Crisis intervention strategies (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Manz, P., & Bracaliello, C. (2016). Expanding home visiting outcomes: Collaborative measurement of parental play beliefs and examination of their association with parents’ involvement in toddler’s learning. Early childhood Research Quarterly, 36, pp. 157-167.  Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.12.015

Corrected Final