Curricula

Baby TALK includes a variety of materials for home visitors and families that promote child development, parent-child interaction, parenting skills, and family well-being. The curriculum emphasizes the importance of screening every family, identifying needs, and delivering appropriate services to positively impact child development and nurture healthy parent-child relationships during the critical early years.

Last Updated: Jan. 6, 2020

Summary Review

• Promotes research-based home visiting practices for building positive relationships and engaging in responsive interactions with parents
• Promotes research-based parenting practices to support children's development and learning
• Describes a specific process for setting and assessing family-level goals
• Supports children's development and learning in all Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF) domains
• Offers comprehensive standardized training and materials to support implementation
• Promotes parents' ongoing observation and discussion of children's development and learning
• Provides guidance to parents on how to engage children in active exploration, movement, and play
• Provides guidance on how to use routines and materials in the home environment to support children's learning
• Offers limited guidance on how to integrate children's and families' cultures into interactions and learning experiences
• Lacks guidance on how to support the development and learning of children who are dual language learners (DLLs)
• Provides limited guidance on ensuring the home environment, learning materials, and learning experiences are accessible to children with disabilities, suspected delays, or other special needs
• Lacks specific guidance on how to tailor curriculum activities based on children's individual interests, strengths, and needs

Curriculum Description

Growing Great Kids™ for Preschoolers provides materials for home visitors and families that promote child development and parenting practices. The curriculum includes two volumes with theme-based activities and one volume that focuses on family well-being.

Last Updated: March 25, 2019

Summary Review

• Promotes a variety of research-based home visiting practices for building positive relationships with families
• Promotes research-based parenting practices to support children's development and learning
• Describes a specific process for setting and assessing family-level goals
• Supports children in most Head Start Early Outcomes Framework (ELOF) sub-domains
• Offers comprehensive standardized training and materials to support implementation
• Provides guidance on how to establish and support developmentally appropriate routines
• Offers limited guidance on how to integrate children's and families' cultures into interactions and learning experiences
• Provides limited guidance on how to support the development and learning of children who are dual language learners (DLLs)
• Provides limited guidance on ensuring the home environment, learning materials, and learning experiences are accessible to children with disabilities, suspected delays, or other special needs
• Lacks comprehensive guidance in the ELOF sub-domains of Cognitive Self-Regulation and Creativity
• Lacks opportunities for child-initiated play, activities based on children's interests, and activities that promote open-ended exploration
• Lacks guidance for home visitors and families to jointly plan home visits and respond to families' interests and strengths

Curriculum Description

Growing Great Kids™: Prenatal–36 Months provides age-specific materials for home visitors and families that promote child development and parenting practices. The curriculum includes a volume that focuses on family well-being.

Last Updated: Jan. 6, 2020

Summary Review

• Promotes a variety of research-based home visiting practices for building positive relationships with families
• Promotes research-based parenting practices to support children's development and learning through play, movement, and active exploration
• Describes a specific process for setting and assessing family-level goals
• Supports children's development and learning in all Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF) domains
• Offers comprehensive standardized training and materials to support implementation
• Provides specific guidance for how home visitors can support and promote nurturing family-child relationships
• Offers general guidance on supporting children who are dual language learners (DLLs)
• Provides limited guidance on how to integrate children's and families' cultures and home languages into interactions and learning experiences
• Provides limited guidance on ensuring the home environment, learning materials, and learning experiences are accessible to children with disabilities, suspected delays, or other special needs
• Provides minimal guidance on how to respond to families' and children's interests, strengths, and needs
• Lacks guidance for home visitors and families to jointly plan home visits and group socializations

Curriculum Description

Parents as Teachers Foundational 2 Curriculum: 3 Years Through Kindergarten promotes a reflective approach to support partnerships between home visitors and families, the parent-child relationship, and family well-being. Online resources include materials for home visitors to support families, activities for families and children, parenting information, and resources to support family development. 

Last updated March 9, 2020

Summary of Curriculum Review

• Promotes a variety of research-based home visiting practices for building positive and responsive relationships with families
• Promotes research-based parenting practices to support children's development and learning
• Supports children's development and learning in all Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF) domains
• Includes a comprehensive process for setting and supporting family- and child-level goals
• Describes a process for ongoing observation 
• Provides tools and resources for home visitors and families to jointly plan home visits 
• Offers comprehensive standardized training 
• Promotes rich learning experiences for parents and children based on children's interests and strengths
• Encourages ample opportunities for children to engage in movement, play, and active exploration
• Provides specific guidance on culturally responsive interactions and learning experiences
• Includes specific guidance on how to support the development and learning of children who are dual language learners (DLLs)
• Includes specific guidance on adapting activities and routines for children with disabilities, suspected delays, or other special needs
• Provides general guidance on supporting group socializations
• Includes guidance to support specific aspects of implementation of the curriculum
• Provides limited guidance on how to select and use standardized and structured child assessment instruments
• Provides limited guidance on how to ensure the home environment and learning materials are accessible to children with disabilities, suspected delays, or other special needs

Curriculum Description

Parents as Teachers Foundational Curriculum: Prenatal to 3 promotes a reflective approach to support partnerships between home visitors and families, the parent-child relationship, and family well-being. Online resources include materials to orient the home visitor to the approach, activities for families and children, parenting information, and resources to support family development. 

Last Updated: Feb. 13, 2020

Summary of Curriculum Review

• Promotes a variety of research-based home visiting practices for building positive and responsive relationships with families
• Promotes research-based parenting practices to support children's development and learning
• Supports children's development and learning in all Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF) domains
• Includes a comprehensive process for setting and supporting family-level and child-level goals
• Describes a specific process for ongoing child observation
• Provides tools and resources for home visitors and families to jointly plan home visits and group socializations
• Offers comprehensive, standardized training and materials to support implementation
• Promotes rich learning experiences for parents and children based on children's interests and strengths
• Encourages ample opportunities for infants and toddlers to engage in movement, play, and active exploration
• Provides specific guidance on culturally responsive interactions and learning experiences
• Includes specific guidance on how to support the development and learning of infants and toddlers who are dual language learners (DLLs)
• Provides limited guidance on how to ensure the home environment, learning materials, and learning experiences are accessible to children with disabilities, suspected delays, or other special needs

Partners for a Healthy Baby features materials for home visitors and families that promote child development and family well-being. The curriculum is organized around children's ages and topics home visitors can use to support both age-appropriate learning and family development.

Last Updated: March 25, 2019

Summary of Curriculum Review

• Promotes research-based parenting practices to support children's development and learning in all Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF) domains
• Provides specific guidance to home visitors on ways to engage families in building relationships with their children
• Encourages opportunities for infants and toddlers to engage in movement, play, and exploration
• Includes general guidance on setting and supporting family-level goals
• Provides general guidance for ongoing child observation
• Promotes few research-based home visiting practices for building positive and responsive relationships with families
• Lacks specific learning goals for children's development and learning
• Provides limited guidance for home visitors and families to jointly plan home visits and group socializations
• Lacks guidance on culturally responsive interactions and learning experiences
• Provides limited guidance on how to support the development and learning of infants and toddlers who are dual language learners (DLLs)
• Lacks guidance on ensuring that the home environment, learning materials, and learning experiences are accessible to children with disabilities, suspected delays, or other special needs
• Provides minimal guidance on how to tailor home visits to be responsive to individual children's strengths and needs