Listos Para Aprender

An increasing amount of research demonstrates that the first few years of a child’s life are critical to their academic success and overall well-being in later years. During this critical time, interventions that support the child and their caregiver can strengthen the child’s early cognitive, social, and emotional development; as well as provide access to crucial resources for families. Culturally specific home visiting programs such as Listos Para Aprender can provide these opportunities to historically underserved populations and help mitigate early disparities.

Listos Para Aprender is a culturally specific home visiting program with a focus on school readiness for children ages 5 and under. Funded by the Portland Children’s Levy since October 2003, Listos serves Latino children and their families who live within the city of Portland.

Families enrolled in Listos receive home visits from Bilingual, Bicultural Parent Educators who have received or are in the process of receiving endorsement as an Infant/Early Childhood Family Specialist and are trained to implement the Parents as Teachers curriculum. The home visits target school readiness and provide families with information on child development as well as books and other learning materials that will help prepare children for school. Parent Educators answer questions about child development and behavior, provide developmental screenings, referrals to medical and mental health providers, and connections to community resources.

Parent Educators lead Parent Education groups using both the Incredible Years and Abriendo Puertas curricula. Enrolled parents have access to these groups and are able to learn valuable information on parenting young children as well as give and receive support from other parents in their community.

Listos uses the Parents As Teachers Model

Parents As Teachers is a nationally recognized Evidenced Based Home Visiting Program. The Evidence-Based Home Visiting Model is the comprehensive parent education model used by Parents as Teachers affiliates. The model provides a wide array of services to families with children from prenatal through kindergarten, and also offers deep insights into early childhood development. Since 1984, our model has been rigorously tested by peer-reviewed studies and shown to produce outstanding results for families.

The Parents as Teachers model is delivered via in-home visits from Parent Educators. These individuals are employed by affiliate organizations right in your community and are highly trained in our curricula. Home visits may be conducted in-person or virtually.

There are seven goals/outcomes to PAT’s home visiting model:

• Increase parent knowledge of early childhood development and improve positive parenting practices
• Provide early detection of developmental delays and connection to services
• Improve parent, child, and family health and well-being
• Prevent child abuse and neglect
• Increase children’s school readiness and success
• Improve family economic well-being
• Strengthen community capacity and connectedness

To help ensure that Parents as Teachers affiliates are achieving fidelity to the Parents as Teachers model and facilitate continuous quality improvements – and children and families are thereby receiving the highest quality services possible – Parents as Teachers developed the Quality Endorsement and Improvement Process. Parents as Teachers affiliates are required to engage in the Quality Endorsement and Improvement Process in their fourth year of implementation and every five years thereafter.

To earn the Quality Endorsement, affiliates must complete a comprehensive self-study and review process that demonstrates they are meeting or exceeding the Parents as Teachers Essential Requirements, along with at least 80 percent of the Quality Standards.

Programs that earn the Quality Endorsement are recognized by the national Parents as Teachers office as exemplary Blue Ribbon Affiliates, delivering high-quality services to children and families.

Listos is nationally recognized as a Parents As Teachers Blue Ribbon Affiliate.