Parents as Teachers (PAT)

So I finally called PAT to sign Kendall up. I really should have called when she was a baby, but I just never got around to it cuz ya know it's kind of a busy time then. For those of you that don't know what PAT is, I got this off their website:



Parents as Teachers helps organizations and professionals work with parents during the critical early years of their children's lives, from conception to kindergarten—and the results are powerful.


We develop curricula.
Grounded in the latest research, Parents as Teachers develops curricula that support a parent’s role in promoting school readiness and healthy development of children. Our approach is intimate and relationship-based. We embrace learning experiences that are relevant and customized for the individual needs of each family and child. As a result, individuals and organizations who use our curricula benefit from our understanding of the evolving needs of today’s families and children.



Me again, so anyway I called them and asked if it was dumb if I just sign Kendall up now that she's 2 yrs old. They told me it was never too late! So our coordinator came to our house last Friday. Her name is Karen & she's very nice. She was at our house for about 1.5 hours screening Kendall on various things. They do tests on communication, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, problem solving & personal-social skills. Kendall scored 60/60 in fine motor skills & problem solving. YAY! 55/60 in communication, 50/60 in gross motor & 40/60 in personal-social. Personal-social was a bit hard cuz one of the questions was "Does your child put on a coat, jacket or shirt by herself??" No, she doesn't do that yet, so we didn't get any points for that. The other question she didn't get points on was "Does your child call herself "I" or "me" more often than her own name?" Sometimes, but she still says "Kendall did it" more often than "I did it." So no points there either.

So now for some of the questions she rocked! Here were some of the questions she asked in the fine motor skills category & some of the activities we tried (the coordinator brings all these blocks, crayons and all the stuff she needs to test the child).



--Does your child use a turning motion w/ her hand while trying to turn doorknobs, twist tops, or screw lids on and off jars? YES.

--Does your child flip light switches off and on?? YES.

--After she watches you draw a line from the top of the paper to the bottom w/ a crayon, ask your child to make a line like yours. Does your child copy you? YES.

--Does your child stack 7 small blocks on top of each other by herself? YES.

--Does your child thread a shoelace thru a bead? YES. ( I didn't think she could do this one, but she did it in front of Karen w/ no problem at all.)



So there's just some examples. I don't want to bore you w/ every question and this is getting kind of long. Karen said she liked how we had puzzles and books all accessible for Kendall to get to. Overall it was a good visit & Kendy warmed up to her pretty quick. So we'll see how our visit goes in April!