IMPLEMENTATION

Early Head Start/Head Start

The Baby TALK Family Engagement model supports the federal early childhood focus of providing comprehensive, quality services for young children and families. In addition to meeting funders’ goals of finding and supporting children considered the most at-risk, the Baby TALK Curriculum meets the Head Start Performance Standard, 1302.51: Parent Activities to promote child learning and development.

The standard placed a new requirement on Head Start and Early Head Start programs to “at a minimum, offer opportunities for parents to participate in a research-based parenting curriculum that builds on parents’ knowledge and offers parents the opportunity to practice parenting skills to promote children’s learning and development.”

The Baby TALK Model also supports organizations in order to engage families in the casework process; we know that parent involvement initiates the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and families in the child welfare system.  Family engagement specialists and family advocates view the parent as the expert on their family’s unique challenges and seek to collaborate in systems building within the family and within the community so families may develop long-term and sustaining solutions.