The Parent-Child Home Program is a research-based and research-validated early childhood literacy and school readiness program. The Program successfully strengthens families and prepares children for academic success through intensive home visiting. Since 1965, this innovative program has emphasized the importance of quality parent-child verbal interaction to promote the cognitive and social-emotional development that children need in order to enter school with the tools they need to become successful students.

The Parent-Child Home Program bridges the preparation gap by helping families challenged by poverty, limited education, language and literacy barriers, and other obstacles to school success prepare their children to enter school ready to learn.   Typically, families participate in the two-year program when their child is 2 and 3-years-old. A child can, however, enter the Program as young as 16 months and as old as 4 years old.   A Home Visitor is assigned to the participating family and visits them for half-an-hour, twice a week on a schedule that is convenient for the parents. On the first visit of each week, the Home Visitor brings a carefully selected book or educational toy as a gift to the family. In the twice-weekly home sessions with the parent (or other primary caregiver) and the child, the Home Visitor models verbal interaction and reading and play activities, demonstrating how to use the books and toys to cultivate language and emergent literacy skills and promote school readiness. Over the course of the two years in the Program, families acquire a library of children's books and a large collection of educational and stimulating toys.

If you are interested in becoming a PCHP Home Visitor, or would like more information, call Debbie Brush at 617-969-5906 ext. 113 or email at dbrush@ncscweb.org