Rochone Quasula was a first-time mom living in Peach Springs and feeling nervous about parenting her infant son, Titus.
She heard about the Hualapai home visitation program and connected to parent educator Carmella Fuentes who helped her to feel more confident as a parent.
The First Things First Hualapai Tribe Regional Partnership Council funds the program to strengthen families by providing a trained parent educator who makes in-home visits and offers personalized support for pregnant and parenting families with children birth to age 5, not yet enrolled in kindergarten. Services are at no charge to the families, who voluntarily participate, and use the program for an average of two years or until their child enrolls in kindergarten.
Fuentes taught Quasula about developmental milestones at different ages and what behaviors to expect. She also showed Quasala how as a parent she could support Titus’ development through activities. Quasula also learned about early literacy and started introducing Titus to books by reading to him while he lay in her lap.
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In addition to receiving parenting tips and early development education, the home visitation program also provides developmental screenings to prevent and address any issues that might prevent a child from doing well in kindergarten and life.
Parent educators conduct developmental screenings for all participating children at regular intervals. A minimum of one screening per year, after the child reaches 2 months of age, is required by the program. In addition to providing developmental screenings, parent educators provide vision and hearing screenings to children.
The Ages and Stages Questionnaire screening tool is used to assess a child’s development in three areas, including physical, intellectual and social-emotional. Many times, after reviewing the results, Fuentes introduces activities to support learning. For example, she might design an activity to challenge motor skills, if that’s an area that a child needs help.
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Because of the Hualapai home visitation program, Quasula learned to better care for her child and felt supported as a parent. Now, she is open to using services and resources to help Titus reach his milestones and be ready to succeed in kindergarten.
