Southeast Idaho Public Health program shows parents they can always be teachers

POCATELLO — It was a warm spring day in 2021, and Danny Seymour and his 2-year-old son, Grayson, were on their way to Caldwell Park for an important meeting. Although Seymour tried to keep it from his son, he was nervous.

Grayson was also nervous, but both were excited. They were on their way to meet with the person Seymour had corresponded with for two months. She’s an educator with the Southeast Idaho Public Health (SIPH) program, Parents as Teachers, a home visitation program that teaches parents to understand child development.

One of the reasons Seymour was nervous was because doctors had said Grayson was “developmentally delayed,” but to Seymour, that didn’t seem to be the case.

They found Kim Kirkpatrick sitting under the pavilion. Although she and Seymour had already met online, this was their first in-person meeting.

Kirkpatrick had brought a pile of rocks and art supplies. Seymour and Grayson’s nerves eased as they sat and decorated the rocks together. Seymour still has the rock that Grayson painted that day.

Kirkpatrick was continuing the lesson she’d been teaching Seymour the last two months — of always being a teacher to his child. This is what educators with Parents as Teachers tries to teach new parents.

Parents as Teachers with SIPH began in 2015 when they received funds from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare with the direction of establishing a home visitation program. Health district officials could choose what evidence-based program they wanted to implement, and they chose Parents as Teachers.

Families who participate in Parents as Teachers can do the program in a way that works for them, such as at-home visits, online calls, or meeting in a neutral location, like a park.

Before Kirkpatrick and Seymour met on that important day, she had Seymour send her videos of how he interacted with Grayson.

Kirkpatrick would take these videos, point out to Seymour what he was doing right, and point out the moments when he could be teaching Grayson.

“She was kind of painting the picture of always trying to be a teacher and trying not to miss teaching moments,” Seymour said. “There’s a lot of teaching moments that you don’t understand, at least I didn’t understand, that those situations were presenting themselves.”

Before this, Seymour and Grayson had also participated in the infant/toddler program for children under 2 years old. Seymour said this program prepared him and Grayson and got him in a teacher’s mindset before he joined the Parents as Teachers program.

Kirkpatrick also took Seymour’s concerns about Grayson’s supposed developmental delay seriously and conducted assessments to measure that.

One of the stated goals of Parents as Teachers is to provide early detection of developmental delays and connect parents to services that address them. The program attempts to increase children’s readiness for school by improving positive parenting practices.

Any family that resides in the counties SIPH serves — Bannock, Bear Lake, Bingham, Butte, Caribou, Franklin, Oneida and Power — can access the Parents as Teachers home visitation program, which is free.

Families that decide to participate can expect to receive visits from educators once to twice per month for about an hour. Visits take longer for families with numerous children under the age of 5.

“We provide them with education and resources. We do goal-setting with the parents. We cover child development, do assessments to see where they are and if they’re meeting their milestones. We also do vision and hearing screenings,” said Traci McCulloch, community health director at SIPH.

McCulloch said this program is good for any parent with a child under 5.

“I wish I would have been on this program when my children were little,” McCulloch said.

McCulloch said the first nine visits come directly from the Parents as Teachers curriculum, but after that, the lesson can be directed by what the parent needs to know.

Parents who are interested in joining this program can sign up for it on the SIPH website.

After Kirkpatrick did these screenings with Grayson, she approached Seymour to address his anxieties about his son’s development.

She told Seymour that Grayson was “absolutely not” developmentally delayed.

“He’s actually ahead of the curve. He’s very good at articulating his thoughts. He’s very good at doing certain craft ideas. He’s very good at letting you know how he feels and why he feels that way,” Seymour recalled hearing from Kirkpatrick.

Seymour told Kirkpatrick how thankful he was for her help.

“Danny, you know, you’re doing a great job,” he heard from Kirkpatrick.

“Just hearing those words — even just talking about it makes me tear up, but just hearing those words means a lot to a single dad,” Seymour said.