Children’s first six years of life have a significant effect on their development and parents play the most important role in children’s development. University of Nevada Cooperative Extension (UNCE) recognizes the importance of the early years and, given limited resources, strives to provide parenting education to vulnerable families most in need of support and to provide educational content that is important to success. In order to develop new parenting programs or maintain existing programs, it was necessary to identify parenting education needs in southern Nevada. Therefore, this comprehensive needs assessment was conducted in southern Nevada in 2011 to determine program priorities for families with children from birth to 5 years of age. The multi-method assessment included:

1. A review of the research on the most critical areas of development in young children and the ways in which their parents influence that development,
2. An examination of statistics that indicate the well-being of children in southern Nevada to identify potential areas of concern,
3. Interviews with personnel in other agencies working with young children and their families in southern Nevada to determine what is being provided and what agency personnel see as unmet needs in parent education programs, and
4. Information collected from parents of young children to find out what they see as needs for parenting education and support.

Information from all four sources was used to prioritize six parenting needs in southern Nevada: 1) Providing inexpensive activities that will help child learn and develop; 2) Helping parents understand appropriate child development for each age; 3) Supporting early language/literacy and school readiness; 4) Learning effective ways to discipline that lead to self-discipline; 5) Learning how parents can help children develop healthy eating habits; 6) Finding community resources. The UNCE parenting program has provided parenting education programs to families in need, and this study confirmed that UNCE has, in fact, cultivated the exact audience it has been targeting for many years.

Based on identified parenting needs, the UNCE parenting program could make an important contribution to Nevada’s young children and their families. The recommendations from the literature review, the child well-being data, interviews with agency personnel and the parent surveys suggest several directions for potential and existing programming for the UNCE parenting program and other agencies working with young children and their parents. The recommendations of this study are:

1. UNCE should focus first on six priority parenting topics for parents of young children in southern Nevada.
2. Parenting information should be delivered through preferred sources of parenting information identified by parents of young children in southern Nevada: mail, email or Internet, brochures or booklets, parenting education workshops and possibly smartphone applications. Parenting programs need to make decisions on which sources of parenting information to use based on available resources, including time, money and relative value.
3. More parenting education workshops should be offered in southern Nevada to encourage parents to develop parenting skills, understand their child’s development and build social network and support (depending on the resources available). When planning parenting education workshops, it is important to know parents’ preferences for workshop formats.
4. It is necessary to collaborate with other agencies or UNCE educators in rural areas to provide parenting programs in geographically diverse areas of southern Nevada and reach diverse groups of families. Particularly, it is urgent to provide parenting education programs in rural areas, since nothing is currently available in rural areas across southern Nevada.

The first six years of a child’s life are acknowledged as the most critical for future development (Shonkoff, 2009). During these early years, a child develops more rapidly, both physically and mentally, than at any other period. In addition, this period is crucial for the full and positive development of the brain. Child development is continuous and cumulative. In other words, children’s early experiences influence their later lives.

The quality of parent-child interactions profoundly influences early development, either positively or negatively (Papalia, Olds & Feldman, 2002). In order for children to succeed in life, they need supportive families. Parents* are the most significant teachers children will ever have. Especially for the first five to six years, it is the parents who lay the foundation for their children.

Cooperative Extension specialists from across the country not only recognize the important role that parents play in children’s development but also believe that parenting is a learned skill that can be strengthened through education and experience when they developed the National Extension Parent Education Model (NEPEM) in the 1990’s (Smith, et al., 1994). The model includes six categories of priority practices for parents that should be considered when we develop parenting programs: Understand, guide, nurture and motivate children, advocate for them and take care of yourself.

• Understand: It is recommended that parents understand their children’s development, needs and uniqueness. It is also important that parents accept that each child is different, know developmentally appropriate behaviors of children (age appropriate) and try to meet children’s basic needs (physical, emotional, social, intellectual, spiritual and creative).
• Guide: It is important that parents know how to use their power effectively, set reasonable limits to protect their children, give freedom at the same time and help children to learn responsibility.
• Nurture: It is suggested that parents encourage and support their children, build a positive relationship (attachment), show love and respond promptly to their children.
• Motivate: It is recommended that parents motivate their children to learn the knowledge and skills they need, encourage children’s learning efforts and help children to be ready for school.
• Advocate: Although this is not directly related to the growth and development of their children, it is important for parents to connect with community resources. It is suggested that parents look for programs or services for their children and families and advocate for their children’s welfare.
• Care for Self: It is recommended that parents manage their own stress and family resources, seek and provide support when needed, recognize their own strengths and work with their child-rearing partners.

We can easily find similarities between these six categories of parent skills developed by NEPEM and parenting topics listed and found in several parent education studies. For over a decade, the NEPEM model has guided Extension specialists, educators and community partners to develop parent education programs, educational materials and evaluation instruments. This model was also used to develop the parent questionnaire for this needs assessment study.

UNCE recognizes the importance of the early years and, given limited resources, strives to provide parenting education to vulnerable families most in need of support and to provide educational content that is important to success. UNCE focuses and builds on family strengths to prevent problems from occurring. An earlier statewide needs assessment by UNCE in 2004 (Martin & Evans, 2004) identified priority areas for young children and families and parenting was one of priority areas. Later, in 2009, UNCE provided leadership for a survey conducted for Department of Health and Human Services to collect information from agencies serving families across the state. A group of individuals working in the field of parent education and family support around the state of Nevada participated in the online survey (57 individuals from 42 organizations). More than 50 percent of the respondents served parents with children who were at-risk, parents with low incomes or parents with limited English proficiency. Approximately 50 percent of the programs targeted parents of preschoolers. Although frequently covered topics in the programs were family communication, reassurance and support for parents, and learning at home, most of the respondents expected that parents might be more interested in learning discipline, anger management, health and safety, and temper tantrum skills. Although this report is based on information from a number of agency personnel working with children and parents, the opinions expressed do not reflect what parents of young children consider important.

The purpose of this publication is to report on a recent, comprehensive needs assessment carried out in southern Nevada in 2011 to determine program priorities for families with children from birth to 5 years of age. The multi-method approach was used to collect the data for this study in order to get a complete picture from many sources and viewpoints. The multi-method assessment included:

1. A review of the research on the most critical areas of development in young children and the ways in which their parents influence that development,
2. An examination of statistics that indicate the well-being of children in southern Nevada to identify potential areas of concern,
3. Interviews with personnel in other agencies working with young children and their families in southern Nevada to determine what is presently being provided and what agency personnel see as unmet needs or gaps in parent education programs, and
4. Information collected from parents of young children to find out what they see as needs for parenting education and support.

For the complete special report contact the authors for the PDF version.