I found out about Parents as Teachers through my older son’s school; there was a Parents as Teachers fact sheet there and I signed up. I knew my younger son, who was under 2 at the time, was behind developmentally, but I’m a single mom and I really didn’t know where to turn. It wasn’t until I started working with our parent educator that I realized just how far behind Izaya was.

Our parent educator, Robin, had a monthly checklist of developmental milestones. Every time she came to see us she would play with Izaya. Then we would review the checklist and see what he was doing and what he wasn’t, and it became clearer and clearer that he was significantly delayed. Robin had helped connect us with speech, occupational and developmental therapy. Eventually we got a diagnosis: autism.

But even before the diagnosis, Robin gave me an idea of how I could work with Izaya on my own. She gave me the tools and the information to move in the right direction. I think those visits made a huge difference to where my son has progressed today. She gave me resources and she gave me referrals. She was my support system.

Izaya is in school now and he is doing fantastic. He’s considered very high functioning. I still see Robin from time to time, so she gets to see Izaya and how far he has come.

I think my son has really opened up a lot of people’s eyes. They see him, they work with him and they see how things are different for different families. I am just really grateful that I decided to sign my name on that piece of paper at school that day.

Cassandra Baca, parent
Belleville School District
Belleville, Illinois